between 3PD’s stops was 21 miles.
Russell A. Marzen, executive vice president, warehousing and logistics, says the
tweaking allows 3PD to maximize the
number of pickups and deliveries in a typical day—the company’s retailer clients
pay it by the stop—while minimizing fuel
burn. “It is simply not sufficient for us if
we can’t get the distance between stops
down to 12 miles or less,” says Marzen. He
adds that the company continually strives
to compress the distances even further, no
small feat given the increasing demand it is
experiencing for its services.
Helping hand
Truckers are also turning to technology in
their quest to conserve fuel. For example,
fuel optimization software, which directs
truck drivers to the best locations to purchase their fuel, became a hot property during the long, hot summer of 2008.
The software remains in demand even
though diesel prices have cooled off. On
Aug. 4, truckload carrier Knight
Transportation Inc. announced it had
installed IDSC ExpertFuel, a software program that Knight licensed from TMW
Systems, a Cleveland-based developer.
Phoenix-based Knight said it uses the software across its 35 regional operating centers.
“Whether diesel prices are high or low,
pennies per gallon make a huge difference
for our fleet,” David Jackson, Knight’s CFO,
said in a statement. (Knight operates more
than 3,700 trucks.) TMW customers generally save between 4 and 11 cents per gallon
for each truck, said TMW Vice President
David Schildmeyer in the statement.
Another solution, and one that seems
quite basic, is addressing driver habits.
Dedicated contract trucker Ruan Transport
Inc., which consumes between 80 million
and 85 million gallons of diesel fuel each
year, says the difference between the behaviors of a competent and an incompetent
driver is equivalent to a 30-percent swing in
fuel spend per year.
Not surprisingly, Ruan puts driver
training at the top of its priority list. “We
believe that if you are safe, you are also
efficient,” said Jim Mulvenna, Ruan’s vice
president of administration and safety, in
a recent webinar.
Other truckers have taken a similar
tack. At carrier Stan Koch & Sons
Trucking Inc., a program to reward
drivers who reduce vehicle idle times
helped the company cut idling by 75
percent from 2005 through 2007.
Trucker Covenant Transport Inc. has
taken a slightly different approach to
the same problem: It charges drivers
an hourly fee for idling in excess of a
pre-set maximum level.
As these programs show, there are
many ways to attack the oil monster.
Which is a good thing, for companies will want to have plenty of
arrows in the quiver for the next
time they face the beast.
