The federal government announced the first national emissions and fuel economy standards for heavy vehicles on October 25th to increase energy efficiency and reduce atmospheric pollution. The mileage proposal, which is scheduled to become final next year after a period of public comment, will apply to tractor-trailers, buses, delivery vans, heavy pickup trucks, cement mixers and many other classes of vehicles. Almost all vehicles that are affected by diesel fuel prices. It will cover new vehicles manufactured between 2014 and 2018.
The proposed policy would apply different standards to different vehicles, based on weight and intended use for fleet companies. For example, over-the-road tractor-trailers would be required to achieve a 20 percent reduction in fleet fueling consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by 2018. Heavy-duty pickups and vans would be subject to different gasoline and diesel fuel standards, with reductions ranging from 10 to 15 percent. Other work trucks would have to reduce fleet fueling consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent by 2018. It will take fuel analysis to help measure these effects on diesel fuel prices, fuel savings and basic measurements by using fleet cards or fuel cards that maybe tied to the fleet management programs.
Heavy vehicles account for more than 10 percent of the nation’s overall fleet fueling consumption and about 20 percent of the greenhouse gases emitted by the transportation sector. Fleet managers will need help with their fuel management systems to ensure that they understand the emissions that are generated by the fleet companies use and what impact it has on diesel fuel prices and diesel fuel additives. Because fuel use by trucks and buses is growing faster than most other emissions that contribute to global warming, even relatively modest cuts in diesel fueling consumption will pay large environmental benefits.
The new rules proposed by the E.P.A. and the Department of Transportation reflect the different patterns of use for varying types of trucks. This will drive fleet managers crazy in their fuel management systems – fleet management programs. This is another thing on fleet managers plates to worry about and taking time away from them reviewing diesel fuel prices, fuel cards, fleet cards, mobile fueling pricing and overall fuel savings. Long-haul freightliners and buses typically travel 100,000 miles a year and can achieve large fuel savings with relatively small investments in technology. Fire trucks and cement mixers, on the other hand, travel relatively few miles annually and thus have a lower target. Over all, this program will save $41 billion and much of it will stay home in the U.S. economy rather than paying for imported oil. Hopefully, all fuel managers or outsource fuel management companies will be able to put in place solid fleet card, fuel inventroy management, fuel cards, mobile fueling, fleet credit card services to preform fuel analysis to help fleet companies get the fuel savings.
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