Transporters pump about 2.66 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) exhaust fumes into the atmosphere for every litre of diesel used by between 250 000 to 300 000 trucks on South Africa’s roads, underscoring the urgency for a radical rethink of harmful emissions.
Considering that trucks burn their way through a litre of diesel for every 2.4 to 2.6 kilometres travelled, an alarming picture emerges of the sector’s contribution to CO2 pollution, says Charl Lensley, business-to-business sales director at Michelin.
Talking at a recent launch of the tyre manufacturer’s new total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) model, heralding a shift away from cost-per-kilometre (CPK) calculations, Lensley advanced a strong argument for using low-rolling-resistance (LRR) tyres to accomplish significant decarbonisation.
“But it’s going to take a major mind shift,” Lensley said.
He stressed that through the years, CPK thinking had become so entrenched that fleet managers found it hard to believe that LRR tyres could make a difference in the cost of one’s operations.
“Transporters think of their businesses in terms of components – fuel, tyres, driver salaries, buying a truck and paying for it. Everything is seen in isolation.”
What TCO proposed, through its white paper called A Fleet Manager’s Guide to Efficiency and Sustainability, was to dispense with silo thinking in favour of a more holistic approach, Lensley explained.
“When thinking of tyres, fleet managers generally don’t consider how something that makes up 5% of operational expenses can make such a big impact. What they don’t consider is rolling resistance.”
He said as much as 30% of a trucking company’s fuel expense was directly related to the types of tyres used and the resistance caused between trucks and the road.
Michelin was under no illusion that the mind shift from CPK to TCO would happen overnight, Lensley said.
“Transporters think of things like LRR tyres and ask: ‘Is it going to cost me more money?’ But fuel isn’t cheap.”
The longer-term benefits, he said, boiled down to “solving tomorrow's problems by burning less rubber and fuel today”.
Carbon tax regimes rolled out in the European Union to curb C02-heavy operations could also ultimately manifest in pollution-intense industries such as South Africa’s road freight sector.
By applying the proposed methodologies in Michelin’s TCO paper, such as equipping one’s fleet with LRR tyres, fuel consumption could be drastically driven down, Lensley said.
Alternatively, operators can continue with penny-wise-pound-foolish CPK methods, spending more on fuel consumption because of high-friction tyres.
“It’s important though that we start thinking of how we change the behaviour of fleet operators to start looking at their businesses differently.
“It’s possible to be more efficient, profitable and sustainable.
“Together we can reduce CO2 emissions.”
