IT
LAWSONS’ LOGISTICAL LEAP OF FAITH
Cleaner, quieter, greener. That’s the kind of delivery builders merchant Lawsons is bringing to its London customers, thanks to a massive investment in its transport fleet to make it fit for the future.
C
leaner air in urban areas is becoming something of a holy grail for metropolitan Mayors. First congestion charges, then the soon to be implemented Ultra Low Emission Zones. It started in London, but will undoubtedly be roled out to other cities where vehicular pollution is an issue.
South-east independent builders merchant Lawsons has 10 branches across London so is only too aware of the need to find cleaner, lless polluting ways of delivering goods to its builder customers. With most of those deliveries being to sites in residential areas, the need for cleaner, quieter vehicles was becoming more apparant.
Electric vehicles are certainly quiet, but weren’t appropriate in this case, due to the extra weight of the batteries which would
compromise payloads of Lawsons’ heavy building materials deliveries.
Group transport manager David Harvey then started to think about gas powered vehicles and began working with Iveco. Having taken the decision to invest in an Iveco 26tonne Stralis Hi-Street NP CNG-powered truck (which is powered by compressed natural gas), the company then decided to take a further leap forward. With the majority of Lawsons’ trucks having Hiab cranes fitted to off load materials, the company wanted to see if it would be possible to reduce the emissions of the crane as well. One of the downsides of the current crane operating system is that it requires the truck engine to be running in order to operate the crane, which means extra noise and extra air pollution.
Hiab had, in fact, been working on a electric power take-off (ePTO) crane in the Netherlands, which Lawsons decied to trial. The ePTO comprises a battery, an electric motor, a hydraulic pump and s smart electronic control system in a stainless steel box mounted on the truck chassis. When the crane isn’t required, the
pump switches off, so it saves both energy and battery. There is also an emergency back-up of a conventional hydraulic pump on the transmission power take-off, though the 40kWh battery is usually sufficient for an average day of deliveries and can either be recharged overnight or throughout the day. The Hiab ePTO is 30% quieter than a standard engine-powered version and emits no exhaust fumes, meaning it’s cleaner and better for the environment as well as being approximately 70% cheaper to operate with around 60% less energy consumed. Coupled with the Iveco Stralis’s 70% and 50% reductions in NOx and noise, respectively, plus the staggering 99% less particulate matter and the 95% reduction in CO2 from using biomethane fuel, and Lawsons’ investment is taking them a long way along the road towards cleaner more efficient logistics.
“Typically, one of or trucks would be out of the depot for around eight hours a day, four of whih would be unloading the using the crane. With the ePTO, it is baically preventing us from running the engne for approximately 50% of the day, which is a tremendous reduction,” Harvey says.
The vehicle will run out of Lawsons’ Camden branch and will be in service for seven years. BMJ
SEPTEMBER 2018
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net 35
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