Emissions & Efficiency

Branson discusses trucking industry, improving fuel efficiency

June 22, 2015

Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, discusses in his blog one of the steepest costs the trucking industry faces – fuel. “In North America alone, tractor-trailer fleets spend $105 billion per year on fuel,” Branson says. He continues on to say that the industry can save $40 billion a year by improving fuel efficiency. Branson, founder of the Carbon War Room, has been working with the North American Council for Freight Efficiency to form Trucking Efficiency to address high fuel costs and promote greater fuel efficiency. Branson says Trucking Efficiency independently evaluates around 70 technologies and shares unbiased information with the industry for free.Michael Roeth, executive director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency, said in today’s IdeaXchange that Branson “was excited to hear about the progress we are making with Truck Efficiency and the opportunities that are emerging with respect to advanced technologies coming to the real world with Super Trucks and with the game-changing opportunities on the horizon, like platooning and autonomous trucks." Both Branson and Roeth cited the proposed levels of efficiency that were released in the second round of the greenhouse gas emissions standards on Friday, June 19. The EPA and NHSTA predict a 24% fuel economy improvement by 2027, using technologies that they believe will have a two-year payback.