In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

MOVING FREIGHT: TRANSPORT BEYOND OIL

In Business, January-February, Vol. 29, No. 1, p. 19

Public policy and private practices can transform freight transportation to reduce oil dependence and tackle the threat of climate change.

Deron Lovaas

COMMUTING and running errands in our cars and SUVs, we all contribute to our addiction to oil and global warming pollution. So it's not surprising that debates about ways public policy and private commerce can boost efficient use of energy deal quite extensively with passenger travel. All but overlooked in the debate is the large and growing role of goods movement in the energy and pollution picture.
According to Oak Ridge National Lab, as of 2003, energy use for freight transportation (medium-to-heavy truck, plane, ship, train) accounted for more than one-quarter of total transportation energy use. Greenhouse gas emissions from freight are increasing rapidly too. In fact, the EPA estimates that they zoomed up 43 percent from 1990 to 2003, more than double the rate for passenger travel.
Looking ahead, we see more of the same. This sank in for me about a year ago when I participated in a series of luncheons about goods movement and the environment convened in Washington, D.C. by the Eno Transportation Foundation (see www.enotrans.com/NewsStories/News_23.htm). At one lunch, consultant John Vickerman described the coming “trade tsunami” that looms over us. For example, the amount of cargo shipped is expected to triple in the next 20 years, with an increasing amount moving on ships that are too large to pass through the Panama Canal (although there is a multibillion-dollar proposal to expand the canal).
How do we ride this growing wave of trade in ways that break our oil habit and protect our environment?
First, let's look at trucks. According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), trucks used in freight (medium- to heavy-duty) account for 63 percent of energy used to transport freight, guzzling 2.4 million barrels of oil a day. By deploying a variety of technologies, including hybridization analogous to light-duty vehicles such as the Ford Escape hybrid and the Toyota Prius, ACEEE estimates that fuel economy could be increased nearly 40 percent in long-haul trucks and more than 50 percent in short-haul trucks.
Last summer, EPA announced an exciting new invention, the outcome of a partnership with the United Parcel Service (UPS): The hydraulic hybrid. Different from battery-dependent hybrid-electric technologies, it installs a hydraulic drivetrain in medium-duty trucks. The advantages are similar to a Prius, however, since this drivetrain recovers braking energy, provides more efficient operating modes and engine shutoff during prolonged stops. And the cost differential is smaller than a hybrid-electric vehicle while boosting fuel economy 60-70 percent and slashing heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent.

REDUCING IDLING OF HEAVY TRUCKS
Improving logistics of freight transportation is an even lower fruit, vis-à-vis costs. Specifically, reduced idling of heavy trucks can save a lot of oil. A recent report by Argonne National Labs pegs oil wasted during truck idling at about 130,000 barrels of oil a day, almost half of which is due to overnight sleeping in truck cabs.
This makes sense. Truck driving involves long working days. Fortunately, as covered in the pages of this magazine, there is a win-win solution: Truck stop electrification. IdleAire Technologies of Knoxville, Tennessee continues to grow by offering road-weary truckers a place to dock for a nap or the night. They can hook their cab up to an auxiliary power unit (APU) which covers a window with a heating or cooling unit. The unit also offers television, video games, internet access and even academic courses for interested customers. IdleAire plans to offer this service at 230 locations nationwide. The fuel savings are substantial; one study found that using APUs could save a whopping 80 percent of fuel consumed by a truck while idling.
Idling is a problem in America's congested ports as well. For example, an NRDC expert estimates that fuel consumed while idling added up to the following in 2004: 82.7 million gallons by ships; 15.8 million gallons by trucks; and 2.2 million gallons by trains.
While heavy trucks are by far the largest energy and oil consumers among freight transportation modes, planes and ships are next on the list for consideration. According to Oak Ridge, U.S domestic and international air carrier energy use leaped 76 percent from 1970-2003. However, the growth decelerated substantially in the last decade, with a mere 11 percent increase between 1993 and 2003. The change in the last couple of years of this series is clearly has something to do with reduced air travel after 9/11, but overall aviation has been increasing fuel economy much more rapidly than the car and truck fleet. A specific example of a simple technology that spread quickly through the air fleet, saving a great deal of fuel, is the “winglet.” These are additions to the ends of wings, such as those on Southwest planes which point upwards, reducing drag and therefore fuel waste.
NRDC estimates that additional gains could be achieved via improved air traffic management. Specifically, using new technology to take more direct routes, increase flying at lower altitudes, and reduce waiting time for takeoff and landing strips, we could save 100,000 barrels of oil a day by 2025. And the Pew Center for Global Climate Change found that fuel efficiency could be improved by up to 50 percent in the long-term using better engine technologies and improved aerodynamics through technologies like winglets.
Boeing recently set an example as an efficiency innovator with its commitment to the 787 “Dreamliner,” a craft which is designed to cut fuel use by 20 percent through the use of lighter materials, improved aerodynamics and engine performance. While this is a passenger plane, its design techniques could well be applied to freight craft too. This exciting project has helped turn Boeing around, with orders for the planes flowing in regularly. Former CEO Alan Mulally has since taken over another struggling company, Ford Motor, where I hope he'll remain true to his commitment to fuel-efficient technology.

