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Jun 29, 2017

GOODS TRANSPORT ON CITIES * France - Debate

*Paris - Report: "Logistics remains the poor relation of debates and public policies in metropolises"

... A report which advocates a better take into account the transport of goods in debates on the city... The observation that "Logistics remains the poor relation of debates and public policies in metropolises"... "particularly deregulated forms of work, such as the explosion of couriers self-entrepreneurs working for digital platforms"... Individual small businesses or very small SMEs now transporting "80 % of all shipments delivered to the city for hire or reward" ... In Paris, for example, the average distance between warehouses where deliverers get their supplies and the center has almost tripled since 1970, going from 6 to 16 km, the report says... In order to remedy all these evils, the authors issue 8 proposals for action to be declared at the national level, that is to say, central administrations and / or local and regional authorities... Terra Nova recommends to give a price signal to traffic on urban motorways, via "the implementation of the ecotax for urban motorways especially in Ile-de-France, including the exemption of Euro 6 vehicles and clean vehicles "... 
Paris, France - ACTU Transport-Logistique - 29 June 2017

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Apr 5, 2017

SHORTAGE OF DRIVERS * USA: or SKILLED LABOR WORKERS ? STUDY

* DC - Study: Automated trucking’s rapid rise overlooks the need for skilled labor


... The trucking industry as a whole relies on a variety of workers who are also less susceptible to automation according to O*NET. Truck drivers only make up 60 percent of the nearly 1.5 million workers in this industry. Other support workers fill roles across more than 150 different occupations, from truck mechanics to cargo agents to accountants, who have a relatively low degree of automation (25.5) on average. In this way, even as automated trucks may alter the actual shipment of goods, these technologies are unlikely to supplant all of the various technical, financial, and logistical work activities in support of that movement... Indeed, regardless of how these automated technologies play out, truck drivers and their fellow support workers are going to still carry out several specialized tasks, which will require continued on-the-job training and familiarity with precise sets of tools. O*NET tracks the particular types of tools used by individual occupations to better understand the technical skills and familiarity required to fill a given job, ranging from utility knives and two-way radios to personal computers and GPS receivers. On average, workers across all occupations nationally use about six tools to perform their jobs; however, workers in the trucking industry use about 27 tools on average, requiring a greater depth of knowledge and training that make it more difficult to automate their activities. Some workers use considerably more tools, including automotive service technicians (173), compliance officers (108), and truck mechanics (97)... 
... Finally, there are some overarching regulations that could stall the automation impacts from driverless technologies. States currently maintain oversight for whether driverless trucks can operate within their borders—and those regulations are inconsistent from state to state. Those inconsistencies will likely limit interstate shippers from using these vehicles to easily move goods across different states until certain regulatory thresholds are consistent. You can apply the same thinking to local regulations. Without approvals for driverless trucks to operate along specific rights of way—say a busy pedestrian corridor—municipalities and counties could make it difficult for trucking firms to use the technology... 
(Photo 1: Atlanta city scene - Photo 2. Automated trucking's rapid rise overlooks the need for skilled labor)  --   Washington, DC. USA - Brooking.edu, by Joseph Kane and Adie Tomer - March 21, 2017

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Apr 4, 2017

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES * UK - "Revolutionising Mobility in Society"

* London - Connected and autonomous vehicles ‘will transform lives’

--- Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), for which commercial vehicles play a significant role in the development of new technology, will transform the lives of six out of every 10 people in the UK, according to new research published recently by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). This UK-based study of the human impact of CAVs, canvassed the views of more than 3,600 respondents and found that this new technology will offer freedom to some of society’s most disadvantaged, including those with disabilities, older people and the young... The CV Sector plays a critical role in bringing CAV systems to market, as the nature of larger vehicles makes it easier for designers and engineers to test prototype systems, as proven by autonomous truck trials that are already taking place in the USA... Automatic braking and parking and a vehicle’s ability to self-diagnose faults were cited as features most likely to reduce stress – the biggest attraction of owning a CAV among all groups... Although fully connected and autonomous vehicles aren’t expected to become mainstream until 2030, most new vehicles are now connected via sat nav or Bluetooth, and many are available with safety systems such as collision warning or autonomous emergency braking... 
London, UK - Transport Parts (Ireland), by Padraic Deane - 31 Mar 2017

