Engineering the future

Peter Jackson reports on this year’s IRTE Conference, which featured presentations and discussions from a broad spectrum of industry experts – and gave attendees a sneak peek at where the industry is heading

The Institute of Road Transport Engineers’ annual conference returned last week, with Leicester’s Marriott hotel welcoming hundreds of delegates to enjoy presentations from a variety of well-known industry figures.

Compared to previous years’ events, the 2018 conference had more of a bus focus; the subjects of retrofits, electric buses and environmental concerns as a whole were recurring themes throughout the day. [wlm_nonmember][…]

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Although not specifically aimed at buses, Director of Sustainability at UPS, Peter Harris, set the tone for the day by discussing emissions and environmental issues – a topic which is affecting transport across the board.

“Diesel doesn’t have a good name today,” he said. “We’ve had headlines from the media about it which we need to contend with.”

After explaining that, by 2020, UPS is aiming for 25% of the vehicles it purchases to be alternative-fuelled, Peter said: “Business as usual is no longer good enough – the direction of travel is very clear. Tackling emissions is today’s problem, not tomorrow’s.” He also stressed the importance of remaining positive and tackling environmental issues together as an industry, instead of “fighting the issues and becoming defensive and negative.”

Clean air zones are here to stay 

Next to take to the stage was Francis Robson, Technical Specialist of Intelligent Mobility at independent low-carbon vehicle consultancy firm Cenex.

Entitled ‘Clean air zones: the thin end of a zero-emission vehicle wedge’, Francis’ presentation explained the ins and outs of clean air zones (CAZ), giving a comprehensive run-down of the different variations of zones being implemented in cities across the UK. Plans were submitted for a CAZ in both Birmingham and Leeds on 15 September, explained Francis.

As we found out back in July, Nottingham dropped its plans for a CAZ as a result of actions it had already taken to reduce emissions – including retrofitting 180 Nottingham City Transport buses – which had brought it in-line with Government requirements.

He also mentioned that Derby and Southampton were yet to put in plans for a CAZ, as they were still consulting on which direction to go in.

However, Francis suggested that Southampton was considering a Class B zone similar to Leeds – which would affect buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles and HGVs – whereas Derby was considering implementing similar measures to Northampton to eliminate the need for a CAZ in the city.

“Current standards for CAZs – meaning Euro VI for buses and coaches – will remain in place until 2025,” said Francis.

“A timetable relating to how these standards will be updated will be available later this year; this is already the first hint that CAZ regulations aren’t going to stand still. This isn’t the end of a long battle, where the Government is finally doing something to tackle emissions, it’s just the start – and it’s going to get a lot more stringent in the future.”

Francis explained that the main drivers behind the introduction of CAZs are both emissions standards (like Euro VI) and air quality guidelines like those set out by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“2020 is going to be a big year,” he continued. “The clean air zones will have to come into effect by 1 January, but the WHO is also updating its air quality guidelines. So, ironically, the year that we actually impose all these restrictions to ensure cities meet the previous 40 µg/m3 limit, the guidelines will get stricter. It won’t be law at first, but I imagine it will do in future.”

Francis also highlighted that the Mayor of London is introducing the first zero emissions zones in the city in 2020, making it a landmark year in terms of environmental concerns.
One figure of note related to particulate matter pollution. This is the WHO’s ‘benchmark yardstick’, said Francis, and is something the Government is planning to crack down on in its 2019 Clean Air Strategy. Currently, our average annual limit for particulate matter in cities is 25 µg/m3, but the WHO argues 10 µg/m3 should be the limit – putting further pressure on manufacturers.

Concluding his speech, Francis said: “Not only is reducing emissions something we have to do, it is something we should be choosing to do.”

Proving electric’s potential
Continuing on the environmental theme – this time with a specific focus on buses – Go-Ahead London’s Engineering Director Richard Harrington gave a presentation on how the operator implemented its electric buses, explaining the history behind the BYD-ADL partnership.

“When the mayor changes in London, quite often the policy changes,” said Richard, explaining the reasoning behind Go-Ahead’s adoption of electric buses.

