“We have 19 LSTs currently running, saving at least 150,000 road miles and 198 tonnes of CO2 per year, when compared to using standard length curtainsiders. When the opportunity came to grow the LST fleet further, we seized it with both hands,” says Naiem Ashraf, operations director for the Northampton-based operator.
“We’re taking these next five longer trailers speculatively, but we expect to deploy them on new contracts quickly,” he adds. “We know that with LSTs we can start saving money for a customer from day one, and with a finite number of 15.65m trailers in the market, they are a real asset,” he adds.
Acumen has been involved in the Department for Transport’s LST trial from the start in 2012, using the trailers across multiple contracts with high load volumes.
For one customer alone, Acumen now runs between eight and nine fewer trips per week into plants in Burton, Halewood and Sunderland. This reduces fuel consumption and traffic congestion, plus supports its customer’s sustainability strategy.
Acumen says it has secured contract extensions directly on the back of the savings it has delivered using the trailers.
The DfT’s trial began in January 2012 with an initial allocation of 1,800 permits. In 2017, the government agreed to increase the number of LSTs by an additional 1,000 and to extend the trial by five years, until 2027.