Improving Fuel Efficiency

President Obama’s recent announcement that he was kicking off a major effort to improve the fuel efficiency of commercial vehicles was welcome news to the trucking industry.

But it was hardly a surprise.

Officials at American Trucking Associations, some fleet executives and leaders at several of the largest trucking supply companies have been involved for some time in discussions with administration officials to help the White House shape this landmark policy.

The May 21 Rose Garden ceremony at which President Obama signed an executive order mandating a fuel efficiency standard be established by the 2014 model year of medium- and heavy-duty trucks was only the beginning of the public phase of this worthy program.

We all have seen the outline of the program now, but the really hard work is just beginning: crafting a plan to significantly increase fuel efficiency while at the same time ensuring that the nation’s goods are delivered in a timely, efficient and cost-effective manner.

This fuel standard plan is going to be a “win-win-win situation,” ATA Chairman Tommy Hodges said after attending the White House ceremony. “We as operators will win because of lower costs. We as a society will win because of the lower fuel consumption and therefore our dependence on fossil fuels, and we as a society will win again because we’ll put less pollutants in the air.”

This is one of the rare times when it appears that good public policy and good corporate policy are in virtually full synchronization.

Trucking has much to gain in this bid to improve fuel efficiency because the industry consumes about 34 billion gallons of diesel fuel a year, Randy Mullet, vice president of government relations and public affairs for Con-way Inc., has said in testimony.

But trucking also has much to teach. It is no accident that the U.S. freight distribution system is the best, most reliable and most cost-efficient in the world.

Maximizing the value of the fuel we burn will require improving not only the equipment the trucking industry uses to move freight but also the behavior of our workforce to reduce wasted miles and to adopt driving strategies that improve miles per gallon.

We hope that the federal policymakers will continue to include appropriate industry representatives in the dialogue about the evolution of a final policy to boost the fuel efficiency of the nation’s trucking fleet. For only through mutual cooperation are we likely to achieve the fuel gains that President Obama envisions.