Thoughts on ACT Expo from Mike McHorse

Another ACT Expo is in the books. The NACFE team was out in force at the event attending educational sessions, staffing the booth and just talking to folks about all the things that are happening in the trucking industry today.

One highlight of the show for me was the breakfast NACFE hosted which featured the Run on Less – Messy Middle fleets or their representatives. Each fleet not only talked about the specific truck we would be tracking in the Run but also shared information on the routes those trucks would be driving. At least two fleets that are using different powertrain solutions said that in the applications being featured in the Run they are pushing the edge of the technology’s capability. I found it interesting that fleets want to see just how much they can get out of these alternative powertrain solutions, and they are willing to take risks to find out.

All of them also shared a little bit about their company’s overall sustainability efforts and goals. And they did not shy away from sharing some of the challenges they have with adding alternative powertrains to their operations.

One theme that ran through each participant’s comments was the importance of matching powertrain to duty cycle. This is something we at NACFE have been preaching ever since we started using the term Messy Middle to describe the current state of trucking. A successful decarbonization strategy must focus on duty cycle, route being driven, load being carried, availability of fueling/charging and more. Failure to match those up correctly will be disastrous.

The good news is that at ACT Expo a wide variety of solutions were featured and fleets had plenty of opportunity to speak with manufacturers about the applications for which their powertrain solutions were best suited.

We have produced a 15-minute video from the NACFE breakfast meeting highlighting all the key points from the fleets in the Run.