Con-Way rolls back speed on governors

SAN MATEO, Calif. — North American LTL giant Con-way Freight announced today that it has further reduced the speed of its 8,400-tractor fleet in order to improve fuel economy.

The carrier has turned back the speed on its engine governors to run at a maximum of 62 miles per hour — down three miles per hour from previous settings.

The move is expected to reduce consumption of diesel fuel from its over-the-road tractor fleet by nearly 3.2 million gallons annually while eliminating approximately 72 million pounds of carbon emissions from the environment, says Con-Way.

“Freight transportation, by its nature, is a significant consumer of carbon-based energy resources. Yet it also is one where if we look creatively at how we operate the business, we can find and adopt practices that reduce our carbon footprint and help the bottom line,” said John G. Labrie, Con-way Freight president. “Fuel conservation and cost savings aside, this speed reduction initiative will have the single largest impact on carbon footprint reduction of any operational or business practice change available to us.”

Labrie emphasized that the move does not reduce Con-way’s service standards. “With our highly engineered network and, in particular, the skill and professionalism of our driver sales representatives, we have been able to implement this change without any impact on our industry-leading transit times and on-time performance.”

In addition to the speed reduction initiative, Con-way Freight has also invested in technologies and implemented other operational practices designed to reduce fuel consumption. Among them:

Equipping trucks with special aerodynamic fairings to reduce wind resistance; specifying engine and drive-train combinations that maximize fuel; setting engines with auto shut-off controls to minimize idle time while parked; and recycling used trailers and refurbishing them for return to the fleet through its sister company, Road Systems, Inc., instead of buying new trailers.

With the speed reduction move, Con-Way would be ahead of an initiative being promoted by the American trucking Associations and Canadian Trucking Alliance, which want to see a mandate requiring speed on all trucks capped at 65 mph and 105 km/h, respectively.