Needless Idling
Governments Getting Serious About Shutting Them Down.
Tom Berg
Equipment Editor
The sight, sound and smell of big-rig diesels chugging away at truckstops, rest areas and loading docks upsets government officials, and they're getting serious about bringing the practice to an end. As a result, truckers can expect more anti-idling ordinances across the land and greater enforcement of laws already on the books.
That's the claim of officials who met at a National Idle Reduction Planning Conference in Albany, N.Y., two months ago. Their declared goal is to save fuel and offer clean air to neighbors and truckers alike. Also in attendance were industry representatives, including fleet managers working to curtail idling, drivers who face the laws daily, and suppliers offering products that allow truckers to turn off their main engines.
Too Many Rules?
Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have laws against idling of truck and bus engines, said Steve Plotkin, a researcher with Argonne National Laboratory, the meeting's organizer. He noted that new hours of service regulations require drivers to take more time off, which for long-haul truckers means more time in the sleeper. And truck mileage is expected to double by 2020. So idling will only increase unless everyone makes special efforts to curb it.
The growing hodgepodge of state and local regulations is difficult for truck owners and drivers to comprehend — let alone obey — several speakers declared. They urged some agency of the federal government to encourage or even force states and local agencies to set up uniform limits.
Authorities insisted that they distinguish between idling done for a good reason and "needless idling," which happens just because drivers want to idle — or their bosses tell them to. Needless idling is the target of laws and enforcement; it's also the reason for sales of auxiliary power units and sleeper heaters and coolers, plus a growing infrastructure of electrical plug-ins and "off-board" air conditioning systems at truckstops and rest areas.
For the present, both on-board and off-board facilities remain few and far between, so most drivers need to run their engines to stay warm or cool during rest breaks, all participants agreed. There are legitimate concerns by drivers and fleet owners over who will pay for the alternatives, which range from a $1-an-hour plug-in or $40 motel room, to a $1,500 heater or battery inverter or a $7,000 auxiliary power unit.
On-board equipment is heavily taxed at buying time, and the U.S. Congress shows no willingness to offer tax breaks or financial incentives to encourage use of idling alternatives, participants said. The Canadian government offers to pay a portion of the cost of a heater or APU, and the U.S. Congress should do the same, participants agreed. But that's not likely, given hefty federal deficits.
While a lot of idling is necessary, many drivers idle their diesels even when outside temps are pleasant, said Gail Swiger, who with husband, Mike, drives for a linehaul fleet in the South. She characterized many drivers' attitudes as "Why should I care? It hasn't been a problem before. Go pick on someone else."
Buses, Locomotives
Authorities are coming down hard on operators of city buses, school buses and motor coaches, and even railroad locomotives. Representatives of clean-air agencies in Massachusetts and New Jersey, for example, said they've cited transit authorities for hours-long idling of bus engines in yards, and began issuing tickets to tour bus drivers who let their engines idle all day.
Fumes from the buses foul the air, causing statistically higher instances of asthma among neighbors. Such people are often poor and cannot afford to live outside areas surrounding transit and rail yards. But those people have become politically connected and have gained official attention, leading to enforcement of clean-air laws by state groups and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. This has forced some drivers to curb their idling habits.
Executives from two railroads said they've installed equipment to reduce idling of huge, 12- to 20-cylinder diesels in locomotives, especially switch engines, which spend many hours waiting to move cars around yards.
Locomotive diesels are seldom shut down because their cooling systems do not use anti-freeze, and they are hard to start below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, explained Dave Braun, manager of emissions compliance for the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors, one of two major loco builders in North America.
CSX, whose rail lines are mostly in populous Eastern states, has installed auxiliary power units in 1,400 "local" engines to keep diesels warm while they're turned off and keep batteries charged; these use only 13% of the fuel consumed by main engines. One APU saves about 20,000 gallons of fuel a year for the railroad, said Ted Stewart, a CSX systems engineer.
Union Pacific, whose lines run from the Midwest to the West Coast, has fitted start-stop controls to 5,200 of its locomotives, said Mike Iden of the railway's engine department. These don't save as much as APUs, but they cost much less and, since UP leases many of its locos, they won't install APUs in them.
UP has also tested "hybrid" switchers, which use small diesels running at constant RPMs — a relatively efficient and clean mode — to run generators that charge a large bank of batteries. These, in turn, power axle-mounted traction motors.
Tests show that hybrid locomotives use a fraction of the fuel and emit far fewer pollutants than normal diesel-electric switchers whose large diesels run at varying speeds, said Ray Cousineau of Railpower Industries, which designs and builds hybrids.
Ticketing vs. Education
Tour and charter buses idle for hours at a time because drivers believe they must keep interiors cool or warm for passengers. Authorities in the District of Columbia don't buy that, and have outlawed idling while buses wait for passengers to return from touring monuments and government buildings, said Argonne National Labs' Linda Gaines. The fine is usually $800.
Julie Ross, an enforcement coordinator at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and also a part-time tour-bus driver, was asked how authorities can get drivers' attention about idling.