“We had the artics come in, then Boris appeared and called them ‘gas-guzzling monsters’ and took them out, and now Mr Khan’s come in and doesn’t like Boris’ legacy.

“It’s quite frustrating to try and follow the technical path when you’ve got all these changes coming in.

“We knew there’d be electric buses at some point, so in 2011 we started talking to Transport for London (TfL), and explained that – if we wanted to get electric buses into London – we’d have to start trialling them. We’ve got to see what these vehicles can do.”

The Waterloo garage was selected to trial the buses as its two routes – the 507 and 521 – both would run through the proposed Ultra-Low Emission Zone which was being discussed at the time, and the contract for these routes would expire in 2016, in time for the zone’s introduction.

Despite electric working well for Go-Ahead London, Richard stressed that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution for meeting emissions targets. “There is no ‘one size fits all’ to conquer what we’re trying to achieve here. There is electric with different charging options – like pantograph charging – there’s fuel cell and there’s Euro VI hybrid. There is no one answer. We need all of this technology to get us where we need to go.

“But for us, we looked at what was most achievable and decided to go down the route of plug-and-play electric charging points. We spoke to three or four manufacturers about doing the trial, and went to BYD’s Shenzhen plant to see what they were all about.”

Richard also shared, in a light-hearted way, his experience of dealing with the manufacturer’s engineers over in China. The language barrier proved to be a challenge during the process, with the bus which turned up not meeting the TfL requirements he and his team had outlined.

“In August 2013, the first bus came over and guess what? The destination blind was the wrong size, they didn’t listen! The door aperture was illegal, and the hand rails were in the wrong place,” he recalled, emphasising that the process involved a steep learning curve on both sides of the partnership.

Richard also made an interesting point regarding drivers: “It’s important to ensure your drivers know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. They also need to be trained well; there’s a specific style of driving needed for electric vehicles.

“The braking was a concern. Once you take your foot off the accelerator, you get regeneration from the battery, so it feels like the bus is coming to stop. It doesn’t actually come to a stop, but your mind thinks you’re covering the brake because it’s slowing down. In fact, your foot is actually still hovering over the accelerator, so you could press what you think is the brake and end up accelerating into the vehicle in front.”

Although the drivetrain performed very well during the trial, the body was still lacking in some areas, Richard told the audience.

After talking to a handful of other manufacturers – and trialling an Irizar i2e electric bus – the BYD-ADL partnership came about.

“I spoke to BYD and said, ‘you need to find yourself a bodybuilder.’ They, understandably, got a bit upset with me, but a couple of weeks later they stopped sulking and told us they’d joined up with ADL.”

Impressively, despite all of the work which was needed to build the electric infrastructure at the Waterloo garage, Richard said that it managed to maintain 99.8% of its mileage with diesel vehicles during the process.

The heartbeat of transport
Following on from Richard’s speech, Arthur Whiteside, Managing Director UK Sales at ADL told his side of the story.

When asked about the biggest technical challenge the partnership faced, he replied: “The biggest technical challenge was compatibility; making sure BYD’s technology and our body would integrate together was a big challenge.

“Our engineers worked closely with BYD’s, and a lot of time and effort went into understanding each other’s tech and finding the appropriate solutions.

“When Richard first confirmed the order with us and BYD jointly, he put a 12-month deadline on it. Our engineers were apoplectic – they tend to think in terms of years for projects like this! Richard said, ‘if you can’t do it, I’ll find someone who can. So, it was quite a feat to get it done.”

Frank Thorpe, Country Manager at BYD (UK) also gave a presentation, explaining how he saw engineering as the ‘heartbeat of any transport operation.’ He also revealed to delegates that electric coaches were very much on BYD’s radar: “Coaches have different challenges, but they’re not insurmountable. It’s something we’ll be looking at during 2019.”

Retrofits or repowering?
The next speaker was Lars Tinggaard Johannesen, Product Line Manager of ASDS Retrofit at Amminex.

