Trans-o-flex, the German express delivery company, has extended its fleet ofenvironmentally-friendly vehicles by increasing the number of delivery vans running on natural gas
to 105. That means the company has now exceeded the goal it set itself of having at least 100 suchvans in use by year-end.Most recently, Boostrans GmbH, the trans-o-flex transport partner in Dortmund and Cologne,have switched almost their entire fleet to natural gas with the acquisition of 34 vehicles. “We’redoing our bit to protect the environment and help make the trans-o-flex fleet one of the greenestin the market,” explains Mohamed Bouaoud, Managing Director of Boostrans.
All the natural gas vans in use in the trans-o-flex network meet the EEV standard. EEV standsfor Enhanced Environmentally Friendly Vehicle and represents the highest European environmentalstandard, even better than Euro 5. The natural gas vehicles emit practically no particulates and nonitrogen oxides, meaning that they can even operate when environmental driving restrictions are inforce. This will still be the case after the introduction in 2010 of even more stringent airpollution restriction limits. “Thanks to the low rate of oil tax on natural gas, guaranteed by lawuntil 2018, we even get a good deal on the day-to-day running costs,” stressed Bouaoud.
“We are aware of our special responsibility as the leading logistics operator in the healthindustry. The natural gas vehicles are one element in the comprehensive trans-o-flex environmentalprogramme, which among other things requires particulate filters for all new diesel-powered carsand vans,” says Wolfgang Weber, head of Operations at trans-o-flex.
Trans-o-flex is also a partner of the German Environment Ministry in the project “On the safeside on the last mile.” The project is examining selected fleets to discover if vehicles whichfulfil high environmental standards are also economic to operate in real-life conditions. Theresult so far: the natural gas vans have fully met the expectations placed on them and make clean,safe and quiet deliveries possible at costs which in the medium to long term are lower than thoseof the diesel vehicles they have replaced.
