Designers Get Into the Flow To Better Fuel Use

February 16, 2000 10:26 AM, EST

When bugs go splat into a windshield rather than follow the air flow up and over a tractor-trailer, it may be proof of a costly lack of aerodynamics and an even costlier loss of fuel efficiency, especially in this period of high diesel prices.

	Luigi Colani Design
	A radical Mercedes-Benz concept uses 30% less fuel than traditional commercial vehicles.

Anyone who has filled the tanks of a big, over-the-road truck lately knows about the importance of getting the most out of a gallon. Poor fuel efficiency could cost an owner-operator thousands of dollars in lost income, or a large fleet millions in additional expense.

Trucking has taken note of this and has encouraged efforts to milk as many extra miles from a gallon of diesel as possible through improvements in components and vehicle designs.

The federal government reported that the national average price for diesel had leapt from a historic low of 95.3 cents a gallon last February to a 10-year high of $1.47 a gallon on Feb. 7.

At the latter figure, it costs a trucker about $441 to fill two 150-gallon tanks. If he gets about 7.4 miles per gallon — as today’s most efficient trucks are doing — the vehicle can travel 2,220 miles at a cost of about 19.9 cents a mile.

But squeezing more in fuel efficiency could yield some impressive savings.

For the full story, see the Feb. 14 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.