Trailer Colour

[Euro Fridge Man]

Does anyone know if a study has ever been done on the colour of a trailer v its ability to hold temperature?.
eg a black or blue trailer versus a white one.
With the huge surface area on the side walls of a trailer the heat gain must be massive!

[clivemtk]

more heat gain through the part nobody cares about the roof

[absolute-zero]

Does anyone know if a study has ever been done on the colour of a trailer v its ability to hold temperature?.
eg a black or blue trailer versus a white one.
With the huge surface area on the side walls of a trailer the heat gain must be massive!

Oh sure Thermo king actually has software that helps select the proper size unit in air flow and heating/cooling capacity with trailer skin color being one of the factors.

This really is a no brainer though, darker colors absord more heat than lighter colors. I am not sure how it is in europe, but here in the us 99% of the trailers are have white skins aside from company logos or decals. I do have a customer here that uses stainless steel corragated skins, they seem to work well also.

[Willis C]

This is the main reason Tesco have now changed their reefer trailers from dark blue to white in the UK.

[absolute-zero]

This is the main reason Tesco have now changed their reefer trailers from dark blue to white in the UK.

With hiking fuel costs; every little bit helps. I bet you will find optional door switches a marketable part as well. I have been selling allot of these along with optiset in order to crunch down on fuel savings.

[willis123]

Absolutely and it's not just the operators themselves that are feeling the squeeze. As a large proportion of the work over here is mobile, the cost of fuel for service vans is a real issue. This time last year it was circa £0.95ppl for diesel, it's now around the £1.25ppl mark and rising. You can't pass these costs on when the units are on contract.

[absolute-zero]

Absolutely and it's not just the operators themselves that are feeling the squeeze. As a large proportion of the work over here is mobile, the cost of fuel for service vans is a real issue. This time last year it was circa £0.95ppl for diesel, it's now around the £1.25ppl mark and rising. You can't pass these costs on when the units are on contract.

Nope I dont suppose you can. however, when the original contract is drawn, I would think that economic inflation over the life of the contract, is figured in there.

This probably doesnt help with rapid increasing fuel costs, over the past couple years as this seems to be the new crisis of the world.

[willis123]

Yep - a lot of contracts allow an annual increase in-line with RPI (Retail Price Index), this covers the basic rate of inflation only though which was 3.5% last year. With fuel increasing at 30%+ maybe now is the time to add a fuel charge escalator separate to inflation but this would need to be industry wide to be accepted.

The other alternative is that customers in the UK do what most other operators throughout Europe do and bring them to the workshop - some chance!!!

[absolute-zero]

Yep - a lot of contracts allow an annual increase in-line with RPI (Retail Price Index), this covers the basic rate of inflation only though which was 3.5% last year. With fuel increasing at 30%+ maybe now is the time to add a fuel charge escalator separate to inflation but this would need to be industry wide to be accepted.

The other alternative is that customers in the UK do what most other operators throughout Europe do and bring them to the workshop - some chance!!!

Makes sense to me, I dont think anyone expected to see oil costs climb the way they have in these recent past couple years. Now is the time to engineer alternative technologies and get off the need or dependency for oil and hydrocarbons. Perhaps Hydrogen power on demand will be the next generation and reduce or eliminate the need for oil. I go to bed everynight with a vision of a flux capacitor or similiar to the movie (Back to the Future).I have read some post here in RE where the Europeans really take it over the head horribly in these regards.It cant be easy for anyone in business these days that relies on oil and hydrocarbons to conduct day to day business. I hope you pull through this or can make the necessary adjustments that can keep you a profitable business at the same time keep competitive.Its a rough road for all of us in this business.

[Reeferjon]

Slightly off topic.

Another reason that people like Tesco has gone away from colour bodies is that they are less conspicuous, Blue or Orange sticks out like a sore thumb and in a market where everyone has to be ‘seen’ to be ‘green’, White looks ‘greener’ and makes it appear as though you have far less transport than in actuality.