I try to stay away from technical topics here in the blog, but some tech news that came out yesterday is worth mentioning, because it has a really good chance of showing up in your fleet someday soon. Yesterday, in a live webcast from their Atlanta headquarters, UPS announced the purchase of seven International delivery vans powered by Eaton hydrualic hybrid systems. This is remarkable news for a couple of reasons. First, up until now hydraulic hybrid systems were usually seen in the intense stop-and-go world of refuse collection. Second, up until now hydraulic hybrid systems have been largely designed to store and re-use braking energy.

What’s different about the new systems being rolled out by Eaton & Navistar is that hydraulic pressure is built up by the diersel engine, not by braking activity. To quote Eaton’s press release, “The vehicle uses hydraulic pumps and hydraulic storage tanks to capture and store energy, similar to what is done with electric motors and batteries in a hybrid electric vehicle. In this case, the diesel engine is used to periodically recharge pressure in the hydraulic propulsion system. Fuel economy is increased in three ways: vehicle braking energy is recovered that normally is wasted; the engine is operated more efficiently, and the engine can be shut off when stopped or decelerating.” Like I said, pretty technical, and pretty fascinating.

The really exciting news is that the initial test truck has achieved a fuel economy improvement of between 40 and 50 percent, and a 30 percent reduction in emissions. Multiply those improvements by seven, and you’re talking about making a real difference.

Congratulations to UPS, Navistar and Eaton; we need more of this kind of thinking!

Last week at the meeting of the Hybrid Truck Users’ Forum (HTUF) in South Bend, IN, there was a lot of talk about the fact that current tax incentives for the purchase of hybrid trucks will expire at the end of 2009, and a lot of talk about what to do about it. Fortunately, HTUF has launched a “Hybrid Truck Incentives Working Group” to address the situation. Unfortunately, they are tackling a very difficult task and have very little time to work with.

The Environmental Protection Act (EPAct) of 2005 established a $6,000 tax credit for the purchase of a Class-6 hybrid and $12,000 for the purchase of a Class-7 hybrid. While this doesn’t even come close to covering the incremental cost of a hybrid work truck compared to a gasoline- or diesel-powered equivalent, it has been instrumental in getting hybrid trucks into the hands of many fleets around the country. The number of fleets taking advantage of this incentive might have been higher, except for the fact that the IRS took so long to communicate to fleets how they could qualify for the credit that 18 months were lost. Now, with the credits due to expire in a little over a year, many more fleets could miss out.

One of the priorities of the new Incentives Working Group, therefore, is to launch an effort to get the tax credits extended 2012. The group has convinced a number of U.S. Senators to sponsor an extension of the credits, but time is short. I’d like to think that extending the credits is a no-brainer for Congress, but since members of Congress often act as though they have no brains, I’m not confident that the “extender” will pass in time to keep the momentum in the hybrid work truck market going, and that would be a devastating blow to this growing segment of the industry.

We’re making some changes to Fuel Advantage Magazine, and we want you to be part of the process. You may have noticed that our regular Winter issue hasn’t come out in October as it usually does; we are instead mailing it out in December, and going back to both a print version and a digital version.

Because the alternative fuel & vehicle market is changing so dramatically, we are refocusing our editorial content in coming issues on the topics that are having the greatest impact on the transportation industry today. In the coming year, we’ll be looking into the resurgence of natural gas vehicles, the latest anti-idling regulations, strategies for getting the best mpg out of hybrid vehicles, new innovations in cab heating & cooling, and much, much more.

We think we have a pretty good handle on the issues that matter in this industry, but we also want to hear what you’re thinking about! You’re the ones with the headaches and the budget woes; what issues do you want to learn more about on our pages? How can we make your work a little easier? Write to me at editor@fleetmag.com and tell me what you want to see in Fuel Advantage!

As soon as I got the invitation from Isuzu Trucks I was intrigued… The company was asking me to fly to Japan to take part in a fuel economy program, and I couldn’t say no. Whatever this initiative was, it had to be pretty spectacular if they were willing to fly me to Japan!

As it turns out, visiting Japan was spectacular (and the sushi was fantastic), but the Isuzu Fuel Economy Challenge was simplicity itself… which was actually the point. What Isuzu wanted to demonstrate to me and the other American journalists in attendance was that you can use very simple driving techniques to dramatically improve your fuel economy. Each of us took two spins around the Isuzu test track in manual-transmission Isuzu Class-5 ELF (N-Series in the USA) box trucks. The first time out we drove the way we would normally drive; the second time we used the driving techniques that Isuzu taught us to improve our mileage.

Our new & improved driving behaviors included: light acceleration, upshifting at 1400-1700 rpms, maintaining a lower top speed, staying in the top gear as much as possible, gentle braking, and proper use of the engine brake. Amazingly, all 15 drivers saw a remarkable increase in fuel economy between the two runs. My personal mileage improved 26.8 percent, with a final mpg of 17.39, but the biggest improvement was nearly 60 percent, and the top mileage was over 22 mpg! Sure, it wasn’t “real world,” but, hey, if amateur drivers can show such impressive results on a test track, there’s no reason why professional drivers couldn’t wring more mileage out of their trucks by changing their behaviors.

Hats off to Isuzu Trucks for making fuel economy such a simple matter, and for proving that you don’t have to invest a fortune in new equipment or technology to improve your fleet’s mpg. Domo arigato, Isuzu-san!