AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

BRAKING

10th June 2004, Page 42
10th June 2004
Page 42
Page 43
Page 42, 10th June 2004 — BRAKING
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

EVEN

Is it possible to overdo braking? Oliver Dixon talks to an operator who's

found safety and savings from boosting his fleet's braking potential.

Today's commercial vehicles may bear some vague resemblance to their forebears but, under the skin, things have moved on a bit. Emissions and noise legislation, and the ever-present pressures inherent in spiralling fuel costs, have led to engines and drivelines boasting efficiencies undreamed of not too many years ago.The burgeoning driver shortage has resulted in trucks offering comfort levels once synonymous only in the upper bracket of the car sector. In sum, today's truck is a triumph of operational efficiency.

Today's commercial vehicles may bear some vague resemblance to their forebears but, under the skin, things have moved on a bit. Emissions and noise legislation, and the ever-present pressures inherent in spiralling fuel costs, have led to engines and drivelines boasting efficiencies undreamed of not too many years ago.The burgeoning driver shortage has resulted in trucks offering comfort levels once synonymous only in the upper bracket of the car sector. In sum, today's truck is a triumph of operational efficiency.

Today's commercial vehicles may bear some vague resemblance to their forebears but, under the skin, things have moved on a bit. Emissions and noise legislation, and the ever-present pressures inherent in spiralling fuel costs, have led to engines and drivelines boasting efficiencies undreamed of not too many years ago.The burgeoning driver shortage has resulted in trucks offering comfort levels once synonymous only in the upper bracket of the car sector. In sum, today's truck is a triumph of operational efficiency.

Trucks now go a whole lot better than ever they used to. They also stop pretty well. From the mid-90s, the revolution that saw disc brakes and EBS applied to the majority of new heavy trucks has slashed stopping distances, improved safety in leaps and bounds, and generally made both driving and sharing the road with a heavy commercial vehicle a far more comfortable pastime.

And yet there is still a market for auxiliary braking systems. Most of the OEMs offer retarder or intarder options, and one company —Telma — still finds an active and receptive market for its range of electro-magnetic prop-shaft brakes. The trucking industry throws up very few absolutes. But one — weight is bad — is a well-nigh universal mantra, chanted anywhere there happens to be a CV And with reason: add to the tare weight, reduce the payload; reduce the payload, reduce the productivity; reduce the productivity, and The trucking industry throws up very few absolutes. But one — weight is bad — is a well-nigh universal mantra, chanted anywhere there happens to be a CV And with reason: add to the tare weight, reduce the payload; reduce the payload, reduce the productivity; reduce the productivity, and The trucking industry throws up very few absolutes. But one — weight is bad — is a well-nigh universal mantra, chanted anywhere there happens to be a CV And with reason: add to the tare weight, reduce the payload; reduce the payload, reduce the productivity; reduce the productivity, and

ruin, desolation and despair shall surely follow, This is Operations 101, and everyone within the haulage business — from OEMs through Tier 1 suppliers to truck operators — knows and is guided by it.

So why, with demonstrably better braking accessible just via the base spec of a modern commercial vehicle, does anyone go down the auxiliary route? Belt-and-braces is one thing; toting the wardrobe in which both live at night could be called overkill. And, moreover, when the task demanded of the vehicle blessed with such well-endowed retardation — to whit, waste transport — is entirely payload dependant, then such double speccing begins to cause some head-scratching in the "huh?" department.

Biggest players

But when the decision to pursue this route has been taken by one of the biggest players in the field, you tend to listen to what it has to say.

Shanks Group plc, or what used to be Shanks & McEwan, is one of Europe's largest independent waste management companies. In total 4,600 people work across a wide range of waste management tasks, ranging from the collection of household waste for local authorities through to the management and disposal of the real nasty stuff In simple terms, if you want to throw it away, Shanks plc will take your phone call. Of course it isn't as simple as that. Road transport is a place alive with rules. So too is the waste management business. Combine the

two, and you have the potential for the sort of litigation lest more normally associated with ex-wives or celebrities plagued by paparazzi.

