36 ENVIRONMENTAL UPDATE
GROUND HANDLING INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY 2013 Cleaner and greener A report from the UK’s biggest airport, where green initiatives are ushering in the new year.
n December 2012 the Clean Vehicles Partnership organised another of its green seminars to alert attendees to the plans and proposals for the airport and its environs in terms of transportation. Regular readers will know that Heathrow has been active in studying options to diesel power and this was an opportunity to find out about the progress being made. CVP’s Simon Collings brought those
present up to date with the partnership’s work. The past 12 months had seen the body focus on electric vehicle provision: the current fleet has been assessed and there has been work with HAL and BAA on opportunities for making the most of this alternative power. Information on recharging technology has been disseminated and light duty EV trials have been ongoing: in all, four vehicles are under test. On the eco driver front, fuel savings have been quantified and there has been assessment and feedback. In particular, telematics has been proven to be a useful application for data capture. Having said all that, Simon also admitted that getting companies to participate has been an uphill struggle. Finally, he talked about emissions monitoring: in all, seven companies had submitted data and three had gone on to use consultancy support to review data and develop follow-up actions. Data collected over 2010/2011 showed a 28% drop in mileage covered, 19% less fuel usage and CO2
down by 19% also. Telematics: progressing well
Leading the presentations was F16 Consulting’s Antony Pennington, who has been working with some 35 companies in the area of telematics and data capture. A decade back, this kind of application was known about but hardly used by the handling fraternity. Now, though, the tracking and data logging solution is much more a part of everyday fleet management. Antony underlined to those present the benefits accruing from the ability to log fuel consumption and thus the emissions generated: this type of data was invaluable for calculation and reference. Driver behaviour data was increasingly of interest, too: providing there was some sort of incentive scheme for good drivers, then this facet of telematics was certainly proving its worth. In passing, he cited the LSG Skychefs trial at the airport, which had resulted in a 39% increase in cost efficiency in July 2012. Put in financial terms, about £160 had been saved per week for an
outlay of £8 a week. Interesting to note, once the telematics support was removed, these benefits quickly dwindled. Antony went on to stress that telematics
wasn’t a panacea in itself, though: the data analysis function has be included if it is to prove its worth. Getting the buy-in of the user was vital, as was making some sort of visible league table available to those involved in the exercise. Better accountability would come automatically, he averred, and a reduced frequency of speeding offences would affect insurance premiums. It also followed that maintenance and servicing requirements would be lower, as would overall emissions. So, he concluded, why was telematics not more in vogue? Some reasons identified included poor past performance and experience, which had put some users off the idea. There was also often a lack of support from providers. Data could prove unreliable, too, unless correctly managed. Telematics was also picked up by BAA’s Ramp Assurance Manager, Keith Polkey. With some 9,000 motorised items of GSE at Heathrow, and a comparable number of non-motorised GSE, part of his remit is that of issuing licences. Keith explained that for him, knowing the what, when, where and how of vehicles was crucial in his day-to-day work. Vital, too, was the knowledge of whether a vehicle was being used enough or not. He readily admitted the benefits accruing from the collection of good data, since this could help with turnaround problems; likewise, it was essential for freeing up ramp space and accident investigation. Along with usage billing, geo-fencing, equipment pooling and pollution control, telematics represented a useful investment. At Heathrow, he declared, the adoption of a local system of data collection would be helpful, since it would be less fragmented and less duplicated; the end result, that of economies of scale and benefits in purchase, would follow. Currently, several systems were running, which was not ideal. He referred to the snow fleet as an example: here, there are nine different companies, so there was a lot to address and these are all monitored via telematics. At Heathrow, some 13 scissor lifts have been fitted out with tracking devices and there are a number of electric mobility aids (introduced for the 2012 Paralympics) which have been similarly equipped.
Looking ahead, there was still much to be done. Keith said that it was important to define a statement of need and work
would be ongoing with existing licensees. Finding out who was operating with telematics was on the agenda and the establishment of a working group would precede a determination of standards. A tentative date of 2014 was given as the implementation year.
Fuel and its management
and data can be downloaded in real time. Best of all, the system’s architecture is simple and no manual entry is required. After, Ben Lane, of Sustainable
Phil Wright of Airport Energy went on to talk about fuel management and supply. The “chip and coil” approach to refuelling (which sees the nozzle flow activated by a sensor around the filling orifice) has been working well for five or so years now. Moving on from this concept is data recovery and here Richard Quarmby spoke about Fuelomat, an application that can store up to 25,000 transactions; it can also send out alerts and provide data. In this connection, the DataPass-Tracker was, he believed, the answer to client needs, since it could record idling time, speed infringements and engine hour use. It could even be programmed to log CO2
emissions
calculation was easy since it related to fuel usage. Calculation of NOx was less straightforward, though, because there was a need to know how a vehicle was actually utilised. Existing data sources were plentiful, though, and he cited fuelling stations, vehicle apron passes and the operators’ own data.
Transport Solutions, spoke about an integrated emissions data system for Heathrow. He reminded the audience that CO2
During the question and answer session,
BAA’s David Vowles pointed out that the airport was much in the media eye and thus it was with good reason that data mining should be encouraged, for only then could a correct image be projected to the outside world. Keith Polkey added that in connection with the telematics presentations, the cost was difficult to quantify: much depended upon usage and frequency and a host of other factors needed to be considered. JBT AeroTech’s Tim Rane commented on the airport’s infrastructure in terms of electric provision: a couple of years ago a successful trial was conducted with an electric loader but after that, no-one at Heathrow decided to purchase. The argument was one of insufficient charging systems. Could, he wondered, telematics change all that? Keith Polkey reaffirmed that an electric
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