Editorial: 21st Century Truck Partnership Woes
This Editorial appears in the July 14 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
It is disappointing to see that the 21st Century Truck Partnership is foundering, the victim of insufficient funding and questionable research priorities, according to a new report from the National Academy of Sciences.
The project, which was created in 2000 to foster the development of safer, more efficient and cleaner-burning heavy-duty trucks, is a partnership of four federal agencies and 15 companies and is under the direction of the Department of Energy.
NAS’ National Research Council, in its recent report, said the project received much less than the $160 million DOE requested for fiscal 2007, and some of the program’s existing goals aren’t feasible “from either an engineering or funding perspective.”
The council found that the truck project is plagued by “an unwieldy structure and budgeting process,” which is slowing its progress.
At a time of $5-a-gallon diesel fuel, the 21st Century Truck Partnership could be one of the solutions to skyrocketing fuel costs, which are leading to widespread price increases for goods, which in turn are feeding inflationary pressures.
One of its goals is to increase truck thermal efficiency from fuel to 50% by 2010, from today’s 40%, which the report found to be one of the projects lagging the most.
The entire program seems to be muddling along, hobbled in part by a shortage of funds. The NRC report said a general decline in federal research funding is “threatening the attainment” of the truck project’s goals.
“There was supposed to be funding from several different agencies” under proposals agreed to by Congress, according to Jim Tipka, vice president of engineering at American Trucking Associations. “But the report pointed out that the money didn’t show up.”
The president of the Truck Manufacturers Association, Robert Clarke, said the truck partnership is a vital undertaking and one that the supplier industry strongly supports.
“It’s something that the industry very much wants, needs and benefits from,” Clarke said.
According to the study, “Very few U.S. manufacturers of trucks and buses . . . have the R&D resources to develop new technologies individually.”
The truck project brings together research scientists and officials from the supplier companies and provides seed money for pursuing new technologies, the study said.
The 21st Century Truck Partnership is a worthy project and one that needs our support. We urge Congress and the White House not to let this effort lag.
