Fast forward C&H (Hauliers) brings forward all its truck purchases
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to avoid Euro-6 and has bespoke trailers to harmonise route planning Words: Kevin Swallow / Images: Tom Lee Steve Mercer is unequivocal about Euro-6. "Talk to Mercedes-Benz, and Euro-6, which comes in on 1 January 2014, is an add-on cost of £8,000412,000. At best, fuel efficiency will be the same as Euro-5, and a Euro-6 chassis is heavier," says the MD of Essex-based C&H (Hauliers).
This is why he brought forward all his truck purchases and spent more than £3m on upgrading the fleet, which includes 37 Mercedes-Benz 6x2 Actros Gigaspace Euro-5 tractor units (CM 29 November 2012).
The company, which is part of the Charles Gee Group and employs 160 people, transports 2.3 million tonnes of forestry products a year. The fleet includes 110 trucks, all Euro-5 and none older than 2009, and 240 trailers (see universal operation sidebar). "The manufacturers haven't sold Euro-6 [as an alternative to Euro-5] at all and, with no incentive from the government, what is the point? All you can do is a Reduced Pollution Certificate to sweeten the dean-here is nothing that drives you into taking Euro-6," he says, suggesting it will be 2015 when the company next buys a truck.
At some point hauliers who do buy the new technology will have to pass on that cost because it is unavoidable. "Haulage is a marginal business and a marginal change makes a huge difference to the bottom line.
"You have to educate customers, who have their own challenges, that Euro-6 is a cost increase we cannot avoid," he says.
The Actros 2545 6x2 trucks were specified with residual values in mind, something that was driven by the mannfacturers. "We have replaced Long Distance cabs with [bigger] Gigaspace cabs for the same price; it's all about the RVs," he adds.
As the Euro-6 deadline approaches, Mercer feels Euro-5 will become more expensive. "We hedged our bets and bought early [as] we can get a good price commanding extremely good RVs, because the right spec kit at Euro-5 in four/five years' time will be quite desirable," he says.
The final round of purchasing saw the firm take on 10 Daf XF105.460s fitted with the Superspace cab. Mercer chose Daf because the dealership is opposite the company's King's Lynn site, where seven will operate, and because of the change in back-up. "Daf has just matched what Mercedes is doing; offering a vehicle with two years' repair and maintenance and not a service package without repairs, plus there is no mileage cap on it," he says.
In the meantime, Mercer's attention will be on more training and telematics to improve safety and eke out more fuel savings from the 127 drivers the company employs.
Measures include eradicating engine idling and reducing harsh braking and acceleration. Mercer thinks there is room for improvement. "We are adopting a system where the driver can log in and see their performance in real time and we have employed an analyst to look over this type of detail," he says.
"We are also looking at using Silent Witness forwardfacing cameras on the trucks. I think it will affect driving; I am a great believer that if your drivers drive in the right style, they are less likely to have an accident."N ALL-PURPOSE TRAILERS A major headache for route planners at C&H (Hauliers) is ensuring a trailer matches the load and is compatible for loading and unloading. With a varied fleet of trailers in terms of height and loading systems, significant empty running between sites was unavoidable, says Steve Mercer.
The decision to specify 4m-high trailers has helped the planners to plan with a one-size-fits-all vehicle, he explains.
"For example, a vehicle would deliver to a press room in London then reload in Cambridge with bailed waste and go to King's Lynn and reload for Europe. That typically requires a 'systems' trailer [using fixed tracks in the trailer floor and skates to deliver reels of paper] that wouldn't be tall enough to reload bailed waste, so we send a taller 'systems' trailer, but it cannot reload when it gets to King's Lynn because it has to collect a load for Antwerp that's too tall," he says.
To solve the headache, he went to SDC Trailers with the challenge to provide a trailer that could do all the work, and reduce empty running at a stroke. "The challenge was building a trailer that can be loaded using a track system and discharge in all the major press rooms, which has to be performed at a 1,250mm pin height.
"Then overlay that with the European work: we need a trailer that can operate at 4.0m but another key driver was to create the 2.7m side and rear aperture height, as well as meet European standards for load bearing curtains and discharge through the rear, which is required for European work when we are backhauling," he says. Running on five axles, Mercer needed to achieve 24 tonnes of payload (which rises to 28 tonnes on six axles at 44 tonnes).
Tony Sturgess is the chief design engineer at SDC Trailers in Mansfield, and he worked with Mercer to turn ambition into reality.
"The order consisted of 30 trailers fitted with air-operated Joloda aluminium floor tracks, while maintaining an overall 4.0m height," he says. "They needed dual ride height suspension, but different dual ride height settings to work with the new tractors at 1,100mm fifth wheel height and existing tractors at 1,230mm fifth wheel height. batons per bay, another requirement for collecting loads in Europe.
The deal for 30 trailers included kingpins and special rear under-run construction to suit the automatic loading docks at Aylesford Newsprint, which are fitted with fifth wheels that lock a trailer into the correct position. "While being loaded, the trailers have to be kept perfectly level with the dock, so on the low tractors the suspension has to be raised to level the trailer while on the dock. The air-operated Joloda trailers have air connections built into the trailer at the rear for connecting to the automatic dock. Once connected, the tracks inflate to match the dock and the loading begins."
The 30 all-purpose trailers replaced 60 general trailers, and Mercer says he will add 20 a year over the next five years. "Empty running was considerable before we got the dual-height trailers. Again you come back to the problem that the planners could not plan effectively to link together work because of the trailer; now they don't have to think about it," he says.