Con-way Drops Truck Speeds to Cut Carbon, Save on Fuel
By Dan Leone, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the March 17 print edition of Transport Topics.
Less-than-truckload carrier Con-way Freight announced last week that it will set speed governors on its trucks at a maximum of 62 mph, down from 65 mph — a move the company said will cut its diesel consumption by about 3.2 million gallons a year.
The change also is the first step in a broader environmental sustainability strategy that Con-way Freight parent Con-way Inc., San Mateo, Calif., said it plans to roll out later this year.
A Con-way spokesman said the company also would cut speeds in its truckload division, which includes the operations of the former Contract Freighters Inc., to 65 mph from 70 mph.
“[I]f we look creatively at how we operate the business, we can find and adopt practices that reduce our carbon footprint and help the bottom line,” said John Labrie, president of Con-way Freight.
Con-way joins other carriers, including its LTL competitor YRC Worldwide and truckload fleets Celadon and Maverick, in voluntarily limiting truck speeds.
Con-way Freight estimates that the expected reduction in fuel consumption also will lower carbon emissions from its 8,400 truck fleet by about 72 million pounds a year.
Burning a gallon of diesel produces about 22.2 pounds of carbon emissions, according to American Trucking Associations.
Con-way ranks No. 6 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada.
Con-way Freight is not the only large LTL carrier that has looked to speed governors to help rein in fuel consumption.
Mike Smid, president of North American Transportation for YRC Worldwide, said that all of YRC’s trucks are governed at 63 mph.
“There’s a pretty basic formula: roughly, once you get between 60 mph and 62 mph, for every 1 mph you increase speed, it has about a 2% effect on total fuel consumption,” Smid said in a telephone interview.
A YRC spokeswoman later said the company governs its trucks at 62.5 mph.
YRC ranks No. 4 on the TT 100 for-hire list.
Other motor carriers also have turned to speed governors as a way to cut fuel consumption and, consequently, reduce emissions.
Celadon, an Indianapolis truckload carrier, said that it recently turned the speed governors on its trucks down to 63 mph from 65 mph.
“We were through the bulk of the fleet about the third week in January,” said Jeff Bryant, Celadon’s vice president of maintenance, “and we’re already showing some benefits back to the bottom line.”
Unlike YRC or Con-way, Celadon said that it will turn the governors on its trucks up to 66 mph, if the vehicle’s driver is able to maintain certain fuel economy standards and keep idle time below 40%.
Maverick USA, a Little Rock, Ark., flatbed hauler, takes a similar approach to speed governors.
“We set our trucks at 65 mph and tell drivers if their [fuel economy] is over 6.4 [miles per gallon], they can increase that speed by 3 mph,” Darius Cooper, Maverick’s vice president of operations, said. “If it’s over 6.6 mpg, they can go up to 70 mph.”
So far, Cooper said, the initiative has helped the carrier improve fuel efficiency across its fleet by about 0.15 mpg, compared with this time last year.
Like Con-way, Maverick has placed the issue of carbon emissions at the forefront of its operations in 2008.
“One of our corporate objectives for the year is to reduce our carbon footprint,” Cooper said.
Celadon and Maverick respectively rank No. 56 and No. 86 on the TT 100 for-hire list. Both companies are part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay program, an initiative to lower emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants generated by freight transportation.
ATA also has been vocal about the use of speed governors among U.S. truckers. In 2006, ATA petitioned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to require truck makers to include speed governors in all new trucks that would cap the vehicles’ top speed at 68 mph.
But ATA’s Dave Osiecki, the federation’s vice president of safety, security and operations, said that, to date, there has been little progress with the issue at the federal level.
“Neither FMCSA nor [the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] has done anything on the regulatory side,” Osiecki told TT March 13.
ATA’s main argument for requiring speed governors on new trucks centers on safety, but the federation’s engineering department also has researched the operational benefits the devices offer to motor carriers.
“On average, a truck traveling at 65 mph versus 75 mph can result in a 20% improvement in fuel mileage.” ATA’s engineering department said.
Meanwhile, some Canadian provinces are also examining speed governor mandates.
Rebecka Torn, a spokeswoman for the Ontario Trucking Association, said that, although speed governors are not yet required in Canada, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec are “poised to move” on the issue.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance has advocated governing truck speed at 105 km/h, or about 65 mph. The mandate would apply to Canadian haulers and to U.S. trucking companies making cross-border deliveries.
