Today, HelloFresh announced that it has reduced operating emissions by 200 metric tons of carbon and also saved 20,000 gallons of gasoline thanks to an expansion with Rivian Commercial Vans.
Ben Kubik, Senior Program Manager of Last-Mile Logistics at HelloFresh shares more about this exciting news.
Can you tell us a little more about this partnership with Rivian?
Ben: HelloFresh Delivery Network (HFDN) delivers all brands under the HelloFresh umbrella, and in doing so we drive many miles every day to reach our HelloFresh, Factor, GreenChef, and EveryPlate customers.
The Rivian Commercial Van’s range opens up an entirely new set of delivery routes, which we weren’t able to accomplish with our previous electric vehicles. The Rivian Commercial Van is also purposefully built for last mile delivery, so we can avoid things like turning the vehicle on and off 100+ times a day, manually sliding the side door of a cargo van the same amount, or getting stuck in traffic idling and wasting gasoline.
We are excited to partner with Rivian, where we are feeding families and changing the way people eat forever. Making these deliveries in electric vehicles is just the cherry on top for our sustainability goals.
What are you most excited about with the Rivian Commercial Vans?
Ben: While we’re announcing this today, we have in fact been using the Rivian Vans for the past few months, and have driven over 250,000 miles so far! Until now these vans have been unbranded, so now they are fully branded, it will be much more clear what we’re driving. I am really excited for new customers to see these Rivian vans in the 14 markets we’re operating them in.
HelloFresh has done a lot to decrease carbon emissions, particularly within its last mile delivery network. Can you share more?
Ben: Our team has spent the last year preparing for Rivian Commercial Vans, with the installation of 100+ charging stations across our HFDN. There’s a lot of planning, budgeting, approvals, and construction to build the infrastructure necessary to incorporate EVs in a fleet. Having our own charging infrastructure means we can charge our fleet in the most efficient way possible—overnight at our warehouse when the vans are not in use.
We have worked with local utilities and our landlords to find the optimal count in each location, both for delivery operations and cost of capital expenditure. Additionally, HFDN has piloted 25+ non-Rivian EVs over the last 2 years to ensure our delivery routing was optimized ahead of these 70 longer-range Rivians. HFDN would have never been able to support Rivian’s Commercial Vans if it were not for the continued efforts to push EV routing and perfect our process improvements.
What prompted HelloFresh to electrify its fleet?
Ben: Our leadership team saw the huge benefits that electrifying our fleets could bring, and set a goal of making our US fleet 10% EV, but that quickly increased to 25%. The Rivian Commercial Van has been critical in helping us reach our goals.
We have found huge advantages to running an EV fleet. For example, the cost of fuel on an EV is stable and takes out the guesswork in our financial forecasting. We are also interested in the lower long-term maintenance costs an EV promises over a traditional commercial van. With help from our fleet partner—Ryder—we are extremely grateful to have now eliminated all diesel units from our fleet.
Over the first five months of operation, HelloFresh has reduced GHG emissions by around 200 MT—which is equivalent to the carbon sequestered in 300 acres of US forest over the same time period. What other benefits are you seeing from this partnership?
Ben: The biggest thing we look for in our fleet management is the uptime of our vehicles, so that each market is operating our assets to their full potential. We also need close proximity to service centers. Rivian delivers both. And now that we have our Factor branding on our vehicles, the world can know these vans are for any fleet management service looking to electrify their fleet.
