The Glade 4.0

So we need government to save companies from bad employees? That's a great precedent.

Ron Medford, deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says the impetus for the rules came in part from an unlikely source: the industry asked the Environmental Protection Agency to create them.

Truck and engine manufacturers wanted to avoid multiple rules. But Congress asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to come up with one set. And the Supreme Court told the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. California also wanted to regulate global warming pollution from trucks.

You said it wasn't possible to increase MPG without reducing hauling capacity, I showed you why you were wrong.

There are a number of aftermarket systems that have significant effects on MPG, which do not affect towing capacity at all.

Err...that's not, in fact, what you did. You merely claimed he was wrong. You haven't shown anything.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Please share...

Err...that's not, in fact, what you did. You merely claimed he was wrong. You haven't shown anything.

The short answer is because the Transportation Industry is the poster child for penny wise and pound foolish. These systems cost some significant money up front, but pay out dividends over a few years, and most transportation management is short sighted enough that they don't plan that far, or don't know how.

The long answer:

Ground transportation is loosely grouped into 2 major areas. Private fleets and LTL carriers.

Private fleets are large companies that own their own trucks and manage their own distribution. Think Walmart, most large grocery chains, etc. These are the companies that have the best chance of using one of these products and a lot of the smarter one's do. However, the problem is that these companies are in the business of selling food or other products. Their transportation departments are cost centers and therefore the red-headed stepchild of the organization. They are always screamed at to spend less money. Additionally, the old joke is that the definition of a trans manager is a driver with a bad back. Meaning, that the majority of the transporation management doesn't have any management experience, or business experience. They have gotten to where they are by working harder, not smarter more often than not. So their typical day is running around from fire to fire trying to keep the wheels from falling off. It is extremely hard to get people in that type of environment with that type of background to look at anything beyond what happens tomorrow or next week, much less try and do a cost benefit analysis and present it to their senior leadership for a large capital project.

LTL carriers are true transportation companies. They exist to haul freight. Think Schneider, Roadway, UPS, etc. These companies don't do much with these types of systems because they bill their customers for the shipping costs. The comments about trans managers apply here as well, and in general there is less cost reduction pressure on the LTL markets because they just pass it through to their customer.

But really, the biggest reason why technologies like this aren't used in the trans industry is because it is probably one of the most conservative industries in the world. Truckers DO NOT LIKE CHANGE. Seriously, any change is bad, even if the end results are good. Drivers and by extension trans managers often have to be drug kicking and screaming into the 21st century when it comes to any kind of technology.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

Fair enough, bad choice of words.

http://www.hydrogen-generators-usa.com/ ... rator.html

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/making ... efficient/

The second link has multiple examples of how to make them more efficient.

In response to your second link:
There are numbers on that page, but they are meaningless.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

I agree that the hydrogen thing is pretty pie-in-the-sky, but what's wrong with the suggestions at the second link? They all seem like modifications that would be fairly easy to adopt, and I know I've seen them all in use on at least some trucks.

There's nothing wrong with the suggestions, but they're unquantifiable. First off, to what extent does drag affect the fuel efficiency of a "standard" "normal" or "regular" semi truck?

You need to look up unquantifiable. A study of this would be VERY easy to quantify the results. Most high schoolers could perform the data analysis on this.

Furthermore, I've actually seen this type of mod for trucks advertised over 10 years ago on a TV program (Future Tech? I can't recall the name) it was extremely inexpensive for a huge return on fuel efficiency.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.