NACFE Aims to Redefine Long-Haul Trucking

From Executive Director Mike Roeth

If you haven’t seen it yet, I encourage you to read our latest white paper, A Need To Redefine
Class 8 Long-Haul Trucking. We believe that long-haul trucking needs to include both over-the-
road and longer regional haul return-to-base operations. And long haul includes both sleeper
and day cab tractors.

As we prepare for Run on Less – Messy Middle this fall, we felt it was important to redefine
exactly what long-haul trucking is. For the past decade the trucking industry has been moving to
shorter length of haul and more hub-and-spoke operations with Class 8 tractors.

Given our research and previous Run on Less demonstrations, we have come up with the
following definitions:

• Short regional haul is less than 50 miles out and back for a total of 100 miles.
• Medium regional haul is around 100 miles out and back for a total of 200 miles.
• Long regional haul can be as much as 300 miles out and back for a total of 600 miles.

Having a common language to discuss the various parts of the trucking industry — which is not
homogenous — is vital as we navigate through the Messy Middle, in which fleets have a variety
of powertrain solutions to choose from.

This white paper is the first step in NACFE’s attempt to bring some clarity to the long-haul
segment of trucking. We expect the conversations we have and the data we collect during Run
on Less – Messy Middle will bring additional clarity.