Scania’s team of researchers are working hard to tackle carbon emissions using existing technology.
The Scania Transport Laboratory, founded in 2008, is an extension of the company’s research and development department.
It was established with the aim of providing insights into the challenges facing customers and helps Scania test and evaluate the performance of vehicles. It also handles 10% of Scania’s own internal transport.
The fleet consists of 45 trucks and coaches, of which 14 are for long distance transport and employs more than 100 drivers.
Scania says the fleet can run on fossil free fuel and hybrid drive, which reduces carbon emissions by more than 95%.
The operation is not 100% fossil free fuel as there is a lack of HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) biodiesel fuel stations outside Sweden which means that some trucks have to refuel with some regular diesel.
The operation hauls freight between production sites in Södertälje, Sweden and Zwolle in the Netherlands, as well as bus transit into Stockholm.
The research shows even with highly trained drivers, fuel-consumption performance varies which provides valuable insights for training activities.
The lab has reduced fuel consumption by 20% and carbon emissions by 50% per transported tonne.
Over the course of a year, each truck is driven approximately 400,000 kilometres, which is about three times as much as a truck would run in the same time in an average haulier’s operation.
Head of Scania Transport Laboratory Jan Björklund says the project is about “practising what we preach”.
“We are not asking our customers and the industry in general to do something we are not willing to do ourselves.
“One of the key learnings for us is the effect of planning and driver training. We see that it works, and that fairly small adjustments have big impact. For example, reducing the speed from 90 to 80 km/h in the long-haul operations reduces fuel by 10% while the comparative time loss is only 1%,” Björklund says.
