SmarTway
EPA, industry partner for fuel efficiency.
Steve Sturgess
Senior Editor
In the energy bill recently signed by President Bush, there is a major allocation for truck fuel economy that will be funded through the SmartWay Transport Partnership.
SmartWay Transport is a voluntary partnership between various freight industry sectors and the Environmental Protection Agency that establishes incentives for fuel efficiency improvements and greenhouse gas emissions reductions (carbon dioxide).
The target is to reduce CO2 by between 33 - 66 million metric tons by 2012. At the same time, the agency hopes to reduce NOx by up to 200,000 tons annually.
The strategies to achieve these air quality improvements have a secondary benefit of reducing fuel consumed, with potential savings of up to 150 million barrels of oil annually, reducing the reliance on foreign oil.
Program Partners
There are three primary components of the program: creating partnerships, reducing all unnecessary engine idling, and increasing the efficiency and use of rail and intermodal operations.
While this last is probably not in trucking's best interest, the other aims are potentially very rewarding. Not least is the fuel economy improvement that the programs bring.
But the partnership aspect also has revenue implications for participating carriers: The other half of the partnership is the shipper community.
As the partnership states: "EPA welcomes any company or organization that will improve the environmental performance of their freight operations. Key partners are companies that ship products, and the truck and rail companies that deliver these products. Partners commit to measure and improve the efficiency of their freight operations, using EPA-developed tools that quantify the benefits of a number of fuel-saving strategies."
Of the more than 160 partners today – the program was launched only last year – 31 are shippers and logistics companies. Under its listing of carrier benefits, EPA says that SmartWay Transport trucking companies become recognized as preferred carriers by the partners on the shipper side. "They know that your fleet is committed to becoming cleaner and leaner than fleets that are not in the partnership - and they want to ship their goods with you. That's a competitive advantage that pays."
IKEA is such a shipper. It is one of the world's biggest home furnishing manufacturers and retailers with 186 stores in 31 countries. According to Sabina Strautman, North American environmental transport manager, "IKEA's goal is to become one of the most resource-efficient transport buyers in the world." Needless to say IKEA is a partner – in fact the company was a charter partner that helped develop the program – and has a target of shipping 90% of its ton-miles with 16 transport partner carriers.
Carrier Responsibilities
Participating carriers have to establish a baseline performance, and included in the many tools that are available through SmartWay, there's a spreadsheet set – with voice tutorials – to help evaluate the "environmental performance" of the fleet. From this point, the carrier must identify a goal or goals to improve its environmental performance. These do not have to be enormous improvements so long as they are a step in the positive direction. Typical are reductions in the amount of idling. These can be achieved through driver training and incentives or through the application of technology, such as Schneider National's well publicized program to install diesel-fuel fired Webasto bunk heaters.
There's a broad range of suggestions available through the SmartWay web site at www.epa.gov/smartway and all the supporting materials the agency has produced – most of it is certainly not rocket science.
For carriers that haven't been proactive in this area to date, there are a number of solutions that will improve the fleet fuel economy, and a visit to the site may prove an eye-opener and the incentive to get started with some meaningful savings. The flip side is that many innovative fleets may look at the various suggestions and conclude they've got most of the recommended practices already in place and working.
That doesn't prevent either from signing up to the SmartWay Partnership. For instance, CFI, a more recent signatory to the partnership, intends to make the SmartWay an integral part of its environmental efforts.
Says Bruce Stockton, vice president of maintenance for the Joplin, Mo.-based carrier: "CFI is committed to being part of a long-term solution toward reducing emissions and fuel consumption, and our participation in SmartWay is an integral part of our efforts."
CFI's strategy, outlined in one of the partnership's E-Update newsletters, is to save fuel and reduce emissions by equipping new tractor purchases with wide-based ultra-low profile single tires and to bring the rest of the tractors – a total of 2,000-plus units – to the same specification as the fleet is renewed over the next year. The next step is ordering factory fitted Espar heaters, an announcement so recent is hadn't yet been communicated to SmartWay, said Stockton.
Additionally, CFI is implementing a driver education program on the reduction of idling. To that end the company has produced buttons to encourage drivers, backed by an incentive program to reward drivers for fuel efficiency.
Grant Initiatives
Earlier this year, EPA announced $5 million in grants to demonstrate innovative idle reduction technologies for the trucking industry. EPA is requesting proposals to demonstrate commercially available technologies that small trucking fleets can use to equip trucks they already own; that truck engine manufacturers can package into a simple installation kit for aftermarket use; or that trucks can use while parked at truckstops, terminals, ports and borders.
The grants will be available to states, nonprofits and academic institutions for three project categories: 1) to demonstrate the effectiveness of mobile technologies on trucks owned by owner-operators and small companies; to evaluate a more cost-effective approach to reducing emissions through an OEM-based installation kit for aftermarket use; and to evaluate the effectiveness of installing stationary idle-reduction technology along a major corridor.
The good news is that, built into the RFA is the preference that each grant recipient work with SmartWay partners on their projects. So by being a SmartWay partner, a carrier can benefit indirectly from demonstration programs with the selected grant recipients.
Small carriers and owner-operators could well benefit from this largess. EPA says it recognizes that truck owner-operators and small trucking companies (less than 50 trucks) represent a significant segment of the long-haul truck population. EPA notes that such trucking operations generally own older trucks and keep their trucks longer than medium or large-sized fleets. By virtue of the truck age, these trucks meet less stringent air emission standards.
In other words, when compared with newer trucks these older trucks pollute more, concludes EPA, adding: "Past grant programs in the federal government have overlooked this segment of the truck population in favor of larger fleets. However, EPA believes that the greatest potential for emission reductions lies with this segment of the truck population."
For more information, visit http://www.epa.gov/oar/grants/05-09.pdf.
The deadline for submissions was up in June and EPA has said that it will announce the successful candidates by the fall of this year.
Emissions Authority continued...
