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POTENTIAL FUEL SAVINGS
Page 45
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In today's bleak economic climate, operators and trailer manufacturers, especially those concerned with double-deck examples, are constantly looking for ways to cut back on one of their biggest outlays diesel.
One area that has reaped dividends for Bedfordshire leasing and rental specialist Transport Resources is in harmonising, wherever poss[ble, the roof line of the tractor unit with a trailer's sloping front.
While the recently unveiled futuristic MAN Dolphin concept artic shows how determined German engneers are to find the holy grail in CV aerodynamics (CM8 January) they lag behind our own manufacturers and transport operators in terms of practicality and availability.
Early last year, Trailer Resources and Commercial Motor demonstrated that just one design improvement of curving the trailer's top edge, matched with the unit's roof line, can deliver significant savings, too (CM 24 January 2008).
Using a Renault Premium 450 6x2 with integral sloping roof in parallel tests with two Montracon double-deck curtainsiders — one a conventional slab-nosed trailer from Transport Resources' rental fleet and the other having the curved roof, the latter delivered an eye-catching 7.8% reduction in the amount of fuel used around the Millbrook proving ground.
Naturally, the degree of fuel saving would vary according to routes, loads, driving conditions and, indeed, the drivers themselves, but if a standard rig in the Transport Resources fleet trunks, say, 75,000 miles a year and returns 8.0mpg, its shapely Montracon trailer can save around 730 gallons.
At, say, £4,50 a gallon, that's a reduction of over £3,300, which would more than cover tax and insurance for the year.
And as if that isn't enough to savour, O'Connor's latest design change should add a whole package of extra benefits to the savings already promlsed_ .