ATDynamics Inc. announced that four additional trucking fleets on the east coast of the U.S. will put highly visible aerodynamic tails, called TrailerTails, on semi-trailers to reduce the fuel consumption of their trucking operations. Lavalle Transportation of Potsdam, N.Y., Dabco Transportation of Little Egg Harbor Township, N.J., Inman Trucking of Leland, N.C. and Boaty’s Produce of Jackson, Ga., are retrofitting all or portions of their trailer fleets with ATDynamics TrailerTail technology to achieve hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel savings in advance of new trucking industry fuel efficiency standards announced by the federal government in October of this year, according to the company.
The TrailerTail Model 2011 is the latest offering by ATDynamics, which said the product has been proven in SAE J1321 third-party testing to reduce fuel consumption of tractor-trailers by 6.6% at 65 MPH.
Andrew Smith, CEO of ATDynamics, said, “The TrailerTail has the potential to save the U.S. freight industry $20 billion over the next decade, with a payback period of less than a year for high mileage fleets. Any long-haul trailer without a TrailerTail is paying what amounts to a 6.6% additional fuel tax with the proceeds going to foreign oil suppliers.”
“As a tractor-trailer moves down the highway, the large flat back surface of the trailer creates a large area of low-pressure suction that pulls back on the trailer,” said Dr. Ken Visser, associate professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Energy Systems at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. “For the U.S. trucking industry, tails on trailers will reduce the oil burned to overcome this suction drag by billions of gallons. After a decade of tractor-trailer aerodynamics research, I am thrilled that Santa has the option to deliver presents more efficiently in trailers with tails.”
The TrailerTails installed by Lavalle Transportation are part of an ongoing research and development project between Clarkson University and ATDynamics, which is partially-funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
Tommy Spivey, president of Inman Trucking, noted, “We have achieved significant fuel savings with the ATDynamics TrailerTails. We upgraded to the 2011 TrailerTail model as soon as it became available.”
Manufactured in the United States and verified by the EPA SmartWay program, the TrailerTail Model 2011 employs aerodynamic design, ultra-light and high-durability thermoplastic composite materials and a collapsible origami architecture that achieves the highest fuel efficiency of any rear trailer modification ever tested, the maker said. The technology was approved for operation on U.S. highways by the Department of Transportation in 2008. In September of this year, Mesilla Valley Transportation, based in Las Cruces, N.M., announced it was installing TrailerTail technology on its entire fleet of 3,500 trailers in the largest semi-trailer aerodynamic retrofit program in history in order to reduce its fuel consumption by over 1 million gallons of diesel fuel annually, ATDynamics added.
