ALTERNATIVE FUELS
technologyreview
Many in the logistics world still think
of propane as a fuel for forklifts, but
that’s only part of the story.
Not just for lift
trucks anymore
LONG BEFORE THE EPA’S SMARTWAY PROgram, carbon mapping, and hybrid electric
trucks, Schwan’s Home Service trucks were running on an alternative fuel. But the fuel wasn’t
ethanol or biodiesel or one of the others you
might expect. It was a fuel that’s more often
associated with lift trucks than their over-the-road counterparts: propane.
Why propane? “It started back in the ’70s when
… fuel prices were rising,” explains Jeff Schueller,
director of fleet maintenance for Schwan’s.
“Marvin Schwan, the founder of the company,
did not want the fuel prices back then to affect his
company’s growth and the routes that he was
building, and so he looked for a more economi-
cal way to run the equipment.”
Today, 75 percent of the 6,000-plus trucks in the
company’s fleet run on propane. That includes
both the medium-duty vehicles and the light-
duty trucks Schwan’s uses to deliver its flash-
frozen food to homes in suburban neighbor-
hoods and rural areas throughout the country.
Does propane still have the cost advantage
over mainstream fuels 35 years later? Schueller
says it does. “Every year, we do an analysis—
diesel vs. propane, or diesel vs. gas and
propane—and operationally, the numbers continue to show that it is more economical for us
to operate on alternative fuels,” he says.
While many in the logistics world still think of
propane—also known as liquefied petroleum
gas (LPG) or propane autogas—as a way to
power forklifts, that’s only part of the story. It
has long since moved out of the warehouse and
onto the highways. Today, there are approximately 15 million over-the-road vehicles running on propane worldwide, according to the
Propane Education & Research Council
(PERC), making it the third most-popular fuel
source for vehicles after gas and diesel.
In the United States, most of the uptake has
been in the commercial (as opposed to passenger) vehicle sector—particularly among fleets
whose vehicles operate within a fixed range. For
the most part, the vehicles running on propane
are light- and medium-duty trucks.
For fleet owners, much of propane’s appeal is
its low cost. According to PERC, the price of
propane tends to be about 30 percent below the
