Scania Transport Lab goes fossil free

Scania’s Transport Laboratory is used for some of Scania’s own internal transport, moving goods including parts and accessories as well as personnel.

The operation consists of 45 trucks and coaches, of which 14 are prime movers for long distance transport. As of 2018, the fleet runs only on fossil-free fuel and hybrid drive which reduces carbon emissions by more than 95 per cent.

Scania said that the fleet is not at 100 per cent fossil free only because there is a lack of HVO/biodiesel fuel stations outside Sweden which means that trucks sometimes have to refuel with some regular diesel.

The transport fleet was founded 2008 as an extension of the company’s research and development department in an effort to learn even more about its customers’ challenges and how profitability can be improved. In its first five years, the lab reduced fuel consumption by 20 per cent and carbon emissions by 50 per cent per transported tonne.

“This is about practicing what we preach. We are not asking our customers and the industry in general to do something we are not willing to do ourselves,” said Jan Björklund, Head of Scania Transport Laboratory.

Every day, the Scania Transport Laboratory operates 14 truck and trailer combinations between the manufacturing plants in Södertälje, Sweden, and Zwolle in the Netherlands.

Over the course of a year, each truck is driven for approximately 400,000 kilometres, which is about three times as much as a truck would run in the same time in an average European haulier operation. That means the Lab offers a uniquely quick opportunity for Scania to test and assess vehicle quality and performance. Equally important is to test theories about flow analysis and planning as means to remove waste from the transport system, as well as driver training.

“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 a big impact. For example, reducing the speed from 90 to 80km/h in the long haul operations reduces fuel by 10 per cent while the comparative time loss is only 1 per cent,” said Björklund.