LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco (OTC:) plans to expand its use of a train service to bring goods from Spain into the country which helped it cut emissions and protect deliveries through a truck drivers’ shortage, its CEO told Reuters.

Ken Murphy, the CEO of Tesco (OTC:), said that although the previous three months were difficult, it had done well because the company had strong ties to suppliers and had planned carefully.

A chilled rail service has been used to deliver fruit and vegetables from Spain. It helps reduce its dependence on trucks and guarantees deliveries.

Tesco hopes to reach 90,000 containers per year by November/December, up from 65,000 containers per annum on rail.

He said that Tesco is the UK’s only major grocery retailer to use rail heavily. This helped us through the HGV-related challenges that we faced this summer.

It is estimated that shipping 65,000 goods by rail will save us approximately 22 million kilometres per year.

Britain was hit hard by a shortage of truck drivers in 2018, with oil and retail companies warning that it is difficult to provide full service.

Many top companies, such as Tesco and others, are under increasing pressure to reduce their emissions or have made plans to do so.

Murphy claimed that Tesco did a great job of getting food to stores and not allowing for food waste to rise despite all the difficulties.

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