The American Trucking Associations (ATA) and the Trucking Industry Set Out On Road To A Sustainable Future by Cutting CO2 Emissions and Fuel Consumption

The trucking industry and American Trucking Associations (ATA) launches Trucks Deliver a Cleaner Tomorrow, a program to reduce fuel consumption and cut CO2 emissions, and thereby combat the challenge of global climate.

But there's no doubt that today's skyrocketing diesel prices give us an added incentive to roll it out across the industry, and for Congress to provide the support the program needs.

Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) May 8, 2008 -- The American Trucking Associations (ATA) today launched a far-reaching program of initiatives to set the industry on the road toward a more sustainable future under the banner Trucks Deliver a Cleaner Tomorrow. This first-ever industry-wide environmental sustainability program identifies a series of initiatives that will reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, thereby helping combat the challenge of global climate change.

ATA President and CEO Bill Graves praised the program as a landmark effort that will join all trucking industry stakeholders to work together on these issues.

"ATA has committed itself to a series of measures that can reduce fuel consumption by 86 billion gallons and CO2 emissions by 900 million tons for all vehicles over the next 10 years," said Graves. "Our proposals are practical, reasonable, and doable. They make environmental sense, and they make common sense."

"The program is a continuation of environmental advances made by the trucking industry over the last quarter century," Graves added. "But there's no doubt that today's skyrocketing diesel prices give us an added incentive to roll it out across the industry, and for Congress to provide the support the program needs."

The report includes six key recommendations to reduce fuel consumption and addresses the impact of these activities on the environment. They are the equivalent of eliminating the CO2 generated by 9.6 million Americans for one year - roughly equal to the population of the Chicago metropolitan area. The recommendations are displayed on a new Web site, www.trucksdeliver.org, together with full details of the trucking industry's new commitments on sustainability:

• Set governors on new trucks to limit speeds to no more than 68 mph and reduce the national speed limit to 65 mph for all vehicles.
• Reduce engine idling.
• Increase fuel efficiency by encouraging participation in the U.S. EPA SmartWay(SM) Transport Partnership Program.
• Reduce congestion by improving highways, if necessary by raising the fuels tax.
• Use more productive truck combinations.
• Support national fuel economy standards for trucks.

The report was developed by the ATA Sustainability Task Force, headed by Tommy Hodges, ATA Vice Chairman and Chairman of Titan Transfer, Inc.

"This report represents a culmination of many years of ground-breaking efforts on the part of the trucking industry to integrate the most effective diesel consumption reduction techniques into their business models, and to transport goods to their destination in the most efficient way we can for us and for our customers," said ATA Vice Chairman Hodges. "As the challenge of global climate change has emerged, we have the added impetus to make progress on those innovations."

The ATA member companies represented on the Sustainability Task Force are:

Air Products & Chem. Inc.      Allentown, Pa.
Arkansas Best Corp.          Fort Smith, Ark.
Caterpillar Inc.             Peoria, Ill.
Combined Transport Inc.              Central Point, Ore.
Con-way Inc.                    Ann Arbor, Mich.
Cummins Inc.                 Columbus, Ind.
Detroit Diesel                     Detroit, Mich.
Engine Manufacturers Association Chicago, Ill.
FedEx Freight                    Memphis, Tenn.
Freightliner LLC            Portland, Ore.
Grammer Industries Inc.          Grammer, Ind.
International Truck & Engine Corp. Fort Wayne, Ind.
Maverick Transportation LLC        Little Rock, Ark.
Minnesota Trucking Association       Roseville, Minn.
O & S Trucking Inc.             Springfield, Mo.
Petroleum Transport Inc.       Belle, W.Va.
Schneider National Inc.          Green Bay, Wis.
Swift Transportation Co. Inc.      Phoenix, Ariz.
Titan Transfer Inc.              Shelbyville, Tenn.
UPS Freight                    Richmond, Va.
US Xpress Enterprises, Inc.        Chattanooga, Tenn.
Volvo Trucks N.A.             Greensboro, N.C.
Wabash National Corp.         Lafayette, Ind.
Wal-Mart Transportation LLC        Bentonville, Ark.
Waste Management Inc.           Washington, D.C.
Watkins and Shepard Trucking    Helena, Mont.
YRC Worldwide Inc.          Overland Park, Kan.

For more information on the Sustainability Program launched today please visit: http://www.trucksdeliver.org

(1) Based on a compilation by Environmental Defense Fund that the average American generates 9.44 tons of CO2 annually.

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