Collaboration Reports

Leverage Our Team’s Industry Experience

NACFE is available for hire to support your project or to collaborate with you on a mutually beneficial project. Our staff has many decades of trucking industry experience and our networks number in the thousands.

We have enjoyed many such challenges already and the list to the right should provide insight into what we are capable of doing. We can handle many things from fuel economy tests to surveys and research papers.

Watch the following video to learn more about our previous collaborations and how NACFE can work with you to complete your project. If we aren’t the right people to support your project, there is an excellent chance that we can introduce you to the right people. Visit our LinkedIn page to learn more about NACFE’s connections.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments. Let us know how we can help and we will send you a proposal with our team, timing and costs.


Technology Uptake in California & Canada with ICCT

In 2020, NACFE supported ICCT in analyzing policies that California, the United States, and Canada have enacted to promote reduced GHG emissions from heavy-duty trucks, how these policies have impacted technology deployment, and lessons that Canada can take as it evaluates policy options to accelerate the deployment of fuel- and GHG-reduction technologies in its trucking fleet.


Education of Elementary School Students

NACFE has created this workbook to collaborate with educators in schools or at home to teach children about trucking efficiency technologies. It can be printed and shared as a whole booklet or individual pages to best fit your educational opportunities with young students.

Click the image below to download the whole file with supporting notes on the last page.


High School 2020 Math Modeling Competition

The Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics (SIAM) utilized NACFE to provide the foundational information for the 2020 MathWorks Math Modeling (M3) Challenge. This contest for thousands of high school upperclassmen focused on the transition to electrification in commercial freight transportation.

Watch the video below from the winning team, Pine View School in Osprey, FL.


Video Development with James Brown Media

NACFE has enjoyed a long-standing partnership with James Brown Media for the videos on this website as well as other projects, such as Run On Less. James Brown is expanding its work in the truck industry focusing on clean technologies and we are pleased to be part of the group interviewed for such projects.

Here are two episodes from Fresh Tracks. More episodes are planned in the future.

Episode 1
Episode 2

Establishing Vehicle Specifications with ICCT

In 2018, ICCT collaborated with NACFE to conduct research into how fleets approach the task of setting the specifications for new vehicle orders. We also studied differences by fleet sizes, types of fleets and specification differences between fleets in Canada and the United States.

This report should be helpful to those that have not been exposed to the very complex world of heavy commercial vehicle features.


Starship Initiative with Shell

Shell contracted NACFE in May 2018 to monitor their concept truck, the #ShellStarship, on a coast-to-coast fuel economy run. NACFE provided an engineer to travel with the vehicle as well as an engineer to analyze the telematics data on a daily basis to determine the freight efficiency in several different ways.

Results of the 2,300+ mile demonstration run have been posted here.

Tractor-Trailer Gap Closure with TruckLabs

During May of 2016, NACFE assisted TruckLabs (formerly XStream Trucking), with a real-world fuel economy test of a product the company is developing to close the gap between Class 8 tractors and trailers. During these tests (details of how the test was conducted are provided in the report) there was a 2.5% reduction in fuel use when the device was deployed.

(Please note that the name of their system has changed from the GapGorilla to TruckWings since the report was published.)


Platooning with Peleton

In November 2013, NACFE was engaged to help plan, execute and validate a fuel efficiency test of a platooning technology under development by Peloton Technology. The report below details a 10% fuel consumption reduction for the trailing tractor-trailer and a 4.5% reduction for the lead combination, when electronically connected at 36 feet separation and 64 mph.


Tire Testing with Michelin

During the summer of 2011, NACFE helped execute and monitor a 5,000-mile fuel economy test for various tire configurations for Michelin NA. This test was conducted as a high mileage confirmation of the improvement in fuel efficiency of various tires in doubles trailer operation.


NA Trailer Fuel Efficiency Technologies with ICCT

NACFE collaborated with ICCT to interview key industry participants on fuel efficiency technologies. This report shares learnings on technologies available to fleets for improving the fuel efficiency of North America 53-foot trailers. Items included were tires, tire pressure systems, gap reducers, underbelly devices, skirts and trailer tails.


Market Barriers with ICCT

In one of the first NACFE joint efforts, we partnered with ICCT to investigate Market Barriers to Fuel Economy Technologies. We worked with fleets, owner operators, truck and trailer builders, manufacturers and others on this significant study. Watch a narrated video of findings below. The full report can be downloaded here.