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The Last Word

Last word the John G. Smith | Contributing Editor | info@wordsmithmedia.ca At a cost W Economy gains will come… Fuel I actually am conﬁdent that trucking industry’s manuhen President Barack Obama announced facturers will ﬁnd ways to meet the requirements that plans to establish fuel-economy standards emerge. Early reports suggest that the ﬁrst round of the for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, he prorules—applying to the 2014 model year—will reﬂect claimed the initiative will “bring down” the cost of transtechnology that is in the market today. We already have portation. To that, I offer a single word: Unlikely. seen examples of everything from fuel saving tire designs At least, that will be the reality in the short term. to trailer skirts and efﬁcient lubricant formulas. While the changes may indeed reduce the amount of And if the upgrades are coupled with fuel-friendly diesel that is consumed, the technology to make it happroductivity improvements such as an allowance for the pen will come at a tangible upfront cost. Premium prodwider use of Long Combination ucts, research and development Vehicles, we might see some of the always come with price tags. Look promised savings without another back no further than the Environcrippling pre-buy. mental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Trucking will The bigger challenge will come rules which have slashed allowable ﬁnd a way in the form of the standards themlevels of everything from particuto meet selves. There is no overlooking the late matter to NOx, eliminating fact that there are too many varimany earlier fuel-economy gains in fuel-economy ables at play to establish any single the process. requirements. meaningful number to reﬂect a Did exhaust gas recirculation truck’s fuel economy. Like the stan(EGR) systems, diesel particulate dards being developed in Europe, ﬁlters (DPF) or selective catalytic rethe U.S. rules will need to reﬂect everything from the duction (SCR) technology come for free? Not even close. weight of loads to engine outputs and even the factors The new rules also come with a shift in oversight. Unbehind an individual route. What we’ll likely see next like the Department of Transportation, the EPA personyear is some sort of complex spec’ing model. nel who lead the current charge will not need to weigh If anything, this long list of factors will lead North factors such as jobs or the overall health of the trucking America’s trucking industry further down the path of industry, either. Still think there will be true “savings” to vertical integration, leaving buyers with a diminishing be had in the early days of the rules? Didn’t think so. I list of options for individual trucks. The irony is that doubt that a return on investments will be topping the some of the options lost in the process may have ofEPA’s thought process. fered better fuel economy in speciﬁc applications, but Regardless, the new focus on fuel economy still is that is another story. needed to keep long-term operating costs under control. 36 | SUCCESSFUL DEALER | August 2010

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