“Through relationships with suppliers, we can collectively bring everything together for our operation,” says Stephen Silverman, chief operating officer at Raven Transport. “That’s especially true as we rise to the challenge of moving customers’ goods with clean-burning fuel.
“Industry-leading shippers continue to set the standard in sustainable logistics,” Silverman adds. “By partnering with environmental and alternative fuel leaders as we adopt advanced vehicle technologies and solutions to meet their needs, we can accommodate those high standards.
“Depending on local market conditions, natural gas costs up to $1 less per gallon than gasoline or diesel,”
Silverman also relates. “The use of natural gas fuel not only lowers operating costs for these vehicles; but also reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and nearly all the natural gas we will consume is produced domestically.”
Silverman’s remarks come on the heels of an announcement that Raven Transport, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based truckload carrier, is expanding it fleet with 115 Peterbilt Model 579s powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) to haul goods for a leading consumer packaged goods company. The natural gas fleet will operate on irregular routes originating from production plants and distribution centers in the southeast and is forecasted to consume approximately 2.4 million additional diesel gallon equivalent (DGEs) of LNG annually.
Raven Transport opened for business in 1985. In addition to its Jacksonville headquarters, it has terminals in Albany, Ga.; Eden, N.C., and Middletown, Ohio. With a fleet of 500 trucks, the carrier concentrates its hauls in the southeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and southwest.
Partnerships
The new natural gas vehicles joining the Raven Transport fleet were purchased through Rush Truck Center in Jacksonville. The 2016 model year
Peterbilt 579s are fitted with 400 HP Cummins ISX12 G engines and Eaton Advantage Series 10-speed manual transmissions. Raven’s partners, in the process of adopting its latest heavy-duty natural gas vehicles, included Peterbilt Motors Co. and Rush Truck Centers, the operator of the largest network of commercial vehicle dealerships in the U.S. Custom Vehicle Solutions, another Rush Enterprises company that provides commercial vehicle engineering, customization and installation services, completed installation of Chart LNG dual 158-gal. fuel systems purchased from Clean Energy Fuels Corp.
A provider of natural gas fuel and the operator of CNG and LNG fueling stations, and a manufacturer of natural gas equipment and technologies, Clean Energy will also support Raven Transport by opening natural gas fueling stations in Atlanta, Birmingham and Theodore, Ala., and Pearl, Miss. The fleet will also fuel at Clean Energy’s existing Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas stations, and from mobile LNG fueling units to be deployed in Florida, North Carolina and Louisiana.
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