I just finished Participating in a demonstration with the North American Council for Freight Efficiency NACFE ,named RunOn Less.While "Run On Less" was not a contest, it included seven trucks with eight very competitive drivers. There were eight drivers because one truck was driven by a team. The participating companies continued to haul their normal freight, drive their routes, as well as delivering to their regular customers. All the trucks were measured using a Geotab device that monitored engine parameters, weather conditions, speed, gross vehicle weight, precipitation, wind direction, and elevation changes. When we knew, our peers could see all data, the natural thing was to drive our best every minute of the day. This was an elite group of drivers who constantly strive for optimal fuel mileage 100% of the time. Some of the fuel mileage techniques I used during the event included driving as if there was an egg between my foot and the throttle. Organize my stops along the route to be sure I always stopped at the top of a hill and then would use less fuel to reach cruising speed as I pulled back onto the interstate. Planning was also done to miss as much highway congestion as possible. Routing was not massively different then I normally do, I will say with the world watching I made sure to stay on my A game.
Some of the highlights of the seventeen days of the contest:
Average fuel mileage for the seven trucks 10.1
Miles traveled by all trucks 50,107
Three trucks posted for one day over 12.5 MPG
Best fuel mileage recorded 12.8 and worst was a 7.1
Average Vehicle Speed 54*
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Everything that goes on with a truck during the course of the day this includes but not limited to stopping at shippers & receivers, traffic jams, city driving, and traffic lights.
Average gross weight 55,498* pounds
Ton miles per gallon 104
Elevation Gain 165,824
Average Wind Speed 0.5
Quote’s taken from article on Freight Waves ...
“One of the things we thought about with Run On Less was whether this was an mpg contest,” Roeth said during a press conference Sunday at the North American Commercial Vehicle Show at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. “But what these fleets did was they brought trucks with equipment that works.”
Albert, who is a member of Freightliner’s Team Run Smart, told FreightWaves that it is a misconception that only large fleets can achieve this kind of mileage. In fact, he said the real problem is that many owner-operators run their trucks “as drivers” and they need to “leave the driver at home.”
The Run On Less event was fun, exciting, and a personal challenge to get the best fuel mileage possible out of my 2018 Freightliner Cascadia. Thanks to all of the sponsors for this event and Mike Roeth and Dave Schaller as well as the rest of the support crew to make Run On Less a reality.
To read more on NACFE:
http://www.nacfe.org/