Every year, transport and logistics company DSV transports millions of tonnes of goods across the roads of Europe in thousands of trailers.
In 2023, in its own workshops, and in collaboration with equipment service provider TIP Group, DSV will refurbish 1,100 trailers that it will continue to use on its European lanes rather than replace them with new ones.
“DSV has high ambitions for operating more sustainably. Realising those ambitions often involves high-level innovation and new technologies. But sometimes, we can achieve great value with solutions that are more straightforward. Refurbishing rather than replacing our trailers will enable us to save carbon while delivering services of a continued high quality to our customers,” says Søren Schmidt, CEO of DSV Road.
Typically, DSV uses a trailer for approximately five years before it returns it to the leasing company or manufacturer and leases a new trailer. By refurbishing a trailer after the first five years, DSV expects to add another full lifecycle of five years of use to each trailer.
Based on required input resources and the application of recognised emission conversion factors, TIP Group has calculated an 18.6 tonnes carbon footprint of a newly produced curtain-sider. Refurbishing a trailer entails significantly lower emissions.
The refurbishment of DSV’s 1,100 trailers includes the replacement of those parts of the trailers that are most subject to wear and tear, such as the brake discs, brake pads, airbags and side and roof curtains. Based on TIP Group’s calculations, refurbishment of a used curtain-sider emits an estimated 2.7 tonnes of CO2. This includes both materials, energy and heating used for the refurbishment.
The difference in emissions between a new and a refurbished trailer shows emissions savings of an estimated 16 tonnes per trailer and approximately 18,000 tonnes for the total 1,100 trailers, which will be refurbished in 2023.
“Refurbishing our trailers is a great example of how circular economy initiatives can bring us closer to realising our sustainability ambitions. With limited resources available globally, we must think smarter and more responsibly when it comes to the consumption of those resources,” says Søren Schmidt.
DSV will put the first refurbished trailers on the road at the end of January 2023 and will finish refurbishing the last of the initial 1,100 trailers before the end of December 2023.