Franconian freight forwarder Pflaum Logistik has taken delivery of five new rigid trucks running on liquified natural gas (LNG), fitted with engineless Carrier Transicold Iceland temperature-controlled units, in a move that significantly improves the sustainability of the company’s commercial vehicle fleet.
The undermount mono-temperature Iceland units are each mounted to 26-tonne Scania rigid trucks running on LNG. In the coming months, 15 additional trucks will be added, joining a commercial vehicle fleet of nearly 1,000 vehicles, of which 220 are temperature-controlled and 160 of them being Carrier-cooled. The new assets will be used to deliver chilled or frozen food to customers across Germany.
“We have been specifying Carrier units for our fleet since 2015, and the Iceland unit has rapidly become the system of choice for our rigid trucks,” said Dieter Steinsdörfer, Master Refrigeration Engineer, Pflaum Logistik. “As they don’t use a standalone engine, the units help us lower fuel consumption and reduce emissions, while also being significantly quieter – which is very important for our urban deliveries, especially at night.”
The Iceland units run on power derived directly from the truck’s LNG engine, thanks to Carrier Transicold’s ECO-DRIVE™ power module. This unit uses a hydraulic pump connected to the truck’s engine power take-off that drives a generator delivering electrical power capable of providing 100% refrigeration capacity, even at standard idle speed. The unit also boasts rapid temperature pull-down capability and operates at a PIEK-compliant level below 60 dB(A). The low noise level is an important factor for Pflaum as LNG vehicles can be on the road around the clock.
The Pflaum Group workshop – a Scania service partner – manages the installation and maintenance of the Iceland units. The installation and fitting of the ECO-DRIVE modules and Iceland underfloor units has long been routine for Steinsdörfer’s workshop team, even on the LNG vehicles. “On the long three-axle chassis, this is no problem in terms of installation space, even with two LNG tanks on the left and right.” Although the LNG Scania is used as a single-chamber vehicle mainly in the fresh food sector, the superstructures and Iceland units also allow deep-freeze transports.
Carrier Transicold’s Iceland units provide an energy-efficient, environmentally responsible solution supporting Carrier’s goal of reducing its customers’ carbon footprint by one gigaton as part of its 2030 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals.
