Truck operators are viewed as a ready market for purveyors of products that promise fuel-economy improvements. After all, fuel is the No. 1 material expense in any fleet budget.

Unfortunately, many products don’t live up to their promises and are useful only as an effective means of ridding a fleet of hard-earned cash. It’s no wonder that many fleet owners tune-out such claims and never give the products a chance.

Yet, turning a deaf ear to all mpg-improvement claims may have its price, because, somewhere in the mix, there may be products that actually do what they say. These needn’t be casualties of educated skepticism.

What these products promise can be measured, and there are scientific methods of quantifying improvements in mpg.

As the late, great Don Dawson, former vice president of maintenance, Roadway Express, Akron, Ohio, once told CCJ, “You can usually tell [what products work] without too much trouble. There are indisputable laws governing matter and energy. If something works, the results are measurable. In other words, you can’t fool Mother Nature.”

Sometimes a product’s worth can be pre-assessed by checking the validity of its premise. For example, Dawson was approached to try a device claimed to increase fuel economy by decreasing exhaust back-pressure.

Dawson obliged. “That was an easy one,” he said. “Exhaust back-pressure is something we can measure. We installed an exhaust pressure sensor and took readings with and without the device in place. There was no difference, so we didn’t buy it. Simple.”