Heavy Duty Trucking magazine is back this year with its annual list of the top 50 Green truck fleets in the US, and as usual it's an interesting read.
The honorees are selected by Heavy Duty Trucking's editors. Candidates for the award are gathered through an on-line nomination process, as well as by using information gathered through press releases, news stories, websites, case studies, and other publicly available sources of information. All types and sizes of fleets are eligible, as long as they run medium- or heavy-duty commercial vehicles.
As usual, it's an eclectic mix. It includes several of the largest for higher carriers or delivery firms (e.g., FedEx, Schneider, UPS), large private fleets (e.g., Frito-Lay), several municipal fleets, and a number of small trucking firms, such as Gartner Trucking out of Findlay, OH, which operates about 100 tractors.
There is no attempt to rank the winners, but each carrier/fleet is given a short description of its efforts in Sustainability. You can find the full list here, but the 50 honorees for 2016 in alphabetical order are as follows:
• A. Duie Pyle
• Altom Transport
• AmeriPride Services
• B&B Trucking
• Carbon Express
• Cargo Transporters
• City of Columbus, OH
• City of Long Beach
• Cooper Freight
• Dillon Transport
• FCA Transport
• FedEx
• Frito-Lay
• Garner Trucking
• Groupe Robert
• Hawaii Electric Light
• Halvor Lines
• Hazmat Environmental Group
• H.O. Wolding
• Interstate Distributor Co.
• JNJ Express
• Knight Transportation
• Kuperus Trucking
• Kwik Trip
• M&M Cartage
• Matheson Trucking
• Meijer Logistic
• Melton Truck Lines
• Navajo Express
• Nussbaum Transportation
• NFI
• City of New York
• Ozinga
• Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
• Ploger Transportation
• Quest Global
• RRR Transportation
• Republic Services
• REV Hoopes Trucking
• Saddle Creek Logistics Service
• Schneider
• Sharp Transport
• Sheehy Mail Contractors
• Swift Transportation
• System Freight Inc.
• UPS
• Ursa Logistics
• U.S. Xpress Enterprises
• Waste Management
• Western Flyer Express
Below, we highlight some of the more interesting actions some of these 50 fleets have taken in going Green.
Tanker carrier Carbon Express of Wharton, New Jersey has no sleeper cabs and puts drivers up in hotels each night, eliminating overnight idling.
Cooper Freight of Memphis, Tennessee is a big believer in requiring drivers to maintain fuel efficient driving habits, and uses telematics and data to track and enforce things like not deploying TrailerTail fairings or excessive idling.
FCA Transport of Detroit, Michigan - the US fleet for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles – is investing $40 million to transition all 179 of the Class 8 tractors at its Detroit Terminal to CNG. The company spent $1.8 million to update the maintenance facility to handle CNG. The $5 million on-site CNG fueling station is believed to be the largest private CNG station in North America.
FedEx intends to increase fuel efficiency in its fleet by 30% by 2020 by increasing the number of alternative-fuel vehicles, shifting freight to rail, and optimizing routing.
At Garner Trucking, no fluids leave the maintenance facility: antifreeze is recycled on site for reuse as add fluid for the tractors, the shop is heated with used motor oil, and cleaning products can be used for heat or are biodegradable.
At JNJ Express of Memphis, Tennessee, extensive training makes drivers up to 30% more fuel efficient.
Navajo Express of Denver, Colorado, a food distributor, got permission from Colorado and surrounding states for 57-foot trailers to allow more freight to be hauled with the same number of trucks.
Saddle Creek Logistics Services of Lakeland, Florida, an early adopter of natural gas trucks, is exploring the potential of the "near zero" ultra-low NOx heavy-duty engine.
In January, UPS will deploy 200 new hybrid electric delivery trucks.
U.S. Xpress Enterprises of Chattanooga, Tennessee works with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the SimCenter for Computational Engineering to use computer simulation models to test truck prototypes before they are manufactured.
Lots of Green activity by carriers and fleets for sure, though some noted the continued low price of diesel fuel has slowed some programs a bit.
What did you find interesting in these actions by Green fleets? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button below.
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