Idle-reduction benefits grow as fleets extend truck life

Matt Cole:
Why reducing idling is as important as ever for fleets.

Jason Cannon:
Hey everybody, welcome back. I'm Jason Cannon and my co-host is Matt Cole. With the freight market, still struggling to come out of its post COVID trough, not to mention uncertainty around emissions and tariffs. Fleets of all sizes are holding onto their trucks for a lot longer than they typically would before the pandemic

Matt Cole:
To get more life out of those units. It's important that fleets and their drivers do everything they can to protect those assets. One of the best ways to do that is to reduce idling idle smarts. Jeff Lynch joins us to talk about how he's seen the idle reduction conversation shift in recent times.

Jeff Lynch:
So Idle Smart at its core is an idle reduction solution that helps fleets lower fuel costs, reduce engine wear, eliminate dead batteries, and help essentially protect, help fleets protect their trucks without adding any extra work for drivers or fleet managers. And essentially, we automatically manage when the engine needs to run and when it doesn't based on a whole host of parameters inside cabin temperature, outside temperature, battery health, and all this together helps prevent unnecessary idling, eliminates dead batteries, helps reduce avoidable wear and tear on a truck all the while keeping drivers comfortable and trucks ready to go. Also, part of our offering of what we do is we provide smart insights. And so what this does is give fleets access to useful vehicle data that they can apply across their teams, whether it be maintenance or operation or even performance tracking in a way that best fits their operation. I think fleets certainly know, and we've learned that the solutions that kind of stick and are the best are the ones that work quietly in the background. And so we are sort of huge believers in the idea that whatever we put forth should be time saving, not time using, and so we've focused a lot on that. Drivers have a ton to manage. Fleet managers have a ton to work on and manage, and so ease and automation matter a ton in terms of addressing not just I reduction, but frankly any fleet problem.

Jason Cannon:
As emissions regulations for heavy duty trucks have been introduced and evolved over the last 20 years, engine idling has become a big reason for maintenance and downtime,

Jeff Lynch:
Not idling has always mattered. It's always mattered just because the cost of fuel and the cost of engine wear, whether it's when diesel was two 50 a gallon, or whether it was four 50 or $5 a gallon like it was a few years ago, fuel's always going to be a top fleet operating expense. It's probably the second largest behind driver wages, and so therefore it's always going to get a ton of attention and it's always going to be important. But as you just highlighted, what's really changed is that today's trucks are definitely more complex and they're also much more sensitive than the older equipment. Newer engines, emission systems, electrical loads don't handle things like extended idling, deep battery discharge or even repeated cold starts nearly as well. Over time, those behaviors show up as higher maintenance costs or more downtime, and so to me, idle reduction today is less about enforcement and more about how do you protect what's becoming incredibly expensive equipment and obviously still supporting drivers. And so sort of an interesting dynamic over the past few years, we've seen a lot of times as we work with fleets, people pushing for us the most with respect to animal reduction is now coming from the maintenance side of the house because they feel the downstream effects first. And so it's again, the newer engines, the newer equipment as you highlight, just don't handle it as well, and so it's taken already significant problem and made it even more problematic with a broader impact.

Matt Cole:
Jeff says that fuel and maintenance continue to be two of the biggest operational costs for fleets, and now that companies are holding onto trucks longer due to higher replacement costs and other factors, that's becoming even more apparent.

Jeff Lynch:
It's been a tough run, as you know, right? It's been a tough few years in trucking, and so I think fleets are holding onto trucks longer. I know you connected with Alex Leslie at Battery recently talking about trucking litigation, and I've always really respected what battery puts out, and one of the pieces that they put out recently was around the operational cost of trucking and what stood out to me, it again reinforced that fuel and maintenance continue to be two of the biggest cost pressures that fleets feel, and then you sort of overlay or add on the fact that if you're holding equipment longer, it becomes even a bigger problem. And so we are seeing this play out in real time. Replacement costs remain challenging, as you talked about. New structure are expensive, the costs, the capital costs to get them are higher. I still think availability is a little bit uneven, and so fleets are definitely holding onto equipment longer.

If we look at our arrangements and our agreements over the past year, they're definitely longer than they were even two, three years ago. And so when trucks are in service longer, how're treated matters even more. Reducing unnecessary idling lowers engine hours, it lowers wear. It protects those emission systems we just talked about and helps extend the useful life of that truck. And so even avoiding dead batteries or damaging cold start situations helps keep trucks on the road longer. And so one of the things we see is when we look across the data, we consistently see things like battery and electrical issues, cooling related alerts, those things definitely show up more frequently with older trucks. That's probably not super surprising, but it does reinforce how important day-to-day operating decisions become when you, you've tried to hold or plan to hold equipment longer. And so one of the things you really appreciate and really only appreciate in trucking is when you see a lot of fleet data, you realize that trucks rarely fail because of one big moment. It's usually a series of small operating decisions that kind of quietly add up and creep in over time, and so that's why things like idle reduction, basic equipment protection matter, particularly when fleets are keeping trucks longer in what's a really difficult environment,

Jason Cannon:
While many fleets operational costs out of their control, Jeff says idling is one area that fleets can control, that can cut several costs, that on their own may not seem like a lot, but together add up to be fairly significant.

Jeff Lynch:
Costs are up and fleets can only control so much, right? They have no control over fuel. Fuel prices, no control over insurance, no control over interest rates, no control over terrorist. There's a lot they can't control, but they can control either discretionary items or waste. We look at idle time, which is essentially unnecessary fuel burn or even dead batteries or avoidable air and tear, all area where costs add up quickly. They may be small at the time, but collectively they add up and the most effective solutions and the best way to control, we find is put solutions in place that kind of work automatically work in the background, fit into a daily operation rather than relying on teams to get the work done, driver involvement, but these are controllable expenses. Idling is controllable, and so I think idle reduction, the better use of vehicle data can definitely help make a real difference.

You highlighted, and I think it's talked about a lot, it's been a tough run for the past few years. What we don't see fleets chasing kind of this silver bullet, this single solution that somehow magically changes the trajectory of their business. They're looking for repeatable, predictable ways to reduce costs, in this case, cost taking, control fuel, idle fuel, and also help protect uptime, keep trucks on the road. It's kind of blocking and tackling. It doesn't sound super sexy to say, but it is the things that I think we're finding fleets are focused on, not some transformational change, but simply getting better and focusing on the areas that they can control. It's hard work, but it is work of the limited things they can control. There is a difference that can be made.

Jason Cannon:
That's it for this week's 10-44. You can read more on ccjdigital.com. While you're there, sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date on the latest in trucking industry news and trends. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know in the comments below. Don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell for notifications so you can catch us again next week.