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Jul 12, 2016

STUDY: TRUCKS' AUTOMATION * UK

* England - Roland Berger: Truck automation may stall on early business case

--- The logistics of moving goods about with trucks may be open to a stepwise evolution towards full automation. The prospect of full automation, in which drivers are no longer required, is tantalising to the trucking industry owners whose major costs – outside capex – are fuel and drivers. Yet intervening stages come with significant investment costs and legal issues, which may put off rapid evolution in the market from the side of fleet operators and OEMs... In a new report from Roland Berger’s Americas Commercial Vehicle practice, titled ‘Automated Trucks: The next big disruptor in the automotive industry?’, the consultancy considers the effect of different levels of automation on the trucking industry, as well as the key drivers holding off, and urging, market evolution... * Conclusion: The payback period is relatively slow for two of the scenarios in which trucks are active, and given how far off full automation the technology is (15+ years), the pull for development of the technology is expected to be slow from both fleet operators and OEMs. OEMs are concerned about legal conditions surrounding the technology, while some OEMs may baulk at the costs. Yet, besides cost benefits to fleet operators and the legalese surrounding on road regulation, the technology also has the capacity to significantly improve safety on the road...  
 London, EN, UK - Consultancy.uk, by Stephan Keese - 7 July 2016

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TRUCKS & TRUCKING SERVICES * UK - Study

* England - When is a truck not a truck? When it’s a service ?
--- According to an old adage in the automotive industry, passenger cars are bought with the heart, commercial vehicles are bought with the mind...  Since the first truck was built and sold, the OEM focus has always been on the product. Over the past decade in particular, truck manufacturers have competed on factors such as fuel economy, reliability, durability and safety, and more recently total cost of ownership. All along, the truck was the product at the centre of all truck manufacturer improvements and innovations, benefiting a range of customers that included fleet owners, owner operators, drivers and technicians.. However, as competition increased and the areas offering one truck manufacturer an advantage over another shrank, it became evident that this age-long focus on products was about to change... With major transitions taking place across the commercial vehicle sector, the business of trucking became focused on downtime reduction, higher degree of mobile resource effectiveness and efficiency – with both the truck and the driver being mobile resources – as well as better asset utilisation and ultimately greater value to shippers and consumers. This was further accelerated by the advent of digitisation in trucking, a trend that is omnipresent now in both developed and emerging markets... As the industry now finds itself on the cusp of transition from a product-based to a service-based business model, it is important to understand that this is just a transition and not the end-game... It is time to view the truck buyer as a client and not as a customer... 
London, EN, UK - Automotives World, by Sandeep Kar, Global Vice President at Frost & Sullivan - July 8, 2016

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Sep 9, 2014

TRUCKING INDUSTRY NEWS WORELDWIDE: USA 's Research

* Texas - Intermodal Freight Transportation Market 2019 forecasts in a new Worldwide Research Report

(Photo from Wilipedia: Freight train carrying trucks in India) 
Dallas,TXS,USA -PRNewswire -September 6, 2014: -- The global intermodal freight transportation market is forecast to grow to $26.19 billion by 2019, at an estimated CAGR of 16.4% from 2014 to 2019. In the present scenario North America is the biggest market for intermodal freight transportation, which is slowly maturing. On the other hand Europe is emerging as the next biggest market. Europe is growing with a high pace and is expected to be the dominant market in the coming years... This page it's available here... It provides a detailed analysis of the markets for all the solutions of intermodal freight transportation such as fleet management, intermodal dispatch, fleet security, warehousing, trucking software, and terminals; services: consulting, managed services, and customization services. It includes detailed analysis of intermodal freight transportation modes such as railroad, truck-water, truck-air, and others; and geographical split across the globe such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. The report's strategic section sketches the competitive scenario in the intermodal freight transportation market...

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Jan 3, 2013

STUDY * GLOBALIZATION

* Germany - Deutsche Post DHL publishes its second "global index of globalization" 

