Technological Advances May Help Carriers Haul Loads Farther at Lower Costs
By Susan L. Hodges, Special to Transport Topics
This story appears in the Sept. 28 print edition of Transport Topics.
If manufacturers’ claims about the latest developments in cargo refrigeration units are correct, motor carriers now can haul fresh, frozen or deep-frozen loads for any distance with reefer-fuel savings of as much as 80%, compared with past costs — and with little or no reefer maintenance.
Improvements are emerging across the board:
• Monitoring systems for individual loads can send temperature alerts to a fleet manager’s “smart phone.”
• All-electric architecture in hybrid trailer refrigeration units — or TRUs — negates the need for belts, pulleys and other moving parts.
• Thermoplastic liners are being used to reduce trailer thermal degradation.
• Traditional cold-plate technology is receiving a boost from powerful compressors that facilitate over-the-road plate-charging.
Because these products and technologies are so recent, sparse data exist to evaluate their performance outside the lab. But vendors say sales are steady, and customers are starting to go on record to tout the products.
C.R. England, for example, began late last year integrating the “i-Box” trailer data-gathering devices on its Thermo King reefers with a SkyBitz trailer-monitoring system.
“Now we can see reefer alarms in real time,” said Ron Hall, spokesman for the nation’s largest refrigerated carrier.
Using the SkyBitz telematics system, C.R. England can remotely change the temperature inside the reefer and also compare it with the booked temperature of the load. Hall said he believes C.R. England “will at least meet or exceed” the goals it set for return on investment for the system. Among those goals: slashing customer temperature-related claims against the company by 75%, and reducing lost and stolen trailers by 50%.
CarrierWeb also makes a reefer monitoring product and launched a new, two-way version of its “ReeferMate” in May. The device interfaces directly with the microprocessor controllers of any TRU to monitor its temperature, fuel level, power and battery status.
Alerts are sent automatically via the Web whenever a load’s data fall outside the customer’s specified parameters.
“If you’re a fleet manager at home and you have loads running overnight, you can receive alerts on your BlackBerry and then go online and make adjustments,” said Roni Taylor, marketing consultant for CarrierWeb.
Asked if the adjustments also can be made from a smart phone, Taylor replied, “That’s being looked at.”
Return on investment varies with the type and size of load. “I don’t know the cost of a load of strawberries, but some pharmaceuticals can run $10 million a load,” she said. “If their temperature moves out of range, they can be ruined.”
CarrierWeb’s product competes with the RT-200, a refrigerated trailer tracking solution rolled out in December by PAR Logistics Management Systems, New Hartford, N.Y. The PAR system uses cellular technology to send alerts and receive control information.
As this story was going to press, Thermo King Corp. announced the launch of “TracKing,” its cellular technology-based, two-way temperature management system. Information from Thermo King said the TracKing cellular version probably will work best for local and regional distribution customers, while the TracKing satellite version may still be preferred by cross-country and intermodal carriers.
Also available is a reefer monitoring system by Cadec Global, Manchester, N.H. Cadec combined its Mobius TTS driver-behavior monitoring system with its TempTracker module last October to give fleets remote control of temperatures in both tethered and untethered trailers.
Along with monitoring capabilities, methods of refrigeration are becoming more sophisticated.
Thermo King introduced its T-Series of hybrid temperature control units for straight trucks in March at the Mid-America Trucking Show. The company said production has begun and should be shipped out starting in October.
By adding electric capabilities to diesel power, T-Series models are expected to reduce reefer fuel consumption and emissions by 40% and 60%, respectively. Electric operation can be used while a truck is stationary, but an optional feature allows the units to use electric power over the road as well. Units are available with traditional reciprocating compressors and with new scroll-compressing technology, designed to be more fuel-efficient.
Carrier Transicold also introduced a hybrid-electric temperature control unit at the Mid-America show. The Vector 6500 TRU is a single-temperature unit that began production in August. It follows Carrier’s multi-temperature hybrid TRU, the Vector 1800MT, which debuted in 2006.
