May 28, 2007

Environment

New technology keeps on trucking

OTTAWA

Canadian and American governments have been told they must do more to help truck and heavy equipment operators convert to the new, environmentally friendly technologies that are being developed.

What is needed, says Chris Patterson, are direct incentives to help buyers.

Patterson has a vested interest: He’s president and CEO of Freightliner LLC, whose brand names include Freightliner, Sterling, Western Star and Select trucks, as well as Thomas school buses and Detroit Diesel engines. His commercial interest doesn’t stop him from being right, however.

The environmentally superior diesel engines mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are on the market, but are much more expensive than the older, dirtier engines. So without some financial help, Patterson says, buyers are forced to put off new purchases, keeping old engines in service longer, and thus helping to defeat the purpose of the new EPA standards.

This, he says, “is bad public policy.”

He made his comments in an interview with Today’s Trucking magazine.

While his concern is, understandably, with highway and city trucks, there are direct construction applications that could benefit from some government help — whether they burn diesel or something else. Think of all those ready-mix trucks and gravel trucks. Think of all the construction equipment powered by diesel engines. And think of all the new technologies on their way to market.

New technology is rarely cheap. There are estimates that medium-duty hybrid trucks cost twice as much as their conventional counterparts. Still, trucks powered by diesel-electric motors or other hybrid power trains are starting to show up, with promising results.

International Truck and Engine is pushing parallel-hybrid drives that promise fuel savings of up to 60 per cent. ISE-Siemens is plugging its series hybrid system. Down the line, there are hydraulic hybrids that show immense promise. But most of these systems are likely to find their own niche.

Series hybrids, for example, appear to perform best in urban settings with a lot of stop-and-go driving — transit buses, ready-mix trucks and the like, or medium-duty trucks for things like scissor lifts or cherry pickers. Many delivery vehicles also fall into this category, which explains the interest shown by UPS and Purolator.

Korky Koroluk

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Parallel hybrids seem to be better suited for highway trucking, so freight or aggregate haulers are interested.

No one is trying to develop a single technology to do everything. Instead, we’re likely to end up with a shelf-full of technologies from which the buyer makes his choice depending on specific needs.

Right now, that choice would most likely be diesel, with newer diesel-electric technology in second place. The new diesels are efficient enough to offer decent pay-back times and lower emissions. And with the growing use of bio-diesel fuels, those emissions will get lower and lower.

But Patterson is right: There must be some help up front. And that means the deep thinkers who occupy the seats of power must stop their partisan bickering, hold some serious consultations with engine manufacturers and industrial buyers, then work out a system of incentives that will make it possible to get the new technologies to a broader market — and sooner, rather than later.

Given rapid development, improved market penetration and some initial government support, the huge price differential between old and new technologies will dwindle rather quickly. Indeed, International’s sales director believes that the premium will eventually settle at somewhere around 20 to 25 per cent.

“Give me the volume,” Jim Williams says, “and I’ll get it there in a hurry.”

Finding more environmentally sensitive ways to power the construction industry is important. That’s why I’ll come back to this next week with quick explanations of three hybrid systems that show promise.

Korky Koroluk is an Ottawa-based freelance writer. Send comments to editor@dailycommercialnews.com

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