Our goal is that the air transport mode represents less than 1% of our products' transport by 2026. An ambitious target, but achievable given the numbers over the last years. And our motivation!
Before 2018, we resorted to air transport up to 6%. It's share today is only 0,4%. To continue making progress in this direction, you have to understand why we still use air transport in certain circumstances. And especially how and what we are going to replace it by.
We know that air transport has a very high carbon footprint. But it is not it's only failing. There are also plenty of negative impacts on logistics. To highlight these and involve our teams, we have implemented weekly monitoring. We aim to make our teammates aware of the necessity, at all times, to make other modes of transport their first choice.
To date, we've already identified three negative consequences of air transport: the cost, handling and stock.
- The cost: air transport has a negative impact on our productivity because receiving stock in the warehouse requires an extra teammate than usual.
- Handling: Air transport involves unloading a considerable amount of stock and scores of pallets, taking up a lot of space, are not always quickly processed. As a result, this extends the warehouse operator's path, making them lose time.
- Stock: the pallets, not immediately picked, take up space to the detriment of other products. Their presence therefore needlessly increases stock levels.
So what are the alternatives?
Transferring from air flows to rail flows. An option already made possible with railway lines connecting France to Germany, Russia and China, for example.