Lars explained to the conference how the company’s Ammonia Storage and Delivery System (ASDS) works, replacing the AdBlue system. ASDS relies on storing ammonia as a ‘solid-form salt material’, a process made possible by a material it calls AdAmmine.

As explained in Lars’ presentation, ASDS begins to reduce NOx levels at exhaust temperatures of 140°C while AdBlue systems require 200°C before they start to do their thing.

As a result of this increased efficiency, tests on a Volvo B9 in London have shown the system can reduce NOx levels by 99% at exhaust temperatures of 200°C, or 90% at 175°C.

The firm recently retrofitted around 250 vehicles for London operator Metroline (including Volvo B9s, ADL Enviro200s, Enviro400s and Enviro400Hs), and Lars reported that the overall reduction rate of NOx it had seen so far on its vehicles was 91%.

Another option on the table for operators looking to reduce the emissions of their fleet – without switching to alternative fuels – is repowering.

Providing an insight into this market was Richard Hudson, Principal Engineer at Millbrook Special Vehicles and Andy Brooks, Business Development Director at the company. The pair discussed their own bus repower project, converting a 200,000-mile Euro V ADL Enviro400.

Explained Andrew: “We updated to Euro VI standards, and replaced the ZF gearbox with the latest variant with stop-start technology. We’ve also electrified the cooling pack, amongst other things.”

The bus is currently undergoing testing at the Millbrook Proving Ground, where Millbrook Special Vehicles is based – although the two companies are independent of each other.

“When it comes to durability testing, we run an almost identical schedule to what a new bus goes through to prove its longevity. We use the hill route for mileage accumulation, things like twist humps and Belgian pave and we also simulate kerb strikes and things of that nature. This bus is about two-thirds of the way through durability testing and, touch wood, there have been no major issues so far.”

Regulatory debate 

After lunch, the conference split off into two streams: regulatory and technology. Delegates could choose between a discussion of the Earned Recognition scheme on the former stream, or a predictive maintenance seminar on the latter.

Opting for the regulatory stream, I was introduced to a panel of four experts on the DVSA’s initiative: Dave Rowlands, Technical Services Director at Wincanton; Ian Luckett, Director at Lucketts Travel; Keith Gray, General Manager – Training, Audits and Standards at the Freight Transport Association (FTA); and Tim Griffiths, Operations Director at r2c Online.

Kicking off the discussion was Dave Rowlands, whose company specialises in logistics management.

“It is a great opportunity to change the way responsible operators are dealt with by authorities,” he said. “It’s far more of a business relationship instead of a policing relationship; I think it’s excellent for smaller operators, and I believe it’s easier for them to gain Earned Recognition.

“The tachograph and tracking side was a piece of cake. You’re all doing it now, so you can tick that box. But maintenance is a pain in the half-shaft,” he joked. “That is really where the grief sits.

“But the bigger issue for me is what we get back. We have earned that recognition, but we’re not recognised for it. I want our own technicians to be able to do MOT testing on Earned Recognition vehicles –
what’s the point of having Earned Recognition without some major benefit. I also want priority for MOT bookings – something back for our efforts. Why should we not get something back from the services DVSA provide?”

Ian Luckett took to the stage next, immediately saying: “Dave has said pretty much everything I would have said. I can genuinely see the benefit – but it’s not there yet, is it? The premise of it is really good, but we still get vehicles stopped. I believe there was something like 138 stops in the first three months of the trial, of which 38 of them weren’t actually released immediately. So there were some unhappy bunnies out there. But it does demonstrate the intent of the business, and it’s made us introduce some better business processes, which has made us a better business overall.”

To finish off the day’s coach and bus-related presentations, Traffic Commissioner for Wales Nick Jones gave a presentation on his experiences as the first full-time TC for Wales, a role he’s held since 2016.

“When I was first appointed, I complained quite a bit that there’s a very different culture in Wales – some of the laws relating to PSVs, especially school transport, are very different,” he said.

Although explaining there are still some significant issues in Wales, Nick said: “The Welsh Government has agreed to provide 100% of my funding. That’s generous of the Government, and clearly they see compliance as a priority.”

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