So safety is paramount. But, as Ian Coxhill, Shanks' UK fleet engineer, points out, it's only apart of the story. Specifying auxiliary braking devices — in this case,Telina retarders —has resulted in big operational pay-offs as well.

"You can never have a truck that is too safe," is Coxhill's starting point. "Anything that reduces the potential for danger, both for our employees and the general public is going to get our attention."

This is hardly Nobel Prize stuff; anything involving large vehicles is inherently risky, and the addition of a variable load serves only to compound this. But, balanced against this is the other factor known only too well by most involved with road transport — namely the requirement to make a living. And herein lies the problem. Introducing a retarder to the mix adds, according to Coxhill, not just the frontend price tag, but also around 250kg to the overall balance sheet.

In an industry where running to stand still is an all-too-frequent feature of business planning, putting the start line back by a couple of thousand and 250kg may seem a tad masochistic. But, do the sums in terms of overall productivity, and Shanks' decision begins to make a lot of sense. "On our most recent measurements, we're reckoning on extending brake life eight times," explains Coxhill."Brake lining measurements [on an Iveco EuroTrakker] show 22mm at

new and, after 60,000 km, 21.2mm. Bear in mind that these trucks are operating in hilly country — South Wales — and in a harsh environment — on and off landfill sites.There is a real saving here in terms of brake wear."

new and, after 60,000 km, 21.2mm. Bear in mind that these trucks are operating in hilly country — South Wales — and in a harsh environment — on and off landfill sites.There is a real saving here in terms of brake wear."

But surely, set the front-end cost of buying and fitting a retarder against the demonstrably better brake wear, and you are in fiscally neutral territory at best? According to Coxhill, that rather depends on where you do the measurements.

"If you look at this policy in terms of saving on the cost of a brake reline, then we're probably breaking even over the whole life of the vehicle," he explains."But, a brake reline takes the vehicle out of service for two days. Hiring in a hook loader costs around £.175 a day.lhat is a large saving over the long term."

Commercial Motor's pocket calculator, at best a pessimistic creature, reckons a vehicle hire saving here of just under £2,500. But this assumes — and this is often a fatal assumption — that there will be that hook loader there to hire when you need it. Not having to rely on the vagaries of the spot hire market boasts a resonant appeal to any fleet manager. Moreover, when you're in the business of emptying bins, not being there when you need to be there causes curses amongst the customer base. Vehicle uptime is not important just from a productivity perspective; it also allows you to keep the business.

What though of the weight penalty? Coxhill reckons theTelma equipment adds around 250kg to his Iveco eight-wheelers. Isn't this an issue?

"We have to be extremely careful with vehicle weights," says Coxhill. "Our vehicles are all equipped with PM-Onboard weigh cells, and the varying nature of the loads we uplift means that we have to be well ahead of the game here.

"We have to be extremely careful with vehicle weights," says Coxhill. "Our vehicles are all equipped with PM-Onboard weigh cells, and the varying nature of the loads we uplift means that we have to be well ahead of the game here.

"We have to be extremely careful with vehicle weights," says Coxhill. "Our vehicles are all equipped with PM-Onboard weigh cells, and the varying nature of the loads we uplift means that we have to be well ahead of the game here.

"We do incur a weight penalty with the retarders but, even so, a fully equipped hookloader will still lift and carry a 15-tonne payload.That's a number both we and our customers can work with."

Why not just tick the box for the manufacturer's intarder option? According to Coxhill, the propshaft-mounted Telma equipment is easier to maintain, a feature that, given the harsh environment thrown up by landfill work, is one that he's particularly keen on. Moreover, any possible problems caused by additional braking equipment putting a strain on the vehicle's cooling system or gearbox are eliminated; the Telma unit runs off a separate connection to the vehicle's battery pack.

What started off as an experiment looks to have worked. Shanks runs around 400 vehicles in the United Kingdom, and is now moving towards specifying propshaft retarders as standard on new trucks. Indeed, it seems to have resulted in that rarest of results — win: win. "The maths makes sense," says Coxhill. "We are operating in an industry that has to be utterly safety conscious — something we have in common with our customers. We have to run safe, productive vehicles.Adding the Telma unit to our spec is helping us to achieve this." •


comments powered by Disqus