Preparing Early for Cold Weather Is Key to Smooth Fleet Operations, Experts Say

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

Preparing truck fuel for winter weather needs to begin long before frost actually hits the ground, according to several fleet managers.

A spokesman for Ryder System, Miami, said the company started sending cold-weather reminders to its many locations across the country in late summer. He also said Ryder — which ranks No. 10 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers — prepares for changes in the weather all year as seasons change.

“We send a notification to all of our locations in the August-September time frame that [tells them to] start preparing for winter,” said Mike Dennis, Ryder’s group director of field maintenance. “There is a communications broadcast that goes out to everybody to remind them winter is coming, and we remind our shops to order their fuel-treatment additive for their bulk tanks and their individual trucks.”

But Dennis added, “Typically, we prepare for the entire year. Through the entire year we use a . . . microbiocide and . . . moisture dispersant in all our tanks so we can continue to keep any algae from growing . . . [and keep] water out of the tanks.” A microbiocide destroys or inhibits the growth of harmful microorganisms in fuel tanks.

Limiting bacteria growth and water in the tank “keeps us ready for winterization,” Dennis said.

“Water in the tanks is a major concern to us because it will accelerate clouding and freezing of the fuel,” Dennis said.

Water can accumulate as typical daily heating and cooling cause condensation to build up, which leads to excess water in the bottom of fuel tanks, he added.

One of the winterization challenges that have cropped up in recent years is the increased use of biofuels that contain a higher percentage of water.

“They haven’t created a good chemical that will treat the higher biodiesel fuels from freezing,” Dennis said. “So during the winter months, that bio percentage is actually reduced because some of it gets to the point where it is untreatable. You can’t treat it, and because of that, you run the risk of shutting your fleet down if it freezes up.”

“The real expense if you don’t treat your fuel . . . is the wrecker fees to get [the vehicles] back to a location where you can work on them, the downtime and then the hands-on mechanic time that it takes to get them back up [and] thawed out [and] the changing of filters. The expense can grow rapidly if you don’t winterize your vehicles and your fuel,” Dennis said.

Bison Transport Inc., Winnipeg, Manitoba, said it starts preparing for winter by first communicating to drivers the importance of maintenance and using the correct fuel.

A spokesman for Bison said the carrier requires its more than 1,500 drivers to take an annual online course that reminds them about purchasing the proper fuel to prevent gelling, when the paraffin starts to separate from diesel in cold weather.

“We talk about the right fuel, using anti-gel [to make] sure that when we’re loading trailers we have proper circulation and make sure the heaters are working,” said Garth Pitzel, director of safety and driver development for Bison, which ranks No. 65 on the for-hire TT 100 list.

The company updates the winter training every year to address concerns from season to season.

“We have a test group of drivers run through it for a week or two to see if there are any changes we want to make, and we kick that off Sept. 1,” said Pitzel. This is done before the hundreds of drivers start taking the online course.

Bison said it reminds its drivers to purchase only enough fuel when driving in a warmer climate to get to a cooler climate, because of the regional variances in the diesel mix. The winterized diesel blend is different by region and by expected temperature levels.

“In Canada, they already put an additive in the fuel when you buy it, so we don’t put any in,” Pitzel said. “The same with the northern states: They already start adding that additive to the fuel. If a guy goes deep in the south, we remind them they should not be taking on much fuel,” said Pitzel.

Drivers also are reminded of the importance of keeping fuel tanks at least half full after a trip to prevent condensation from forming after parking the tractor, the carrier said.

The Waggoners Trucking, Billings, Mont., uses a diesel additive that is good down to 50 degrees below zero. The Waggoners ranks No. 92 on the for-hire TT 100 list.

The company uses pretreated fuel, and diesel additives are used just a small percentage of the time, most often if a driver is going to Canada, said a Waggoners spokesman who did not want to be identified. 

Power Service Products Inc., Weatherford, Texas, which manufactures an emergency diesel de-icer, Diesel 911, recommends that fleets start to dehydrate and winterize their systems starting in September or October.

The company recommends using diesel fuel supplements before temperatures drop to between 15 and 20 degrees. It also warns against “temperature treating” the vehicles — that is, using the supplements only when it gets cold.

“It could be 40 degrees on a Friday, and while the trucks are sitting there over the weekend, you could end up with a situation where the temperature could drop 30 degrees, and then you’re going to have a lot with 30 to 40 trucks in it and none of them will start,” said Jeff Kramer, PSP’s vice president for sales.

In the worst-case scenario for fleets, he said, the fuel will begin to cloud, meaning the moisture and paraffin begin to separate out of the fuel and then freeze,  shutting the vehicle down as it solidifies in the fuel filters, fuel lines and tank.

The additives and anti-gels modify the size and the shape of the wax crystals as they fall out when the fuel cools, and keep the crystals from coming together and plugging the fuel filter, according to PSP.

“It’s like turning gravel into sand, keeping the wax crystals small enough that they continue to flow through the fuel filter,” said Kramer.

“Some people refer to anti-gel chemistry as a wax-crystal modifier. We are just modifying the size and shape of the wax crystals so that they remain in suspension and don’t agglomerate and get larger.”