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The Trucking Industry's Secret Future

Posted by Tom Lombardo | Thu, Jul 09, 2015 @ 04:00 PM

Trucking_Movie_Convoy_Kris_KristoffersonTruckers love their industry, and a line in Michael Ray’s hit “Kiss You in the Morning” might just sum up the way most of them feel about their rig and the open road:

Oh, you little outlaw,

Stealing my heart and all…

Of course it’s much nicer to have your heart stolen than broken, and now that the recession heartbreak is finally fading, the trucking industry has set about stealing hearts at a great pace. It’s been adding jobs for the last three years, and just last month it broke a pre-recession record by adding another 7,400.

Truck sales are booming too, with analysts expecting a 17% increase in diesel truck sales this year – but there’s a lot changing in the market because of regulations and because of customer’s corporate policies.

Extreme Green

Both of those forces are trying to reduce trucking’s impact on the environment. At the bleeding edge of these efforts, Daimler just finished the successful testing of a fleet of electric trucks in Europe and found that their designers were on the right track to meet the needs of some urban fleets.

Natural gas-powered trucks are also gaining market share, especially in the South where the refueling infrastructure is more mature. United Parcel Service bought another 300 this year, and by year’s end natural gas will power about 2% of their fleet.

Interestingly, meeting demand is their main motivation for making this investment. Wal-Mart, Office Depot, Lowe’s and Procter & Gamble have corporate policies aimed at reducing their carbon footprint, and so they need their trucking suppliers to use natural gas.

Meeting government regulations motivates OEMs and dealers as well. In June the EPA issued new standards intended to cut carbon dioxide pollution largely through fuel efficiency. They estimated that it would take two years for an owner to recoup the cost of environmental upgrades through fuel cost savings – indicating that it expects the second half of a truck’s typical four-year lifespan to produce increased margins for the owner.

After they’re implemented (the process runs through 2027) the standards will cut a billion metric tons of CO2 emissions every year – about equal to the entire footprint of U.S. residential power consumption. As Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told the Wall Street Journal, “Once upon a time, to be pro-environment you had to be anti-big-vehicles. [These standards] will change that.”

Green that Makes Green

The trucking industry loves the environment, too, and many think they can reduce their CO2 footprint with a payback faster than two years.

In fact, 37% of medium and heavy-duty diesel trucks in the U.S. already have cleaner diesel engines. More than one fifth have the very latest clean diesel engines, and the ones manufactured since 2007 have zero particulate emissions and zero NOX emissions.

Reducing CO2 even more means increasing fuel efficiency as much as possible, and all the experimental trucks mine aerodynamics for a quick improvement.

One innovator thinks he can modify an off-the-shelf big rig to get 11 miles per gallon – nearly twice the average. He’s putting over twenty modifications on his latest experiment -- including the innovative rear-axle aerodynamic shield in the photo -- and he believes that he’ll get a payback in only 18 months.

Rear_Axle_Aerodynamic_Shield

Other innovations, such as vehicle-to-vehicle communication enabling very tight convoys, may be on the horizon too, enabling fleet operators or even teams of fleet operators to dramatically reduce fuel consumption over long distance hauls. Same goes for six-axle rigs that can haul heavier loads with less fuel than the two trucks it would take to make the same trip.

Three Guarantees

However these improvements play out over the coming months, there are three things we can guarantee:

First, every great idea for the future of the industry will be on display at The Great American Trucking Show in Dallas, between August 27-29.

Second, no matter where you are in the trucking industry supply chain, you’re going to handle a lot of checks, and many of them will be for four or five figures. Why risk that revenue when you could guarantee it?

Check Guarantee Insider's Guide

 

While you’re at it, why not add another green feather to your cap? Remote deposit capture lets you deposit checks immediately at your point of sale, eliminating unproductive banking errands while improving accuracy and the speed of your cash flow.

And third, we’re certain that the Red Eye Radio’s Trucker Talent Search at the Dallas show will be especially gripping this year. Just listen to one of the contestants make his truck cabin sound like the coolest back road dance hall you’ve ever visited:

 

 

 

Written by Tom Lombardo