This year saw a higher cost of doing business for fleet owners and owner-operators. Fuel prices were high, spot and contract rates were low, and there was little freight to spread around. For some fleets, making ends meet required changing operational flows and increasing fuel efficiency to save money. For fleets in California and other states that are strict on GHG emissions, fleets also had to prepare for and abide by emissions regulations.
These factors played a role in FleetOwner's Top 10 most-read Emissions & Efficiency articles of 2023. From federal and state regulations to the most fuel-efficient concept trucks ever built, the stories below were what our readers cared about and found the most interesting.
10. How fleets can prep for California's Clean Truck Check program
The commercial vehicle industry has known California will enforce tighter emissions regulations for years. The time to act for fleets operating out West is dwindling. The state's Clean Truck Check program, enacted to ensure commercial vehicles' emissions control systems operate as designed and are quickly repaired when not, was approved by the California Air Resources Board in December 2021.
"Essentially, the California Air Resources Board is enacting a new emissions regulation that's requiring all non-gasoline heavy-duty vehicles with a Class 4 gross weight rating of 14,000 lbs. or higher to pass an emissions inspection in order to operate in California," explained Bill Hathaway, chief product officer for Noregon, a provider of heavy-duty diagnostic tools and software. In a recent webinar on FleetOwner affiliate Fleet Maintenance, he spoke about the Clean Truck Check program. (Noregon also has an in-depth program overview on its website.) Read more...
9. Veteran drivers teach how to reach 10 MPG at MATS 2023
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky—With diesel prices still averaging over $4, fleets and owner-operators alike are always looking for ways to cut fuel costs. Three drivers who, during NACFE’s first Run on Less event, achieved more than 10 miles per gallon on their trucks, advised an audience of drivers and trucking stakeholders on how to get the most from every drop of fuel at the Mid-America Trucking Show. Read more...
8. Werner CEO: 'We're going to stay tech-agnostic' rather than commit to electrics
Shaky financials and pressing infrastructure questions are keeping Werner Enterprises Inc. from making sizable bets on electric trucks, Chairman, President, and CEO Derek Leathers told a recent investment bank conference.
Speaking to the Morgan Stanley Laguna gathering earlier this month, Leathers reiterated his team’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint by 55% by 2035 but added that getting there won’t be about committing to electrics for the No. 13 company on the 2023 FleetOwner 500: For-Hire list, particularly because of the costs involved now and into the future. Read more...
7. Biden administration OKs California waivers to mandate electric trucks
The Biden administration has granted California the authority to mandate that half of all new heavy-duty vehicles sold in the state are electric by 2035.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on March 31 approved two Clean Air Act waivers that will require truck manufacturers to accelerate their sales of zero-emission vehicles (ZEV), setting increasing ZEV manufacturing standards starting from 2024 through 2035. California’s Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule requires that truck manufacturers increase new zero-emission truck sales to 55% for Classes 2-3, 75% for Classes 4-8, and 40% for semi-tractors by 2035. Read more...
6. Zap! Depot operations show electric truck potential growing
Small trucking depots are ripe for electrification, while larger distribution centers need upgraded electrical grids to power future fleet operations, according to the North American Council for Freight Efficiency's latest findings. The findings include the first third-party report on the performance of Tesla Semi EVs in real-world fleet operations.
Small depots operating smaller EVs, such as vans, medium-duty trucks, and a few heavy-duty could be electrified more quickly, according to Mike Roeth, NACFE's executive director. "But this challenge of getting power to the site is big," he told FleetOwner. "It's bigger than we thought. It's more challenging than we thought." Read more...
5. Charging infrastructure holds back EV truck production, deployment
As decarbonization interests—and pressures—intensify within the trucking industry, it's becoming more apparent that creating the infrastructure needed to power the future heavy-duty vehicles that fuel the U.S. economy won't just take money. It is going to take time.
Trucking's current fueling network is so ingrained in the fabric of America that many might not recall what it took to create after the industry switched from gasoline to diesel as its primary fuel in the 1950s. "The truck stops started building out in the '70s," Craig Harper, chief sustainability officer at J.B. Hunt, said during Manifest 2023. "So they've had 50 years to develop this network of infrastructure that we all benefit from." Read more...
4. International SuperTruck II hits 16 MPG
Navistar has revealed the results of the International SuperTruck II, a project in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). International SuperTruck II demonstrates 16 miles-per-gallon fuel efficiency through hybridization and a 170% improvement in freight efficiency, among other advancements over the previous International SuperTruck I. It does so utilizing technical approaches to weight reduction from rolling resistance technologies, aerodynamic improvements, and powertrain technologies, according to a Navistar press release.
"With co-funding by the DOE, Navistar engineers experimented with prospective technologies not currently available in the Class 8 truck market to accelerate the impact of sustainable mobility," said Russ Zukouski, chief engineer of global innovation and principal investigator for the Supertruck programs. "The team concentrated its design on high-voltage electrification, utilizing hybrid technology on a path toward full electrification that has the potential to be commercialized in fully electric vehicles and improve customers' total cost of ownership (TCO) and business operations." Read more...
3. Bosch ramps up trucking's hydrogen future
STUTTGART, Germany—Bosch is focused on the future at its most historic plant.
Nikola trucks in the U.S. will be the first to receive Bosch fuel-cell power modules, which have begun volume production here at the company’s Stuttgart-Feuerbach plant, it announced during a U.S. press tour of the company’s oldest facility. Read more...
2. Freightliner's SuperTruck II previews diesel's more efficient future
LAS VEGAS—Diesel might not be powering long-haul tractor-trailers decades from now. But the fuel will continue to be the primary energy source for over-the-road freight transportation for the rest of this decade. North America's largest truck maker showed off ways that it plans to squeeze every ounce of efficiency out of a gallon of diesel over the coming years.
With advanced aerodynamics, low-rolling resistance tires, powertrain improvements, and energy management with advanced technologies, Daimler Truck North America has built its most efficient diesel-powered truck in history. It can even roll down the highway without the engine running, thanks to its EcoSail system. Read more...
1. Plug Power previews the potential of a green hydrogen highway
ROCHESTER, New York—About 100 miles from Niagara Falls, where Nikola Tesla’s hydroelectric power plant design—a landmark in renewable energy—was first implemented (way back in 1895), a hydrogen energy solutions provider called Plug Power is building out one of this century’s most ambitious energy projects: a green hydrogen highway.
Green hydrogen is created using only renewable energy such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric to power the electrolyzers that separate water into hydrogen and oxygen using anodes and cathodes. The Albany-based Plug makes those, along with the fuel cells that convert hydrogen fuel and air into electricity. Currently, most hydrogen is made using natural gas—via steam method reformation—to power the electrolyzers, but Plug hopes the green variation will catch on as countries and companies try to reach carbon neutrality. Read more...
