Extra-heavy commercial vehicles on the road equals good times for the economy

To some people, they are a menace on our roads; but to others, the sight of them is like that of tall cranes hovering over a cityscape – a barometer of the economy. If there are a few of them, you know things are not going too well. If there are many of them, you know the wheels of the economy are humming.

That is the case with those long-distance giant truck and trailer combinations – 22-wheeler interlink and 32-wheeler superlink configurations – which keep the South African economy moving 24 hours around the clock, 365 days a year.

If vehicle sales are anything to go by, it is a hungry economy. Some economists are talking about business confidence dropping and the economy cooling down again, but South Africa’s fleet operators seem to think otherwise – they have been on a buying spree.

“Sales of extra-heavy commercial vehicles had again registered an exceptional performance, rising by 40.7% from 764 units in August last year to 1 075 units in August 2011,” recently reported the National Association of Automotive Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa)

Naamsa has been using the words “exceptional” and “surprisingly” several times this year when commenting on extra-heavy vehicle sales.

Stated Dr Casper Kruger, vice president of Hino Trucks: “The premium payload XHCV [extra-heavy commercial vehicle] segment continues to lead the market growth; and in the latest year-to-date analysis, has captured 44.5% of the total available sales. This compares to 38.6% recorded for the whole of 2010, and reflects the dependence of the South African economy on long-distance road transport – both within and across the country’s borders.”

Or is it more a case of vehicle replacement, as Kobus van Zyl, vice president of Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) Commercial Vehicles, seems to think? He said it a year ago and he still held this view recently at yet another official truck handover.

Whatever the case, truck makers are very happy with the continued recovery of the South African truck market in 2011, following a recovery of 24% during the Fifa Soccer World Cup year over 2009 – the year of the economic meltdown.

Sales normally taper off during this part of the year but, with the Johannesburg International Motor Show’s Truck and Bus Show and new product releases behind them, truck makers can be expected to enter another year of fierce competition to improve on their market shares, particularly in the flagship extra-heavy sector.

In terms of choosing their own flagship, South African fleet operators are really spoilt, with the country being the international playing field of many of the world’s top truck manufacturers.

One sees most of them travelling either alone or in convoy on the N3 between Johannesburg and Durban – the German brands represented by the Actros and Axor from Mercedes-Benz and the TGS from MAN; the Scandinavian brands by Scania and Volvo; the American brands by Freightliner and International; and the Japanese brands by Hino, UD, Isuzu and Mitsubishi Fuso.

Also doing battle in this Kings of the Road contest are the Renault from France, the Iveco Stralis from Italy/Australia, and the DAF from the Netherlands – but not in such great numbers as those mentioned above.

The other extra-heavies – the Tata from India; the Powerstar, Dongfeng Warrior and FAW from China; and the Western Star from the United States – seem more to keep themselves busy in construction, mining and forestry applications, but the other brands are also there.

Add engine output options, automatic, semi-automatic and manual transmission systems, and it is a bewildering choice considering the fact that local truck sales constitute less than 2% of international sales.

While brand popularity, loyalty, purchase price, finance, warranties, service intervals, parts pricing and dealer network backup will certainly be among the first considerations being looked at – and not necessarily in that order – increasing focus will be on life-cycle costs and truck intelligence packages to reduce fuel and other operating costs.

This is the trend in America, Europe and Japan where continuously rising fuel prices have intensified the challenge to move as many tonnes as possible with the least amount of fuel. So much so that national standards have been and are being set in this regard.

Japan, where trucks are estimated to be responsible for 25% of automotive greenhouse gas emissions, standards to improve trucking fuel performance were already introduced in 2006.

In Europe, all trucks have their road-speed governors set by the factory to a specified value determined by law. Europe is now working on a framework for limiting trucking fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

In the US, it is still up to the vehicle owner to decide the setting, but most large fleet operators electronically limit their drivers to around 100 kilometres per hour, with some flexibility to accelerate when required. But, according to a recent National Geography report, the US government has now announced its very first fuel economy standards for heavy-duty vehicles, seeking to require that big tractor-trailers get 20% better mileage by 2018.

Another report, by the US National Academy of Sciences issued last year, reconfirms that changes in truck aerodynamics, reduction of mass, and improved rolling resistance all are strategies that could yield significant improvements in fuel economy. But it points out that on par with all those are “intelligent vehicle” systems that can reduce the fuel burnt by trucks by encouraging changes in driver behaviour – long known to save fuel.

South African fleet operators are quite aware of what can be achieved for any fleet owner with these intelligent truck/driver monitoring or fleet management systems such as those from Digicore and Telematixs, as they can be installed for any truck brand and, therefore, a mixed fleet.

Manufacturers such as MBSA can be expected to step up their own (house brand) intelligent packages – such as Fleetboard and Charterway, both popular in Europe – for those who want to standardise on a brand.

A major point being made in the US by the likes of Transport Topics, the mouthpiece of the American Trucking Associations, is that limiting driver speed to 100km/h or the ‘sweet spot’ for many of its truck-tractor/trailer combinations is perhaps the most widely recognised behavioural change that can save fuel.

It further claimed that, on average, a truck travelling at 65 miles per hour (84.5km/h) instead of 75mph (97.5km/h) will experience up to 27% improvement in fuel consumption.

Its tractor-trailers currently average only six miles per gallon (2.55km per litre). But some fleets can achieve up to 8.5mpg (3.61km/l), with the most efficient trucks reaching about 10.5mpg (4.46km/l).

But that is for 18-wheelers with a federal limit of 36.7 tonnes gross combined mass (GCM).

South Africa allows truck-trailer combinations, including 18-wheelers, with a GCM ranging from 38 tonnes to 56 tonnes (excluding a 5% overload tolerance) – making our top-end truck combinations gigantic and much heavier by comparison.

South Africa has no fuel-saving standards set (yet), but it wants to reduce speed limits even further, obviously reducing turnaround times. But it would be interesting to see what local averages are – not only in terms of kilometres per litre achieved, but also bringing in the average tonnage moved per semi-trailer, interlink and superlink combination.

It may determine which truck and trailer combination is the true King of the Road using a standard load, if there is such a thing.

Udo Rypstra