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Logistics companies and field service engineers are being urged to pay special attention to diesel particulate filters (DPFs) on their vehicles, as the cost of having a unit off the road at the height of a nationwide skills shortage could be detrimental.

The advice comes from national automotive parts reconditioning specialist DPF Clean Team, which is advising drivers to have a filter cleaned rather than replaced when clogged, in order to return drivers to the road quickly, and at a lower cost than a full replacement.

DPF Clean Team Director Cameron Bryce explained: “At a time when logistics companies are updating their fleets with the latest Euro-6 trucks in order to benefit from reduced emissions, sustainability, and lower fuel costs, they need to make sure that they are making the most of this investment. For field service engineers too, having a van or small unit on the road whenever possible is the difference between completing, and passing up work, and money.

“The cost benefits and efficiencies that these vehicles deliver can be wasted if operators need to take vehicles off the road for days to purchase and fit a replacement DPF, in the event of them becoming blocked. With an industry-wide driver shortage, every day a driver is not in a cab means lost capacity, unhappy customers, and lost business.”

Should HGV and van drivers be alerted to the DPF warning light, the advice from DPF Clean Team is to have a filter cleaned rather than replaced. A DPF clean can be completed and a vehicle returned to the road in a matter of days, which is considerably faster than the time associated with sourcing a new DPF, ordering and receiving the part, and then having it fitted. And the cost of a clean is also significantly lower than a full replacement; potentially saving haulage and service companies tens of thousands of pounds per year for multiple vehicles in their fleet. DPF Clean Team states that the average price of a new DPF unit for MAN, Volvo and Iveko trucks is up to £5,000.

 

DPF Clean Team itself has recently increased the number of DPF units it can clean, up to 1,000 a month, following a five-figure investment in state-of-the-art cleaning equipment which is capable of cleaning DPFs and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) units. The investment has been made following an increase in demand from the logistics industry for this service. And for a short time, the company has slashed the price of DPF cleaning from £450 to £250 for any logistics operators looking to have their DPFs cleaned for the first time.

Cameron Bryce continued: “With logistics companies and service engineers being overstretched in order to keep up with demand, more and more operators and fleet managers are paying closer attention to the maintenance and performance of their vehicles. They rightly recognise that the consequences of having a vehicle off the road can be costly at a time when resources are tight and demand high. Regular DPF cleaning can not only ensure that vehicle operators are seeing a return in new fleet investment, but it can also reduce the risk of unscheduled downtime, keeping vehicles on the road, and deliveries arriving on time.”

DPF Clean Team already works with many of the UK’s car supermarkets, Leicestershire and Metropolitan Police Force, Avis and Europcar. The company’s new equipment not only cleans DPFs, but the dry-cleaning process is also used for a host of different automotive components which can be expensive to replace if they become worn.

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