Study: Investing in New Fleet Vehicles Would Save Operators, Down the Road

Fleet owners reluctant to pay for equipment upgrades under pending changes to fuel efficiency regulations may take comfort in future cost savings projected in a report commissioned by Calstart, a transportation industry group.

The new rules put forward by the Obama administration would require a 24 percent reduction in CO2 emissions and fuel consumption for trucks starting in 2021, and 8 percent for trailers in 2018, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“With the new fuel economy proposed rules coming out, we wanted to understand if the increased fuel economy would be beneficial to fleets,” said Bill Van Amburg, report author and Calstart senior vice president.

If approved, the standards would be announced next year and go into effect in 2021, giving fleets time to make the change to more fuel efficient vehicles, Amburg said.

The Calstart report looked at increasing fuel economy by 40 percent from 2010 levels, the baseline year, for medium and heavy duty trucks by 2025. 2010 was chosen as the baseline because it was also used as the baseline by the government.

Cost-saving examples from the study include:

A long-distance big rig that travels 125,000 miles a year could see a savings of $20,000 annually in fuel costs by switching to a more efficient truck. The payback on the investment would be complete in nine months.
Utility trucks rack up fewer miles, but spend more time idle at work sites. These trucks could save $9,000 per year by using technology that includes engine configurations that allow for “engine off” driving modes. The payback on this investment would take 3 and a half years.
Gasoline pickup trucks and cargo vans, the most common fleet vehicles, could see savings of $1,600 per year. The break even point for this would be just over a year.

“There will be payback for the fleets that use these technologies,” Amburg said. “I think the discussion going on right now is how much fuel efficiency we should be asking for. Our report shows the way the rules have been proposed; they are in line with what we think is an affordable request. They are not asking for something that will cause problems for fleets.”

The survey also found that 87 percent of fleet operators would support higher fuel economy regulations, but 86 percent said the upfront cost of the vehicle was a big concern.

“I was surprised how strongly fleets do want higher efficiency, but they are worried about the costs,” he said. “The other thing that is important is reliability of the vehicles and maintenance. Fleets want more information earlier on maintenance costs. The fleets are worried they could be more, so one of the things we want to do now is look more closely at that issue.”

He added that Calstart will start looking into the costs of maintenance as well.

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