NACFE rebrands and launches Run on Less report

NACFE rebrands

The North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) announced an expanded organizational strategy, including an updated brand identity and website. In addition to delivering unbiased analysis on currently available fuel-saving technologies and practices, NACFE is now expanding into guiding future change in trucking.

“With 'NACFE 2.0', we believe we can add a great deal of value in guiding the development and eventual implementation of future technologies," said Mike Roeth, executive director of NACFE. "We are in the process of gathering data and conducting interviews for a Guidance Report on electric trucks, which we plan to release this spring."

NACFE board member John Nelligan, vice president of global sales and service at Meritor, said, “Nowhere is clarity needed more than in the emerging trucking technology space. NACFE’s demonstrated approach to determining the viability of an existing technology can be leveraged to evaluate emerging ones and sift through the noise to give fleets an objective view of the benefits and challenges of these disruptive technologies.”

As part of this effort, NACFE also upgraded its website, nacfe.org, folding in all the elements of the existing truckingefficiency.org, including access to Confidence Reports, Fleet Fuel Studies and other decision-making tools. The new site will also highlight findings from the Run on Less roadshow and will link to runonless.com, so users can access the data and 41 videos generated during the three-week fuel-efficiency roadshow.

“We are excited to be moving into this next phase of our progress,” Roeth said. “We will continue to update Confidence Reports on existing technologies and complete several on technologies we have not yet studied. In addition to providing guidance on electric trucks, we plan to study other topics such as autonomous trucks, vehicle connectivity, mode-shifts and freight-matching.”

Run on Less report launched

NACFE also released an in-depth report on Run on Less - a first-of-its-kind fuel-efficiency roadshow, demonstrating high miles per gallon using currently available technology. The reports provides analysis of key data from the three-week event, from which four key conclusions are drawn:

1. 10 mpg does happen in the real world
2. Conditions matter and need to be understood for decision making
3. High mpg requires efforts in many areas
4. Telematics reports and data-logging are worthwhile investments

“Run on Less demonstrated that 10.1 mpg is possible in real-world applications,” Roeth said. “The results are now detailed, and I challenge fleets to take advantage of available fuel-saving technologies, manufacturers to continue to ramp up their efforts in developing fuel-efficient products and other industry stakeholders to support them in the work of raising the average fuel economy of all fleets.”

NACFE board chairman Rob Reich, senior vice president of equipment, maintenance and driver development at Schneider, said, “I hope all fleets, manufacturers and others will use the data derived from Run on Less as part of their strategies to lower fuel costs and emissions. Thanks to everyone involved with the run, which has helped provide this excellent source of information for all our efforts to make trucking more efficient.”

The research team also distilled the actions used by the seven participating fleets to achieve high levels of performance, including high-impact technologies, driver behavior, vehicle configuration and more. Throughout the run, the seven trucks from participating fleets - Albert Transport, PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay Division, Hirschbach, Mesilla Valley Transportation, Nussbaum Transportation, Ploger Transportation and US Xpress - saved 2,877 gallons of fuel and $7,193 against the national average of 6.4 mpg. Complete results can be found at Run on Less.