Sunday, August 03, 2008
By ERIC APALATEGUI for The ColumbianIn the trucking industry of old - even as recently as a few years ago - the recipe for making money was hauling as much freight as you possibly could as fast as you could.

Today, that’s a recipe for financial ruin, said Bill Gulick recently, when diesel fuel averaged $4.65 per gallon nationally and more in California. Gulick is president of Gulick Trucking Co. in Vancouver and Portland.

“You have to have reasonable fuel mileage in the equation with volume. If you don’t deal with (fuel efficiency), it’s a problem. Either you change or you’re not going to make it.”

Now truckers have a new ally in the push to increase fuel economy. Cascade Sierra Solutions, a two-year-old Oregon-based nonprofit organization, offers fuel-saving and emissions-cutting devices and strategies through low-interest loans (repaid with fuel savings), government grants and tax incentives. CSS recently opened an outreach center next to the Jubitz Travel Center in the Delta Park area of north Portland, where it also will serve Clark County and Southwest Washington truckers.

Efficiency advantage
“What they offer is more and more important,” Gulick said.

Gulick Trucking’s independent contractors and employee drivers haul food, beverages and other goods to 48 states and Canada in about 140 trucks. The company already had raised fuel economy for much of its fleet to at least seven miles per gallon - excellent for a big rig, Gulick said. Now it is working with CSS on future truck upgrades, hoping to take better advantage of tax incentives and other benefits.

The CSS programs, backed by the federal government, are especially critical to smaller companies and to independent contract drivers, many of whom drive older, less-efficient trucks and are barely surviving the current fuel crisis. Those truckers don’t always have the cash to buy fuel-saving devices or the wherewithal to finance them with bank loans.

By mid-year, CSS had helped upgrade more than 1,300 trucks, saving 2.5 million gallons of fuel and eliminating 25,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions. Sharon Banks, the nonprofit’s CEO, expects in the next five years to upgrade enough trucks to save 1.5 billion gallons of diesel fuel, steering at least $4.5 billion away from global fuel suppliers and back into local economies, often filtered through mom-and-pop operators.

“They are the backbone of the U.S. transportation industry and some of the best people you will ever meet,” Banks said in a press release.

CSS’ Portland center is part showroom and part resource center where truckers can stay compliant with new emissions regulations and apply for financial aid to help cut fuel costs. A similar center is open at the CSS headquarters in Coburg, Ore. (near Eugene), and one is coming this summer to Sacramento, Calif. Others are planned along the Interstate 5 corridor, including in Seattle; Medford, Ore.; Oakland, Calif.; and Los Angeles.

Banks said that installation of equipment certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay program can cut a truck’s appetite for fuel by up to 20 percent, an annual savings of more than $10,000 for most trucks. The upgrades cost that much, or more, but can be purchased over several years with loan payments typically far lower than fuel savings.

For long-haul truckers such as Gulick’s drivers, one of the quickest ways to save fuel (and also reduce wear on the engine) is to cut idling time during mandatory layovers. For example, an auxiliary power unit can run heating and cooling systems and power electrical appliances - without running the main engine, as truckers traditionally did when fuel prices were lower. Gulick said trucks in his fleet with APUs save at least 150 gallons of diesel fuel a month - $6,750 a year or more.

Other applications
CSS also helps truckers improve aerodynamics, enhance freight logistics, increase tire efficiency and boost fuel-saving driving tactics, among other services aimed at both saving fuel and reducing pollution. It tailors programs to meet needs of different types of truckers.

David Braman, driver supervisor for Mitchell Bros. Truck Line of Vancouver, said the CSS program doesn’t yet pencil out for the firm. His truckers serve ports around Portland-Vancouver and Seattle, primarily hauling shipping containers relatively short distances. The trucks already are aerodynamic and, since they are home by day’s end, don’t sit idling in truck stops.

Still, Braman said Mitchell Bros. would embrace improvements that work for their business. “Anything that’s going to save the planet and save fuel - yes,” he said.

Auxiliary services
There are some other fuel-saving options, too. For example, drivers for Grandview Enterprises Inc. of Vancouver, who haul food and other cargo cross-country, often use a service called IdleAire, which is increasingly available at truck stops. The ground-based service supplies climate-controlled air, electricity and even Internet access directly to truck cabins for a fee.

“We prefer that our drivers do that” rather than idle their trucks, said Troy Sharp, a former driver who serves as the company’s assistant safety supervisor. “It’s catching on quick.”

Since last year, large tractor-trailer rigs already must meet stricter emissions guidelines, which get stiffer still in 2010. Retrofitting older trucks, which can stay on the road 30 years, with pollution-control devices can reduce diesel emissions by 85 percent. Those environmental controls don’t make the trucks, whether new or old, more fuel-efficient.

“Diesel particles have been found to have greater health impacts than had been thought,” including causing cancer and other serious illnesses, said Bob Elliott, executive director of Southwest Clean Air Agency in Vancouver. He considers CSS “one more piece of the puzzle” in reducing harmful pollutants in the region’s air.

Banks said that diesel pollution also “disproportionately affects those with respiratory disease; children; the elderly; minorities; and the poor, who are more likely to live in the areas of higher pollution.”

This entry was posted on Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Fuel News, Trucking News, Vehicle News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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