Commercial trucks go green

What do companies such as FedEx, UPS, Coca-Cola Enterprises, PepsiCo and Wal-Mart all have in common? Well, besides being successful companies, they all ship a lot of product, and have a keen interest in truck fleets with lower carbon footprints.

While nearly any company can improve fuel consumption and emissions by fairly conventional conservation tactics such as smarter route planning (aided immensely by software), better truck maintenance, or idling limit controls on engines, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that hybrid engine technology is making its way into the truck fleets of the companies mentioned previously.

The hybrid power plants for these sorts of trucks are made by companies such as Eaton Corp., which offers three technologies for these engines. Use of these engines is becoming more widespread. According to a recent Eaton press release, a $45.4 million federal grant from stimulus funds will help make possible orders for 378 such vehicles, the nation’s largest commercial hybrid deployment to date. The funding is part of the recently announced $2.4 billion in grants by the U.S. Department of Energy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. According to Eaton, companies making use of its hybrid truck solutions include  FedEx, UPS, Coca-Cola Enterprises, PepsiCo and Wal-Mart.

While there are those who say that green technologies should stand on their own two feet economically–and not be propped up by grants or other incentives, I say such grants are money well spent. They help create enough momentum in the marketplace get more product innovation funded, and bring down manufacturing costs though larger-scale value streams. I don’t mind if such funding gives a bit of a boost to green tech start-ups, or even established industrial companies like Eaton looking to reinvent themselves. As columnist Thomas Friedman of the New York Times has pointed out, there have been plenty of incentives over the years for our “dirty fuel” system–ranging from cheap oil drilling leases on federal land, to construction of the Interstate highway system, and agricultural policies that encourage petro-based farming on a massive scale.

Spreading some tax dollars into things like commercial trucks with hybrid power plants is great for U.S.-based manufacturers looking to become part of this market. And over the long haul (no pun intended) it also might make these sorts of trucks a more economical choice for more fleets and commercial shipping uses, which will help cut emissions for industrial companies who will increasingly be pressured to lower their carbon foot prints.