There’s recently been a significant change in the expense structure that trucking companies live with. The top expense in trucking has shifted from the traditional number one, labor, to fuel. And the number one challenge this has created is that the price of fuel isn’t stable. There are wild fluctuations on a monthly, weekly, even daily basis. So from a business perspective, these fluctuations make it extremely difficult to manage the business side of things.

Natural gas is a much more stable fuel source, making it easier to project expenses and creating cost certainty for the carrier.

The answer is a very simple one. There’s no power differential between diesel and natural gas. Also, and perhaps most importantly, it’s by far the cheapest alternative fuel on the market. In fact, it’s the only fuel that doesn’t require government subsidies to be competitive and is in fact cheaper than either gasoline or diesel. And lastly, natural gas is a very clean fuel. Not only is there lower nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, it also has much lower greenhouse gas emissions – 21% lower to be exact.

Everybody is looking to reduce the amount of carbon they produce in their supply chain. And because it’s locally produced and creates significantly less in the way of greenhouse gases, natural gas has a leg up over diesel in terms of the carbon footprint it produces.

NOx is reduced by 33% to 83% depending on the natural gas engine. Greenhouse gases are reduced by up to 21%. Diesel particulate matter is reduced or eliminated. The 2010 emission standard will force diesel to catch-up with natural gas for NOx, but it does nothing to reduce greenhouse gasses.

If you go back only one year, there were no OEMs offering natural gas powered units as an option. Today, there are three OEMs that you can purchase natural gas powered units through their existing dealer network. So, during your natural fleet change-out program, you could buy a natural gas truck from your dealer. It’s a very straight forward process, no more complicated than any other truck acquisition.

Because of the relative newness of the natural gas option in trucking, the fuelling infrastructure is quite limited. A lot of the existing fueling stations are actually owned by private fleets. On a local and regional trucking basis fueling stations are installed to provide access to natural gas, either on the private premises of a fleet, or in a convenient shared location for multiple fleets.

This activity is primarily happening in areas like California and Texas, but there are pockets of it sprouting up all around the country.

The technology developers teamed with major engine manufacturers to produce a natural gas fuel system that in a sense, plugs into a traditional power unit, they simply run on natural gas as their fuel source.

Today there are two engines available for class-8 tractor. One is a 450 horsepower 15-liter and the other a 320 horsepower 9-liter engine. These units have the exact same torque and performance levels as their diesel counterparts. So there are some really good options available, depending on what segment of the market you’re in.

There is an incremental cost for a natural gas truck. I am going to be non-specific because the actual price depends on manufacturer. However, there is a federal tax credit of up to $32,000 that helps offset the cost of a natural gas engine.

The economics of utilizing natural gas as a fuel source for your fleet is quite persuasive. You can save about a dollar a gallon on natural gas versus diesel, which can save a fleet as much as $15,000 - $20,000 per truck, per year. If you finance your truck purchase through a lease, you will actually save more money on fuel costs than the upgrade to natural gas will cost you, so you’re immediately returning money to your bottom line.