Tony Winterbottom presents the fuel consumption statistics of the Martin Brower/UK fleet at the Hemel Hempstead DC. The General Manager Operational Support of the logistics company specializing in the delivery of fast-food restaurants has every reason to be happy: “Since 2011, we have reduced the consumption of gasoil by almost 1.9 million litres in our Hemel fleet – despite the fact that we saw an increase in the volume of cases delivered in the same period of approximately 6% annually.” Gasoil, also known as red diesel, is tax-reduced diesel that is used for the operation of stationary engines and engines in working machines, including the diesel engines of conventional refrigeration machines on trucks and trailers.
Due to its constantly increasing transport volumes, the company had predicted an equally steady increase in gasoil consumption at the Hemel DC for refrigeration in 2010 to a total of more than 807,000 litres in 2016. However, the actual gasoil consumption of the Hemel fleet dropped continuously to only 221,133 litres in 2016. Winterbottom is aware of the key cause for this positive development: “Since 2011, we have equipped more and more vehicles with FRIGOBLOCK refrigeration units.”
Unlike conventional transport refrigeration machines, FRIGOBLOCK refrigerators have an electric drive. The electrical energy is supplied by an alternator directly driven by the vehicle engine. This eliminates the need for a separate diesel engine for the refrigeration machine and consequently also for its additional fuel consumption. “With every additional vehicle, we equip with FRIGOBLOCK refrigeration machines, the gasoil consumption in our fleet is declining,” confirms Tony Winterbottom.
According to Winterbottom, the fact that the truck engine requires a little more fuel for the drive of the alternator is negligible in the Martin Brower fleet: “Whilst there is undoubtedly a small reduction in KPL performance we were able to largely compensate any additional consumption by the FRIGOBLOCK refrigeration units by acquiring more economical Euro-6 vehicles, focusing on aerodynamic measures and driver training.” According to his calculations, there is a saving of more than 1 million GBP in gasoil costs over the past six years.
