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SmartWay Excellence Honorees Detail Best Practices

The expanded use of CNG-powered trucks has helped Pitt Ohio reduce both its carbon footprint and fuel costs. Photo: Mack Trucks

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay sustainability program recently announced its 2017 Excellence Award winners. The annual event honors SmartWay participants that lead their industries in improving freight efficiency and contributing to cleaner air within their supply chains. The awardees are chosen from over 3,600 companies and organizations participating in SmartWay program.

This week, three of the program's Excellence Award fleet honorees detailed the best practices that have helped gain recognition by SmartWay for their efforts in reducing their corporate carbon footprint and meet major sustainability goals set by their companies.

Kimberly-Clark

Stelios Chrysandreas is the North American transportation manager for paper products producer Kimberly-Clark. Chrysandreas is based in Knoxville, Tennessee, and tasked with delivering the lowest cost transportation costs and best possible service for the giant paper producer.

Kimberly-Clark joined SmartWay in 2006 when the company realized it needed an independent way of measuring how well it was doing on meeting its internal sustainability goals compared to the rest of the paper and transportation industries, Chrysandreas said during a webinar hosted by SmartWay on Jan. 17. Within a couple of years, however, he realized that SmartWay was an enabler that would help him expand the importance of Kimberly-Clark's transportation division and play a larger role in the company's sustainability plan.

Chrysandreas said he realized early on that as a large shipper, Kimberly-Clark had a big responsibility to talk to the outside carriers it was using and get them involved in SmartWay as well. And as that process unfolded, it led to fewer carriers unloading trucks and more drop-and-hook operations, which Chrysandreas said reduces both wait times for driver as well as idle time for vehicles.

Another key Kimberly-Clark tactic was to target the increased use ...Read the rest of this story

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Thor Trucks Takes Different Approach to Electric Trucks

Thor Trucks is a new electric truck company focused that is initially focused on regional haul applications. Photo: Thor Trucks

What do you get when you get together a group of West Coast tech heads with family backgrounds in trucking? A whole new electric truck company, that's what. At least that's what Giordano Sordoni thinks.

Sordoni is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Thor Trucks, a Los Angeles-based truck manufacturer and technology lab. He told HDT in an interview that the Thor Trucks team is focused on providing long-haul electric truck solutions for the industry today that are “reasonable and profitable now.” The resulting prototype is a tough-looking regional-haul truck with an aggressive stance and styling that even old school truckers can appreciate.

But styling cues aside, Sordoni says the Thor truck – and his company's vision – is firmly rooted in future technology and the rapid changes coming at trucking.

“The push toward more in-home delivery is where our vision was born,” Sordoni said. “Our families have a fleet background, so we understand the challenges of compliance, maintenance, fluctuating fuel prices, and other trucking issues today. And an electric truck solves a lot of those problems. You go from a vehicle with 2,000 moving parts to fewer than 20, so maintenance is cheaper. There's no exhaust treatment or diesel particulate filter to deal with. And, if you get enough of these trucks on the road, you'll eventually see fuel prices stabilize. So electric trucks are actually good for fleets that run diesel, too."

The God of Thunder Comes to Trucking

The first Thor truck, dubbed the ET-One, is spec'd for regional haul applications with daily ranges of 300 miles or less.

The company says the truck features instananeous torque starting at 0 rpm, with powertrain options ranging from 300 to 700 hp. The ...Read the rest of this story