Recently in Diesel Category

Did anyone hear this on BBC Radio 4 this morning? BP's CEO Tony Hayward was interviwed on the Today programme and made some interesting predictions about future energy prices and when oil supply will reach its peak.

Mr Hayward said that  gasoline consumption reached it's peak in 2007 and continued to say that suppliers in the US and Europe would not sell more gasoline than they did in 2007, ever. This is down to policy and government regulation, which is driving efficiency in transport fleets "and that's a good thing!" he said.

There are also interesting points about gas supply in the UK and how the we can bridge the gap with our future energy needs. Perhaps, the gas-powered Mercedes Sprinter and Iveco Daily will be more prominent in future fleets than we think...

Whether it's for marketing or for cost-saving reasons, reducing fuel consumption is at, or near the top of, every fleet manager's agenda. We've often written about the need for night time delivery schedules for supermarkets and other retailers and Sainsbury's in Wandsworth has even conducted it's own trial not too long ago.

Watching BBC Breakfast this morning and they showed a clip of a terrible lorry crash in Turkey. A truck driver had obviously knocked the hydraulic tipper switch and results you can see below. Luckily nobody was killed although one person was seriously injured in the accident. 

Electricity provider Western Power Distribution (WPD) has started trailling two Smith Edison vans; one in Plymouth and the other in Cardiff. According to WPD if the trials are successful it'll be introducing more battery-powered vans to its existing fleet.

John Brooks, WPD's transport manager, says: "We are constantly looking for innovative technology that can reduce our carbon footprint and electric vehicles are on solution. The first two vans have settled in well and we continue to evaluate tehir performance. If they meet our expectations, we will look at rolling out more electrice vans accross our fleet."

A handfull of hauliers have dabbled with biodiesel as a way to reduce their fleet emissions, but there's been mixed results. Commercial Motor Magazine will be doing a feature soon on different hauliers and operators' experiences of using biodiesel plus the effects it has on the trucks.

So, this is where you come in. If you want to get a free and shameless plug for your business in the next issue of Commercial Motor then get in contact (ian.tonkin@rbi.co.uk) and let us know about your experiences with biodiesel whether it be good, bad or ugly.

There's so much attention given to alternative fuels and their virtues of saving the planet (including on this piece of cyber space), but are we not forgetting about what we already have and how we can make small changes to improve fuel consumption.

Look at Jost. The engineering firm that makes fifth wheels. They've filed a patent for an automated fifth wheel that essentially closes the gap between the truck and trailer at high speeds and increases it at low speeds more greater manouvrability in town.

FFD braved the snow (and public transport) to go and drive Merc's compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered Sprinter at the manufacturer's base in Milton Keynes.

It's always nice to see the commercial vehicle industry get some sort of tax break/incentive and in Alistair Darling's pre-budget speech that's exactly what happened. The Chancellor Alistair Darling said that electric vans would be eligible for a 100% cpaital allowance for the first year, meaning that invetsment in such vehicles can be written off the company tax bill.

Renault will be out in force at the International Conference for Climate Change in Copenhagen next week. Accredited members (who make a booking) will be able to test-drive one of three electric prototypes including the Kangoo panel van.

I don't know about you but i'm getting a little confused with the whole biofuel thing. Today, a 'cutting-edge' technology development centre has been opened at the seaside town of Hull (UK). Kingston Research Ltd, which is a tie-up between BP and DuPont, will focus on the "commercialisation of advanced biofuel technology" at the purpose-built £25m facility.