A HAULAGE company launched the UK's first liquid gas powered fleet yesterday, unveiling four new trucks in the North-East.

County Durham firm WA Glendinning Ltd is the first mainstream transport company to use the new zero emission vehicles.

They will be used to deliver new gas piping for Transco, which recently announced that it was spending £60m to replace 250 miles of pipeline across the North-East, Cumbria and Yorkshire.

The four ERF trucks are powered by Detroit engines, and were on display at the Uponor Plastics factory on the Newton Aycliffe Industrial Estate - the company which is manufacturing the yellow pipes for Transco for the next five years.

The ERF fleet has cost £500,000 and is on a five-year contract, delivering the pipes for Transco and British Gas.

Gordon Glendinning, of Glendinning's, said: "The fuel consumption on the gas vehicles is about the same as a standard diesel one, but there's a grant on the fuel which makes it cheaper to run.