Run on Less – Messy Middle Fleet Profiles Premiere in August

From Executive Director Mike Roeth

It’s been a whirlwind month as we have completed 11 of the 13 site visits to the fleets that are participating in this year’s Run on Less – Messy Middle. It has been amazing as we navigate what I have come to think of as four Runs in one since we are showcasing four different powertrain technologies. Check out the video above, a sort of highlight reel from the visits.

I feel like we, the NACFE staff, have been walking in the shoes of fleets as they are navigating the variety of powertrain options available to them. This is not easy work and by visiting and talking to so many of the actual “alternatives doers” we really get to experience their triumphs and challenges.

A couple of key themes are emerging from our visits to fleets. Use case matters as does TCO. Fleets also are deploying some creative and innovative solutions to mitigate the impact of some of the challenges of these alternative powertrains.

Another big takeaway is the passion of the people who are involved in decarbonizing their fleets. They know it is not going to be an easy task, and yet they are willingly taking on the challenge and finding ways to make alternative powertrain work in their operation. And even when a fleet seems to have settled on a technology, that is not stopping them from continuing to explore and test other options. They know that the technology solution they pick today might not be the solution they will be using five years from now.

Some fleets are even running multiple powertrains, each selected based on a vehicle’s duty cycle. For example, as we visited Frito-Lay in Topeka, we saw battery electric terminal tractors as well as natural gas and biodiesel high MPG heavy tractors. Of the 110 heavy-duty trucks on site, only 10 remain traditional conventional diesels. The last takeaway is that alternative powertrains and freight efficiency in general are not just for large fleets. Small fleets are proving they can successfully run their trucks on something other than diesel.

I could go on about what a great experience it’s been to meet with drivers, fleet managers, representatives from OEMs and engine makers, infrastructure providers and a host of other people involved in helping fleets choose the powertrain solutions that are optimized for their various duty cycles. But instead, I am going to leave you with a few thoughts from some of the folks we spoke with during the site visits.

“For me, it was the excitement of understanding the new technology and how it could equate to what we were doing here in California and how could we make it work for our duty cycles and our operations.”

— Brad Bayne, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at 4Gen.

“I focus real keenly on fuel mileage for a couple of reasons. One, it’s just the right thing to do. It’s good for the environment. It’s good for the world. The other is that my number one expense as an owner/operator is my fuel bill.”

— Henry Albert, CEO of Albert Transport

“We are not saying one technology is better than the other. We believe that each technology has a certain spot and a certain reason to be. Hydrogen is, from our perspective, great for long haul for high payload applications where you need a lot of range.”

— Benjamin Happek, General Manager for Energy and Hydrogen at
Hyundai Motor North America

“We see an opportunity to be sustainable, and we try to be the first ones on board — sometimes very painfully. We try to do the right thing, and we definitely live it. It’s part of our values, to be the first to be on board in natural gas in the area.”

— Dan Farley, Transportation Team Lead at Wegmans Foods

As you can see, we are getting some great information from our site visit interviews. When you couple that with all the presentations during our Bootcamp (see separate item later in this newsletter on the Bootcamp), it feels like we are well on our way to another successful Run on Less demonstration which will be invaluable in helping fleets make their powertrain decisions going forward.

As a reminder, the fleet profiles launch in August with the Run itself starting on September 8th. You’ll want to check out the dashboards and Stories from the Run throughout the Run.