The Euro 5 truck burns bio-diesel manufactured by Argent Energy from waste products, including used cooking oil and tallow (animal fat residue from the meat industry).

It also works on Cumbria-based John Miller’s contract with Argent, hauling road tanks of raw material and refined fuel into and out of its customer’s production plant in Motherwell, Scotland.

“Argent has a few of its own rigids on local work but we believe that our Actros is the only long-distance, top-weight tractor burning this sort of fuel in the UK, and also probably the greenest truck on the road,” says John Miller, Managing Director of the company that bears his name.

“The media has been full of claims and counter-claims about the environmental benefits of bio-fuel production. A lot of the controversy is about using crops to produce fuel, while food prices are rising across the world. But that’s not an issue in this case, because the fuel which powers our new Actros is produced entirely from waste, which is a very important distinction.

“What’s more, it’s using up material that would otherwise have to be disposed of, thereby increasing recycling and reducing the amount of waste that may otherwise be incinerated or even  tipped down the drain.”

Argent Energy manufactures its bio-diesel from raw material sourced across a network of collection points. It is picked up by Miller’s Actros tanker and delivered to Motherwell to be transformed into fuel, before being transported, by Miller, to distribution sites at Grangemouth and North Shields.

“When we pitched for the Argent contract we felt it would help if we could run our truck on their fuel, as well as delivering it,” continues Mr Miller. “We spoke to several truck manufacturers, about whether they could help us with the conversion work needed and – crucially – whether they would continue to provide the necessary aftercare. Only Mercedes-Benz gave us an unequivocal ‘yes’.

“Sales Executive Mike Ferguson at Carlisle Mercedes-Benz dealer Ciceley Commercials was very helpful in liaising with the factory. The Actros did require some adaptations, including a larger oil sump and a separate bio-diesel tank, which were all carried out at Ciceley’s workshop in Dumfries. This meant we were able to tell Argent ‘up front’ that we’d be running a new Actros on their fuel for this job.”

The truck has a split fuel tank, with a large bio-diesel chamber and a small compartment for standard mineral fuel. The mineral diesel is used for the first and last few minutes of every journey, as in some conditions bio-diesel can be unsuitable for use in a cold engine. There is a simple switch on the dashboard, which the driver flicks shortly after setting off or before reaching home, to change over from one fuel to the other.

This first Actros is soon to be joined by three identical units, which will work on the same contract. But Miller’s plans for bio-diesel operation go much further.

Director Davie Carson explains: “Obviously, there’s a good political reason to use Argent’s fuel in trucks that work on our Argent contract, as well as an environmental benefit. But there are sound economic arguments too. The bio-diesel Actros will be monitored very carefully but we’re fully confident they’ll also deliver some significant savings.

“It’s a balancing act. There are the extra costs of the conversion work and a reduction in service intervals to be considered. But we’ve done the maths and although we don’t want to talk about figures at this stage, we know the costs will be more than outweighed by the savings we make on fuel.

“We’re having a 40,000-litre bio-diesel tank installed on site and we plan to convert our entire general haulage fleet to run on the ‘green’ fuel as soon as possible.”

John Miller Transport runs 22 top-weight tractor units on general haulage from its base at Longtown, near Carlisle. Mercedes-Benz is making rapid in-roads into the fleet – orders are in place for a further eight Actros. Miller also has a thriving timber division, which runs 28 trucks, based at Dalbeattie.