Friday, April 22, 2011

Schneider to kick off annual fuel testing program

In the wake of $4 per-gallon diesel prices, freight trucking firm Schneider National announced it is about to kick off its annual fuel-testing program.

Schneider says its annual tests are modeled after the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) testing that tests tires for fuel efficiency that began back in 1989.

The number of technologies and products tested by Schneider each year range from 10 to 40 and are put to the test on a 50-mile route in Northeast Wisconsin that the company says is representative of the stress of a load on the engines of its fleet.

"We actually hold ourselves to a tighter standard than SAE protocol requires to determine even the smallest variances," said Steve Graham, Schneider's tire program manager. "Even if a device yields less than 1 percent fuel efficiency, that small amount of savings can add up to huge numbers when you consider the vast size of our fleet," he said.

Schneider said some of the items slated for testing between June and August this year include: low viscosity motor oils; renewable fuel alternatives; low-rolling resistance tires; new engine calibrations; predictive cruise control and verification of Freightliner tractor wind tunnel testing.

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