Fleet Execs See Green in Going Green

This story appears in the Oct. 12 print edition of Transport Topics.

LAS VEGAS — Fleet executives said that while going green does provide societal and environmental benefits, the biggest benefit to carriers is that is saves money in fuel and other costs.

“Now, more than ever, trucking companies are realizing that they can not only become more green, but that they can also profit and improve their public image,” said Tommy Hodges, chairman of Titan Transfer Inc.

Hodges led a panel of fleet executives speaking here Oct. 6 at American Trucking Associations’ annual Management Conference & Exhibition.

Hodges, the new ATA chairman, previously led the development of the federation’s sustainability task force, which recommended several initiatives to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint.

Those steps, he said, can have “an immediate and lasting impact on the environment,” and also can reduce fuel use, reducing costs.

“The good news for us is this can really be a win-win for our businesses,” said Douglas Duncan, president of FedEx Freight.

“We not only enhance our sustainability as companies and as an in-dustry, we also reduce our costs,” Duncan said. However, Duncan warned that not all fuel-saving technologies or practices work, and fleets must carefully test new technologies.

“You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince, and that’s true here as well,” he said.

Douglas Stotlar, president of Con-way, told attendees the company has taken steps in both its less-than-truckload and truckload divisions to improve environmental performance. Con-way’s steps ranged from slowing truck speeds to spec’ing changes on trucks to reduce weight and improve aerodynamics.

At Con-way Freight, the company’s less-than-truckload division, Stotlar said that “over the last 18 months, probably the single biggest step we took was reducing the speed limit from 65 miles per hour to 62 miles per hour, resulting in a 3.8% reduction in our fuel usage, and at $3 a gallon, that’s a savings of $11 million a year.”

“So, it certainly can contribute to your bottom line and in the process it certainly does reduce emissions as well as reducing our carbon footprint,” he said.

However, Stotlar said Con-way’s efforts do not stop there, citing a program of trailer remanufacturing and recycling with Road Systems Inc.

The company, he said, “produces new trailers for Con-way . . . and about halfway through its life we send the trailers back and remanufacture them, so we really can elongate the lifespan of these assets.”

When the trailer reaches the end of its useful life, Stotlar said, “we completely dismantle them and recycle all the aluminum, steel and wood and reduce our input costs going forward.”

Pat Quinn, co-chairman of U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc., said efforts this decade to trim emissions of nitrogen oxides  have worked to reduce fuel efficiency.

“There’s been a cost,” he said. “The 2007 engine reduced fuel efficiency by about 8% . . . and while 2010 is supposed to increase, I think the challenge becomes to get additional efficiencies to make up for what we’ve lost.”

In looking for new ways to make up for those losses, Duncan said FedEx was looking at alternative fuels.

“We’ve been testing hybrid vehicles in our fleet for over two years now, and while I don’t think the current hybrid technology will be the answer, I think the next generation of plug-in hybrids really holds excellent promise,” he said.

However, hydrogen fuel cells are the next big leap the company is investigating.

“By the end of this year, we believe that we will have a Class 8 truck in use operating on a hydrogen fuel cell,” Duncan said.

The test, which will occur at the company’s Springfield, Mo., distribution center, should take place over three months.

“The promise is we’ll have at least an eight-hour duty cycle,” he said.

Duncan said the issue with hydrogen, much like natural gas, is cost and distribution of fuel.

Gas-powered engines in particular, he said, are “horrendously expensive,” and while a hydrogen fuel cell power plant may cost more, the promise is the fuel will cut operating costs by a third.

Stotlar echoed Duncan’s thoughts on natural gas, saying that even on the truck, the fuel “took up a lot of real estate.”

“We’re not averse to testing the technology; we just haven’t found one that seems to work for our operations,” he said.

Another environmental trend, the panelists said, was the interest by shippers in how carriers account for greenhouse gases, and the negotiations that take place around trying to provide green transportation.

“I don’t think we can go to our customers and say it’s going to cost more. I think we have to find ways to achieve the sustainability and reduce the cost at the same time,” Duncan said.

David Miller, Con-way’s vice president of global policy and economic sustainability, told Transport Topics that aside from asking whether or not a carrier is SmartWay certified, Con-way has found environmental concerns are “not a decision maker” for shippers.