Multi-temp TRUs are designed for short runs, small delivery areas and less-than-truckload operations.
Single-temp TRUs are used for full loads requiring one temperature and being shipped longer distances.
Carrier spokesman David Kiefer said sales of the first Vector TRU “took off a lot quicker than we expected.” He said purchases were driven by rising fuel costs and increasing attraction to electric stand-by. Sales of the Vector 6500 appear to be following suit: Kiefer said that, so far, demand is outstripping supply.
Carrier has reported that regular use of a hybrid TRU’s electric stand-by during idling periods can save as much as 40% on fuel, compared with running diesel.
Jason Kozubal, operations manager for Paradise Island Foods Inc., Nanaimo, British Columbia, said the first Vector 1800MT his firm purchased, in 2006, delivered 35% fuel savings during its first year of operation. The savings, along with a 3.5-ton carbon-emissions reduction, earned the company grants from two Canadian organizations to purchase additional Vector units.
“Now, we’re at 55% fuel savings for reefers in our whole fleet,” Kozubal told Transport Topics. The firm’s seventh trailer received its hybrid TRU in September. At fuel prices of C$3 per gallon, anticipated annual fuel savings for all seven TRUs is nearly C$13,000.
Kiefer said Carrier Transicold’s hybrid TRUs are priced “several thousand more” dollars than the company’s diesel TRUs, but Kozubal said the difference for his firm was closer to $2,000 each. “Pricing is so close, it doesn’t make sense not to go to the new technology,” Kozubal said.
Refrigerated trailers themselves also are receiving upgrades. For example, Great Dane Trailers introduced its Classic Truckload reefer in August. Brandie Fuller, vice president of marketing, said two features distinguish the CTL: a thermoplastic interior lining called “ThermoGuard,” which is designed to minimize the thermal degradation that occurs with normal trailer use, and “CorroGuard,” a thermoplastic coating applied to trailer suspension and support gear to protect against corrosion and road abrasion.
Both upgrades are featured on the CTL and on Great Dane’s 48-foot Freedom platform trailer. Fuller said the two features work together to lower operational costs because “the cooling unit will run less, consume less fuel and require less maintenance” than other refrigerated trailers.
Elsewhere, Wabash National is making slight alterations to its existing “ArcticLite” refrigerated vans, spokeswoman Allison Hank said. The changes concern the trailer’s sidewalls, which are injected with computer-controlled foam for thermal efficiency. The ArcticLite is known for its thermal insulation capabilities and lightweight design.
Not all new refrigeration technology focuses on TRUs or on longhaul trailers, however.
Azure Dynamics Corp., Oak Park, Mich., and Kidron, which is based in Kidron, Ohio, introduced improvements to cold-plate technology in May. Traditionally, hollow metal plates in a straight truck’s ceiling and/or sides are frozen to a specific temperature when a brine solution cooled by a compressor is run through the plates. The plates are refrozen via plugging into a compressor after each shift. Plate weight generally limits the technology to straight trucks and shorthaul delivery routes.
Kidron spokesman John Sommer Jr. said Kidron’s new “Ultra-Temp” LEEP (low-emission electric power) Freeze system draws energy from a vehicle’s engine during normal driving and delivers it to the cold plates.
“The big savings is going to be fuel,” Sommers said. “With other systems, you have to run [the TRU] to get the unit cold again if you leave the door open during a delivery. With our system, the cold is still there.”
The cold plates also can be plugged into the electrical grid for off-duty charging. The system is available both on Kidron’s own straight-truck chassis and on any other original equipment manufacturer chassis that is power-takeoff ready. The PTO feature allows installation of a device that transfers power from the main engine to a non-vehicular device.
One other manufacturer making advanced cold-plate technology is Johnson Truck Bodies. The company’s ElectriMax system recharges cold plates for single, multi- and variable temperatures. Johnson Truck Bodies’ RouteMax system uses electricity to recharge plates to a single temperature.
