Archive for the ‘Trucking & Saving $ In the News’ Category

The statement below is from a maintenance man who works for his state’s Department of Transportation about the results of an Autotherm System that he installed in a Class 8 Volvo used as a snow plow in the mountains of that state in January of 2007.

“This is a follow-up to the installation of the Autotherm system onto… a Volvo 10 yard truck on January 11th and 12th.

After getting the truck back to the junction on the 12th, I installed an hour meter under the dash that tracks the time the key is off and the Autotherm is functioning.

I had initially estimated that the idle time per day would be at least 4 hours, figuring 2 shifts a day that include two lunch breaks, four mid-shift breaks, plus time spent washing the truck at the end of each shift.

After six days the meter showed that the system had been used for 32.5 hours.

On February 5th the meter reading was at 130.5hours. That equates to 24 days since installation, with an average daily use of 5.43 hours.

The charts shown us at the class prior to the installation listed that these Volvo engines use approximately 1.5 gallons of fuel per hour idling. This comes to at least 8 gallons of fuel savings per day. I’m not aware of the cost per gallon of fuel that the state pays, but, figuring $2.50 per gallon that comes to around $20.00 each day in savings for fuel only.

The initial cost after installation for each unit should be about $710. This is on a single unit cost of about $530 and about 3 hours for our installation at $60 per hour for a total labor of $180.

This means that at the current use of the system the savings in fuel alone will pay for the unit and the installation in approximately 36 days on double shifts or 72 days on single shift.

There are other pluses to this system being installed. Such as less fuel dilution into the crankcase and more even cooling of the engine cylinders after shut down resulting in less hot spots on the liners, which should result in better engine life.

With diesel fuel at $4 per gallon, truckers say slowing down saves money during the summer months

BISMARCK, N.D. – Coast-to-coast trucker Lorraine Dawson says fellow drivers used to call her “Lead Foot Lorraine.” But with diesel fuel around $4 a gallon, she and other big-rig drivers have backed off their accelerators to conserve fuel.

“I used to be a speed demon, but no more,” said Dawson, based at Tacoma, Wash. “Most drivers have cut their speed considerably.”

Dawson said she’s cut her speed by five to 10 miles per hour to save money for her company. Many independent owner-operators have slowed even more, she said.

“My fiance is an owner-operator and he’s been crying a lot about the price of fuel,” Dawson said. “He’s been slowing way down.”

Truckers and industry officials say slowing a tractor-trailer rig from 75 mph to 65 mph increases fuel mileage by more than a mile a gallon, a significant bump for machines that get less than 10 miles per gallon hauling thousands of pounds of freight. Even sitting still with the engine idling, a rig gulps about a gallon of diesel every hour.

“We just can’t afford it,” Dawson said of diesel as she was topping off her fuel tanks at a Bismarck truck stop.

When she started driving trucks in 1997, diesel was about $1.97 a gallon, $2 a gallon cheaper than what she paid Wednesday in Bismarck. Rigs like hers have two fuel tanks, typically holding 300 gallons each.

Fuel costs surpass labor costs
The nationwide average for a gallon of diesel on Thursday was $4.03, up from $2.74 one year earlier, AAA North Dakota spokesman Gene LaDoucer said. The average in North Dakota on Thursday was $3.98, up from $2.82 a year ago, he said.

“Twenty-four states are paying $4 or higher,” LaDoucer said Thursday.

The climb is blamed on record crude oil prices and global demand, LaDoucer said.

“Diesel is the predominate fuel used in foreign countries, and there is a lot more demand for it globally and that helps bid up the price that we are paying here,” LaDoucer said.

Fuel accounts for about a quarter of carriers’ operating costs, and now is surpassing labor as the biggest expense for some carriers, said Tiffany Wlazlowski, a spokeswoman for the Arlington, Va.-based American Trucking Associations.

“And rising fuel costs do increase the cost of consumer goods,” she said.

Trucks haul 70 percent of all freight tonnage in the U.S., according to the American Trucking Associations.

State troopers have noticed the decline in truckers’ speeds, said North Dakota Highway Patrol Capt. Eric Pederson.

“We see it when we’re out patrolling,” Pederson said. “In talking to the drivers, a lot of the large companies are setting policies that give the drivers a little more leeway on the time on their loads — just to save on the fuel.”

Anything to save fuel
Wlazlowski said the U.S trucking industry expects to spend $135 billion on diesel this year, up from $112 billion in 2007. There are 3.5 million truck drivers in this country, she said.

“For every one-penny increase in the price of diesel, it costs our industry $391 million,” she said. “In the last month, it’s gone up 50 cents.”

Wlazlowski said the trucking industry does “anything that will help them save fuel.” She said that includes outfitting trucks with aerodynamic fairings and special tires to improve mileage. Drivers also are using more efficient routes and reducing idling times.

Trucking company Con-way Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., announced this month that it adjusted speed governors on the engines of the 8,400 semis in its less-than-truckload division, Con-way Freight.

Truckload carriers usually dedicate a shipment to a single customer, and move freight directly from the shipper to the receiver. Less-than-truckload carriers are filled with shipments from multiple customers, and may redistribute it at terminals along routes.

Con-way spokesman Gary Frantz said the maximum speed of the trucks has been cut from 65 mph to 62, a move that should cut fuel consumption by 3.2 million gallons a year.

“It’s a significant savings,” Frantz said.

The company said the move also would eliminate 72 million pounds of carbon emissions annually, or the equivalent to removing nearly 7,300 automobiles from U.S. highways.

Frantz said the company should have the governors on the 3,000 rigs in its truckload fleet adjusted next month.

original msnbc article