MTI has completed its study on the Orlando to Atlanta fuel test. If you recall our objective was to determine the effect of a more aerodyne tractor and/or “skirted” trailer would have on the fuel economy! We began with one tractor will full fairings and a skirted tractor that had been aligned with one another. In addition we move the 5^th wheel plate as close to the tractor as feasible to reduce the drag on the trailer. The second units were a full faring tractor and a regular trailer. The third unit was a tractor with a top wind faring plus a skirted trailer. The 4^th was a tractor with a top wind faring and a plain trailer. After each week we pulled the info from the ECM on the tractor as to the mpg on each unit. In addition we “switch” drivers each week from one unit to the next to take out the affect of drivers having different driving habits.

The good news was our fuel economy improved on each unit over our fleet average. We can only surmise that perhaps the drivers exhibited better driving habits in that they were aware that each unit was being monitored. Those results were not expected.

The bad news was the unit that obtained the best results was the unit that had only a wind faring and a plain trailer. Remember, all these units had the same motor and gear ratios, etc. We expected to gain .3 per mpg with the fully fared tractor and .2 per mpg for the skirted trailer. This was all the data I could gather indicated we should expect.

Obviously, this was not a scientific experiment but it did tell us that perhaps we had an opportunity to gain performance by a change in driver behavior. ANY improvement in fuel economy allows us to be more competitive on contracts and thereby help MTI to grow! At the start of the test we were concerned as to how the full skirted tractors and trailers would react in frozen ice and snow as the plastic might crack and be torn off, etc. We will need to do more testing on this issue.

I will keep you posted as we gain more insight into this issue.