Run on Less – Messy Middle Officially Kicks Off

From Executive Director Mike Roeth

Run on Less – Messy Middle officially kicked off on Monday with 13 fleets operating trucks on a variety of fuels — diesel, biodiesel, renewable diesel, natural gas, battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell.

We’ve spent months leading up to this day between planning the entire effort, our Bootcamp series, visits to all 13 fleet locations where we interviewed 105 people and the creation of the fleet profiles. This Run truly is a microcosm of what is happening in long-haul trucking today with multiple solutions offering benefits to specific segments.

I encourage all of you to go to the website to check out the fleet profiles and to look at the metrics that are now available about each participating truck. We are collecting and sharing a wealth of information on each vehicle and believe that having real-world data will help other fleets make smart decisions about which powertrain options are best suited for their applications.

I think the information in the profiles and the data in the dashboard will be beneficial to fleets that aren’t sure which technology is right for them but also it will help fleets that previously rejected a powertrain solution to reevaluate that decision. We also believe this is helpful to anyone supporting the fleets, from suppliers, to infrastructure providers, financers and others. There is something here for all stakeholders of the technologies. Given the fast pace of technological change, a decision made two years ago may no longer make sense given improvements that likely have occurred recently.

Data is the key to good decision making and that is why we are pleased that the fleets in the Run are willing to share data with the entire trucking industry through us.

This fall we will publish initial findings from the Run and — as we did in Run on Less – Electric DEPOT — we will release a data set of all the trucks we tracked using Geotab technology. This will include total miles driven, miles per day, deliveries per day, truck activity, speed and more.

Take advantage of this real-world information that is available through the Run and be part of guiding our industry through the messy middle.

Here are some early highlights from the Run:

• Diesel trucks are showing that they are achieving more than 10 MPG.
• Natural Gas trucks is successfully hauling very heavy freight with multiple trailers.
• BEVs are proving that they can achieve high miles per day using fast charging.
• Hydrogen fuel cell trucks are successfully operating in pickup and delivery duty cycles.
• Watch our social media pages run for more insights from the Run.