Major US Carrier Con-Way
Rolls Back Speed on Governors
(March 27, 2008) – The momentum to improve
safety and the environment by slowing transport trucks continues to move
forward.
With last week’s introduction of a bill in the
Ontario Legislature that will make activation of speed governors mandatory,
great strides are taking place. This month another major carrier south of the
border announced it is in support of improving fuel efficiency via engine
governors. (See article below):
North American LTL giant Con-way Freight announced
today that it has further reduced the speed of its 8,400-tractor fleet in order
to improve fuel economy.
The carrier has turned back the speed on its engine
governors to run at a maximum of 62 miles per hour -- down three miles per hour
from previous settings.
The move is expected to reduce consumption of
diesel fuel from its over-the-road tractor fleet by nearly 3.2 million gallons
annually while eliminating approximately 72 million pounds of carbon emissions
from the environment, says Con-Way.
"Freight transportation, by its nature, is a
significant consumer of carbon-based energy resources. Yet it also is one where
if we look creatively at how we operate the business, we can find and adopt
practices that reduce our carbon footprint and help the bottom line," said John
G. Labrie, Con-way Freight president. "Fuel conservation and cost savings aside,
this speed reduction initiative will have the single largest impact on carbon
footprint reduction of any operational or business practice change available to
us."
Labrie emphasized that the move does not reduce
Con-way’s service standards. "With our highly engineered network and, in
particular, the skill and professionalism of our driver sales representatives,
we have been able to implement this change without any impact on our
industry-leading transit times and on-time
performance."
In addition to the speed reduction initiative, Con-way Freight has also invested in technologies and implemented other operational practices designed to reduce fuel consumption. Among them:
Equipping trucks with special aerodynamic fairings to reduce wind resistance; specifying engine and drive-train combinations that maximize fuel; setting engines with auto shut-off controls to minimize idle time while parked; and recycling used trailers and refurbishing them for return to the fleet through its sister company, Road Systems, Inc., instead of buying new trailers.
With the speed reduction move, Con-Way would be ahead of an initiative being promoted by the American trucking Associations and Canadian Trucking Alliance, which want to see a mandate requiring speed on all trucks capped at 65 mph and 105 km/h, respectively.
In addition to the speed reduction initiative, Con-way Freight has also invested in technologies and implemented other operational practices designed to reduce fuel consumption. Among them:
Equipping trucks with special aerodynamic fairings to reduce wind resistance; specifying engine and drive-train combinations that maximize fuel; setting engines with auto shut-off controls to minimize idle time while parked; and recycling used trailers and refurbishing them for return to the fleet through its sister company, Road Systems, Inc., instead of buying new trailers.
With the speed reduction move, Con-Way would be ahead of an initiative being promoted by the American trucking Associations and Canadian Trucking Alliance, which want to see a mandate requiring speed on all trucks capped at 65 mph and 105 km/h, respectively.
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