Green Daily

In addition to the growing trend of hybrid-diesel fleets, the trucking industry is about to see another major mileage improvement -- but this time it's the trailers that will be helping pull the load for the environment. Researchers at Delft University in Holland say that they've found a way to reduce fuel consumptions and emissions by 15% with a tractor trailer redesign.

The difference is all in the side-skirts, which cut wind resistance by up to 30% by shielding the trailer's wheel wells and creating a more aerodynamic generation of trailer. After road testing the new trailers, university faculty is confident that the side-skirts would pay for themselves in 2 years and save logistics companies truckloads of money in the long term.

In the Netherlands alone, Professor Michel van Tooren expects that about half of all trailers could be retrofitted with the skirts, resulting in lower emissions and fuel consumption almost immediately. From the article:

"In 2005, 10,000 new trailers were taken into use in the Netherlands. With an average fuel consumption of 30 litres per 100 kilometres, that translates into 750 million litres of diesel consumption in the Netherlands each year. We can cut fuel consumption by 5% or more for 50% of those trailers. That means a reduction of 50 million tons of CO2 emissions a year. This research can therefore result in a substantial, structural contribution to cutting fuel consumption and an annual saving of tens of millions of Euros, next to that cut in CO2 emissions by the road transport sector."

[via ENN}