Companies make fuel conservation top priority

With rapidly rising oil and fuel prices – crude oil ended the day April 17 at more than $70 a barrel for the first time – companies that make their living on the road are working on new ways to conserve fuel.

Prime Inc., which employs 650 locally and runs 2,600 tractors across the lower 48 states – No. 1 on this year’s list of the area’s largest truckload carriers (see page 14) – buys “a few million gallons of fuel each week,” according to its director of training and driver recruiting, John Hancock.

“(Fuel price savings efforts) are nothing brand new,” Hancock said. “We have volume fuel purchase discounts with chains across the nation. Some of those deals are for so many cents a gallon off the pump price, and others are whatever the wholesale price of fuel in that area is plus a storage-pumping fee. Sometimes as the price of fuel fluctuates, we can beat the price at the pump by 30 cents a gallon.”

Prime buys fuel and resells it to company drivers; operators pay for their own fuel.

The company also uses fuel optimization software that advises drivers, based on location, state fuel taxes and vehicle fuel efficiency, on where to stop for fuel to get the best prices.

Environmental effects

FedEx began employing hybrid delivery vehicles in four U.S. cities and has plans to increase the hybrid presence across the country. The company recently received recognition from a national transportation technology consortium for its use of hybrids and their environmental benefits.

While companies such as Prime don’t have the luxury of using hybrid technology – there isn’t yet a viable hybrid option for hauling freight – trucking outfits do have to deal with new Environmental Protection Agency guidelines that will take effect next year.

“Our emissions have to be lessened and lessened,” he said. “In 2007, our trucks will have to emit an emissions level that’s lower than most of the air they’ll be intaking in many large cities. In other words, there’ll be thousands of little air scrubbers driving around the nation, which sounds great, but they use a lot more fuel in the process.”

Less gas

Other companies are looking at how they can cut fuel consumption rather than fuel costs.

Glenn Larson, president of The Larson Group – Peterbilt of Springfield, said customers are more worried now about fuel efficiency than ever, as a result of the fuel price spikes of 2005.

“Since Katrina and that spike in fuel prices, there’s been a heightened interest in more aerodynamic chassis, drive train systems, engines and transmission combinations,” Larson said. “There’s more emphasis on speed-limiting the trucks, and a lot more people (are) coming in for engine tune-ups.”

Hancock said Prime is working on various fuel conservation efforts, including the installation of auxiliary power units and heating systems that use a tenth of the fuel.

“We also have contests we do internally that try to promote fuel mileage consumption improvements,” Hancock added. “Our operators pay for the fuel themselves, so all of these programs are literally trying to help them help themselves.”

Smart driving is a smart tactic.

“The best driver, in the best truck, if you can get 6.5 miles to the gallon you’re doing well,” Larson said. “If you don’t pay attention, you go fast speeds and don’t keep equipment up, you can get as low as 3.5 to four.”[[In-content Ad]]