Benefits of Solar Power in Commercial Transport

If you own a commercial vehicle and you or your driver idles it to enjoy heating or cooling the cab, and running other accessories, you could be pumping money out the exhaust pipe. Idling a diesel engine burns about 2 litres per hour. If the driver runs the engine through a 10-hour break and another 4 hours during loading and unloading in a single day you burn 28 litres of diesel. At 5 days per week, it amounts to 56 litres and at £1.71 a litre (the average cost in the UK for January 2023) you spend around £240. Over a year you pump over £12 ‘000 straight out the exhaust stack, not to mention harming the environment, and giving other people a feeling of contempt over noise and pollution and commercial transport gets another black eye.

Be careful not to blame your drivers for all that idling if they do not have alternative options. That can cause bad feelings and may result in unnecessary driver turnover.

And all the while you are wearing out and shortening the life of an awfully expensive diesel engine. Can your business really afford that kind of expense? What if you own 10 vehicles? That is £120 ‘000 per year and 10 expensive refreshing of engines. Wouldn’t you rather spend much less and feel much better about being in business?

Solar Power Can Help

But we are not talking about replacing engine power for freight transportation. Diesel still works for now. What we are concerned with is extending the life of your vehicle assets by adapting solar power solutions thereby saving you considerable revenue and keeping your driver or drivers comfortable and happy in their work. After all, idling is noisy and shakes the cab, interfering with their sleep which we know can be dangerous to everyone on the road.

The North American Council for Freight Efficiency states that the right solar equipment can pay for itself in about 3 years’ time.