From the road...

Finally found this for the truck...

 

we had a guy doing bulk runs into our mill that had a hula girl as a hood ornament that was let’s just say an anatomical specimen to be admired. He is a hoot

 

To all here, thanks for all that you do, OTR and trucking in general can be a tough gig. My brother-in-law was a driver for years, and his stories sometimes kept us up at night...

This may be coming at you from left field, but what do you think of the technological changes coming to the industry? I was laid-off this year and was recently introduced to Hyliion, (https://www.hyliion.com) a company positioned to bring a reasonable electric long-haul solution to the market.

Currently the company has an hybrid solution to add electric capabilities to diesel and NG trucks, but future platform is a OEM agnostic solution to provide fully electric powertrain (1,300 mile range fully loaded) with batteries powered/recharged by onboard RNG generator.

 

And the ornament has hooters

 

I really don’t see it as being viable, for long-haul applications. It may work for out-and-back operations, where charging/refuel is done at a terminal. But, for irregular route carriers, the hurdles are massive. When one factors in hours-of-service regulations and those systems, there’s zero predictability for charging/refuel.

The CNG movement was supposed to be the next great thing, with truckstops sacrificing large areas of parking for these refueling stations. When I left the industry, many of these stations had been shuttered. In brief conversations with drivers who had CNG trucks, they cited long fueling times and poor performance of the trucks as reasons why they weren’t viable on the open road.

The electric, solar, wind, and every other alternative industries to fossil fuels are being crutched by the government. None are viable and far more filthy and inefficient, when factoring in manufacturing and post-use waste. I wish it’d all go way.

 

Appreciate the response, especially from someone with industry experience. This company "claims" 10-minute refuel times for CNG/RNG tanks to power the generator that's used to recharge the batteries, perhaps it's another case of "if it looks too good to be true, it most likely is".

Interested to hear all thoughts about it, no skin in the game for me at this time, but I do like when companies try to do something new.

 

I just drive.

 

I was talking to a driver of an OTR CNG truck and he stated ~40min as being his refuel time and complained about it eating up his clock. He said he had to fuel every day, wherever he could find a station. Imagine being the 3rd or 4th CNG truck in the fuel line. I see electric being even worse.

Yep. These companies have to keep the pitchmen on their game, to keep the investors throwing money to them. No one does it better than Elon.

 

Certainly there is hype behind the new tech, and the lack of available CNG stations is an issue. (~700 CNG stations from what I can find, compared to ~90,000 stations where diesel is available)

I need to read some more about this, especially how the company claims to get 1,000 to 1,300 mile range from the truck fully loaded. At this point, it appears that this may be a viable solution for someone with static routes who can capitalize on existing infrastructure.

 

I’d be curious to see what the ~700 CNG stations are comprised of, because they can’t be chain truckstops from what I’ve seen.

Some of UPS’s and JB Hunt’s Anheiser-Busch dedicated trucks are still CNG. Again, I think there’s a use for it, with dedicated and institutional routes that have their own fueling point at their HQ.

I was talking to a fellow ~30yr driver I’ve teamed with, yesterday, about this topic. He said he couldn’t remember a CNG station in a Pilot or Flying J that is still operational. He basically echoed my thoughts, on the rest.

I’d be curious to see how the hybrid and battery trucks perform in the extremes on I-80 and I-90, during winter. They’d have the advantage of not gelling their fuel, but, batteries aren’t happy in sub-zero temps. I have learned, bio-diesel fuels gel more quickly, up there.

 

I live in the middle of the shale gas territory. They built a CNG refueling station built to handle 6 trucks at once. In the last 5 years I have never seen a truck there, not once. The local city buses run on CNG and they use it but that is all.

 

The advantage of a CNG (or other fuel) / electric hybrid is the engine can be optimized for a single rpm to drive the generator. Electric motors can provide a ton of oomph to propel a truck. Not any different than a train really. A lot of extra weight though. Which is likely why trucks don't already do this.

 

All of the Chrysler trucks here are CNG.

Most of the waste management trash truck front loaders are also.

 

Those Tesla semi-tractors doing burnouts perfectly illustrate OOMPH! Haha.

 

US Dept of Energy has a list, 847 CNG stations, not sure if I can post a link here or not...

 

https://cdllife.com/2020/trucker-gi...n-a-brutally-honest-one-month-company-review/

I thought I was posting a link to a story about a company that treats it drivers well, but then I noticed it was "sponsored content."

You may find it interesting regardless.

 

I did not know this ...

https://cdllife.com/2020/florida-tr...-absolutely-use-them-for-traffic-enforcement/

 

Yep. I’ve seen one of the FL rigs, sitting in a scale house. I didn’t know TN had them, though.

 

Talk about a full grown bear decked out chicken truck , 5 days straight on the high speed chicken feed and see that lit up large flat top peter car in your west coasts , prolly got a 600 kittycat under the bonnet with a eaton 18 . Diesel Weasel , "need to see your log books driver" Me , "which one ?". I left the road 20 years ago and my handle was Semiconductor the super trucker running a 900w kitty whomper with a turned up 425 cat out of the Peach state . I dont miss the road but i do still keep my CDL w/tanker and hazmat along with a current health card in my wallet cause you never know .