Idle Conversation
Shutdown the engine, not the truck.
Deborah Whistler
Editor
Truckers are truckers, whether they own their rigs or not. And we all know they are just about the most difficult group of people to get to agree about anything. Actually, that's one of the things I like about drivers.
But whose attention were truckers trying to get when they shut down the freeways of Los Angeles in protest of fuel prices? (And let me make this perfectly clear: With the average price of diesel in California a whopping 53 cents a gallon higher than everywhere else, I sympathize).
But did it help anything? Let's get real. The media makes truckers look foolish. The politicians only care if they happened to be driving on that particular freeway when it was shut down. And neither group could do anything about fuel prices anyway. All truckers did with that exercise in discontent was offend the public, a powerful segment that might even be able to help if there was a clear message to take to them.
Fuel prices are one of the few areas where truckers can expect public understanding and support. One thing four-wheelers do understand is the bottom line at the pump. But blockading the freeways is not the way to get that message across.
What's the answer? They almost got it right — shut 'em down. But not on the open highway. If you want to benefit the public, the environment and your bottom line, shut 'em down when they're parked.
Excessive idling is the problem. If truckers had a means to keep their environment cool in the summer and warm in the winter, they wouldn't need to keep their rigs running virtually 24/7. Many drivers idle just 'cause that's what truckers do. Fleets need to put a stop to the practice, for more reasons than one.
Here's what it's costing your company and the environment:
According to EPA, a big rig consumes up to one gallon of diesel fuel for each hour at idle, using a much as 2,400 gallons of fuel every year per truck. This totals 1.2 billion gallons of diesel fuel burned every year from idling, costing $1.8 billion (and that's figured at $1.50 per gallon diesel — a thing of the past).
In addition, each idling truck produces an average of about 21 tons of carbon dioxide and 0.3 tons of nitrogen oxides annually. Gasp.
In Europe it's illegal to idle trucks — even while loading and unloading, let alone parked all night. The Europeans probably figured this out earlier since they've been paying at least double for diesel what we do here in the U.S., even at today's escalating prices.
That will probably be the case here as more and more states in the U.S. institute anti-idling regulations.
The key to getting drivers to turn the key off is providing some other power source to run what are known as "hotel" loads: TV, VCR, microwave, refrigerator and — most important in a continent with cold winters and hot summers — the heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
IdleAire is soliciting government funds to put their system — which provides heating and cooling, as well as computer connections and many other driver amenities — in several truckstops. But IdleAire will require a tremendous infrastructure. And even if it were available in every truckstop in America (which it probably won't be since many truckstops are reportedly opposed to the system), it won't be available at every parking space, so it would only make a dent in the idling problem.
Most of the best minds in the industry are working on onboard solutions. At the Louisville truck show, Bibendum Challenge and elsewhere, we've seen promising and existing technologies that can help achieve zero idling. That will save fuel. And it will achieve EPA's emissions targets much faster — and for much less money — than reinventing the diesel engine, a proposition that's costing the trucking industry billions in R&D, new engine costs and lost fuel economy.
The new cab comfort technologies can only improve your bottom line. With a thousand truckers going out of business for every 10-cent increase in the price of diesel, shore power or onboard solutions are clearly the answer.
So shut it down.
The engine, that is. Not the truck.
E-mail Deb at dwhistler@truckinginfo.com
