Operations

SmartWay boosted by ads

Jan. 1, 2005

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) SmartWay program that teams carriers with shippers and the EPA to promote lower fuel consumption is now being promoted through a new advertising campaign aimed at increasing participation. According to SmartWay communications director Suzanne Rudzinski, we are trying to get the broadest possible attention for the program. Developed by the Plowshare Group,

Wendy Leavitt

According to SmartWay communications director Suzanne Rudzinski, “we are trying to get the broadest possible attention for the program.” Developed by the Plowshare Group, the attention-getting ads boast graphics that feature the SmartWay decal on everything from a banana on wheels to a rolling calculator. (Text for the banana ad: “An environmentally appealing way to transport goods that's also deliciously profitable.”)

“To become a SmartWay partner, shippers have to do at least 50% of their business with SmartWay carriers,” said Rudzinski. “Carriers can become SmartWay partners by integrating various strategies into their operations to reduce fuel usage, such as reducing idling, spec'ing lightweight components and so on, and they don't have to do it all at once. They can make a commitment to achieve their environmental goals over time and get partial points toward SmartWay certification as they move through the process.

“Fleets can also achieve certification in a variety of ways, by reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent, for example, or by making a percentage improvement in overall emissions over a period of three years,” she adds. “Carriers have six months after joining the SmartWay program to decide what they'd like to do and submit their plan.”

To help fleets evaluate the benefits of certain changes, EPA has developed a software decision support tool that is free to carriers when they join the program, notes Rudzinski. “The tool is designed to help fleets see which emission-reduction strategies they can afford, which are compatible with their business plan and which net what results in terms of fuel savings and cost reductions,” she explains. “Once carriers are in the program, this tool is also used for reporting results to us annually,” she adds.

For more information, go to www.epa.gov/smartway.

About the Author

Wendy Leavitt

Wendy Leavitt joined Fleet Owner in 1998 after serving as editor-in-chief of Trucking Technology magazine for four years.

She began her career in the trucking industry at Kenworth Truck Company in Kirkland, WA where she spent 16 years—the first five years as safety and compliance manager in the engineering department and more than a decade as the company’s manager of advertising and public relations. She has also worked as a book editor, guided authors through the self-publishing process and operated her own marketing and public relations business.

Wendy has a Masters Degree in English and Art History from Western Washington University, where, as a graduate student, she also taught writing.