Bonn,Germany -Logistics Magazine (France), by Luke Battais -14 Dec 2012: -- A tool for the internatinal business, the"global connectedness Index" was published by Deutsche Post DHL. This large study led by Pankaj Ghemawat, a professor at the IESE business school in Barcelona, ranks 140 countries according to their "degree of globalization" ... This rate study is measured by two criteria: the depth of international trade and its magnitude. The depth is expressed as a percentage of international activity in relation to GDP, the size is more or less valued by the number of countries with which these exchanges take place. The rate of globalization that produces the rank of a country in the overall result of a calculation applying these concepts to four indicators considered "pillars" of the evaluation: the level of trade of goods and service, rate of foreign investment, the volume of trade information (Internet exchanges, many international calls) and finally flows of people (migration, tourism, international students)... This classification strange place the Netherlands in number 1, followed by Singapore, Luxembourg, Ireland, Switzerland, Great Britain... The last ranked 140th, is Botswana... What does such a classification if to note that the "level of globalization is lower" than before the crisis? For a group like Deutsche Post DHL, it comes first, and this is his main interest, a tool to detect, locate and characterize a priori breaks in trends in world trade characterized by a "displacement of economic centers of gravity." Europe is seen as the study region in the world better connected, while the sub-Saharan region of Africa is the one that showed the strongest momentum in the development of its interconnection with the rest of the world between 2010 and 2011...

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Feb 11, 2012

ELECTRIC TRUCK STUDY * USA

* Massachusetts - Institute of Technology Study Finds Electric Trucks Can Save Businesses Money

(Photo: Associated Press / Frito-Lay has begun using electric trucks in New York and elsewhere)
Cambridge,MASS,USA -MIT News Office, by Peter Dizikes -10 Feb 2012: -- Using electric trucks can considerably reduce costs for fleets, say researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology... The study, conducted at MIT's Center for Transportation and Logistics, found that electric vehicles can cost 9% to 12% less to operate than diesel-powered trucks when used to make deliveries on a daily basis in large cities... Researchers found that in a situations where diesel was $4 a gallon, trucks with internal-combustion engines averaged 10.14 mpg, hybrid trucks averaged 11.56 mpg, and electric-only trucks averaged 0.8 kilowatt-hours per mile... Researchers also looked at the possibility of the trucks being part of a vehicle-to-grid system, where batteries could be plugged into the electric grid for 12 hours each night as an additional electricity source for consumers. In a setup such as this, truck owners would receive compensation from utility firms for providing the power service. The study found that from this setup, business owners stand to make $900 to $1,400 per truck per year in V2G revenues, reported MIT News... Because of this, when V2G-enabled electric trucks take the place of internal-combustion trucks, operational cost decreases from 75 cents per mile to 68 cents per mile... While this concept would provide many opportunities for urban commercial fleets, the study concluded it wouldn't apply to rural or interstate deliveries...

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Jun 3, 2011

Study * Sweden - Prove The Obvious: Commuting Is Bad For You

Money doesn’t buy happiness, but science has proven that commuting buys misery...

(Photo: A Traffic Jam)
Umea,Sweden -The Car Connection -1 June 2011:   --  This just in: the longer your daily commute, the less likely you are to be happy, healthy and even married for any length of time...  A new study by researchers at Umea University in Sweden proved that commuters who drive more than 45 minutes each way are 40 percent likelier to divorce than those with shorter commutes. The study failed to identify reasons for this, but those of us who’ve experienced commutes from hell know the reasons all too well: commuting leaves you drained, stressed and robbed of time to do things that matter, like exercise, interact with loved ones and even focus on life at home...  Long commutes are often the byproduct of real estate prices. Jobs are usually located in urban centers, and urban real estate is expensive; hence, for the price of a studio apartment downtown, you can often buy a three bedroom house in a distant suburb. For some, it’s about the quality of suburban or rural life versus urban life, where things like cars and motorcycles are liabilities and not assets. Surely there has to be a break-even point between commuting distance and income, right? ...  There’s a study on that as well, and its conclusion isn’t good news for those with long commutes. To justify an extra hour of commuting time, your salary would need to rise by 40 percent just to break even. Factor that in the next time you get a job offer that pushes the limit of what you’d consider a reasonable commute...

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Nov 27, 2010

Carmakers' next problem * USA - Generation Y

People in their teens and twenties are more interested in gadgets than cars

Denver,COL,USA -Autos on MSNBC, by Allison Linn -4 Nov 2010:   ... At 25 years old, McVeigh lives in Denver and has two good jobs, as a research analyst and an adjunct professor of philosophy. What she doesn’t have — or want — is a car...   A confluence of events — environmental worries, a preference for gadgets over wheels and the yearslong economic doldrums — is pushing some teens and twentysomethings to opt out of what has traditionally been considered an American rite of passage: Owning a car... The percentage of new cars sold to 21- to 34-year-olds hit a high of nearly 38 percent in 1985 but stands at around 27 percent today, according to CNW research. Over that same period, the percentage of new car buyers who are 55 or older has generally been trending up, according to the vehicle research group... Brauer said one issue is economic: A combination of high unemployment among young people and economic troubles for their parents is making it harder for younger people to afford to drive... But there are also other, longer-term issues at work, he said... For one thing, many young consumers care more about new technologies, such as the latest phone, than about the latest car... Brauer said this generation also is thinking more than any other about the repercussions of driving, both in terms of the environment and our dependence on oil...    (Photo from Marc Piscotty - Natalie McVeigh, 25, of Denver, reads while she rides a bus on her way to work earlier this week)

