Spedition van Mark, based in Ostfriesland, operates seven Iveco S-Way 500 LNG trucks fuelled with Bio-LNG, according to Eurotransport TV. The vehicles run in a two-shift system and can reach up to 300,000 km a year.
Reiner van Mark, the company’s owner, told Eurotransport TV that he had secured long-term Bio-LNG contracts months earlier. As a result, he said the company is currently paying well below €1 per kg of Bio-LNG.
He put the current savings at around €3,500 per truck per month. Across seven vehicles, that would imply a potential monthly saving of around €24,500, based on his stated figure.
Fuel, tolls and mileage drive the savings
According to the Eurotransport TV report, he compared around 25 kg of Bio-LNG per 100 km with around 28 litres of diesel on the same route. He also referred to a toll saving of 1.8 cents per kilometre, provided the vehicle is bought in the right configuration for toll classification.
Van Mark also pointed to Iveco’s maintenance contracts of up to one million kilometres, which he said give the company predictable monthly costs. At the current utilisation rate, the trucks reach roughly one million kilometres after about four years.
The Eurotransport TV report also notes that LNG refuelling requires protective equipment because of the very low temperature of the fuel, around minus 150°C. Van Mark said driver acceptance improved after the company equipped the LNG trucks more luxuriously than its diesel vehicles.
One driver interviewed in the report said he had initially been sceptical about gas-powered trucks and the refuelling process, but had since been convinced by the vehicle.
Meyer Logistik orders 100 LNG trucks
The van Mark case comes as another German food logistics operator is reportedly making a much larger LNG move: Meyer Logistik has reportedly ordered 100 LNG tractor units for its fresh food logistics fleet. The company specialises in temperature-controlled distribution for food retailers and says on its own website that it runs around 1,300 vehicles in daily operation.
The reported order would not be Meyer Logistik’s first move into alternative drivetrains. The company says it has previously used electric heavy-duty trucks, while trade publication Frische Logistik reported that Meyer began using CNG vehicles in 2009, hybrid trucks in 2010 and bought 20 LNG trucks in 2017.
That makes the 100-truck order less of a one-off experiment and more of an expansion of a long-running alternative-fuel strategy in temperature-controlled distribution.
