It can be easy to focus on all the things you still need to do when you're involved in a project that will take years, or even decades, to complete rather than taking a look back at what you have achieved.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the journey to decarbonizing freight movement is long, and there are many obstacles that need to be overcome before all freight is moved by zero-emission vehicles. The good news is that a lot of really smart, talented, passionate, committed people are working on it.
I am confident that we will get there, but I think we've already made tremendous strides toward that clean future. When we first started looking for fleets that could meet the criteria for Run on Less—Electric Depot, we were concerned we would not find enough fleets that were both willing and able to participate. But we did find 10 fleets that already had 15 or more trucks at their depots and a host of other fleets that "were this close" to meeting our criteria. Our goal is to highlight some of those "almost there" fleets in a series of profiles of emerging fleets on the Run on Less website later this year.
For now, we are highlighting the 10 Run participants. As our talented videographer James Brown sends me fleet profile videos for the website, I get reenergized about the cool things fleets are doing on their road to zero. How can you not be excited by Schneider's promise to have 92 electric vehicles deployed at its South El Monte, California depot by September? What about OK Produce's massive investment in solar that helped it deploy 10 eCascadias and three Orange EV terminal tractors and to soon take delivery of seven Volvo EVs? Or Performance Team operating second-generation electric Volvo VNRs two shifts a day, and Pepsi deploying Tesla Semis with heavy loads in long-haul applications? Or WattEV running Nikola Tre BEVs and operating a charging hub, and Penske building infrastructure that can charge all the models being deployed.
See also: Visiting these fleets is like being a kid in a candy store
There will be more exciting achievements to learn about as we continue to post videos of the remaining Run on Less fleets.
Each of these fleets and all the other fleets that are taking steps—both big and small—to begin to untangle the challenges of battery-electric trucks in all aspects of trucking are inspirational.
I am not sticking my head in the sand and saying that the road to zero is easy. However, I am going to take a few minutes to shift my focus from the journey ahead of us to savor the challenges we've already conquered and the achievements that we have made.
Those of you involved in or interested in trucking's role in helping to create a cleaner future should take a moment to look at just how far we have come. Take a minute to celebrate our achievements, and use the good feelings generated from our early success to propel us to tackle the challenges ahead with renewed vigor.
Here's to us and all we have already done.
Michael Roeth has worked in the commercial vehicle industry for nearly 30 years, most recently as executive director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE). He serves on the second National Academy of Sciences Committee on Technologies and Approaches for Reducing the Fuel Consumption of Medium and Heavy-Duty Vehicles and has held various positions in engineering, quality, sales, and plant management with Navistar and Behr/Cummins.
