In the current freight market where the market is sluggish and freight rates are falling, resource transportation, especially coal transportation, which is the lifeblood of the country's industry and production and life, has been relatively less affected. Even many truck drivers have entered this field. Over the years, coal transport vehicles have also undergone many changes. With the development of regulations, the environment and manufacturing, coal transport trucks have also been updated many times. This issue, taking the models of Jiefang as an example, let's take a look together at what changes have occurred in coal-carrying vehicles over the years.
Since 2016, 6*4 tractors have become the mainstream
Under the earlier policy of a 55-ton gross vehicle weight, both 6×2 and 6×4 tractors had a gross vehicle weight of 55 tons. This led to the 6×2 tractor having a larger loading capacity than the 6×4 tractor, thanks to its lighter body. Generally speaking, a 6×2 tractor is nearly one ton lighter than a 6×4 tractor. This one-ton advantage enabled the earlier 6×2 tractors to lock in the market at an early stage.
However, with the introduction of the new national standard 1589 and the implementation of the "Special Action Plan for Rectifying Illegal Overloading and Oversizing of Road Trucks", the previously allowed weight limit of 55 tons has been revised to 49 tons. Moreover, the 6×2 tractor, which was the main model for coal transportation and had no problem at that time, has been restricted to 46 tons, which is 3 tons less than the 6×4. This led to the 6×2 tractor being sidelong in the resource transportation sector, and subsequently, the 6×4 tractor dominated the coal transportation market.
In 2020, mother and child trucks re-entered the coal transportation circle
Due to the impact of the pandemic at the end of 2019 and the overall domestic and international environment, the freight market has fallen into a trough in the past three years. Even the resource transportation sector, which was less affected, has to face the test of cost reduction. At this point, the previously emerged parent-child vehicle model has once again drawn attention because it optimizes the huge pain point of "return journey".
When transporting coal, truck drivers usually encounter situations such as low freight rates and multiple unloading locations for the same load, which leads to delays. Choosing to return empty-handed, the cost has increased significantly, which has put everyone in a difficult choice. The emergence of parent-child vehicles has helped everyone maximize cost reduction. When returning, adopting the "vehicle-to-vehicle" mode not only saves the tolls for the child vehicle on expressways but also reduces a series of expenses such as fuel and vehicle wear and tear for the child vehicle. Take the journey from Hami, Xinjiang to Yumen, Gansu as an example. By adopting the operation mode of mother and child vehicles on the return trip, the toll for the child vehicles on expressways can be saved by about 1,000 yuan, and the fuel consumption for the child vehicles can be saved by about 1,500 yuan. Moreover, if the vehicle wear and maintenance of the child vehicles are taken into account, the savings for a single trip will be more than 2,500 yuan.
With the good strategy of "reducing costs on one hand and making profits on the other", parent-child vehicles have indeed achieved rapid growth in many places in China. For instance, in areas around popular coal transportation destinations such as Xinjiang, Ningxia, Hebei, and Shandong, there has been a significant increase. However, the parent-child vehicle also faces some doubts. For instance, the trailer may have non-compliant situations, and its future path is not clear.
The future trend is towards new energy
Under the guidance of China's dual carbon goals, future coal transport trucks are bound to develop in the direction of new energy. Trucks using clean energy have gradually entered the field of coal transportation. For instance, in scenarios such as short-distance transportation at ports, where coal needs to be transferred over short distances and the vehicles have to work frequently without stopping, battery swap heavy-duty trucks are highly suitable for such scenarios.
The advantages of new energy heavy-duty trucks such as battery swap ones are, of course, lower energy consumption and greater cost savings. Let's take a battery swap heavy-duty truck as an example. It usually only costs 300 yuan to have a range of 200 kilometers. Under the same working conditions, if a diesel heavy-duty truck runs 200 kilometers and consumes 35 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers, it would cost around 530 yuan or even more. If maintenance and upkeep are taken into account, the advantages of new energy heavy-duty trucks are even greater. Their actual usage cost is approximately half that of diesel heavy-duty trucks.
However, there are still many problems restricting the popularization of new energy heavy-duty trucks. Besides the fact that refueling is still not as convenient as that of diesel heavy-duty trucks, the range and purchase cost also make new energy heavy-duty trucks only suitable for specific scenarios at present, such as ports, docks, industrial parks, and mines. The development path is still long.
