Achieving great mileage for every haul ensures your business operates at peak efficiency. Key factors such as weight savings, fuel efficiency, aerodynamics, insulation, and tire maintenance play a crucial role in optimizing your fleet. By using lighter and more aerodynamic trailers, you can significantly reduce fuel costs and consumption. This article explores practical strategies for enhancing efficiency across different trailer types.
- Speed: Optimize your fleet’s speed for better fuel efficiency.
- Weight: Utilize lighter materials like aluminum and composite flooring to reduce trailer weight.
- Aerodynamics: Implement side skirts, fairings, and nose cones to improve airflow.
- Tires: Use super single tires to decrease rolling resistance.
Read on to explore expert insights and practical tips for maximizing your fleet’s efficiency.
Flatbeds: Lighten Up for Maximum Efficiency
Brad Windy, Great Dane Freedom Product Director, says the most efficiency gains for flatbeds come from weight reduction.
“Most of the time, whatever a fleet is hauling on a flatbed is interfering with airflow,” Windy says. “Using super single tires, aluminum wheels, or an aluminum floor instead of a wood floor can save quite a bit of weight. Selecting a combo instead of a steel trailer or fixed suspension instead of sliding suspension can also save weight.”
From heaviest to lightest, our Freedom line of trailers is available in steel, combo, or all-aluminum construction. Windy estimates that an all-aluminum trailer is around 2,500 lbs. lighter than its all-steel counterpart, depending on your selected features. Not only does this improve efficiency in hauling the same-sized load— but if you decide to turn that 2,500-pound savings into increased payload, you can carry more weight in fewer total trips, reducing your fuel consumption.
Dry Vans: Weight-Saving Solutions
Dry vans follow the same weight savings properties while increasing the number of options. You can replace steel parts, such as roof bows and cross members, with aluminum parts, and adding composite flooring can also reduce weight.
“In dry vans, a lot of weight comes from the floor,” says Mark Schultz, Dry Freight Product Director at Great Dane. “You can actually thin down the thickness of the floor with this composite underlayment but keep the same strength as a thicker, 100% wood floor.”
To enhance fuel efficiency, Schultz recommends selecting components such as side skirts, fairings, nose cones, mud flaps, and diffusers. Another option is to choose a matched set of pre-selected components in an aero kit. These choices can lead to a fuel efficiency improvement of 1-8%. Read more about these components in this ETT article, How to Improve Fuel Efficiency With Trailer Aerodynamics.
Reefers: Stay Cool with Efficient Innovations
Weight savings and aerodynamics are also important in reefers, but the need for transport refrigeration units (TRUs) and insulation provide additional opportunities for improvement.
For example, Great Dane offers its patented ThermoGuard lining, which uses a specialized multi-layer design to prevent both outgassing and damaging moisture intrusions. This maintains the insulation’s effectiveness throughout the trailer’s life, resulting in less fuel burned, cooling the trailer. It all depends on how hard the unit is running.
“If you’re hauling ice cream and you’re at 20 degrees below Fahrenheit, the net savings will be much higher than if you’re hauling produce at 35 degrees,” explains Tim Schmeits, Great Dane’s Everest Product Director. “For the insulation itself, it depends on the customer’s needs. If you’re hauling produce, you don’t want a lot of insulation because it just adds extra weight, and you’re not working the unit very hard anyway. But if you’re hauling ice cream, you need that insulation.”
Reefers without a specialized impermeable liner can lose up to 25% of insulation in the first five years due to outgassing, increasing refrigeration fuel costs. Moisture intrusion from a permeable liner can add up to 500 pounds over 5-10 years, limiting load size and reducing fuel efficiency with the added weight. While weight gain varies, it can be significant and cut into your bottom dollar without being seen.
Learn more about optimizing your refrigerated trailer with the right specs in our latest ETT article, Protect Your Refrigerated Trailer’s Thermal Efficiency With the Right Specs.
Get Great Mileage for Every Haul
Optimal fuel efficiency in your fleet requires a combination of weight reduction, aerodynamic enhancements, proper tire maintenance, and leveraging technology. Implementing these strategies can help reduce fuel consumption, lower operational costs, and improve your bottom line.
Start optimizing your trailers today and experience the benefits of a more efficient fleet. Contact our team to discover how we can help you achieve your fuel efficiency goals.
