Study focuses on refrigerated transport costs

Fuel consumption, particularly for refrigerated units, will be one of the most highly scrutinised areas of The Freight Best Practice report created by Scala Logistics Consulting.

“Fuel consumption will be of real interest, because it’s a lot of money and a lot of companies can still do something about it with things like vehicle spec and driver training,” said Graham Stubbins, Scala senior partner managing the food transport project.

“There’s also a fear that as EU emissions standards tighten, it’s becoming more difficult for engine manufacturers to comply and that to maintain combustion performance in engines, they have to use more fuel. So people are concerned that Euro 5 trucks are not as efficient as Euro 4 models.”

Referring to the interest in refrigerated transport units, Stubbins said: “We’re in a phase when people seem very interested in fuel use for fridge units. Because of the way they are fuelled, people have found [their fuel use] difficult to measure.”

Scala’s report will be based on a survey of manufacturers, retailers, logistics firms, and wholesalers across a range of sectors and follows similar surveys conducted in the past few years. Questions cover issues such as how full vehicles on the road are, how long they are driven while empty and delays to scheduled use. Stubbins said Scala was looking for more companies to provide data.

The research will be used by the Department of Transport’s research department and will also provide a benchmark for industry best practice.

Initial industry workshops were held last week and Scala expects the survey to have been completed in March next year and the report to be published by next August. Overall results will be freely available to all participants and posted on the Performance Management section of the Freight Best Practice website for all to see. But only participants can get a detailed breakdown of how their figures stack up with their rivals.