KLLM Transport Services LLC recently received Chiquita’s 2009 Green Transportation Excellence Award. KLLM was awarded this honor based on programs the company has in place to improve fuel efficiency, reduce emissions, and be as environmentally conscious as possible.
Some of the efforts that led to receipt of this award are:
•An active, three-year member of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay Transport Partnership, KLLM maintains the highest possible SmartWay score of 1.25.
•In the past three years, the firm has invested millions of dollars to improve its overall fuel usage and reduce its carbon footprint. Improvements include:
—Auxiliary power units, which reduce engine idle, installed on 631 trucks, representing 54% of its fleet.
—Tire monitoring/inflation systems that improve fuel economy and provide less tire wear.
—Aluminum wheels to improve fuel economy due to 400-lb reduction in truck/trailer weight.
—Equipment aerodynamics: farings, low-friction mirrors, and bumpers, all to improve fuel economy.
—Low-friction engine lubricants.
•KLLM has paid more than a million dollars in fuel economy bonuses over the year to drivers who meet stringent idle reduction goals. In the past year alone, the carrier’s overall fleet idling has been reduced from 34% to 19%.
•In the past 12 months, the firm has performed clean idle air upgrades to all of its tractor engines. All of its engines are now fully compliant with California’s nitrogen oxide emission requirements.
•In April 2008, the carrier modified its engine computer software to reduce maximum attainable truck speed to 62 mph. Their mpg has improved three tenths of a mile per gallon in the past 12 months.
•Beginning in January 2009, KLLM decided to equip all of its new tractors with Detroit Diesel’s latest engine model that meets the EPA’s 2010 requirements.
•The company has partnered with Mississippi State University (MSU) to test and prototype green technologies and actively supply them with tractors and trailers for this purpose. Working with the MSU mechanical engineering department, this carrier has played a part in further exploration of battery-powered cab cooling systems, no-idle and start/stop technologies, and electric reefer power generation driven from the primary truck engine.
Visit www.kllm.com for further information.
