Category: Blog

Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, discussed fuel costs in his blog, as reported in FleetOwner, a trucking industry news site. Fuel costs of course are on of the largest costs in the trucking industry, and constitutes a major expense each year. Branson claims that tractor-trailer fleets spend $105 billion on fuel each year, and states that the industry could save potentially $40 billion annually by improving fuel efficiency. Branson has been working with the North American Council for Freight Efficiency to form the company Trucking Efficiency to address the problem of high fuel costs in the trucking industry.…

The trucking industry news site Fleet Owner features an article addressing 10 key points on the proposed truck standards for Phase II of the new Obama Administration greenhouse gas (GHG) laws. The article addresses the environmental impact produced by heavy- and medium-duty trucks, as well as the measures taken by the federal government to reduce that impact through improved fuel efficiency. The government says that big trucks are responsible for about 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions that come from vehicles, but in the U.S. constitute about 5 percent of the total number of vehicles on the road. Recognizing this…

The trucking industry news site Fleet Owner features an article that covers 10 key points on the proposed truck standards for Phase II of the new Obama Administration greenhouse gas (GHG) laws. Calling heavy-duty trucks the second largest and fastest growing segment of the U.S. transportation sector in terms of emissions and energy use, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles currently account for about 20 percent of greenhouse emissions and oil use in the U.S. transportation sector, though they only account for about 5 percent of the total number of vehicles on the road. This is an obvious disparity that the government…

An article in the Wall Street Journal outlines plans from the Obama Administration to enact new fuel efficiency standards for big trucks. The government proposed new carbon-emissions standards as part of President Barack Obama’s broad climate-change agenda. The article states many in the trucking industry “cautiously support” the measure as a way to save money on fuel. The new standards announced by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department jointly announced the draft standards for big vehicles ranging from garbage trucks to 18-wheelers and including vehicles such as vans and buses and heavy-duty pickup trucks. American Trucking Associations Vice-President…

A story in the Huffington Post includes the headline “Trucking Industry Pleads With Congress to Raise Gas Taxes.” The story is in response to the ongoing attempts to find a solution for the perpetually-underfunded federal highway fund and preventing it from going broke at the end of July, as the American Trucking Associations said to members of Congress. “Congress must find the courage to admit what I believe it already knows,”  said Bill Graves, a Republican who is the former governor of Kansas, in testimony he delivered to the House Ways and Means Committee. Graves told congress people at the…