Today Ara Ake hosted an online workshop to share learnings from the free tool launched in July, which helps long-distance heavy freight companies and the public sector better understand the options for decarbonising their road fleet.

The tool was developed for Ara Ake, by NERA Economic Consulting, and peer reviewed by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research and takes a ‘total cost of ownership’ (TCO) approach to calculate the cost of road freight movements.

The workshop was an opportunity to describe the tool to new users, for existing users to share their learnings, and to explore potential enhancements to the tool.

The workshop was attended by over 60 participants from various sectors such as road transport companies, public sector organisations, policy makers and fuel distributors, who had already downloaded and used the tool.

Ara Ake Chief Executive, Dr. Cristiano Marantes, was pleased to see the uptake of the tool and how it is assisting many organisations in making strategic business decisions.

“I’m pleased to see the tool has been well-received by many stakeholders. We received some valuable feedback from the workshop, which will inform the refinement of the tool. The goal is to enhance strategic business and policy decisions, as businesses embark on their own journey of transitioning to a low emissions future,” Dr Marantes said.

Ara Ake plan to use feedback from the workshop to refine the tool and release an updated version.

The tool can be found here.