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Sep 6, 2010

Study * USA - Links diesel pollution to premature death

Sacramento,CAL,USA -Today's Trucking -3 Sept 2010: -- A new controversial California Air Resources Board report concludes that there is a causal relationship between exposure to fine particle pollution and premature death... The study found that about 9,000 people in California die prematurely each year as a result of exposure to fine particle pollution, which is produced by of a variety of sources including particles in the exhaust of diesel exhaust... California already has some of the toughest emissions rules of any jurisdiction in North America, but the report suggests that more emission reductions must be achieved through CARB regulations of mobile sources, including trucks... The CARB report and its methodology were based on recent assessments by the U.S. EPA... However, the report has detractors... In fact, a well-respected 36-year veteran UCLA researcher was fired, he claims, because he doubted the science regarding diesel particulate matter and public health... Even though no one at CARB challenged his work, Dr. James Enstrom says he was terminated on a technicality...

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Aug 11, 2010

STUDY * UK - Rocketing petrol prices fuel drive for vehicle efficiency

British businesses are squandering millions of litres of petrol because employees don’t drive company vehicles efficiently

London,EN,UK -Fleet News -11 Aug 2010: ... According to a recent study by Trimble MRM, poor driving technique, inaccurate fuel gauges and bad record keeping are all contributing to companies being unaware of the real consequences of their fuel usage... The research found recent hikes in petrol and diesel prices is the biggest challenge facing fleet managers today. The drive to make business more fuel efficient is forcing fleet managers to take a long hard look at their vehicles and driver behaviour... Andrew Yeoman, MD of Trimble MRM, says the right driver feedback technology can make an average commercial vehicle up to 15 per cent more efficient... The emergence of new diagnostic solutions allows businesses to draw information directly from each vehicle and report on faults, performance, and exactly where fuel is being wasted... With exceptional accuracy, companies can also receive information on individual driver behaviour patterns, such as speed, style, braking or acceleration, giving fleet managers a real insight into which employees need additional training or to regulate their behaviour... (Picture from thedailydust.co.uk: A lorry driver)

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Jul 31, 2010

STUDY * USA - Forecasts electric truck growth by weight classes

New York,NY,USA -Fleet Owner, by Sean Kilcarr -Jul 26, 2010: -- Light-duty electric vehicles (EV) offer the best opportunity for near-term growth within the U.S. commercial fleet sector, according to a new study by research firm Frost & Sullivan, because of all EV models, they offer the best fit in terms of life cycle cost and operational capability... However, Frost & Sullivan also found that the opportunity for medium-duty EVs may expand over time if life cycle costs decline, their mileage range expands, and a national recharging infrastructure begins to take shape... According to the firm’s EV study, “Strategic Analysis of the North American and European Electric Truck, Van and Bus Markets,” by 2016, some 64,817 Class 2-3 light-duty EVs should be sold, in North America predominantly (3.5 tons or less GVW) configured as parcel delivery vans, small shuttle buses, etc... By contrast, only 26,635 medium-duty EVs (between 3.5 and 16 tons GVW) and 565 heavy-duty EVs (16 ton GVW or greater) are expected to be built and sold that same year... (Photo from dvice: A Smith Newton electric truck)

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Jul 22, 2010

World Traffic Congestion * WORLDWIDE - Study: IBM Global Commuter Pain Index measures

