Fleet fuel economy is on the rise, according to the 2024 Fleet Fuel Study conducted by The North American Council for Freight Efficiency’s (NACFE). The findings of the report were released Monday.
The average miles per gallon of the study's 14 fleet participants improved to 7.62 MPG in 2022 and 7.77 in 2023, a year-over-year improvement of 4.2% and 2% respectively. Mike Roeth, NACFE’s executive director, noted that the fuel study average MPG of 7.8 exceeds the national average of 6.9 MPG by more than a mile per gallon.
The MPG mark the group released Monday is, however, a dip from the 10.1 MPG posted during 2017's Run on Less Long Haul, and the 8.3 MPG seen during Run on Less Regional in 2019.
Yunsu Park, NACFE’s director of engineering and the study’s lead author, noted much of the overall improvement comes from fleets investing in newer trucks equipped with more baked-in fuel efficiency, yet working against the overall impressive gain is a continuing shift to regional haul routes that are inherently less fuel efficient.
After showing little gain from 2018 to 2021, fleet adoption of fuel efficient solutions reached an all-time high this year at 42%, and has grown from 17% in 2003.
In its 2024 Operational Costs of Trucking report, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) noted fuel has accounted for as much as 64 cents per mile in 2022, but fell to 55 cents last year. At an average of 7.8 MPG, the study fleets were more profitable on every truck by $6,831 because of reduced fuel cost versus the average combination truck in the US, assuming 100,000 miles per year and the average cost of fuel in 2022, the report noted. At the five-year average cost of $3.62 per gallon, the savings were $4,956 per truck. All combined, the 14 fleets operating 75,000 trucks saved $512 million in 2023 compared to the average truck on the road.
The primary goal of the report is to study the fleets’ levels of adoption of 86 technologies and practices, and the savings those drove in each organization. All 86 technologies are currently available and not prototypes, validation test units, or pre-production units. This study focuses on technologies purchased and implemented onto a fleet’s trucks and trailers. In certain cases, fleets were asked if they had retrofitted any of the devices on their equipment, but this was done for context and is not included in the adoption data.
The increased adoption rate of the studied technologies which results in better MPG meant that the 14 fleets operating 75,000 trucks saved $512 million in 2023 compared to the average truck on the road.
Dave Schaller, NACFE director of industry engagement, noted a shift away from dark tractor paint to white and grey was among the low- or no-cost solutions deployed by fleet participants.
The percentage of fleets that say they limit speeds to less than 65 MPH remains in the mid-60% range, well below the levels from 2008 to 2016 when more than 80% of fleets noted limited speeds below 65 MPH.
