Transportation's Role in Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions ...

Transportation’s Role in Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Volume 2
technology. Truck-stop electrification is only one component of idle reduction because
many truckers idle at decentralized locations (rest areas, roadsides, other parking areas)
which cannot be efficiently electrified.
Idle reduction technologies and laws have been implemented to varying degrees
throughout the country. Of the nation’s 5,000 truck stops, 136 stops in 34 States were
electrified as of October 2008 (U.S. DOE, 2008); all or part of 25 States have implemented
anti-idling laws (ATRI, 2009); and 36 percent of trucks with sleeper cabs currently have
on-board idle reduction technologies (ATRI, 2006).
Most idle-reducing technologies require equipment on-board the vehicle. So-called
“single system” electrified parking spaces at truck stops require an attachment for the
truck window through which all services are delivered, and/or components for the truck
to connect to the electrical grid. On-board technologies have an upfront cost for vehicle
owners associated with purchase and installation, but financing and tax relief programs
are available to help users afford idle reduction technology.
While the carbon benefits of this strategy to the transportation sector as a whole are
relatively small (0.3%), truck idle reduction provides net cost savings to trucking
companies, with a short payback period of two to three years. Although the fuel savings
are small compared to the transportation sector as a whole, they are significant to
individual trucking companies.
This truck idling section addresses two particular anti-idling strategies: installation of
heating and cooling systems on sleeper cabs and truck stop electrification. These
strategies are non-additive, since trucks would typically use only one system or the other
when parked. Of the two measures, the on-board systems have a much larger impact
since they have the potential to be used regardless of where a truck is parked, while truck
stop electrification applies only to the use of electrified parking spaces at the nation’s 5000
truck stops. As a result, the high-end GHG estimate for idle reduction strategies (6.1 mmt
in 2030) reflects the maximum deployment assumption for on-board systems. The lowend
estimate (1.3 mmt) corresponds with a 100 percent deployment assumption for truck
stop electrification. 25
Magnitude and Timing of Greenhouse Gas Reductions
There are about 666,000 combination tractor trailer trucks with sleeper cabs registered in the
United States, according to the 2002 Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS). Sleeper cab
trucks idle, on average, for about five hours a day while consuming about 1 gallon per hour
while idling (Perrot et al., 2003). In comparison, an APU consumes about 0.3 gallons per
hour and a battery the equivalent of 0.05 gallons per hour (BusinessWire, 2008a and 2008b).
25 While one would not expect to achieve 100 percent deployment, the calculation provides a useful
bar. Changing the deployment assumption to less than 100 percent would make a difference of
less than a tenth of a percent in the transportation sector-wide GHG reduction estimate, since the
current estimate is 0.1%.
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