Diesel is one of the trucking industry’s biggest pain points, and truck drivers are feeling that pain at the pump. As we’ve written about, the cost of fuel is putting a crunch on small trucking companies and owner-operators.
The rising diesel costs can lower profit margins and make it difficult to do business. While the Biden Administration tapped into the country’s strategic oil reserves to lower prices prior to the midterm elections, eventually that supply will run out.
If diesel price trends continue to rise, the trucking industry will need to find a way to either lower the cost of fuel or use less of it.
Diesel and Climate Pressures
Another aspect of diesel is pressure from activists and the US government to deliver on policies that would reduce fuel emissions from the transportation industry. The goal is to reduce greenhouse gases that are causing or accelerating the rate of climate change.
This pressure may be felt even more strongly after the global COP27 conference, where the US and other developed nations agreed to foot the bill for developing countries that are vulnerable to climate-related disasters.
Baltimore Trucking Company and Hybrids
One Baltimore trucking company may be showing the way forward. The family-owned trucking company Marino Transportation Services has been finding success with hybrid tractor-trailers.
Marino has about 200 tractor-trailers in its fleet. Replacing the entire fleet with electric vehicles wouldn’t work for them. Marino runs long-haul, and the amount of charging for long routes and heavy freight is too much to ask for existing all-electric big rigs.
Hybrid trucks are a good middle ground solution, but replacing the entire fleet would be prohibitively expensive.
That’s where Hyliion comes in.
Hope in Hyliion?
Hyliion is a company that offers to rework existing trucks to work with electricity in addition to fuel. This hybrid technology does not require owner-ops or trucking companies to replace their entire fleet either.
According to Hyliion’s website:
“Hyliion produces electrified powertrain systems that can augment or fully replace traditional diesel- or natural gas-fueled powertrains. Its systems are designed to improve performance and lower total cost of ownership while leveraging the existing alternative fuel infrastructure.”
In short, the truck still runs off diesel, but the rear axle generates electricity when the truck goes downhill. This electricity is transferred to a battery, which then can draw power for going uphill and when the truck is idle.
While drivers sleep in their cab with the Hyliion power source, there’s no longer a reason to sit and burn fuel. Instead, the battery can power the A/C and other power requirements.
With this solution, Marino Transportation Services was able to use Hyliion’s technology to hybridize their fleet, and cut down on their diesel usage.
Hybridization without requiring the full replacement of a fleet seems to be a great transitional step towards electric trucks, saving money on diesel and helping out the environment.