Heavy Duty Trucking, April 2018

HDT APRIL 2018 106 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM Rolf Lockwood Executive Contributing Editor rolf@ newcom ca hat does it mean to say you run a green fleet Is it just a matter of buying the latest trucks with hyper compliant engines Of specing the latest in aerodynamics Its both of course and much more besides Put another way going green is not just a matter of tailpipe emissions according to Kary Schaefer general manager of marketing and strategy at Daimler Trucks North America Its also about efficiency and uptime and everything stands on three pillars safety connectivity and propulsion systems The truly green fleet is one that wastes as little as possible in every sense The keynote speaker at the recent Green Truck Summit in Indianapolis Indiana ahead of the Work Truck Show Schaefer cited a major fleet that used to see one in every four of its trucks involved in an accident each year After installing advanced safety systems such as stability control and collision mitigation that ratio became one in 19 Rear end collisions dropped dramatically Such gains in uptime in productivity make a very good business case for safety Schaefer said Connectivity is a means to an end she continued one key result being mounds of data that offer significant opportunities in many operational areas And its not a technology restricted to highway trucks she added Connectivity is just as useful in the vocational world for example in driver coaching The buzz around electric trucks suggests theyre being seen as the ultimate in green trucking but dont hold your breath There are hurdles to leap Schaefer said in moving the idea forward range weight cost and charging Battery costs have been diminishing she said but could well go up as demand increases The high cost of replacing a battery pack is another issue and were a long way from figuring out residual values for electric trucks Another key matter is the price of electricity which changes almost daily and ranges widely from region to region Typical costs go from five cents per kilowatt hour all the way up to 13 or 14 cents she said And of course theres no meaningful charging infrastructure at the moment which presents a big question mark as to when and where Diesel remains king in terms of efficiency she concluded because of its high energy density that isnt matched by any other fuel electricity included Natural gas has a place too where noise abatement is an issue or where near zero emissions are mandated but diesel is here to stay for a long long time What we can do right now to go greener she said is renew the fleet to modern emissions standards There remain too many older trucks on the roads adhering to pre EPA2010 rules To which Ill add an observation On the 1100 mile round trip that took me to Indianapolis most of it on I 69 I passed hundreds of ordinary tractor and van trailer units Just four of them had trailer boat tail devices of one description or another three of them deployed one of them broken And at best only about 15 of the van trailers I saw had skirts These are simple effective aero tools that save fuel and money with short payback times but we dont seem to be specing them My study was anything but scientific but I was left with the impression that were not taking this green thing very seriously Being green means more than emissions Rolf Lockwood is vice president editorial at Newcom Business Media which publishes Todays Trucking He writes for HDT each month on the making maintaining and using of trucks He can be reached at rolf@ newcom ca or 416 315 1829 LOCKING IT IN Diesel remains king in terms of efficiency she concluded because of its high energy density W