New Approach to Trailer Aerodynamics Increases Fuel Economy, SmartTruck Says

This story appears in the June 21 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

SmartTruck, a company founded by aerospace engineers, has received approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for trailer attachments that it said could improve over-the-road fuel efficiency by up to  11% and that it soon would begin manufacturing them.

Executives of two major trucking firms who are cooperating with SmartTruck, as well as the environmental counsel of American Trucking Associations, agreed the company was bringing new technology into the industry that showed promise.

“Regular trailer fairings such as side skirts work by blocking the air from going under the trailer and colliding with tires, axles and other fixtures underneath the trailer,” Mitchell Greenberg, president of SmartTruck, Greenville, S.C., told Transport Topics.

“Our system actually encourages the air to go underneath the trailer, where the air is accelerated, compressed and the resulting higher energy air is used to increase the pressure at the back of the trailer,” he explained.

SmartTruck calls its fairings under the trailer its “UnderTray system.”

Greenberg added that EPA verified the company’s UT-6 UnderTray system on May 19 with 6.8% fuel savings. EPA spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn confirmed to TT the agency had certified the company’s equipment on that date.

Greenberg said the company’s system also adds optional attachments to the trailer nose and its rear sides and top for increased fuel efficiency. Internal tests show up to an 11% increase in fuel efficiency for a loaded tractor and trailer.

The top rain-gutter fairing, as an example, allows fast-moving, high-energy air over the trailer to turn a corner and be pulled down into the trailer’s wake, thereby decreasing its size and its drag on the vehicle, he said.

SmartTruck said that it is developing its system with tractors and trailers supplied by PepsiCo Inc., Purchase, N.Y., and its subsidiary, Frito-Lay North America, Dallas, as well as with Con-way Truckload, a unit of Con-way Inc., San Mateo, Calif.

“They have one of our trailers for testing, and SmartTruck’s people have taken a different, holistic approach to the trailer, where they could really move that air, rather than the just traditional skirt idea,” Bruce Stockton, vice president of maintenance and asset management at Con-way Truckload, told TT.

“Con-way previously invested heavily in trailer skirts and has been unable to realize anything close to a 5% improvement in overall fuel mileage with conventional skirts,” Stockton added.

“Based on early test results and the aerodynamic engineering that SmartTruck is able to develop, we believe there is more promise that their devices will offer a greater than 5% improvement in fuel mileage, thus providing a true return on our investment,” he said.

Con-way ranks No. 6 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.

Glen Kedzie, ATA’s environmental affairs counsel, said he thought “SmartTruck will make a major, major change in our industry.”

“Its technology is really a new concept, and the EPA has tested it and certified it,” Kedzie told TT. “They worked on rocket ships and airplanes, and that is one field that really depends on aeronautics. . . . I believe that this initial system is the first in a line of many, many new things that SmartTruck will introduce.”

Steve Hanson, fleet sustainability engineer for Frito-Lay North America, told TT: “We are working with Mitch and team because they provide a fresh perspective in applying principles from other well-established fields in which aerodynamic design is important.”

Mike Henderson, SmartTruck’s chief executive officer and chief engineer, worked 32 years at Boeing Co., where he led the company’s subsonic high-lift program, as well as its supersonic aircraft program.