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Troy: Alright I’m here with Rachel Muncrief the program director for Heavy Duty Vehicles for the International Council on Clean Transportation, Rachel how are you doing?
Rachel: I’m doing well thank you.
Troy: Good so this topic is all about clean trucking, you know our truckers are out there and um, it’s definitely something that’s been in the news lately but, why is it so important for the transportation industry and especially the trucking industry, to start thinking about clean trucking?
Rachel: Yeah, um, great question. Well I mean of course there’s a couple different perspectives on that. I mean there’s definitely sort of the climate perspective, um, if you think about it, the transportation sector is actually the largest sort of, CO2 emitting sector in the U.S. Um, and trucks are responsible for about a quarter of that CO2 emissions. So, it’s not happening as quickly as you know, people like me would want it to but definitely, this is growing momentum towards decarbonizing the transportation sector. But then if you think about it from a business case, there’s also a huge business case there. I mean fuel is one of the largest costs when it comes to trucking and fuel prices are very volatile, I mean, from what I understand they’re actually kind of back on the rise again, they’ve been low for a while. Um, one long-haul truck in one year could end up spending about $50,000 or more just on diesel fuel.
Troy: Wow.
Rachel: Um, and if you think about that you can do something to save just 1% of that that’s $500, if you can do something to save 10% of that that’s $5,000 you know? And um, I think it’s important to understand that not all trucks on the road at the moment are getting the same fuel economy. There’s some really efficient trucks on the road right now, so you could have um, two essentially same long-haul trucks on the road doing very similar driving routes, very similar pay routes, but you could have one truck that’s potentially being operated at about 30% more efficiently than the other. And if you think about it, that puts a huge um, advantage on the more efficient truck, I mean they have a competitive advantage, they can charge less, make more profit and so I think it’s really the bottom line is efficiency is really key in the trucking sector.
Troy: And what are some ways that either the truckers or the companies themselves can kind of retrofit their vehicles to be more fuel efficient and more green?
Rachel: Mhm. Um, well obviously if you’re buying a new truck there’s many, many options you can select um, that are basically options that’ll give you more efficiency on the road. But even if you wanted to do something with your existing truck there’s actually a lot of options um, so, and most of the devices that I’m aware of would actually pay back for themselves pretty quickly um, in fuel savings. So, the first one I thought to mention would be devices that would make your truck more aerodynamic.
Troy: Mhm.
Rachel: Um, so you’ve probably seen a bunch of these different ones on the market. The most common one that I’m aware of is the um, side skirt for the trailer. And, you, people can get something along the lines of about 5% um, fuel consumption reduction
Troy: Wow!
Rachel: From just using the side skirt, yeah, assuming you’re driving on the highway a lot. Um another one is your tires; I think people don’t pay as much attention to tires as sometimes as they should. You can get, you can buy when you buy replacement tires or treads, you can get low rolling resistance um, tires that can save approximately 2% in fuel consumption. And then also important to keep your tires perfectly inflated and that’s not expensive to do, but they do actually have automatic tire inflation um, I think the rule of thumb that I’ve heard is about 10 psi below recommended tire pressure is about a 1% fuel penalty.
Troy: Wow.
Rachel: So, you really have to keep your tires inflated.
Rachel: Um, but the third one that’s really important is idling reduction – reducing idling, I mean idling is essentially wasting fuel in my view. You’re probably burning about a gallon of fuel an hour when you’re idling um, and many trucks that I’ve heard, can be burning like a thousand gallons or more per year idling.
Troy: Wow!
Rachel: So, it really adds up. Um, and they have auxiliary power units that you can use if you want to obviously keep your um, in-the-cab power whether you’re hoteling and all of that. There’s also, many truck stops have electrification systems you can use so…
Troy: And just to go back to something you said earlier- you said a lot of these will pay for themselves, is it, um, I think that’s the huge thing for truckers. You know, is it possibly for truckers to be able to become clean drivers without breaking the bank? I think um, I think the initial investment kind of scares some people away. I always think of “oh I wish I had a solar powered house” but then I think of the cost of all the solar panels, you know things like that. So, I think that maybe is a misconception that a lot of drivers have.
Rachel: Yeah. I mean, the, I agree you do have to sort of pay the up-front costs. I think one of the reasons that people are sometimes hesitant to pay that up-front cost is because they’re not necessarily convinced um, that this is going to work for them. And I mean the good news is there are some organizations out there that are actually doing sort of independent testing of a lot of these technologies, so you can have a little bit more confidence like that they systems are going to work for you and um, that they’re going to pay back. I mean I think most of the technologies I just mentioned would pay back for themselves in less than two years and some of them even less than a year.
Troy: And you know, you mentioned a lot of these different technologies, what are some other trends you’re seeing when it comes to transportation? Whether it be you know, new laws or new kind of logistics, procedures um, anything like that.
Rachel: Well, I just, the biggest trend and I kind of mentioned this at the beginning um, in the move towards decarbonization is I think we’re going to be seeing over the next two years, some of the sort of electrified or zero emission technologies finally moving into the regional and long-haul sector. Um, I don’t know if you’ve been following any of these announcements, we’ve seen this company Nicola that’s making a fuel cell long-haul truck.
Troy: Mhm.
Rachel: Um, Tesla’s coming to the market with a battery/electric truck, and even some of the regular OM’s are offering class 7 and 8 electric trucks. So, I think that’s going to be something to watch, and that’s something I’m excited about.
Troy: Well awesome! Rachel, thank you for joining us on the podcast, is there anything else you’d like to add? Anything coming up? New initiatives for ICCT?
Rachel: Um, that’s a good question. I don’t really have anything else on this to add, we’re just going to be continuing to work on um yeah, improving truck efficiency and reducing emissions in markets around the world.
Troy: Awesome, well thank you. Once again that’s Rachel Muncrief from the International Council on Clean Transportation. Rachel thanks so much!
Rachel: Thank you!
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