Truckers Going Green

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Story Published: Jul 8, 2008 at 2:02 PM MST

Story Updated: Nov 20, 2008 at 9:36 PM MST

By Anthony Congi

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Filling up your vehicle is harder than ever. It's easy to drop anywhere from seventy to a hundred dollars for cars suv's and trucks. but long haul truckers are spending upwards of 600 dollars everytime they fill up.
Truckers also not only work, but live out of their trucks when they're on the road. Often, they have to run their sleepers in idle for their air conditioning, heating and any other electronic running. and that, means more energy and more gas wasted.
But a new technology could ease their pain. The company Webasto has developed a way for truckers to go green with a zero emissions, idle-reduction cooling system.
Jeff Frasier, Webasto Sales Manager "It will allow truck drivers to shut off their engines and maintain a comfortable climate in the cab without running the engine."
Webasto's Bluecool Truck keep the interior of the truck around 70 degrees for up to ten hours. Helping the truck driver to sleep not only comfortably temperature wise, but also knowing that the driver isn't wasting gas.
The source of the cooling is a state of the art cold storage unit that charges while the truck is running.
Frasier "any class a truck can have this equipment installed provided their space for the cold storage technology and the heating technology."
And just how much is it helping? Idle running trucks waste about a gallon of fuel an hour and more than 18-hundred gallons a year. The Bluecool Truck is said to be 20 times more efficient which could save truck drivers almost ten thousand dollars a year.
The unit will cost about 36-hundred dollars to install which can basically pay for itself in a few months.
The Webasto company will be taking their new truck and showcase it to companies such as Doug Andrus Trucking in hopes of selling the new product to the local agencies.

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