Green fuel trailblazer Rob Exelby plans to target hauliers with HGV electric charging, Shell branded HVO on pump and bio-LNG.
His company, Exelby Services, which operates five sites, ventured into EV charging last year, as the first dealer to install Shell Recharge chargepoints.
It introduced four charging bays at its Coneygarth site on the A1(M), one of the Northallerton, North Yorkshire-based business’s busiest locations.
After better than expected results, Rob Exelby, the firm’s managing director, had hoped to introduce another seven chargepoints. But after a two-year wait, he has been told by energy company Northern Powergrid that wider infrastructure needs rule him out of getting access to the extra electricity he needs.
Undeterred, Rob Exelby is pressing ahead with his plans to add plugs for cars, and heavy goods vehicles at two of his other locations: Golden Fleece on the M6 at Carlisle, and Whitwood truckstop on the M62 at Castleford. The hope is to have two charging bays for trucks at each of these locations.
These sites have also been earmarked to introduce bio-LNG (liquefied natural gas) produced from UK agricultural waste. This is a greener option to the fossil-fuel-derived LNG, which the family business has offered at various times over the decades via third parties for LNG-powered vehicles.
Meanwhile, Exelby plans to introduce Shell Renewable Diesel-branded hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) on pump, a ‘drop in’ fuel alternative for diesel vehicles. It is marketed as offering up to 90% less CO2 emissions compared with standard diesel. It will replace unbranded HVO at four sites.
He is hopeful that having signed an exclusive supply agreement with Shell for Coneygarth, Whitwood, and two sites on the A19, that sales will increase.
Currently the four locations sell around 6,000 litres of HVO on pump, which Exelby describes as “low/stagnant”.
But he is optimistic. “Because of the low volumes, we have a delivery once every couple of months, which can work either way with the pricing,” says Exelby. “I’m hopeful that with a fully branded product, which will benefit from marketing from Shell Fleet Solutions and bunker card customers being able to purchase as well, that sales will increase.”
