It is hard to believe that an idea we had eight years ago has led to our fifth Run on Less demonstration.
In 2016, the NACFE team kicked around ideas for ways, other than our Confidence Reports, to show the trucking industry just how efficient it could be. In our work, we had talked with fleets that were consistently achieving mpgs far beyond the national average.
The idea for the first Run on Less in 2017 was based on our desire to showcase the best of the best when it came to getting the most miles from a gallon of diesel. Seven participants agreed to share data from their trucks for three weeks while delivering real freight on real routes. The results exceeded our expectations, with the trucks averaging 10 mpg throughout the three-week event.
The response from the trucking industry was so positive that we decided to hold another Run on Less in 2019, focusing on regional hauls, because we were seeing a decrease in the average length of haul and wanted to benchmark fuel efficiency in this segment of the market. This time, 10 fleets participated, and we had a truck that was powered by compressed natural gas. These 10 trucks averaged 8.3 mpg when the national average was 6 mpg.
During the COVID hibernation, we spent time trying to determine if fielding another Run made sense. We realized that fleets were beginning to experiment with battery electric vehicles and thought that if enough fleets were willing to share what they were learning from these early deployments, the whole industry would benefit. That led to Run on Less – Electric, which featured 12 participants and included our first-ever Bootcamp series. Since battery electric trucks were still in their infancy, we felt it was essential to hold a series of educational webinars on various aspects of BEVs.
The response to the bootcamp was so positive that when we looked at hosting the next Run, we knew it would include another bootcamp. Run on Less – Electric Depot in 2023 was a reflection of the fact that fleets were moving from piloting one or two BEVs in their fleets to scaling up to 15 or more. The addition of BEVs at scale brought with it unique benefits and challenges. Once again, the 10 fleet depots that participated were generous in sharing both the good and the bad about their experience with adding BEVs in larger quantities to their operations.
See also: Roeth: Fuel efficiency matters regardless of the powertrain
I’d like to think that NACFE is plugged into the trucking industry and that each of our Runs reflects issues that are pressing to fleets at the time. That brings us to this year’s Run. To us, Run on Less – Messy Middle is an accurate reflection of the current state of the trucking industry, with fleets looking at a variety of powertrain solutions for hauling freight.
Having recently visited all 13 fleets participating in this year’s Run, we have gained a great deal of insight into the various powertrains that these fleets operate in Class 8 trucks with long-haul duty cycles, including diesel, renewable diesel, biodiesel, compressed natural gas, renewable compressed natural gas, battery electric, and hydrogen fuel cells. The goal of this year’s Run is to bring clarity to long-haul trucking. A change in administration has changed the playing field for alternative-fueled vehicles, but the industry still needs to find a more sustainable way to move goods.
We encourage you to follow the fleets in this year’s Run. We will begin posting in-depth fleet profiles that include videos from our site visits, quotes from each person we interviewed, and detailed vehicle specifications. The Run itself kicks off on September 8 with a dashboard featuring various metrics about each of the vehicles in the Run. I encourage you to check in daily to see the data from the various powertrains and to learn more about the applications where each technology makes sense.
I would be remiss if I did not thank all the companies that have sponsored the five Runs and the entire trucking industry for helping to continue to make this project not only a success but a valuable tool for everyone.
We are looking forward to the start of the Run and sharing what we learn from the 13 participating fleets with the entire trucking industry.