"I got an idling ticket," she laughed. "That'll do it. It got me thinking about it, and now I idle 80% less than the other drivers." She did say, however, that "ticketing should be the last resort," and that drivers should be educated about the noise and fumes they produce and the fuel they burn.
But trucks — especially those with sleepers — remain the main focus of many authorities, including the federal Department of Energy and the EPA, which were among the meeting's co-sponsors. David Conover, a DOE official who helps form government policy, said greenhouse gases, which are blamed for global warming, are another product of needless idling.
Voluntary actions are the best way to curb idling, said Mitchell Greenberg, a coordinator with EPA's Smartway Transportation Partnership. He noted that Schneider National, Swift Transportation, United Parcel Service, FedEx Express and Yellow Freight are among 64 charter members of the partnership, which promises to save millions of gallons of fuel and millions of tons of pollutants. Some 830 million gallons of fuel are consumed by truck engines as they idle each year, and much of it could be avoided.
Effective Appointments
Truck engines are often left idling as vehicles wait in line to load or unload, a situation that can't be avoided unless the queuing process is made more efficient. That is now a requirement at container ports in California, where state law says port operators must set up appointments so no truck has to wait more than 30 minutes in line. Authorities have cited operators at the Port of Oakland for letting lines lengthen beyond that limit, according to published reports.
Clean-air authorities want shippers and receivers to use realistic appointments to reduce waiting times and idling. Enforcement authorities said they know they must get the word to property owners and are trying to do so. A massive education campaign directed at drivers is also needed, and the Federal Highway Administration is planning an advertising campaign. FHWA's Mike Savonis said he is working with ad agencies to design public-service announcements, and the campaign should begin sometime next year.
New York state now limits idling of an unattended truck or bus to five minutes, and signs are posted at truckstops and other areas. Enforcement at the giant Hunt's Point food distribution center in the South Bronx is well under way, with stiff fines for violators.
New Jersey's limits are 15 to 30 minutes, depending on conditions, according to Peg Hanna of the state's Department of Environmental Protection. First-time citations cost $100 to $200, but a fine for a repeat offender is $800 to $1,000. Much current enforcement and most outreach efforts are directed at school bus fleets, because diesel exhaust is especially harmful to children's lungs. State representatives meet with parent-teacher associations and school boards to put pressure on bus operators to shut off engines as soon as they park at schools.
New Jersey's law exempts sleeper-equipped trucks from idling limits because legislators and enforcement people understand that drivers need to stay comfortable to get decent rest, and most drivers do not have alternatives to idling. Hanna's agency is working with industry to install plug-in posts and air-conditioning facilities. IdleAire Industries is obtaining grants to install its equipment in 170 spaces at three New Jersey truckstops.
Truckstop Facilities
IdleAire equipment is now operating at 16 commercial locations in the U.S., and Tom Badgett, the company's chief information officer, said the devices will be at 250 locations by the end of next year. Each space costs about $15,000 to install, but this is offset by government grants, which IdleAire has received from several state and federal agencies.
IdleAire's gantry-mounted heating and air-conditioning units push filtered and treated air through tubes into customers' cabs, and also provide AC power and hookups for television and the Internet. The service requires only a $10 plastic adaptor for a side window and costs a customer $1.25 an hour. Badgett said he foresees the day when the heater-A/C units will no longer be needed, but plug-in electric power will, and the company will be there with it.
With support from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, electric plug-ins are being installed by Shurepower LLC at several locations. One such plug-in, at a truckstop along Interstate 87 about 30 miles north of Albany, was officially opened at the close of the meeting.
Each pedestal-mounted head unit has outlets for 110/120-volt AC, at 20- and 30-amps, and 50-amp/220-volt AC, which is the recreational-vehicle standard. Trucks can pull up to a unit and plug in for about $1 an hour. The spaces are at the rear of the truckstop, so should be the last to fill at night and remain clear for truckers who want the service, Shurepower officials said.
Generally, though, truckstops have avoided costly "electrification" projects because few truck fleets have committed to using them, said Linda Van Arsdale, a policy analyst with the National Association of Truck Stop Operators. Meanwhile, fleets haven't equipped their trucks with "shore power" wiring like those on RVs because few plug-in facilities yet exist. So it's a chicken-or-egg situation.
And plug-ins would work for only a portion of trucking, because many trucks do not park at truckstops or other places where such equipment could be installed. What's needed are a variety of solutions for various applications, and "strong federal leadership" to make it happen, Van Arsdale said.
In fact, only about 20% of Schneider National's trucks park at truckstops on any given night, said its manager of tractor engineering, Mike Beauchamp. The others park at or near customers' locations. Using driver incentives and other methods, Schneider already has limited its idling time to 17 to 28%, which he said is about half the industry average.
Schneider has standardized diesel-fueled sleeper heaters, which should further reduce idling in winter, Beauchamp said. But there still is no good solution for cooling in summer, with tests showing that present 12-volt and thermal phase-change coolers lack sufficient capacity, and APUs are too expensive for Schneider to buy and maintain.
Emissions Authority continued...
