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Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/116555
"The 11.9 liter will step it up to the next level," said Hill. "The new 12 liter truck really starts the (longhaul) market," said Foster. Typically, LNG is a better fuel for longer-range routes because of its energy density. CNG is being used for shorter range, heavier duty applications. One company offering a CNG mobile fueling product is Oakton, Va.-based Ultimate CNG. The company's FuelMule debuted on August 14, 2012 and almost immediately headed to the political conventions in Tampa, Fla. to be the official provider of CNG there. CEO Dennis Pick said the idea was to provide "a full-fledge, world scale CNG station on wheels." The FuelMule is a straight, 24-foot-long truck that can navigate any fleet yard. Pick said they wanted to avoid a trailer operation that can't maneuver tight spaces. Pick said early on in the developmental process some people advised them to just build permanent CNG stations. However, when they talked to key industry companies, the fleets told them that any permanent station that would be built would be in the wrong place. "I offered to build a permanent station across the street from one national fleet," he said, and that manager replied that if his trucks have to go offsite to fill up, it would take too long. The FuelMule has room for 700 gallons on board, 600 gallons of that CNG is deliverable. The other 100 is for the FuelMule itself because it also runs on natural gas. The compressor is run by the truck's engine, so it's self-propelled and self-contained. "All a fleet needs is its trucks," said Pick. Since its appearance in Tampa, the FuelMule has fueled fleets in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Illinois and Texas, as well at its home base in Maryland. It has fueled everything from the shuttle buses that carried presidential delegates to heavy duty trash trucks. "There's no reason that that list can't grow based on demand," said Pick. "We're ready to roll." In fact, the company is planning to have more FuelMules on the ground by the end of the year. Pick said fleets that would benefit the most from the FuelMule are the heavy consumers and those driving locally and regionally, such as two of their current clients—a food distributor and a trash company. TRUESTAR Energy, previously known as Vocational Energy, offers another CNG mobile fueling solution called the Portable Fueling Station or www.npnweb.com n NPN Magazine PFS. Vice president of marketing Jeffry Swertfeger said many of their fleet customers didn't have a CNG fueling station, so they had to either drive to someone else's station or build their own. "The PFS rolls off a flatbed truck, giving the fleets the power to fuel trucks at their site in four hours," Swertfeger said. The solution is good for those that want to test the way natural gas works for their fleet without having to invest in infrastructure costs. They can either purchase a PFS or rent it. Swertfeger said fleets can even rent some CNG trucks from the company and try it out before buying their own. "The PFS benefits fleets that come back to a central location," he said. Swertfeger made an enthusiastic argument for more use of natural gas in the transportation industry, citing three different reasons. "First, it's a national security issue," he said, since natural gas is found in North America, it allows the U.S. not to send money to hostile OPEC countries. The second argument he cited was price. "Petroleum prices are not going down," said Swertfeger. "The days of $1 a gallon for diesel are gone and not coming back." The price for natural gas is currently $1.40-1.50 a gallon, where a gallon of diesel right now is above $4. Of course, the natural gas trucks sell at a premium, from $40,000 - $70,000, compared to heavy duty diesel engines for Class 8 trucks. However, Swertfeger said his CNG fleet customers are finding that they see a return on investment in about two years. Thirdly, he listed the environmental benefit of CNG. "It's just water vapor coming out," he said. But CNG trucks not only help to cut down air pollution, they are quiet so they help reduce noise pollution as well. In fact, some of the company's CNG refuse fleet clients are getting noise complaints from their customers, not because the CNG trucks are too loud, but because people can't hear the trucks coming and miss taking out their trash. Swertfeger rhetorically asked why fleets are waiting for the infrastructure of CNG to be put in place. "We provide the fuel supply and do the rest for you," he said. With the number of new solutions for fleets thinking of making the switch to natural gas, these offerings could provide a way to take the first step. March 2013 13