News

Oxonica, manufacturer of the diesel-borne fuel catalyst Envirox, is seeking 'blue-chip' operators to assist it with trials to validate fuel savings in haulage and distribution work.

The call for partners follows the company's recent success in conducting a trial with Stagecoach to validate results on buses and coaches.

According to Mike Attfield, business  development director at Oxonica Energy, Stagecoach tested Envirox in 2004 on 1,300 vehicles. Results from these tests showed fuel savings of 5% and encouraged Stagecoach to use the product across its UK fleet. Now, a validation trial of 550 vehicles has demonstrated a fuel saving of 4.3% after three months, consistent with the 2004 trial at the same stage, and the company is keen to establish a similar benchmark in the truck market.

"We're not trying to prove the product works - we're confident it works," says Attfield. "But we know that the way truck managers think is that you can't take data from coaches and buses and compare it directly with trucks."

Attfield is looking for a major player that is prepared to carry out a full trial. He says: "Fuel-saving additives have been around for years, but a lot have been nonsense so there's some scepticism. In each sector we want a Stagecoach-type arrangement to hopefully establish a good result and generate a testimonial  effect.

"We don't want someone who's just going to bung some in some of their units. It needs to be spread across the fleet in their best and worst vehicles so we can obtain the results that will establish what we can achieve."

Oxonica has already established a trial with one firm, and has another in the pipeline, but would like several to cover the full range of work conducted by the haulage industry.