Abstract
There is a need to reduce fuel consumption, and thereby reduce CO2-emissions in all parts of the transport sector. It is also well known that aerodynamic resistance affects the fuel consumption in a major way. By improving the aerodynamics of the vehicles, the fuel consumption will also decrease. A special type of transportation is that of timber, which is performed by specialized trucks with few alternative uses. This paper follows up on earlier papers concerning Swedish timber trucks where aerodynamic improvements for timber trucks were tested. By mapping the entire fleet of timber trucks in Sweden and investigating reduced fuel consumption of 2–10%, financial calculations were performed on how these improvements would affect the transport costs. Certain parameters are investigated, such as investment cost, extra changeover time and weight of installments. By combining these results with the mapping of the fleet, it can be seen under which circumstances these improvements would be sustainable. The results show that it is possible through aerodynamics to lower the transportation costs and make an investment plausible, with changeover time being the most important parameter. They also show that certain criteria for a reduced transportation cost already exist within the vehicle fleet today.
Highlights
According to the latest reports, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise in the world [1]
The investment will in many cases lower their operating transportation cost and it becomes a question whether the pay-off time of the investment becomes short enough for the road carrier’s willingness to invest in them
In the extended supply chain—there are five primary parameters included in a contract between a road carrier and its customer where the risk can be shared by the seller and the buyer according to according to Eng-Larsson (2017), which are presented in Table 6 [25]
Summary
According to the latest reports, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise in the world [1]. The total fleet of timber trucks consists of over 1600 registered timber trucks that transported 60 million tonnes of round wood last year. These trucks represent 2% of all heavy trucks in Sweden [4]. As these trucks are for a special purpose (timber transport only) the empty running is at least 50%, resulting in a fill rate under 50% This is when measured by weight, which ordinary trucks can achieve, and measured by volume, which makes timber transports unique [5]. A lot of effort has over many decades been made by truck manufacturers to reduce the emissions from the engine itself over many decades
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