The Christmas holiday is upon us, and I thought this would be a good time to bring back an old tradition from when I was a child—a letter to Santa Claus letting him know what I wanted to find under the Christmas tree.
Dear Santa,
This year I would like the following things:
- More fleets to invest in a wider variety of fuel-efficiency technologies and operational practices for their tractors and trailers, including aerodynamic devices, idle reduction systems, tire pressure monitoring, downspeeding, low rolling resistance tires, etc.
- The trucking industry to work together on charging standards for electric vehicles.
- Utilities to get more involved with helping fleets transition to electric vehicles.
- All stakeholders in the industry to increase their efforts in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Federal, state, and local governments to spend money for infrastructure improvements wisely to raise the low grade given to our nation’s road and bridges by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
- The public to realize the value of trucking and truckers.
- Drivers of passenger cars to be more aware of what it takes to stop a Class 8 truck and make sure to leave enough room when changing lanes.
- More fleet managers to begin adding alternative-powered vehicles to their fleets and to understand where they make sense.
- More collaboration between all industry stakeholders to help trucking reduce emissions and become even more efficient.
- More chances to interact with industry stakeholders at conferences, workshops, meetings, expos, conventions, etc. so we can share the work we are doing to improve the freight efficiency of the trucks on the road today.
Santa, I know this is a long list, but I have been a very good boy, so I am hoping I will find these things, along with a new RV—a guy’s gotta dream big—under the tree.
Make sure you obey the speed limit when driving your sleigh and be safe and efficient as you deliver toys to the good girls and boys across the world.
Your friend,
Mike
