While we're talking - Wal-mart Is working
You may have heard of a firm called Wal-Mart? They have quite a few stores and they have . . . 7,200 trucks! That is a lotta trucks! If they were lined up end to end they would stretch 109 miles (175 kilometers long). In other words they would fill one lane of the New Jersey Turnpike from Philadelphia to somewhere north of the George Washington Bridge!
Anyway, about 18 months ago their CEO, Lee Scott, said Wal-mart would do something about fuel economy. They did. They have raised their fuel efficiency about 15 percent - that is almost one percent a month! You may remember a recent post of mine quoting another fleet operator who said they were doing 6.4 MPG. Wal-Mart claims they have gone from 6 MPG to 7 and they want to go further, up another 10 percent in the next year.
How are they able to do this and do it so quickly? They didn't buy 7,200 new trucks. No, they went for the LHF - the low hanging fruit. What do I mean? Those items like: tire pressure, aerodynamic drag (Great Dane Trailers is working with Walmart to reduce trailer drag), idling at truck stops, tires, other driver practices like how long to idle the engine or what gears to choose.
The fuel saving alone is estimated to be worth $35 to $50 million dollars. Plus there is the reduced wear and tear on the engines, reduced emissions and greenhouse gases and the free positive press - like this post - that Walmart has generated.
You give credit where credit is due. Wal-Mart does a lot of importing but it is doing a little less importing now - of petroleum. That is Autoblog Green.
Related:
- Wal-Mart will cut truck fuel use by 25% by 2010
- Wal-Mart receives its first Peterbilt hybrid big rig
- Kenworth launches new T270 hybrid-electric truck
[Source: Wal-Mart]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Schmeltz 1:06PM (7/24/2007)
I wonder if Wal-Mart and other large fleet owners would stand to benefit from making their own fuel? Just hear me out...One would think that Wal-Mart would have the financial resources to build a Bio-diesel plant and manufacture their own fuel for their own fleet. This wouldn't come cheap, however it would likely be tax free since it would be for their own use, and there would be no middleman costs that are present with all other fuels bought on the market. Such a move would reap lots of great publicity, probably even moreso than their efficiency efforts. If many of the big fleets would consider such a move, it would almost have to put a dent in the imported oil usage, and provide a boost for some parts of the American economy. Just some Food for thought, and/or fuel. :)
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Mike Z 1:58PM (7/24/2007)
It's an idea, but then they would also have to build a distribution system for all that fuel too...(We already have the petro pipelines in place) Also, it would still swing with agricultural prices, which are already becoming leveraged to oil, there is no real price savings.
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another Bill 2:26PM (7/24/2007)
People love to hate Wal-Mart, but one thing they definately understand is "scale".
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Schmeltz 2:32PM (7/24/2007)
My vision doesn't really involve a distribution system such as a pipeline from truck depot to depot. What I was envisioning was a centralized plant to make biodiesel for their own fleet only. Then transport the biodiesel via/tanker trailers to fleet locations for their own use. One person suggested recently also using left over residual veg. oil from fryers in their store locations too. Both of these ideas could probably be argued that they are too expensive to build and maintain, but I think it's good to think outside of the box sometimes. Occasionally the results can be eye opening.
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Peter 2:40PM (7/24/2007)
Fantastic! It's about time that business people and environmentalists realize that they're on the same side.
If Walmart gets their 10% on top of 7mpg, pretty soon they'll be in Ferrari territory. Most of the high end supercars get 8-10mpg city.
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Mike Z 2:59PM (7/24/2007)
Transporting fuel via tanker is not very practice for any real distance. tankers mostly service small areas delivering fuel from pipeline/tanker terminals to gas stations.
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Schmeltz 3:31PM (7/24/2007)
Mike Z:
Perhaps my idea wouldn't be practical or cost effective. No one really knows until heavy research would be done. I just wonder if the numbers were crunched and such a system would be built, would other large corporations and trucking companies take note and follow Wal-Mart's lead on this?
On a side note about the tankers, you could figure that the tankers would run on Wal-mart biodiesel too, therefore realizing a small savings. Also, rather than only one bio-diesel plant serving their whole national fleet, perhaps a plant could be built adjacent to every Wal-Mart truck terminal, therefore making it a point-of-use application.
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mykeliam 7:15AM (7/25/2007)
Wal Mart already has some distribution points, Sam's Clubs with gas stations. They could start out with low Wal Mart diesel prices and move up the distribution channel.
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jim 8:17AM (7/25/2007)
It doesn't take a lot of research to figure making their own fuel is a non-starter for Wal Mart. More feasible would be fuel contracts with bio-diesel producers throughout the country.
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