This story appears in the March 17 print edition of Transport Topics.
Less-than-truckload carrier Con-way Freight announced last week that it will set speed governors on its trucks at a maximum of 62 mph, down from 65 mph — a move the company said will cut its diesel consumption by about 3.2 million gallons a year.
The change also is the first step in a broader environmental sustainability strategy that Con-way Freight parent Con-way Inc., San Mateo, Calif., said it plans to roll out later this year.
A Con-way spokesman said the company also would cut speeds in its truckload division, which includes the operations of the former Contract Freighters Inc., to 65 mph from 70 mph.
“[I]f we look creatively at how we operate the business, we can find and adopt practices that reduce our carbon footprint and help the bottom line,” said John Labrie, president of Con-way Freight.
Con-way joins other carriers, including its LTL competitor YRC Worldwide and truckload fleets Celadon and Maverick, in voluntarily limiting truck speeds.
Con-way Freight estimates that the expected reduction in fuel consumption also will lower carbon emissions from its 8,400 truck fleet by about 72 million pounds a year.
Burning a gallon of diesel produces about 22.2 pounds of carbon emissions, according to American Trucking Associations.
Con-way ranks No. 6 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada.
Con-way Freight is not the only large LTL carrier that has looked to speed governors to help rein in fuel consumption.
Mike Smid, president of North American Transportation for YRC Worldwide, said that all of YRC’s trucks are governed at 63 mph.
“There’s a pretty basic formula: roughly, once you get between 60 mph and 62 mph, for every 1 mph you increase speed, it has about a 2% effect on total fuel consumption,” Smid said in a telephone interview.
A YRC spokeswoman later said the company governs its trucks at 62.5 mph.
YRC ranks No. 4 on the TT 100 for-hire list.
Other motor carriers also have turned to speed governors as a way to cut fuel consumption and, consequently, reduce emissions.
Celadon, an Indianapolis truckload carrier, said that it recently turned the speed governors on its trucks down to 63 mph from 65 mph.
“We were through the bulk of the fleet about the third week in January,” said Jeff Bryant, Celadon’s vice president of maintenance, “and we’re already showing some benefits back to the bottom line.”
Unlike YRC or Con-way, Celadon said that it will turn the governors on its trucks up to 66 mph, if the vehicle’s driver is able to maintain certain fuel economy standards and keep idle time below 40%.
Maverick USA, a Little Rock, Ark., flatbed hauler, takes a similar approach to speed governors.
“We set our trucks at 65 mph and tell drivers if their [fuel economy] is over 6.4 [miles per gallon], they can increase that speed by 3 mph,” Darius Cooper, Maverick’s vice president of operations, said. “If it’s over 6.6 mpg, they can go up to 70 mph.”
So far, Cooper said, the initiative has helped the carrier improve fuel efficiency across its fleet by about 0.15 mpg, compared with this time last year.
Like Con-way, Maverick has placed the issue of carbon emissions at the forefront of its operations in 2008.
“One of our corporate objectives for the year is to reduce our carbon footprint,” Cooper said.
Celadon and Maverick respectively rank No. 56 and No. 86 on the TT 100 for-hire list. Both companies are part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay program, an initiative to lower emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants generated by freight transportation.
ATA also has been vocal about the use of speed governors among U.S. truckers. In 2006, ATA petitioned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to require truck makers to include speed governors in all new trucks that would cap the vehicles’ top speed at 68 mph.
But ATA’s Dave Osiecki, the federation’s vice president of safety, security and operations, said that, to date, there has been little progress with the issue at the federal level.
“Neither FMCSA nor [the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] has done anything on the regulatory side,” Osiecki told TT March 13.
ATA’s main argument for requiring speed governors on new trucks centers on safety, but the federation’s engineering department also has researched the operational benefits the devices offer to motor carriers.
“On average, a truck traveling at 65 mph versus 75 mph can result in a 20% improvement in fuel mileage.” ATA’s engineering department said.
Meanwhile, some Canadian provinces are also examining speed governor mandates.
Rebecka Torn, a spokeswoman for the Ontario Trucking Association, said that, although speed governors are not yet required in Canada, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec are “poised to move” on the issue.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance has advocated governing truck speed at 105 km/h, or about 65 mph. The mandate would apply to Canadian haulers and to U.S. trucking companies making cross-border deliveries.
