Trucking fleets search for ways to save fuel

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If forking over $40 to $100 to fill your tank each week is painful, imagine spending $50,000 a week to fuel up a fleet of trucks.Crippled by rising diesel prices, trucking companies are finding creative ways to be more fuel efficient.They are buying aerodynamic trucks and using rigs that don't need to idle to keep a driver comfortable, switching to tires that offer less road resistance, limiting speeds and planning days ahead in what used to be a last-minute business. Most big rigs average seven miles per gallon.In the past, diesel cost less than gasoline and fuel surcharges made up for rising diesel costs.No more. Prices surged 65 percent in the last year. The federal government's Energy Information Administration outlined reasons why it's higher than gasoline: Worldwide demand has increased; refinery capacity doesn't match demand, federal taxes on diesel are higher than gasoline and a transition to low-sulfur fuel has increased prices.Even truck manufacturers have had to adapt. They are scrapping designs with boxy front ends in favor of a more rounded look.Air cleaners -- large vertical cylinders on either side of the cab -- were moved under the hood to create less drag. And sheets of fiberglass or other material were added to the roof, sides of the cab and behind the front wheels to direct air and decrease resistance.Those changes could result in up to a half-gallon improvement in miles per gallon, said Rod Rimmer of the Pape Kenworth dealership in Fresno, Calif. It's not much, but with many trucks traveling 100,000 miles or more, "that translates into a lot of money on these big trucks," he said.Ganduglia Trucking of Fresno found a way to save during down periods when drivers normally idle their trucks -- waiting for a load or during the 10-hour mandatory layover in their trucks, for instance.Instead of burning a gallon an hour idling the truck to heat or cool the driver, three Ganduglia trucks use auxiliary-power units. These fuel-efficient "little itty bitty" diesel engines mounted on the outside of the truck power the truck cabs without idling the main engine, said owner Jim Ganduglia.They burn 18 percent of a gallon per hour to cool the cab and just 4 percent of a gallon to heat it, he said."You're not even using a gallon to heat the cab," he said. "It all adds up."Kenworth sells a similar unit that uses batteries.When the truck is running, the manufacturer's Clean Power System charges the batteries and cools a gel under the mattress in the truck cab.When the truck is turned off, the batteries power electrical needs such as televisions, and a fan blows air over the gel to cool the cab.In cold weather, the system uses a small, diesel-powered heater. Trucks with the system also have more insulation and use LED lights, which require less power, he said.Efficiency isn't cheap: Both auxiliary units cost about $10,000. Ganduglia said recouping his costs may take several years.Many trucking companies are turning to "governors," devices that control a truck's maximum speed.The devices have been in use for years, but more companies are limiting drivers' speed to make the trucks run at more fuel-efficient levels, said Julie Sauls, spokeswoman for the California Trucking Association.Con-way Freight, which has a hub in Fresno, reduced its trucks' maximum speed by 3 mph to 62 mph. More than 40 trucks are based out of the company's Fresno operation and use 9,200 gallons of diesel per week.By limiting all its 11,100 trucks nationwide to slower speeds, Con-way estimates it will use 6 million fewer gallons a year. It's good for the air, too -- 134 million fewer pounds of carbon emissions is the equivalent of removing almost 14,000 passenger cars from the roads. (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)