Park it, drive slow, or let 'em know
So it has come to this.
News reports this morning speak of a strike being organized by truckers in the state of Florida to protest the recent crippling rise in U.S. diesel prices. The truckers- mostly owner-operators whose sole source of income is the operation of their truck- vow to park their rigs, drive at 45-mph on the highway, or simply display protest signs on their trailers, hoping to catch the attention of both the U.S. government, and big oil companies who supply the diesel fuel.
http://www.wesh.com/news/15756801/detail.html
For those who are still afloat, despite the $4-plus diesel prices, there are some temporary solutions out there.
Recenty, readers have posted some useful suggestions:
1) Drive the speed limit on the highway.
2) Accelerate more slowly.
3) Closely monitor tire pressure. Keep it high enough.
As I visit some of the larger fleets in the U.S., I see more technologies being adopted to help keep fuel economy high:
1) Filling truck tires with Nitrogen to prevent air loss or pressure loss- a costly, but apparently worthwhile solution.
2) Employment of various driver habit control systems (i.e. prevents idling, heavy acceleration, etc.)
3) More aerodynamics technology being added to the truck and trailer.
4) More efficient reefer units (refrigeration) being manufactured and purchased.
Despite all of these solutions that have become available, some are too difficult to implement, too expensive to adopt, and in all cases, none are effective in combating the rapid increase in diesel prices.
Technologies like International Fuel Technology's DiesoLIFT(TM) additives have value that increases as fuel prices rise. At $1 per gallon of diesel, the return on investment in DiesoLIFT(TM) would only be about 2 or 3 cents per gallon of diesel consumed. At a consumption volume of 1,000,000 gallons per year, it would stand to save you a net of about $20,000-30,000.
However, at a fuel price of $4 per gallon, DiesoLIFT(TM)'s net return would be about 17 to 18 cents per gallon of fuel consumed. Savings for a company consuming 1,000,000 gallons of diesel per year would be $170,000 to $180,000. For a company consuming 10 million gallons per year, the savings would be nearly $1.8 million annually.
DiesoLIFT(TM) products require no fixed up-front investment, and IFT continues to offer its Zero-Cost Pilot Program to large fleets with a central fuel source.
Contact Paul Lee at plee@internationalfuel.com for details on the technology and the opportunity to verify its effectiveness on-site with your fleet.
News reports this morning speak of a strike being organized by truckers in the state of Florida to protest the recent crippling rise in U.S. diesel prices. The truckers- mostly owner-operators whose sole source of income is the operation of their truck- vow to park their rigs, drive at 45-mph on the highway, or simply display protest signs on their trailers, hoping to catch the attention of both the U.S. government, and big oil companies who supply the diesel fuel.
http://www.wesh.com/news/15756801/detail.html
For those who are still afloat, despite the $4-plus diesel prices, there are some temporary solutions out there.
Recenty, readers have posted some useful suggestions:
1) Drive the speed limit on the highway.
2) Accelerate more slowly.
3) Closely monitor tire pressure. Keep it high enough.
As I visit some of the larger fleets in the U.S., I see more technologies being adopted to help keep fuel economy high:
1) Filling truck tires with Nitrogen to prevent air loss or pressure loss- a costly, but apparently worthwhile solution.
2) Employment of various driver habit control systems (i.e. prevents idling, heavy acceleration, etc.)
3) More aerodynamics technology being added to the truck and trailer.
4) More efficient reefer units (refrigeration) being manufactured and purchased.
Despite all of these solutions that have become available, some are too difficult to implement, too expensive to adopt, and in all cases, none are effective in combating the rapid increase in diesel prices.
Technologies like International Fuel Technology's DiesoLIFT(TM) additives have value that increases as fuel prices rise. At $1 per gallon of diesel, the return on investment in DiesoLIFT(TM) would only be about 2 or 3 cents per gallon of diesel consumed. At a consumption volume of 1,000,000 gallons per year, it would stand to save you a net of about $20,000-30,000.
However, at a fuel price of $4 per gallon, DiesoLIFT(TM)'s net return would be about 17 to 18 cents per gallon of fuel consumed. Savings for a company consuming 1,000,000 gallons of diesel per year would be $170,000 to $180,000. For a company consuming 10 million gallons per year, the savings would be nearly $1.8 million annually.
DiesoLIFT(TM) products require no fixed up-front investment, and IFT continues to offer its Zero-Cost Pilot Program to large fleets with a central fuel source.
Contact Paul Lee at plee@internationalfuel.com for details on the technology and the opportunity to verify its effectiveness on-site with your fleet.
M. Douglas
(Comment this)
However, many key intricacies of the fuel additive market must be understood.
1) Initial resistance to any marketing of additive products claiming to increase MPG. Most fleet managers and fleet directors have been duped by pyramid schemes and snake oil products for decades, making them callous to the concept of an additive ACTUALLY being proven to increase MPG.
2) The market is still flooded with competing products that are often not effective whatsoever, which continues to damage the credibility by association of companies like IFT, who have developed real products with real value.
3) The difficulty of implementing additive products to end users involved in long-haul freight. The majority of truckers pick up fuel at the diesel stations located along the highway and dosing the fuel with an additive at a constant treat ratio is difficult and dosing systems (mechanical implements) are expensive to acquire, install, and maintain.
Despite these barriers, IFT has made remarkable progress with some of the largest fleets in the nation.
In the first season of IFT's marketing strategy to reach prominent retail grocers, it added two 100+ truck fleets as full time users after overwhelmingly successful verification processes were executed. One of these companies, Schnucks markets, was recently featured in Supermarket News magazine in a story highlighting the adoption of IFT technology and its benefits.
IFT is currently engaged in (and has many more verification procedures lined up for 2008) with more of the nations largest centrally fueled fleets. IFT technology has been discussed in both media publications and is consistently a topic of discussion at gatherings of trucking professionals acrosse the country.
The one caveat of following IFT's progress in the industry is that verification processes take time (sometimes 6-12 months) and often, to get a long-term purchase decision out of a client, we must penetrate multiple levels of corporate bureaucracy.
Regardless, the effectiveness of the technology is undeniable and we urge you to continue to pay close attention to the news wires and press releases in the coming months. (Comment this)