Brewery cuts fuel with skirts
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• A brewery is predicting an improved fuel consumption of 6.01it/100km (1.1mpg) on a Seddon Atkinson Strato which has had skirts added to its cab and trailer to improve its aerodynamics.
Seddon Atkinson and Southfields will launch the vehicle at the Motor Show, and Cornish Brewery of Redruth will evaluate its performance over the next year (CM 1-7 March).
The brewery already gets 42.11iU100km (6.7mpg) from its fleet of three 272kW (365hp) Stratos on national work. Distribution manager Derek Payne hopes to achieve 36.2 lit/100km (7.8mph) on the new vehicle, a 3.8mwheelbase, two-axle 365.
Another advantage of the skirts is that they cut down spray, adds Payne. "One problem in the West Country is that the wind always goes through the unit. We rarely get a forewind or tailwind, and our vehicles kick up a lot of spray."
Payne had wanted to order a more aerodynamic truck, but it proved too expensive. However, he hopes to come up with something next year. "It will have skirting that goes over the whole catwalk, which will cut noise and improve fuel economy more," he says.
The Southfield's curtainsided trailer is 13.25m long instead of the maximum permitted 13.6m. It can carry 24 brewery pallets instead of the 22 that a 12.2m trailer will manage, and the extra space on a 13.6m vehicle would not have had any benefits, says Payne.
Cornish Brewery, part of the Devenish Group, runs another 30 trucks. As well as distributing its own products, its national fleet hauls other companies' goods.