... The traffic here is worse than almost anywhere else

Armonk,NY,USA -Gizmag, by Ben Coxworth -July 20, 2010: ... As part of its research and development of traffic management systems, IBM decided to find out just which places do have the worst traffic - or at least, which places have the residents who are most negatively affected by it. The results: if you don’t like traffic, don’t live in a fast-growing metropolis... For its first-ever Global Commuter Pain Index, the company surveyed 8,192 drivers in 20 cities on six continents, getting feedback on issues such as commuting time, anger caused by driving in traffic, and the amount of time stuck in traffic...
Cities such as Los Angeles, New York and London, long thought of as traffic hellholes, actually scored relatively low on the index. This, say the researchers, is because those cities have been experiencing slow, steady growth over the past several years, so the traffic infrastructure has been able to keep up with the increased amount of vehicles on the road... Places like Moscow, New Delhi, and the top spot holder Beijing, however, have been growing too fast. According to the Beijing municipal taxation office, the number of new cars in that city rose by 23.8 percent in the first four months of 2010. It’s no surprise that 95 percent of Beijing motorists surveyed felt that roadway traffic had negatively affected their health - the global average was 57 percent. Beijing does plan on investing over 331.2 billion yuan (US$48.8 billion) by 2015 to improve its traffic infrastructure, but that doesn’t free the roads up right now...
Other findings of the survey included the facts that 49 percent of global drivers thought traffic has gotten worse in the past three years, 87 percent have been stuck in traffic causing an average one-hour delay, and 31 percent have encountered traffic so heavy that they turned around and went home... The city with the least painful commute, should you be curious, was Stockholm. Melbourne and Houston closely followed, in a tie for second-least... (Photo above: Traffic on the streets of Beijing, the worst offender on the index)

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Jun 28, 2010

Study * UK - Suggests incentives needed for aggressive emissions cutting technologies

London,UK -Transport Engineer, by Brian Tinham -22 June 2010: -- Technologies likely to deliver carbon emissions cuts from commercial vehicles capable of meeting government targets are going to require financial incentives to drive development and uptake... So says Jonathan Murray, deputy director of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LCVP), which is nearing completion of its initial report on green opportunities for transport, sanctioned by the previous government... Its work, which has been technology-neutral (covering vehicle, drivetrain and the fuels), has to date included a market survey, a study of near- and mid-term fuel-saving techniques, an assessment of their commercial viability, work on testing/validation and generic computer modelling... As European regulations for LCVs' and subsequently HGVs' emissions targets, along the lines of those already in place for cars, get closer, choosing winning technologies appropriate to real drive cycles will become key... (Picture from roadtranspor: UK. An example of a CO2 probe used to detect heartbeats in a vehicle )

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LHV STUDY * The Netherlands - Dutch courage

LHVs are cleaner, more efficient, less harmful, more cost-effective and do not create the sort of problems suggested by their detractors

Amsterdam,Holland -The Road Transport (UK), by Dominic Perry -22 June 2010: -- A recent report from the Dutch government "Longer and Heavier Vehicles in the Netherlands", issued by the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, summarises the Netherlands' experience with LHVs since their small-scale introduction in 1995... Broadly speaking, it confirms what the proponents of LHVs have been saying all along: LHVs are cleaner, more efficient, less harmful, more cost-effective and do not create the sort of problems suggested by their detractors (increased accidents, modal shift from rail to road and so on)... LHVs require a special exemption permit to operate and drivers also need an extra qualification to be allowed to pilot them... One key finding in Holland has been that LHVs actually cause equal or less damage both in terms of deformation (stretching and warping of the road surface) and fatigue (the breaking up of the material) damage than a regular truck ... Deployment of LHVs has led to a reduction in fuel use and CO2 emissions among participating companies. NOx and CO2 per tonne transported are reduced by 14% and 11% respectively if maximum take-up of LHVs in the Netherlands is achieved... Loading capacity of LHVs was more efficiently used than regular trucks. The majority of users were in the retail sector (24%), container transport (22%) and floriculture (14%)... The cost/km of an LHV is 6% higher than for a regular truck, however average load capacity is 40% higher, resulting in savings of around 35% per trip... (Photo from roadtransport.com/big-lorry-blog: "And here's one to show you that it can also negotiate the tricky narrow Dutch polder roads!")

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Jun 8, 2010

Study * USA - Predicts Growth in Hybrid Trucks

Lifecycle costs of hybrid technology need to come down

Palo Alto,CAL,USA -F & S -May 28, 2010: -- Hybrid truck demand expected to grow over next 6 years across N. America and Europe. Medium-duty market will likely be leader. Hybrids promote fuel efficiency, anti-idling, emissions and noise reduction... Frost & Sullivan study titled "Strategic Analysis of the North American and European Hybrid Truck, Bus and Van Markets"... Hybrid trucks being manufactured in NA and Europe will grow from 4K units in 2009 to 222K in 2016. Vocations using medium-duty trucks have duty cycles suitable to hybrids. Includes refuse trucks, pickup and delivery vehicles, and utility trucks... Stop and go applications ideal for hybrid technology... Regulations, lower prices, demand and volatile energy prices will combine to improve hybrid sales... "Hybrid trucks in the future will have an expanded role to play" Sandeep Kar, global program manager, Frost & Sullivan... (Photo from s.ngeo: Freightliner hybrid electric power makes the most sense for trucks that make numerous stops and starts, like utility vehicles, analysts say)


