Going green is no idle challenge

26 January 2022

Many hirers and end users are taking positive and intelligent steps towards lowering their carbon footprints, minimising fuel usage and reducing costs. However, there can be unintended consequences. 

For example, a large building contractor recently described how they introduced an initiative last year to reduce the amount of time that their hired telehandlers. dumpers and other diesel powered machines were left idling. 

Operators were asked to review their driving habits. Telematics data would then be analysed to assess the changes, calculate how much fuel had been saved and to determine the environmental benefits. 

Users really embraced the challenge – some rather too enthusiastically, switching off machines at virtually every opportunity. 

The problem was that the fuel-efficient Stage V engines were not getting hot enough to regenerate the DPFs (diesel particulate filters) on the machines and burn off the contaminants. The units were soon going into ‘limp’ mode and effectively shutting down. 

The upshot was that machines had to be parked up while they underwent a forced regeneration process on the filters, taking them out of productive action for some time. 

This is similar to the situation that can arise with DPFs on diesels cars that are only used for very short journeys and at low revs and shows another challenge on the route to net zero. 

So measures to lower carbon footprints require careful implementation.

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