Additional Work Truck Show Highlights

Todd Mouw of ROUSH CleanTech also spoke to recent Work Truck Show attendees about the company’s medium-duty offerings, highlighting the E-450 product. He listed airports, food and beverage companies, logistics companies, paratransit companies, and schools as being among the various industries using the product. Airports, food and beverage companies, governments, transit companies, schools, and energy companies are users of its F-450, F-550, and F-650 propane applications. He said ROUSH CleanTech now has more than 7800 propane autogas vehicles on the road.

Brian Peltier, senior fleet buyer for Schwan’s Home Service (Marshall, Minn.), spoke on idle management technology. Of his company’s approximately 4500 home delivery trucks, 70% run on propane. The business conducted a pilot test of remote vehicle analytics telematics to review engine idle times on its trucks and came up with a conservative annual cost estimate of $125 per propane-fueled vehicle for engine idling.

PERC’s Tucker Perkins spoke at the Green Truck Summit and showed photos of various fleets that use propane autogas, including Thyssenkrupp Elevator, SuperShuttle, and the city of Sandy Springs, Ga.

School buses were a topic of discussion during several propane industry presentations at the Work Truck Show. Todd Mouw, vice president of sales and marketing at ROUSH CleanTech, showed a quote from Bluebird Corp. stating that 73% of school bus customers say their purchasing decisions are based on vehicle reliability and service. If that is the case, propane is doing well in that arena now that all three major manufacturers — Blue Bird, Thomas Built, and IC Bus — offer propane products. PERC’s Perkins told BPN, “This market is brand loyal, and having BlueBird, Thomas Built, and IC with propane products will ensure the adoption of propane fueling in this segment.”

Perkins is happy to see Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp. (FCCC) expanding its S2G offering beyond the two platforms it unveiled last year, the propane bobtail and crane/utility application. This year, FCCC is showing the S2G chassis in a box application, which Perkins noted will have strong application for freight, and appeal to a much wider range of users. “We are excited to see continued understanding of the propane option for FCCC engineering and marketing and expect that 2015 will see tremendous growth in unit sales.” —