Con-way Freight (NYSE:CNW), one of the nation’s largest less-than-truckload freight transportation companies, turned back the speed governors on its 8,400-tractor fleet in a move to improve fuel conservation and reduce carbon emissions.
The company adjusted the governors on its truck engines to run at a maximum of 62 miles per hour (mph), down three miles per hour from previous settings.
This simple move should reduce consumption of diesel fuel by nearly 3.2 million gallons annually while eliminating approximately 72 million pounds of carbon emissions from the environment. The carbon gas reduction is equivalent to removing nearly 7,300 automobiles from America’s highways.
"Freight transportation, by its nature, is a significant consumer of carbon-based energy resources. Yet it also is one where if we look creatively at how we operate the business, we can find and adopt practices that reduce our carbon footprint and help the bottom line," said John G. Labrie, Con-way Freight president. "Fuel conservation and cost savings aside, this speed reduction initiative will have the single largest impact on carbon footprint reduction of any operational or business practice change available to us."
The speed reduction move supports a larger, enterprise-wide sustainability initiative launched by parent company Con-way Inc. The effort began earlier this year with benchmarking of current operations, and researching methods and best practices that can contribute to sustainability goals.
Labrie emphasized the move does not reduce Con-way’s service standards in any way. "With our highly engineered network and, in particular, the skill and professionalism of our driver sales representatives, we have been able to implement this change without any impact on our industry-leading transit times and on-time performance."
Con-way annually consumes some 100 million gallons of diesel fuel in its trucking operations, which serve commercial and industrial businesses and cover all of North America.
Con-way Freight was a FORTUNE magazine’s "Most Admired Company" in transportation and logistics for 2007.
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