Swedish haulier Daniel Karlsson’s field test of a Scania Super powertrain makes him confident he’s found a truck that blends sustainability with money-saving fuel efficiency for the years ahead.
It’s raining cats and dogs at the yard of Daniel Karlsson Transport in Örebro, mid-Sweden, as a 460 R truck, equipped with the new Super powertrain, waits to be loaded with piece goods such as textiles and bags of garden soil for the regular journey west to Gothenburg. But the weather on this Wednesday in late May is not dampening the enthusiasm for what, so far, has been a highly productive field test.
DK Transport received the truck in December 2020, and since then the vehicle’s new 13-litre engine has been propelling it about 10,000 kilometres per month on this key route in the company’s standing roster of transports around the central belt of Sweden.
It’s actually the second time that owner Daniel Karlsson has been involved in a Scania field test, and he’s delighted to have been asked to participate again.
“It’s an honour to be part of the development of a new Scania,” he says, sitting in his office on site, on the outskirts of the city.
Karlsson’s a long-time Scania customer, and the new powertrain’s efficiency and reliability have only strengthened his loyalty. He started his company at the turn of the millennium, and when it came to choosing his first truck in 1999, there was no doubt what it would be.
“My dad had his own haulage business, so I grew up with trucks, and especially Scania trucks, because he was and is a big Scania fan. When it came to getting my own first truck, I bought a Scania 142 from my brother because I knew it was safe and reliable,” he says.
Nowadays, Karlsson has 17 Scania trucks in his fleet, and 20 drivers. He cites Scania trucks’ reliability and total cost of operation as their most consistent attributes, but one of the reasons he is so happy to be testing the new truck is the powertrain’s sustainability.
“Beforehand, when I considered my expectations of this field test, the fuel consumption was very important for me. Fuel is always such a high cost, so if you can lower that cost through lower fuel consumption, then that is not the biggest part of the investment. And the tests have shown that the fuel consumption is very stable, with an excellent figure of 35 litres per 100 kilometres, so it confirms what I already know about Scania,” he explains.
“But then I was a little surprised when they came to me and asked me to drive on biodiesel, as I thought that was going away from the market a little bit. However, our larger customers, such as ICA, DHL and Marbodal, are asking more and more for biodiesel now because, especially over the past year or so, their customers are asking them about the sustainability of their transport solutions. So now I see that it’s the right move from Scania to progress that development for biodiesel as a stepping stone to electrification.”
In fact, the 460 R is being driven on biodiesel made from rapeseed oil, which grows in golden abundance in the fields of central Sweden. Daniel Karlsson is no stranger to this fuel. “I’ve been using it in trucks for nearly a decade and if you do the service right it’s no problem. The rapeseed oil has also become a lot better over the years,” he says.
Ultimately, the haulier has a few simple sustainability goals.
“We should be driving on the best available fuel for the environment – biodiesel – and try to only have Euro 6 trucks. Then, of course, when I work with the fuel consumption, that’s another good thing for the environment – because the lower the fuel consumption, the lower the CO2 emissions. We’re future-proofing the business by responding to the demand for sustainability,” says Karlsson.
