Transforming Trucking: Driving Trucking Efficiency Forward Won't Happen on Cruise Control

Cam Burns, RMI

Disconnected, entangled, costly, entrenched, and conservative.

Those were a few of the words experts gathered at Rocky Mountain Institute's April 14-16 Transformational Trucking Charrette in Denver used to describe their industry. And those words were just the tip of the descriptive iceberg as the roughly 40 experts dug into the monumental challenge of transforming the trucking sector.

The goal of the charrette-as well as the initiatives, research, and conversations that will follow it-was to double (at least) the efficiency of the sector, both in terms of gallons of fuel used and the time and resources trucking gobbles up to deliver everything from Barbies to tomatoes.

While Hiroko Kawai, leader of RMI's trucking research and initiatives observed that "no one solution can transform this industry," she also noted that incremental efforts to change probably wouldn't be good enough.

"Tinkering around the edges did not put iPods in your pockets," she said. "This charrette is a forum to create a voice for the trucking sector-a 'revolt,' if you will, a way of waking the sleeping giant-because many of the issues that apply to trucking also apply to other sectors, industries, and technologies."

There's no question heavy-duty trucking in the United States is in trouble. The trucking industry operates on profit margins of 1-2 percent, most trucking is done by independent owner-operators who are hard-pressed for capital and thus have nearly no opportunity to upgrade their equipment (indeed, many take loads at a loss, simply to get their trucks into position for a profitable run), and standards, information, testing, regulations, and numerous other problems have buried the industry in an efficiency grave. Some 2,500 owner-operators went out of business last year, and there are looming emissions regulations, that could further hobble the industry.

Trucking inefficiency is a sleeping giant, but trucking gets no respect. Trucks are thought of as smelly and dangerous, they chew through 15 percent of U.S. oil, and they exhaust considerable pollutants that damage human health and the climate. Yet, in America, if you wear it, eat it, watch it, sit in it, play with it, cook with it, or clean with it, it came in a truck.

After two and a half days of intense discussion, collaboration, and argument, the charrette ultimately converged on the intersection of technology, information, and policy. Within the trucking industry, these three areas (offering massive challenges in and of themselves) are at odds with one another, and addressing their misalignments has become the starting point for transformational change.

Two major initiatives emerged at the charrette, the first centered on creating a organization for unifying industry and government stakeholders to accelerate the doubling of freight efficiency while creating jobs in new energy research areas and businesses.

The initial goal of the project is to convince policy makers that we need a "National Freight Strategy." Currently, there's a lot of energy in DC about breaking down barriers and creating strategic approaches. Freight deserves its share of that action (actually, more because it's so fragmented and critical). A review of the existing literature (such as National Academy of Sciences literature) and efforts (e.g., the 21st Century Truck project) would help initiative proponents understand and compile what knowledge exists, and be the first step in giving policy makers a database on which to depend while they're writing a National Strategy. The initiative would also include the creation of an independent blue-ribbon panel committed (for the public good) to informing the various aspects of the project moving forward, as well as industry players who can show the government how to move forward on policy. The initiative would be not just about known efficiencies in the trucking sector but about known and potential efficiencies across the entire freight sector.

The second initiative, centered on "credible, quantified information on truck technology," as RMI's Mike Simpson put it, could be an effort to establish something like the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED system (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for green buildings-except in this case, for trucks (see "We Have Green Buildings, Now What About Green Trucks?"). Those working on this initiative envisioned a world where customers have a place to go to compare and evaluate technology investments. An established non-profit council would be used to cultivate a trustworthy brand and venue to deliver performance specifications and assessment ratings. A "U.S. Green Trucking Council," modeled after the USGBC, was also suggested. It could maintain publicly accessible databases of technology evaluations (both off the shelf and in the lab). Outputs of the group include conferences, papers, certification protocols and documented procedures to guide technology investment and application.

"With the fact that this need to be in its own language for truck drivers and others within the industry," Mike added.

These sound like lofty goals-or perhaps, more correctly, daunting challenges-but RMI's MOVE Team members actually outlined concrete steps to achieve the goals of the charrette. Certain legislators' names were mentioned, as was a certain President's, as were dozens of high-ranking folks in the freight and policy sectors. (RMI's Aron Branam even made homework assignments for a few people who were there.)

"This was a very active discussion about how trucking has been ignored in the recent stimulus debate, and how trucking's demands on infrastructure have to be considered just as carefully as the other infrastructure improvements that the federal government is encouraging," Hiroko noted. "Carrying more of what we want with least impact on the earth (or with the least use of oil), with higher profitability is what we're ultimately after."

We seem to be moving forward with great speed and (the efficient use of) energy.

Watch this space.