Warrington, UK: Geoff Ward, sales engineer for truck bodies, Schmitz Cargobull UK, outlines current and future trends in vehicle and fridge specifications, in the lates issue of Cold Chain News published this week.
The UK will be leading the way in alternative cooling systems in five year’s time, predicts Ward.
What are the current trends in specification?
We’re still seeing people asking for ATP certification as a benchmark and FRC (for frozen and chilled goods) level. We are currently seeing requests from end users that they would like X chassis but with an option for standard diesel and also for hybrid or an alternative option.
At Schmitz we have a modular system in that we can offer different thicknesses of sidewall or roof. We would offer what we describe as FP45 or FP60 sidewall. We can offer a sidewall with as much insulation as possible but for the thinnest wall and still meet those FRC levels. That allows maximum internal volume and width so we can make loading and unloading easier without restricting the internal width to really push the insulation thickness.
What do operators want when it comes to fridge types – what is the demand for single temperature/multi-temperature, electric standby etc?)
Our demand recently is 60/40 split for multi-temperature, versus single temperature. The European market is very, very strongly single-temperature operation. Our market has taken a different route, we are very keen on multi-temperature operations. Every single operator we speak to would require electric standby – I know that is not universal in the industry.
One thing we are seeing is that operators are starting to have solar installation on their warehouses and sites, so that when they specify electric standby, that arrangement is allowing them to run very clean, very efficiently, when the vehicles are back at base or being loaded.
There are more and more enquiries about cooling systems themselves, a lot more people are looking at hybrid solutions, so that would be the Frigoblock- type builds or the Carrier systems, such as the Iceland Twincool. Sometimes people want very specialised solutions that allow them to run maybe on diesel part of the time and then switch to a unit that’s driven from the truck itself. That’s quite special, a unique arrangement, but we are starting to see those kind of requests.
How do you see the market in five years’ time?
The UK market tends to lead the adoptions of new technologies – such as telematics for instance. From what we see the UK is taking more enquiries around hybrid cooling technologies, and electric cooling technologies. Within the whole European market, the UK is showing a real interest in this. So it could well be that in five years’ time that the UK is leading this push into alternative cooling systems because of the clean air zones and anything (legislation etc) that happens with cooling technology and emissions’ control – that will all feed into it.
Is it the case that 3rd party operators are responding to their customers’ demands for greener refrigeration, in contrast to own-account operators who might specify the lowest cost, rather than the greenest?
We would speak to customers about the extended life of our products and that conversation moves on to how can we reduce our fuel costs and, in turn, all of those options become the greener options as well. That is what we’re seeing coming from all sides of the industry, people looking for options to reduce those whole life costs.
Yes, there’s lots of questions about the refrigeration options we have and how we can improve the insulation. People are thinking very carefully about the choice of body and what that body does, their fuel usage and obviously CO2 emissions and all the things that are linked to fuel consumption.
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