CHICAGO — Bryan Henke, marketing manager for Freightliner Custom Chassis, knows that his company’s delivery vehicles aren’t the least expensive on the market.
Unfortunately, he sees many fleet buyers in the commercial laundry industry focusing on cost and purchasing cheaper vehicles.
“It’s always been attractive to try to do your job in a panel van, cargo van, or in a cutaway box truck,” Henke says. “They appear attractive initially to someone in the laundry industry. The buyer just sees that price and goes, ‘I need to move this stuff to here, and I don’t really understand the efficiencies of a walk-in van, I’m just looking for the lowest price.’”
That’s why panel vans and box trucks are so prevalent in the laundry industry. The problem with that, according to Henke, is that the cheaper vehicles aren’t made to handle laundry loads.
“They’re very inexpensive, but light-duty,” says Henke. “We’re not the cheapest on the market because our vehicles have been designed for those functions.”
When a laundry purchases vehicles that have been designed for the loads, the miles, and the needs of the driver, efficiencies go up and costs come down.
PAYLOAD
Kenn Klein, marketing manager for Morgan Olson, knows how important it is to address the load capacity of laundry delivery vehicles. From a gross vehicle weight ratings (GVWR) standpoint, linens are not light. To maximize payload, linen industry vans and trucks need heavier, higher payload chassis. That capacity can have a major impact on a laundry’s delivery capabilities. Klein says that Morgan Olson looks for ways for launderers to put more product on a truck. The effect is that the facility can reach farther, to more customers, before having to return to the plant.
“Whatever size route they have or whatever the laundry company desires, we can do,” adds Brian Caudell, OEM account manager for Freightliner. “We can build chassis that will accommodate a 14-foot body up to a 30-foot body.”
In terms of GVWR, Caudell says his company’s chassis can accommodate from 14,990 pounds all the way up to 30,000 pounds. In terms of making vehicles that handle heavier loads, he says that providing a reliable, durable product is how vehicles can make the uniform and linen industry more efficient.
“Outside of the uniform and linen industry, one of our largest customers, UPS, buys our custom chassis,” he says. “They bought over 4,000 of them last year, and they expect to get 20 to 25 years out of those vehicles.”
Caudell notes that his company is making chassis for trucks and many times competing with automotive-type delivery vehicles. The use that laundries get out of those vehicles, he asserts, is not as long, is not as durable, is not as reliable as a custom chassis.
“All the peripheral cost doesn’t get taken into consideration,” Caudell says. “We’re looking at the fleet itself as how often do you want to maintain the vehicle, if you want to extend your maintenance intervals, we’ve got those options available on our chassis.”
FUEL EFFICIENCY
John McNichols, product director for Crosspoint Kinetics, a company that makes commercial vehicle products that capture, conserve and reuse energy, sees laundry delivery vehicles becoming more effective and efficient, especially in an urban environment.
“For a laundry in an urban setting, the stop-start environment is hard on fuel efficiency,” he says.
Crosspoint Kinetics is in a partnership with Morgan Olson, working on hybrid systems for laundry vehicles. McNichols says the system saves energy as the vehicle slows down and then uses the stored energy for acceleration.
“This energy usage has the effect of reducing emissions,” he says.
McNichols says that more and more metropolitan areas are paying attention to low-emission standards. Many enforce idle-free zones so that textile delivery trucks engines cannot continue to run while the driver is moving linens in and out of the vehicle.
McNichols notes that the federal government’s next-level emission standards will go into effect this month.
Caudell says that Freightliner is also working on fuel-efficient options.
“What we build right now for the walk-in vans, we build a diesel. We are the only diesel engine manufacturer of chassis in the industry,” he says. “We’ve also built that in a gasoline version as well that can be used as gasoline or can be converted to propane if they wanted to use that fuel source, which is very affordable. It cuts the cost down for the uniform and linen industry. We’ve built other types of vehicles over the years, hybrid electric vehicles, hydraulic hybrid.”
Check back Tuesday for the conclusion, with thoughts on maneuverability, driver aids and making the decision.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].