Over the last few years, Stagefreight has worked to improve their energy efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint. To do this, we’ve taken a close look at the backbone of our business—our trucks, and the people who drive them! In this article we’ll go through the nuts and bolts of our green initiative, as well as our successes and our plans for the future.
Where the eco-friendly stage trucking fleet started
Stagefreight’s green fleet started with our Euro 6 cab units; we’ve gone from a single Euro 6 truck to several in the last three years. These units are incredibly fuel efficient, meeting the following emissions standards:
CO: 0.50g/km
HC + NOx: 0.17g/km
NOx: 0.08g/km
PM: 0.005g/km
PN [#/km]: 6.0×10 ^11/km
The Stagefreight trucking fleet green initiative
To make a dramatic reduction in our carbon emissions, we set out to fill our entire fleet with Euro 6 cab units. Today, our entire fleet consists of Mercedes-Benz Actros 1845 and Renault T High cab units.
Mercedes-Benz Actros 1845 fleet
Our Mercedes Actros 184 cab units come with Mercedes PowerShift 3 automated gearboxes, and reduce fuel consumption by up to 1.5% as standard. They are up to two miles per gallon ahead of their competitors.
Actros units come with exhaust gas recirculation that results in less nitrogen oxide—and fewer particulates—being produced during combustion. Each unit comes with a diesel particulate filter which almost entirely prevents particulate emissions, as well as an optimised volume control unit that injects AdBlue® into the exhaust gas flow.
Our Stagefreight trucks are 13L at 330kw. We also decided to add the Active Brake Assist 4 autonomous technology, which was an optional extra. We felt it was essential for both our Health and Safety policy, as well as our larger environmental plans.
Renault T High fleet
In early 2019, we invested in new Renault T High trucks. Each one offers fuel savings of up to 3%, and comes with Optivision, a GPS-driven cruise control. This give drivers an accurate picture of the road topography and other journey information, and make eco-friendly driving much easier. The trucks also won the 2019 Export Freight Fleet Truck of the Year Award, making them a fine addition to our fleet.
However, we didn’t stop at our cab units. Our green initiative took a much broader approach, including our trailers and our team’s overall job approach.
Lightweight trailers
Our trailers are 8% lighter than the standard trailer model. However, each one has the same 44 tonne capacity of a standard trailer. We also brake-test each trailer on our rolling road, every three months as a minimum.
The whole team’s green commitment
As part of our overall green initiative we train all of our drivers to drive in a fuel-efficient, eco-friendly manner. Each driver must complete this training before going out on the road, and they receive a certificate to show their efficiency in this driving method.
In addition, all of our team have signed the company’s “no engine idling” policy. This means that all our drivers switch off their engines within three minutes of their engine being idle. When we combine this with our eco-friendly driver training, this helps to reinforce our team’s eco-conscious mindset.
2019’s best eco-friendly fleet of the year
Our strategic investment and training resulted in a big win for our company! We received the Best Eco-Friendly Fleet of the Year award for 2019 from SME News. You can read more about our win in our earlier article on the subject.
What’s next for this eco-friendly stage trucking fleet?
We’re staying committed to our green initiative, but we’re also going to look for other ways we can reduce our environmental impact. In the short term, we’ll continue training our drivers in eco-friendly practices. We’ll be adding more urban trailers to our fleet, which are lighter and more suitable for city traffic. We’ll also consider adding more cab units to our fleet, provided they meet or exceed the standards of our current ones.
We’re also thinking of expanding our premises. We’ll be opening an additional warehouse in Leeds in the future, and we’ll be recruiting even more drivers to help us build upon our current success!
As you can see, Stagefreight is taking its environmental commitments very seriously, thanks to the eco-friendly stage trucking fleet and company-wide green initiative. We’re making improvements in every aspect of our business, but we’re always keen to see what else we can change going forward. By working with us on your next event, you’ll be able to make major reductions in your own carbon footprint as well.
If you’d like to learn more about what we do, you can read our About Us and Our Policies sections for more information. You can also reach us by phone on 0113 797 898.