December 7, 2021. HerrCargo GmbH will use five new 410 HP Scania R 410 trucks and in-line 6-cylinder engines powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the regular services it operates for NOX NachtExpress GmbH.
The German company has a total of 27 tractor units and around 60 trailers in its vehicle fleet, controlled by 50 drivers. The main focus is transportation for suppliers and manufacturers in the automotive industry. Scania’s after-sales division also uses NOX NachtExpress and therefore HerrCargo for its spare parts logistics, the fleet of which is mainly made up of trucks from the Swedish manufacturer.
The LNG project is a joint initiative of Alexander Kluxen, NOX NachtExpress Director of German Operations, and Marco Herr, Managing Partner of HerrCargo GmbH. Moving away from classic combustion engines and towards sustainability, Herr sees liquefied natural gas propulsion as an opportunity for the future.
The five new vehicles are intended for fixed tours with regular crews, from the central NOX warehouse in Eifeltor, Cologne, to the south and southwest: Stuttgart, Ulm, Munich, Bühl and Groß-Gerau. The units have a maximum torque of 2,000 Nm and a range of up to 1,100 kilometers on a level road.
An adequate infrastructure with a network of available filling stations was crucial to make this initiative possible. The concrete planning was only possible after ensuring that LNG facilities would be built in key centers, such as Mannheim or Karlsruhe.
Also, another important factor was state funding for alternative propellants, which allowed adding LNG trucks to its fleet, according to Herr. “Funding must continue to be maintained for companies that use these technologies and want to contribute to this transition.”
