Re: HGV Fuel Efficiency

Brimstone wrote:
Doug Baiter wrote:
On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 10:31:05 GMT, NM <never.opened@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Doug Baiter wrote:
On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:58:02 -0000, "Gizmo."
<Stephan.halmett@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"judith" <me@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ufk5m3ll2uvukhst7h8jph1sttb845qser@xxxxxxxxxx
Just caught an item on the BBC TV news about the price of fuel.

There was an interview with the head of a haulage firm who I
believe said that they had got rid of their HGVs and replaced
with smaller vehicles as they were much more economical to run.

Is this the case?
I saw that ... and still can't understand how their economics or
logic work.

To simplify my thinking:
Even if they downsized to 17t lorries, they'd still need 3 qty to
carry the "same" amount of load as a 44t HGV.
I doubt very much if a 17t returns 3 times or more mpg than a 44t
! Plus the overheads would pretty much treble.

Or am I looking at this the wrong way ?

Well in a word, yes :o).
The problem with your logic is that it assumes maximum density where
available, and if that were the case then yes, you'd be right in
thinking that the bigger truck is 'better'. I'd be *fascinated* to
see the RHA publish some statistics on how much transported volume
is empty!
Very little, it's too expensive to run empty.
You'd _think_ that applied to planes (and to an even greater degree)
but we're hearing more and more of 'ghost flights' to move freight
capacity around. Obviously RH operators would prefer vehicles to be
fully laden, but can you see them turning down a lucrative load simply
because they dont have a vehicle in the right place? I freely admit
its a bit of a leap to assume that road freight suffers from a problem
simply because we know air freight does, but I think its a
_reasonable_ leap!

Quite. The lorry drivers on this NG have told us about dropping a load at one place and having to drive twenty or thirty miles to pick up the next load. It would be interesting (although probably not worth the effort and expense) to find out what the load factor is across the national fleet.


FFS. I drive 330 miles to a RCD with the fridge, then twenty or thirty miles empty to another RCD for a 300 m trip back, then maybe another thirty miles or so back to start. that's about 10% empty running and many do a lot better.

To improve on this I would have to load the fridge for both the short legs, even providing this was possible it would add at least another day to the journey and the revenue would not make it worthwhile. alternatively all RCD and distribution centres could be in one central hub but then the delivery trucks would have to travel much further. So we are back to the beginning, to take up your suggestion prices would have to rise, just how much are you prepared to pay for a 100% efficient haulage industry, the closer you get to your ideal the pricier it gets.

Attempts have been made by many many people and organisations over the years to reduce empty running, the moment a profitable solution occurs it will be used.

With diesel approaching 110 pence a litre efficiencies are being sought everywhere.
.

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