At NACFE we’re all about improving freight efficiency, and for the past nine years we've been focused mostly on over-the-road tractors and trailers. While much heavy-duty trucking pop culture revolves around long-haul sleeper tractors, we know there are other segments out there—one of which is a big and possibly growing segment that rarely gets the attention it deserves.
That’s why we’ve decided to focus on regional haul for our second Run on Less event. As you may recall in 2017 we completed Run on Less, the first ever cross-country fuel efficiency road show. Seven trucks hauled real freight over real routes for three weeks, covering over 50,000 miles and achieved an overall 10.1 mpg average.
"Run on Less-Regional," as we are tentatively calling it, is in the very, very early stages of planning.
Here’s what we have so far:
- We will be focusing on regional haul, which we are defining as goods movement conducted by Class 8 tractors in a daily range of about 300 miles.
- The goal is to determine the "best of the best" efficiency when it comes to regional haul and map technologies and specs to that performance. We also plan to discover, detail, and discuss specific dynamics of this segment.
- Expect NACFE to “amp up” data collection and reporting as well as the audience experience of the Run.
The regional market is a growing segment as fleets struggle with driver attraction and retention. In day-cab regional haul operations the driver gets home every night and with sleepers, drivers are home every other night or on weekends. Time home is something today’s driver values. Length of hauls are decreasing, and we also wonder if connectivity and other technologies may enable more freight to be hauled in this manner.
At this point, we want to hear from those of you who have an interest in regional haul to get your input on what we should be doing. What duty cycles do we need to include? What should we measure when it comes to fuel efficiency in regional haul? What should this Run look like? Feel free to play devil’s advocate and ask us some tough questions so we can put together a Run that has value to the participants and the industry as a whole.
Once we set the parameters for the Run, we’ll be looking for fleets that want to participate in it. We’ll be contacting some later, but feel free to let me know now if you are interested. We’ll start a list. Our goal is to have 10 fleets participate and share their data with us.
As a non-profit, NACFE relies on support of the industry to help us complete our work. This is no different, so I am asking all of you to help us make this a reality — you can help by being a Run on Less Regional sponsor. I can be reached at [email protected] or 260-750-0106.
All of us at NACFE are excited about this new opportunity and hope to be able to bring it over the finish line some time in the fall of 2019. With the help of the industry, I know we can do that while educating the industry about the growing opportunities in dedicated regional haul goods movement and sharing efficiency technologies and practices that work best in this segment.
We look forward to your interest, involvement, and support.
