The American Transportation Research Institute’s Analysis of the Operational Cost of Trucking report is always an insightful read, and the 2024 update is no different.
I used the new report's occasion to look at the average mpg for all trucks in the U.S. and noticed a couple of interesting things.
While the cost per mile is rather flat, if you look at it over time, today’s fuel costs remain near the 10-year high in cost of fuel per truck. No matter how much fuel costs, it still represents a significant portion of a fleet’s operating budget. As a result, anything a fleet can do to get even a tenth of a mile more from a gallon of diesel is money to the bottom line.
After looking at the ATRI report, I downloaded the International Fuel Tex Association’s data on annual vehicle distance traveled in miles. The report not only has data on average miles traveled but also information on average fuel consumed. However, the number that really caught my attention was the average miles traveled per gallon of fuel consumed. ATRI also asked survey respondents to share their average fuel economy in mpg using real IFTA miles driven divided by gallons of fuel purchased.
I was pleased to see how much the average mileage per gallon has increased; it's up to 6.91. While ATRI collected data by vehicle weight, the average mpg for vehicles weighing 30,000 to 100,000 lbs. was approximately 7 mpg.
See also: Roeth: Moving the MPG needle is part of decarbonization
Either way, this is a big jump and very exciting, but it surprised the NACFE team of data analysts. So, we will dig deeper into these numbers to understand them better. Stay tuned for an update.
Clearly, the days of under 5 mpg are gone. This improvement is likely the result of more aerodynamic vehicles coming out of the factory coupled with the fact that fleets are investing in other aerodynamic devices for both their tractors and their trailers.
Additionally, they are likely investing in other fuel efficiency technologies, such as low rolling resistance tires and idle reduction devices, while at the same time making some operational changes. Those include things like optimizing engine parameters for fuel economy, optimizing routing, and coaching drivers to operate their vehicles with fuel efficiency in mind.
While I'm happy that the average mpg number is up, I know that it can be even better. There are many examples that show us that even higher mpg is possible. The fleets in NACFE’s 2022 Fleet Fuel Study achieved 7.23 mpg, and those in Run on Less 2017 averaged 10.1 mpg. It’s important to point out that on some days of the Run, trucks reached 12.5 and 13.0 mpg in long haul applications. The fleets in Run on Less Regional averaged 8.3 mpg in regional haul duty cycles.
We are in the early days of gathering data for the next Fleet Fuel Study, which we will publish later this year. It will be interesting to see not only which technologies the participating fleets are investing in but also whether their average mpg is up as well.
I'm going to take this opportunity to ask fleets that have not already provided data for the Fleet Fuel Study to consider doing so. The more data we get, the better. The Fleet Fuel Study is a great benchmarking tool that all fleets can use to help make decisions on which fuel efficiency technologies make sense for their operation. If you are willing to share your data, which we aggregate and anonymize, let me know and someone on the NACFE team will walk you through the process.
It's great to see fleets making investments that are leading to fuel savings. Remember, using less fuel by getting more miles from a gallon of diesel is decarbonizing, and that is an added bonus for all of us.
