Washington – Trucking industry trade groups are showing cautious support for President Barak Obama’s call Tuesday to start a new round of fuel economy standards for commercial vehicles.
Jed Mandel, president of the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, says that his group is still implementing the first round of fuel economy standards for medium-duty (class 5-7) and heavy duty (class 8) trucks, regulations that only went into effect in January. But he says truck makers will work with regulators to come up with fair standards.
“EMA and its members are committed to working with EPA and NHTSA to assure that a second phase program recognizes the commercial needs of the marketplace; balances stringency and cost while providing adequate leadtime and stability; avoids unintended consequences; and assures uniform, accurate and cost-effective assessment/measurement methods,” Mandel says.
Obama’s announcement Tuesday was a series of executive directives, a call for Congress to make policy changes, and praise for voluntary programs that have encouraged business to adopt hybrid and alternative fuel commercial trucks.
The immediate impact will be the start of a new round or rulemaking. Obama ordered the Department of Energy(DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin work on proposals. A draft of those proposals should be publically available by March of 2015, allowing those rules to become official a year later. Truck makers and fleet operators will have several opportunities to testify on those rules.
American Trucking Association President and CEO Bill Graves urges caution with the new standards.
"We stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the president and his administration in 2011 when the historic first fuel efficiency standards were set for heavy-duty vehicles," Graves says. "As we begin this new round of standards, ATA hopes the administration will set forth a path that is both based on the best science and research available and economically achievable."
In a speech announcing plans for the new standards in Maryland, Obama said higher fuel economy should help both trucking companies and truck producers.
"Businesses that buy these types of trucks have sent a clear message to the nearly 30,000 workers who build them, ‘We want trucks that use less oil, save more money, cut pollution,’” Obama says. “So far, 23 companies have joined our National Clean Fleets Partnership to reduce their oil consumption or replace their old fleets of trucks with more fuel-efficient models. And, collectively, they operate about 1 million commercial vehicles nationwide.”
The National Clean Fleets Partnership has encouraged UPS, FedEx, AT&T, and many large fleet operators to adopt higher-tech, fuel-saving trucks. Many of those companies have tested hybrids, natural-gas-powered delivery vehicles, and all-electric vehicles.
And the EPA has run test programs with Paccar, Navistar, Cummins, Volvo, and others to test new heavy duty technologies. The SuperTruck program has set a target of a 50% increase in fuel economy to about 9.75 mpg (diesel) from 6.5 mpg. Truck producers will testify in the coming two years whether or not such a 50% increase would be economically viable as many of the test technologies they are using are extremely expensive.
Many of those test technologies will be on display next month at the Work Truck Show in Indianapolis, an annual event held by the NTEA, the national trucking industry trade group.
Obama and environmental leaders have targeted heavy trucks because of their outsized impact on fuel use. Though commercial trucks make up only 4% of vehicle registrations, they account for 25% of fuel consumption because of their sizes and the fact that they tend to be in use as much as possible.
”Because they haul about 70% of all domestic freight – 70% of the stuff we use, everything from flat-screen TVs to diapers to produce to you name it -- every mile that we gain in fuel efficiency is worth thousands of dollars of savings every year,” Obama says. “Improving gas mileage for these trucks are going to drive down our oil imports even further. That reduces carbon pollution even more, cuts down on businesses’ fuel costs, which should pay off in lower prices for consumers.”
Though the aerodynamic improvements and engine enhancements on trucks are costly, the Obama administration said they save owners more than they cost. The administration estimates that the first round of standards will save trucking fleets $50 billion over the lifetime of those vehicles. The administration estimates that the owner of a 2018-compliant truck would be able to pay for the higher vehicle expense from fuel savings in one year and save a net $73,000 over the vehicle’s lifetime.
The earlier round of commercial truck standards set a target of reducing fuel consumption by about 20%. Obama didn’t announce a target Tuesday, but he did talk about voluntary industry programs that have cut fuel consumption by 50% and more.
Source: White House, NTEA, NHTSA, ATA, EMA