Save Toll Charges with BlueTec
STRAELEN (A-n) Lambert and Jakob Brimmers apparently find it easy to justify why they have already equipped their current 35-vehicle fleet in the best possible way for the future with the latest environmental technology. The Heavy goods vehicles of Raeth Hauliers in Straelen, An der Bleiche 39 have been in use for some 6 years since their acquisition and have a regular annual mileage of 100,000 to 12,000 kilometres (on German motorways only).
Euro 5 Standard
Admittedly this could be met with vehicles without BlueTec. "Right, but the costs would be quite different", Lambert Brimmers replies immediately. Because this technology brings vehicles fitted with it up to Euro 5 standard even today as against the otherwise usual Pollutant Class 3, mileage-dependent toll charges on German motorways are dramatically reduced. Jakob Brimmers: "With our vehicles that amounts to an average toll charge saving of some 2,400 Euros a year." Jens Langner is always pleased to talk to customers who are considering the purchase of new heavy goods vehicles. That is part of his job - after alll he is the Head of Commercial Vehicle Sales at Herbrand. He prefers to explain the BlueTec technology offered by Mercedes-Benz, which even today makes commercial vehicles fit for future requirements. "Even the Euro 5 Emission Directive coming into effect from 2009 and whose super-strict conditions bring many other maufacturers almost to the point of despair, leaves owners of vehicles with BlueTec indifferent."
Feverish Endeavours
In the past heavy goods vehicle manufacturers have feverishly endeavoured to meet these strict conditions with internal engine solutions. Practice has meanwhile shown that this objective is unattainable. Langner: "For that reason our engineers have figured out another alternative." For the non-engineer it works approximately like this: The lorry carries with it an additional container with AdBlue, which is sprayed in small quantities into the exhaust gas. This additive, know as urea, then converts nitrous oxides in a chemical reaction in the catalytic converter. "The exhaust gases a vehicle line this then emits into the environment meet the Euro 5 standard even today", reports Langner. Meanwhile other heavy goods vehicle manufacturers too will join up to this new environmental technology, as in order to meet the Euro 5 standard given the present-day state of the art, there is apparently no alternative.
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