IMPACT OF SHIPPING AND RAIL
Shipping is next on the list of large energy consumers. This mode of freight transport has benefited from “containerization.” Standard twenty-foot long metal boxes are stacked on ships. As John Vickerman of Transystems in Norfolk, Virginia discusses in his riveting presentation, we are now in the sixth generation of these ships. Whereas the first generation in the 1960s included ships with 1,700 containers, today's largest ships hold more than 6,000 containers and are longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall (more than 1,000 feet).
And there are opportunities to reduce waste here as well. In their Winning the Oil End Game, Amory Lovins, et al. claim that savings can reach 200,000-400,000 barrels of oil a day with techniques including improvements in hull shape and materials, use of larger ships (already the trend), better engines and improved logistics. The last of these would presumably include dramatically reduced idling, which as described above wastes a substantial amount of fuel.
Last on the list of freight transportation is rail. Rail offers substantial advantages over trucking as a way to transport goods on the ground. For example, according to the Department of Transportation, it is about four times as fuel-efficient per ton-mile of goods transported. Trucking also yields more than four times the heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions and three times the smog-forming oxides of nitrogen per ton-mile as rail. Rail is clearly a more efficient, cleaner investment than trucking.
Where should businesses and entrepreneurs go if they want to boost efficiency and reduce pollution due to goods movement? First stop should be Washington, D.C. to lobby for programs and incentives to help finance investments in technologies such as those described above which offer large public benefits.
Those interested in innovation and efficiency in shipping should also take a look at EPA's “SmartWay” program. Launched in 2004, this initiative targets ground freight and has among its ambitious goals saving as much as 150 million barrels of oil, resulting in less air pollution including slashing carbon dioxide emissions by 33-66 million metric tons. SmartWay offers training, innovative financing, recognition for industry leaders through an awards program, and technical assistance for companies considering purchases of fuel-efficient technology.
A particularly useful tool is an online calculator for gauging fuel- and cost-savings achievable on both individual vehicle and fleet bases. Check it out by pointing your internet browser to www.epa.gov/oms/smartway/calculator/loancalc.htm. Whether you are a shipper, or you deal with shippers, participation in this program is free-of-charge and potentially valuable.
The bottom line is that new public policy and private practices can transform freight transportation so that it plays a constructive role in reducing our dependence on oil and tackling the threat of climate change. And for the sake of national security and the global environment, we must act now to move this sector beyond oil.

Deron Lovaas is Vehicles Campaign Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) based in Washington, D.C. He can be reached via e-mail at dlovaas@ nrdc.org.