Industrial Automation Magazine India

The new 13-litre Scania 560 S has incredible fuel efficiency

Published on : Monday 24-01-2022

The fuel consumption levels of the new 13-litre Scania 560 S thats being tested by Herbert Ulfhielm Fjarrtransport are really low.

January 22, 2022 – With its incredible fuel efficiency and superior driveability, the new 13-litre Scania 560 S truck tested by Herbert Ulfhielm Fjärrtransport could be the answer to hard-pressed hauliers’ prayers. With potential fleet fuel cost savings of €30,000 a year, the Swedish haulage company’s co-owner and field test driver certainly think so.

 
The fuel consumption levels of the new 13-litre Scania 560 S that’s being tested by Herbert Ulfhielm Fjärrtransport are really low. So low compared with other trucks that, at first look, the driver Jerry Olofsson and the company’s co-owner Lars Åström thought they’d made a mistake. But they were in for an amazing surprise.

 
“You are used to trucks where if you get under 40 litres per 100 kilometres, then you are quite happy. But during the latest trips now, I’ve sometimes been below 34 or even 33 litres –and that’s with the truck loaded with heavy timber products. The first time I checked it and counted it myself, I thought: ‘I must have forgotten to log some refuelling’,” says Jerry, who’sbeen driving trucks for 23 years; the past ten with Ulfhielm.

 
Twice a week, this friendly, chatty driver makes the 7.5 hour, 500-kilometre drive over the mountains from the Swedish city of Skellefteå to the Norwegian port of Bodø, hauling timber products. The next day, he heads back to Sweden, loaded with deliveries of waste products for use in district heating systems, as well as wood chips and tyres. The truck is his ‘office’ and achieving good fuel economy is always an important consideration in his work.

 
“During the winter, the truck always uses a little more when the truck is idling because it’s much colder and the truck is heavier,” he adds.

 
“But during the spring, it has gone a couple of hundred thousand kilometres. We started to notice that the fuel figures are low, so I called my boss Lars and asked him if he’d checked it! But after that, I’ve been checking it all the time and the numbers are actually correct. And it’s fun! Because I’ve not changed my driving style; I have just been driving as I usually do.”

 
Jerry’s boss, Lars Åström, has been driving trucks since 1980. Lars started out with Ulfhielm back in 1984, when it was run by his uncle, Herbert Ulfhielm. He’s driven millions of kilometres since then, as well as c-owned the Skellefteå-based company for the past 11 years With that experience, it’s fair to say that this laconic and laidback Norrlander has just about seen it all. But even Lars raised his eyebrows at the fuel consumption figures that Jerry was reporting.