june2023 - 6

HI TCHED UP FROM THE EDITOR
Navigating the messy middle
Electrification is complex business. Is trucking ready to meet the challenge?
By John Hitch
Editor-in-chief
@Hitched2Trucks
It's not even the middle of May and Mike
Roeth, executive director of the North
American Council for Freight Efficiency
(NACFE), has already appeared at two major
fleet shows this month, traversing from his
Indiana home to ACT Expo in Long Beach,
California, and National Private Truck Council
in Orlando, Florida. The super advocate for
sustainable transport spoke about how the
industry is navigating the " messy middle "
between proven diesel-powered trucks and
and fledgling electric ones.
His summer will be even more jam-packed,
as NACFE, in conjunction with RMI, plans
its fourth Run On Less Event-a real-world
demonstration in which the non-profit closely
monitors participating fleets' truck efficiency
metrics, primarily fuel and distance traveled,
over a few weeks. NACFE analyzes the data and
then writes up and publicly releases a detailed
report of the findings.
The first ROL in 2017 revealed that with the
right powertrain, aerodynamics, and driver,
over-the-road Class 8 tractor-trailers could
average above 10 mpg. That was followed by a
regional haul demo, and then an exclusively
electric vehicle trial. The upcoming Run on
Less-Electric Depot, which begins on Sept. 11,
might be the most important of all, as it dives
headfirst into the messy middle muck and how
early adopters are wading through scaling and
operational challenges associated with the
nascent technology.
Each of the eight volunteer fleets has at least
15 EVs, and the list includes major players
such as Pepsi, Schneider, Penske, and UPS.
Roeth's now in the messy middle of planning
visits to the eight depots and aligning all the
relevant stakeholders to pull the event off.
" It's herding cats, " Roeth said, referring to all
the various moving parts that must align to
even begin an electric deployment. " There's the
fleet folks, corporate and local site people, truck
drivers-we're trying to get the utilities there,
the charging infrastructure, the truck OEMs. "
That's for each depot. A logistics company
may operate several and must go through the
same process at each. And because of the push
at the state and federal level, and from truck
OEMs' sustainability goals, zero-emission
vehicles are likely headed to every fleet in the
country. And each fleet will likely need infrastructure
at most if not all of their locations.
In California, fleets have 13 years to figure
it all out, as the state's Advanced Clean Fleets
regulation is poised to nix internal combustion
engine sales by 2036. Can the industry scale to
make this possible anytime soon?
6 Fleet Maintenance | June 2023
» NACFE Executive Director Mike Roeth (center) takes a look at a vehicle charger.
NACFE
Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the
Diesel Technology Forum, is skeptical.
" No question, it's turning out to be a Jenga
game-a teetering tower of rules and mandates
built in an echo chamber, " he asserted. " It
lives on a foundation of uncertain and shaky
assumptions of cost, projections of timing, and
feasibility. Among other things, it assumes a
successful tripling of the power supply in
California to fully renewable resources and
that the power grid will be both ready and
capable of supporting a mass switch to electric
power for transportation, even as blackouts
and brownouts are annual occurrences today. "
Roeth, who used to work for leading engine
maker Cummins and has spent the last decade
working with NACFE to increase carriers' fuel
efficiency and reduce emissions, isn't sure, but
is more optimistic.
" We don't know if it's too aggressive or
not-it sure seems like it is too aggressive, "
he pondered. " But on the other hand, we're
pretty early in the game. If you talk to any of
the (ROL) fleets, they all say they're farther
along than they thought they would be with
the vehicles, even with what's needed from
an infrastructure standpoint. " Driver satisfaction
and maintenance simplicity are major
selling points for fleets. And though you may
see a picture of one of Pepsi's new Tesla Semis
getting serviced on the side of the road, that
doesn't mean electric trucks will be unreliable,
Roeth asserted.
" Yeah, they've got a downtime issue here and
there, but they're really solvable things, and
not a cracked this or cracked that found in the
diesel equipment, or the other things that come
up that cause big downtime, " he said. " [NACFE]
believes the trucks will work. We've got range
and charging issues, but those can be worked
out with faster charging and different operational
characteristics of these trucks. "
Because of their simplicity, we see [successful
adoption] as execution challenges, not TCO
or functional challenges, " Roeth added.
Will the industry be able to execute, though?
Roeth is again optimistic, because although
electrification is new, the industy knows how
to problem-solve and meet regulatory goals.
" We've got tons of tools that have been
developed from great companies managing
our routes, loads, drivers, and freight, " he said.
" And we're going to have to take advantage of
connectivity and fleet management tools that
have been created over the last years to execute
these electric trucks. "
For real progress to be made, and within the
given timeline, Roeth concluded fleets and
other stakeholders must spend their energy
on thinking through solutions, and not how
to stall the inevitable.
" We've got to do it smartly, rather than throw
up too much dust in our fighting over it to keep
us from getting it done, " he said. " I worry about
too much of our industry debating this rather
than getting on with it. "
The debate, though, will likely rage on for
years to come. As more fleets adopt and learn
how to navigate the complexities (Pg. 20), we
can only hope they get less messy.
http://www.twitter.com/Hitched2Trucks
june2023

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