Size matters for refrigerated trailers
Transport pressure group Transfrigoroute has called for the length of refrigerated trailers allowed to travel across Europe to be extended slightly to enable better temperature control within them and ensure safer food movements.
According to Transfrigoroute, if trailer lengths were increased by just 20cm, this would be enough to allow for better air circulation and consequently greater safety in the transport of food.
Alan Lines, owner of Lines Industries and a member of Transfrigoroute’s technical committee, said: “An increase of just 20cm in length and 10cm in height would make a world of difference to the correct air flow around pallets. It would enable operators to have the correct spacing at the front and rear of the trailer and give sufficient length and height for a multi-temperature bulkhead to operate at an optimum.”
Lines is optimistic about getting the proposals agreed since there is acceptance in principle by most EU Member States - including the UK - about the rationale for the changes. However, even if agreed, it is unlikely they would come into force for about two years.
Research carried out by Transfrigoroute has concluded that cold air is currently unable to properly circulate around pallets in a regular trailer leading to hot-spots in the load, which potentially poses a hazard to health. “We are not trying to increase payloads as some of the trials in Europe for longer trailers are; this is simply an issue of safety and a bid to help the cold chain network operate to the highest possible standards,” claimed Lines.
There are a number of trials of longer trailers taking place in Europe with trailers of up to 15m (1.5m longer than current lengths) being used in some member states such as Germany. However, countries such as France, Belgium and The Netherlands have objected to such long trailers, fearing that they present a hazard on roads and have banned their use.
Recent attempts by the freight industry to get acceptance of larger vehicles on Britain’s roads were rejected by the UK government. However, Lines is confident from comments made at a private meeting held last month that transport secretary Ruth Kelly is behind the 20cm extension proposals “in principle”
“We definitely do not advocate that the 33 pallet limit be increased and to prevent any malpractice we recommend that the internal dimension must not exceed 13,590mm,” said Lines. “We also recommend that the additional length of 200mm must not be split between refrigeration unit and body in order not to hinder new product development and to make multi-temperature vehicles with several bulkheads possible.”
Many trailers now have multi-compartments to transport both chilled and ambient products. These feature moveable bulkheads of about 10cm thickness which separate compartments. These tend to reduce the space available for pallets from 26 to 24 and restrict air flow.
Transfrigoroute has submitted its findings to the European Commission in the hope of getting acceptance of a standard new length of 13.8m across Europe and has a meeting planned for early September in Brussels where the EC’s response will be fed back to its members.
