Editorial: Fuel Prices Power Technology
This Editorial appears in the Aug. 18 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
We’ve now had four reasonably sharp weekly declines in the national average price of diesel fuel. While retail prices have dropped more than 41 cents a gallon over that span, the average is still astronomically high — $1.506 more than the average one year ago.
Prices have been so high for so long, we’re seeing them drive what seems to be an ever-widening number of decisions about trucking technology.
Last week, Peterbilt Motors Co. delivered its first two hybrid diesel-electric medium-duty trucks to a high-end wine distributor in California, with the promise that each new vehicle would burn about 2,400 fewer gallons of diesel every year that it is in service, compared with traditional diesel-only trucks. Even though at this state, the hybrids cost 40% more than conventional models, the new owners say it will take only two years to recoup the extra purchase price.
Peterbilt officials also detailed their continuing efforts to produce other alternative-fuel vehicles and their efforts to wring more fuel efficiency out of their traditional designs.
Also, Peterbilt and Sterling Trucks are close to putting liquefied natural gas Class 8 tractors into service, helped by federal tax incentives for fleets that operate the more expensive vehicles and by a drive by the two largest container ports in the United States — Long Beach and Los Angeles — to encourage use of such vehicles at their facilities.
And all the other heavy-duty truck makers are working on alternative-fuel vehicles and improving the fuel efficiency of their existing models.
Fuel prices also drove engine maker Cummins Inc. to reverse its plan to apply only exhaust gas recirculation technology to meet the stricter nitrogen oxide limits that go into effect in 2010.
Cummins last week said it would add selective catalytic reduction to its heavy-duty engine systems, a technology the manufacturer originally spurned as cumbersome because it needs liquid urea to cleanse the exhaust gases. Company officials said that, in light of record-high fuel prices, it made sense to add SCR because it offers up to 5% better fuel efficiency than EGR alone.
All of these developments underscore how the cost of fuel is increasingly driving development critical to trucking. Even if fuel prices continue to fall, it is unlikely that we’re ever going to see them at the
levels of two or three years ago. Thus, all efforts by truck and engine makers to reduce trucking’s fuel consumption are welcome.
