Displaying items by tag: Fleet

Nigeria: ABC Transport has expanded its trucking capacity with a new fleet of heavy-duty bulk cement carriers. This follows the company's introduction of compressed natural gas trucks to improve cement haulage for Lafarge Africa. The new vehicles will transport cement from Lafarge's plant to construction sites nationwide, increasing ABC Transport’s bulk cement delivery capacity to 150,000t/yr.

The company has also acquired a site near Lafarge’s Cross River cement plant to streamline truck maintenance and turnaround efficiency.

France: Heidelberg Materials has completed its divestment of its French cement transport business, Tratel, to multiple local players. Tratel controls 450 trucks and around 770 trailers across France. Groupe Garnier has taken it over in the north western and Île-de-France, e-b-trans in south eastern and south western France, Groupe DESERT in western France and T2GL in eastern France, while Heidelberg Materials France continues to manage order intake, chartering and dispatch activities. Heidelberg Materials says that the move advances its portfolio optimisation strategy, which involves increasing its focus on core businesses.

Mexico: Cemex has reached 1000 reduced-CO₂ trucks in operation across its global cement business. This includes trucks fuelled by renewable diesel and natural gas. These efforts have reduced its global transport CO₂ emissions by 5% since 2020, in line with the group’s commitment to a 30% reduction by 2030.

Chief executive officer Fernando González said “Our net-zero transition is supported by proven and readily-available lower-carbon technologies that guarantee that we meet our short and medium-term decarbonisation commitments. At the same time, we remain at the forefront of innovation and emerging transportation technologies so we can achieve our ultimate goal of becoming a net-zero CO₂ company by 2050.”

UK: Holcim subsidiary Aggregate Industries has installed Driver Status Monitoring Systems supplied by Spillard Vehicle Safety Systems in the cabins of its Cauldon cement plant truck fleet. The systems use cameras and AI software to detect signs of tiredness, as well as mobile phone use, lane deviation, not wearing a seatbelt and smoking. In the case of tiredness, this triggers an alarm which continues to sound until the vehicle comes to a stop.

Cement supply chain manager Matt Owen said “Health and safety is a massive priority for us as a company and the industry, so anything that can serve to continuously improve our approach to it is very welcome. Driver fatigue is always a potential issue across any business involved in transport and fleet, so we’re delighted to be utilising the latest technology with our partners to ensure that everyone gets safely home from work.”

Russia: Cemros is starting the commercial operation of its ‘Pilot’ vehicle monitoring system. The scheme is being rolled out as the main monitoring method at its plants following tests. It uses satellite navigation and wireless data transmission methods to track individual vehicles in the fleet in both real time and retrospectively. At present over 3500 vehicles are being monitored including the company’s own fleet and vehicles operated by contractors. Once the system is scaled up it will be able to track up to 6000 vehicles. Active testing of the system started in late 2022.

Nigeria: BUA Cement plans to use loans worth US$500m towards the construction of two new 3Mt/yr cement plants in Sokoto State. When operational, the new plants will increase the producer's installed capacity by 55% to 17Mt/yr. Local press has reported that BUA Cement plans to run both cement plants using solar power, and to produce cement using alternative fuel (AF). Additionally, the producer will use a portion of the funding to replace part of its diesel-fuelled cement truck fleet with new natural gas-fuelled models.

Of a total US$500m in financing secured by BUA Cement on 5 June 2023, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) lent US$161m (32%) and African Development Bank, Africa Finance Corporation and the German Investment Corporation jointly lent US$245m (49%), with the remainder advanced by institutional investors.

India: UltraTech Cement says that it has made a second deployment of GreenLine liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered cement trucks in its cement operations. Indo-Asian News Service has reported that the new trucks will operate from UltraTech Cement’s Pune cement terminal in Maharashtra. GreenLine says that its LNG trucks have 28% lower CO₂ emissions than ordinary cement trucks, equating to reductions of 24t/yr per truck for UltraTech Cement.

The cement producer’s associate vice president Tanmay Pradhan said “We are dedicated to creating a sustainable future, and we are fully committed to collaborating with our partners and stakeholders to achieve our goal of a cleaner environment. Our association with GreenLine is a step forward in our ongoing efforts to decrease emissions, enhance energy efficiency, and promote sustainability."

India: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) has successfully launched its new fleet of 35 liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fuelled trucks from its Murli cement plant in Maharashtra. The trucks are of two types, covering ranges of 50 - 600km, and will transport bagged cement and bulk raw materials. They have 28% lower CO₂ emissions than conventional diesel-powered trucks, and are thus able to eliminate 840t/yr of CO₂ emissions, while also reducing emissions of nitrous oxides (NO_x) by 59% and particulates by 91%, and eliminating emissions of sulphur oxides (SO_x).

Dalmia Cement (Bharat) says that its next move will be to launch a second fleet of 25 trucks from its Ariyalapur cement plant in Tamil Nadu. By April 2024, it plans to convert 10% of its 3000 truck-strong fleet to LNG fuel.

A spokesperson for the company said “Dalmia Cement has been following the business philosophy of Clean & Green is Profitable and Sustainable. Our overall CO₂ emissions have come down from 670kg/t to 467kg/t – one of the lowest globally – and we are focusing on realising our carbon negative goal by 2040. We are delighted to partner with GreenLine Logistics for further reduction of our Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions.”

Israel: Cemex subsidiary ReadyMix Industries has placed a new order with transport safety technology supplier SaverOne 2014. The ready-mix concrete producer ordered a further 25 mobile phone control units for its truck fleet. The units are cloud-enabled and run off a mobile app which blocks drivers from using phones when their vehicle is in motion. The smart system can detect when a truck is stopped and differentiate between driver and passenger, enabling access when needed. Users can integrate their fleet's units with existing logistics management systems.

ReadyMix Industries completed a successful trial of SaverOne 2014's system earlier in 2022.

US: Argos USA has invested US$40m in 200 new ready-mix concrete mixer trucks, as the first phase of a five-year fleet expansion and replacement plan. The company says that the vehicles have a useful life of 8 – 10 years, or 53,500m³. It expects to make its next truck purchases in early 2023.

Argos USA ready-mix president Richard Edwards said "With the acquisition of these new assets, we continue our dedication to delivering extraordinary solutions to customers, helping facilitate the progress and development of the cities and communities where we have a presence. Our new trucks have a capacity of around 7.5m³ of concrete, are approximately 15% more fuel efficient than our previous trucks, and result in lower atmospheric emissions. They are also vehicles with the latest safety equipment, to continue ensuring the safety of our employees and everyone we share the road with daily."