Editorial: Technological Solutions

This Editorial appears in the March 31 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Little wonder that fuel efficiency was a major focus of equipment and service vendors exhibiting at the Mid-America Trucking Show last week.

Questions of how to cope with the bona fide crisis in fuel prices are on every truck operator’s lips. The quickest solution, it seems, is to burn less fuel to haul a given amount of freight, because anyone who is waiting for the return of “cheap” diesel is sure to grow old, retire and head to the big parking lot in the sky before that happens.

Thus, MATS was an open book on the latest technological responses to the depredations of runaway fuel costs.

Smart practices matched with good tools may be the best way to realize fuel-economy improvements. For example, keeping tires optimally inflated provides an edge, and remote air-pressure gauges and automated inflation systems can be key aids. Also, one can cut idling by using auxiliary power units — non-diesel is the latest edge — for creature comforts instead of running the main engine.

As tractor and trailer suppliers demonstrated at the show, every enhancement in aerodynamics promises miles-per-gallon points, and fleet managers seem to agree that the dollar savings of going even a 10th of a mile farther on a gallon of diesel quickly adds up.

Some solutions seem almost elementary in concept — reduce vehicle weight with lighter components, for example — but one should not lose sight of the fact that the value of a tool is as an extension of the hand that wields it. The better the user’s skill,
the finer the result.

That point suggests that how wisely a truck is driven is a big part of the fuel-economy equation.

A lesson already well-chiseled into the industry’s book of smart practices is the value of driving at a fuel-optimal speed. This understanding dates back to previous fuel crises, but it always has been a difficult practice. Who can forget the notorious double-nickel 55? Unless one has the mentality of a “hyper-miler” — a person who drives with extreme devotion to fuel economy (i.e., turtle-like acceleration) — going slower can be agonizing.

Technology is certainly active on this front. Engine control modules can hold top speed to a predetermined number.

Now, if we could only agree what that speed should be.