* Trucks Could Be Next Electric Power Frontier

Washington,DC,USA -National Geographic Daily News, by Ker Than -June 6, 2010: -- Don’t expect to see electric-powered 18-wheelers roaring down the interstate any time soon. What you are more likely to see are smaller highly fuel-efficient utility trucks and buses on neighborhood streets, and lots of them. Analysts project that hundreds of thousands of them will be on our roads within the next five years... A new report by Pike Research, a research marketing firm that focuses on clean technologies, predicts that the global market for hybrid medium and heavy-duty trucks and buses will increase from 9,000 vehicles in 2010 to more than 100,000 vehicles in 2015. This year and next year, mainstream truck brands Navistar and Freightliner will even start to offer medium-duty trucks that run on electric power alone, joining several smaller, new brands that are already on the market... During the five-year period, Pike predicts that more than 300,000 hybrid trucks will be sold worldwide. This would represent a 63 percent year-over-year increase in hybrid truck and bus demand, said report author Dave Hurst... In comparison, the demand for consumer hybrid passenger vehicles such as the Toyota Prius is expected to increase by only about 13 percent year-over-year for the next five years. In the United States, in fact, as the recession hit the car industry overall hard sales of passenger hybrids fell from their 2007 peak of 350,000 sold to just under 300,000 sold last year...

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Apr 30, 2010

STUDY * USA - Trucks Provide Best Option For Agricultural Shippers

Trucks can provide the efficiency, special handling and refrigerated services needed to get perishable products where they need to go

Washington,DC,USA -AMS/USDA -30 April 2010: -- The best way to transport time-sensitive agricultural products is by truck, according to a new study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Transportation... The study said agriculture is the largest user of freight transportation in the U.S., claiming 31 percent of all ton-miles transported in the U.S. in 2007. Trucks provide a vital flexibility, the study said... USDA also found that regulatory actions play an important role in agricultural transportation... Infrastructure funding is also key to the safe and efficient movement of agricultural goods, the study indicated... The study also points out that trucking is more competitive in nature than ocean and rail, providing an attractive shipping option, even during times of rapidly increasing fuel costs...

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posted by Unknown @ 11:35 AM  0 comments

Jan 12, 2010

STUDY * USA - Battery breakthrough needed for EV, hybrid success

Boston,MASS,USA -Fleet Owner, by Sean Kilcarr -Jan 11, 2010: -- A new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) concludes that a major breakthrough in battery technology is necessary in order to foster “mass market” demand for all-electric and hybrid electric vehicles within the next decade. Without such a breakthrough, the firm determined, all-electric and hybrid vehicles will remain too expensive – both in terms production costs and sticker price – to penetrate the market in large numbers... BCG’s report Batteries for Electric Cars: Challenges, Opportunities and the Outlook to 2020 is based on an analysis of existing electric car battery research and interviews with more than 50 battery suppliers, auto OEMs, university researchers, start-up battery-technology companies, and government agencies across Asia, the U.S., and Western Europe...

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Jan 7, 2010

Study * USA - Truck freight streamline

Businesses can be so busy doing what they do, they don't have time to do what they do, better

Snowmass,COL,USA -Discovery News, by Chris Davis -Jan 2, 2010: ... Things that have been around since the sixties (the cab mounted roof deflector to be specific) still aren't fully used some forty years later. And there are plenty of other right now ways to improve truck energy efficiency that aren't rolling down the road... When the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) delved into this under-attended corner of the energy efficiency movement, they found some surprisingly simple opportunities, and the reason for the industry's reluctance to grab these opportunities... RMI and the Council are looking holistically at the opportunities. Improve aerodynamics first, then reduce the engine size because you've reduced the load on the truck. Use double trailers where states allow now; work on developing a "double trailer corridor" to create a high efficiency truck route (could the prospect of additional trucker revenue induce non-participating states to help?). Get producers to reduce packaging to haul less, or actually, to be able to haul more product (where do they come up with these ideas?)... Double trucking efficiency by changing operations and employing technologies that are available now...

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