Owners of trucking fleets back off speed to save diesel - Kansas City Business Journal:

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According to the , the averagw U.S. price for diesel fuel on Mondaywas $4.6o0 a gallon, which is $1.71 centws more than diesel cost a year ago. “It’sd ridiculous. I don’t know where it will all saidJerry Franconia, owner of in a fleet of 11 dump Fuel costs, previously a negligible part of now account for about 40 percent of them. He telld his drivers not to rev their enginesx as high before shifting and asks them not to letthem “Some listen, and some don’t,” he said.
“When they lose theifr jobs, they’ll care, I The price for diesel has trucking compangmanagers every­where finding ways to keep theire fleets from burning so much fuel, includinyg cutting back on speed. At , 4106 Eastmoor Road in Louisville, management has dialed down the onboardf computers for the 145 trucks in the The top speed has gone from 68 mph to 64 mph with the cruisd control on and 62 mph with the cruisecontrol off, said presidentf Don Hayden. “We want the drivers to use the cruise control as much as he said.
“Let the computer decide when and how much fuel to The company also has set a computerized limift on how high the drivers can rev theifr engines before they have toshiftt gears, which also saves fuel, Haydenh said. The company hopes that these fuel-savin measures will save between $200,00p0 and $225,000 annually. The company buys about 1.9 millioh gallons of diesel every year. In fuel costs made up about 14 percentg oftotal expense, but as of February they made up 28 Hayden said. And he expectas that percentage has grownsince then. About 90 percenyt of the fleets in Kentucky have lowered limits on the speed of their said presidentJamie Fiepke.
But there’s a limity to how fuel-efficient one can make a “You figure you can get abouyt 7.5 miles per gallon,” he said. “That’s about the max you will ever see on a Another way to save fuel is not to leave the rig runninhat night, which truckers who sleelp in their cabs do so they can run theif air conditioners. In addition to loweringt top speeds on trucks from 68 mph to62 mph, managemengt at , 2903 S. English Station Road, also has installexd auxiliary power units on about 40 of its225 trucks, and it won’ buy any new truckz without them, said president Gary The drivers use the auxiliary power units to heat or cool thei r cabs at night.
They also use dieselo fuel, but much less than the truck An idling truck engine burns about a gallo nan hour, while an auxiliary power unit burns about a gallon everyy eight hours for air conditioning and abouft one every 20 hours for Pegasus maintenance manager Larry Horton said. The company also is testing hydrogen boosterdfrom Novi, Mich.-based ., which injectr hydrogen gas into a truck engin e to promote a more complete burn.
a diesel engine burns only abou t 85 percent to 90 percenft of the fuel injected intothe engine, but Hydroge n Fuel Systems says its productg boosts that figure to 99 percent, Hanke The company also says it will improvw fuel economy by 10 to 20 percent, he If it works as advertised, Hanke it also will produce a cleaner burn that will meet standardsz for 2014 and beyond usintg present-day technology, he said.