Idle Time
With diesel at three bucks a gallon, idling your truck can cost plenty.
Jim Beach
Contributing Editor
For several years now, officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy have traveled around to truck shows and other trucking venues preaching the virtues of idle reduction.
Their message: Shutting down your truck while parked saves fuel and reduces harmful exhaust emissions.
Government estimates show that truckers idle about eight hours a day – on average burning about a gallon of fuel per hour or 2,400 gallons year while emitting some 21 tons of emissions.
While reducing the country's energy dependence and cleaning the air are laudable goals, the real message now is money. With the cost of diesel hovering around $3 a gallon, more truckers than ever are paying attention to the idling issue.
"Every time the price of diesel goes up, we get that much more interest in our products," says Mark Myronowicz of Coast Truck Centers and Transit Refrigeration, Altadena, Calif. "Driver comfort, anti-idling laws and the price of fuel all drive interest in these products. With the cost of fuel now, they're waiting in line – especially the smaller fleets and owner-operators."
Myronowicz was showing his products at an Idle Reduction Fair sponsored by the Sacramento 49er Truck Stop this fall. Along with Coast Truck Centers, which sells Proheat heaters and auxiliary power units, a number of manufacturers displayed their wares during the event.
Truckers like Marion Brasier of Florida stopped by the displays to look, and in his case, buy. Brasier put in an order for a Proheat APU, which he expects will save him money in the long run.
"I'm looking at this to save fuel and cut down on the hours I put on my engine," Brasier says. "It's just too expensive to idle the truck." Brasier says he figures idling his truck costs him two miles per gallon in overall fuel economy. He was looking for something that would provide 110 power for his accessories and that would keep his truck warm or cool while parked overnight.
"This unit will run everything on my truck, my refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot and power tools."
The Proheat provides heating, cooling and power and uses about two-tenths gallon of fuel per hour. The system also recirculates warm water through the engine block to aid in cold weather starting.
Brian Lawrence, manager heavy duty truck North American sales for Xantrex, headquartered in Arlington, Wash., was displaying his company's inverter/charger units. When plugged into shore power, these units keep a truck's batteries charged while supplying 110 power inside the truck cab to power creature comforts. Lawrence praised the 49er for offering parking spaces with shore power. "The 49er is a very progressive truckstop," he says.
The Xantrex units are a factory-installed option on Freightliner and Volvo trucks. Lawrence says about 70 percent of Volvo 770 and 880 model trucks sold in recent years include the shore power option.
The units can be matched with an electric heating/cooling unit for cab comfort while the truck engine is turned off.
However, plugging your truck in only works if you park where shore power is available. To that end, Shurpower, of Portland, Ore., has been working with various government agencies to provide shore power along the I-5 corridor. The Shurpower units provide cable TV, Internet access and shore power. Truckers buy time on a pre-paid card and just swipe their card at a kiosk to activate the system.
Currently, Shurpower has seven facilities in Washington and Oregon on I-5 with plans for more facilities in the future.
"Generally, right now we try to get government grants. We arrange it so the truckstop doesn't have to pay anything" in infrastructure costs, says Jeff Kim, vice president of engineering and director of West Coat operations. The target is to have 20 or more spaces per truckstop. It costs about $1 per hour to access the Shurpower system.
The NITE (No-Idle Thermal Environment) system from Bergstrom, Rockford, Ill., is an all-electrified heating and cooling system powered by two deep-cycle batteries. According to Joel Sulser, national sales manager of the aftermarket division, the batteries provide eight to 10 hours of cooling or heating and can recharge off the truck's alternator in four to five hours. It takes eight to 10 hours to install the system at a cost of between $4,200 and $4,500 installed.
The SCS/Frigette APU system uses a single-cylinder Kuboto engine to provide power, heating and cooling while burning only about a tenth of a gallon of fuel per hour. Dwayne Schwarze, western region sales manager for the Ft. Worth, Texas-based company, says the units have been on the market for about five years. The system takes about 16 hours to install.
Michael Hardie, regional sales manager for Webasto Product North America says his company's BlueCool bunk-cooling system uses the truck's electrical system while the truck is moving to freeze a block of ice inside a graphite matrix.
This provides up to 10 hours of cooling within the bunk without idling. The unit draws between 3.5 and 6.5 amps while operating. The unit sells for about $3,200 and takes eight hours to install. "There is zero maintenance with this unit," Hardie says.
The Viesa Intelligent Plus is a roof-mounted electric cooling system that can be installed on daycabs or sleeper cabs. The unit uses the truck's battery for power and uses water as a coolant medium to deliver cooling to the truck when the engine is turned off.
Distributed by the Safer Corp., Novato, Calf., the system costs about $1,500 and takes about three hours to install. It draws 4 to 5 amps and is equipped with an auto shutoff switch to prevent drawing the batteries down.
Truckers who don't have idle-reduction equipment on their trucks can still turn the engine off at night and still enjoy heating, cooling, power and entertainment. IdleAire, Knoxville, Tenn., which is currently operational at 24 truckstops nationwide, offers all these things through a pay-as-you go system.
A trucker first pays $10 for a window adapter and then pays per hour for the service.
Once parked in an IdleAire space, the trucker attaches a HVAC duct to the window adapter and he is in business with satellite TV, Internet access, 110V shore power and built-in touch-screen computer.
Helda Faria, area sales manager for IdleAire, says the IdleAire locations are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week with maintenance personnel on duty. "It's a pay-as-you go system that gives you choices," Faria says. The cost for the service is about $1.60 per hour.
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) helped the 49er sponsor the Idle Reduction Fair, which also attracted officials from EPA and DOE.
Bill Warf, a project manager for SMUD, worked with the truckstop two years ago, installing 16 shore power spaces. Warf says utilities and government agencies realize that truckers won't equip their trucks with idle-reduction technologies unless there is infrastructure on the road to support that equipment. If you have an inverter/charger, you need a place to plug in.
The EPA has been granting SmartWay idle reduction grants to utilities such as SMUD to promote shore power and other idle-reduction technologies. These grants can go to fleets to help offset the initial costs of the equipment if the fleets agree to invest their fuel savings into equipping other trucks in the fleet with idle-reduction equipment.
Emissions Authority continued...
