Frozen Food Express Industries Inc., a Dallas TX-based transportation company serving the temperature-controlled truckload and LTL, dry truckload, and brokerage/logistics markets, has reduced the maximum speed of its company-operated truck fleet from 65 to 62 miles per hour in an effort to mitigate the impact of rising fuel costs. FFEX expects that most of the independent contractors that provide it with trucks will take similar steps to reduce their expenses.
“This is a decision we've been contemplating for quite some time, and we simply have to take some definitive action, as many other carriers have already done, to offset costs that are rising faster than our ability to deal with them,” said Russell Stubbs, senior vice president and chief operating officer.
“Independent studies have found that for each mile-per-hour that a truck reduces its average speed, we can expect a 1/10th of a mile increase in that truck's average miles per gallon,” said Stubbs. “This 3-mph decrease in maximum speed can save up to 1,000 gallons of fuel, per truck, per year. At the end of the first quarter of 2008, we had 2,029 trucks in service, 1,485 of which were company-operated. We are active and responsible members of the Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay Transport Partnership, and this initiative also aids in our efforts to find ways to reduce both emissions and fuel consumption.”
This will be an enterprise-wide effort across the FFE Transportation Group (FFE Transportation Services, American Eagle Lines, and Lisa Motor Lines brands). Customer service will not be impacted by this speed reduction. This action is one of several to address rising fuel prices, including enterprise-wide fuel consumption efforts, equipping tractors with anti-idling control devices, and modifying equipment specifications to ensure the most aerodynamic fleet possible.
