ATTENTION FLEET OPERATORS: Extended idling wastes money!

• From Idle-Free For Fleet$: Economics of Truck Engine Idling

• From Natural Resources Canada FleetSmart: Highway Trucking - Idling Gets You Nowhere

WAYNE MICHAUD, DIRECTOR OF IDLE-FREE VT, LAUNCHES IDLE-FREE FOR FLEET$
 with a speaking engagement at the Vermont Truck and Bus Association annual convention at the Basin Harbor Club in Vergennes, VT, Sept. 10, 2011

A grant is being pursued for Idle-Free For Fleet$ — a project that will educate Vermont fleet operators statewide in the benefits of practicing idling reduction.

Idle-Free VT has formed a partnership with the Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN) of Middlebury, VT, a 501c3 organization that will act as a fiscal sponsor of the Idle-Free for Fleet$ project.

Excerpts from a letter of inquiry being sent to grant-funding organizations:

As I have found in working on several efforts to reduce unnecessary vehicle idling over the last five years, few fleet operators or their drivers have any idea that truck idling has contributed to Vermont having the highest rate of adult asthma in the nation1. Nor are they aware that they can often shut down vehicles immediately when parked, annually saving their companies thousands of dollars.

To deal with this problem, I propose Idle-Free for Fleet$, a project of working with Vermont fleet operators to show them the benefits of adopting an idling reduction policy. Those benefits include:

• Improved respiratory health, particularly among vulnerable populations such as children and the drivers themselves

• Reduced fossil fuel use

• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions

• Increased bottom line for businesses through reduced fuel costs and reduced engine wear

This project will include the preparation of an educational toolkit, PowerPoint presentation, contact and follow-up with 250 fleet managers with a minimum of five-truck fleets, 50 presentations, and the training of community volunteers. Both company fleets and municipal fleets — with departments of public works and highway departments serving towns with populations over 2,500 — will be targeted. The goal of this 15-month project is for 20 Vermont fleet operators to adopt a formal (written) idling reduction policy.

Communities will be engaged by encouraging local volunteers — town energy committees and local organizations — to work with their town municipal fleets by providing them with toolkits and PowerPoint presentation document, and offering to give them a training session and follow-up support. I will also encourage them to go beyond municipal fleet policies – to lead community efforts to adopt no-idling resolutions or energy conservation policies, such as the towns of Jericho, Middlebury and Shelburne have done.

Wayne Michaud has experience running this kind of a project. After launching the Idle-Free VT campaign in 2006, the following year the Business Idle-Free pilot project was developed. Two advisor-volunteers and Wayne worked with fleet-operated businesses plus businesses serving customers that tend to idle vehicles on the premises. In all, more than 210 were sent a mailing with personal follow up contact. This virtually unfunded, three-month volunteer effort resulted in several businesses adopting idling reduction policies, including Merchants Bank of Burlington, whose branches have since displayed drive up window notices asking customers to turn off engines during transactions.

In 2009, after honoring Wayne as their Air Quality Champion, the American Lung Association hired him as coordinator of Vermont Idle-Free Fleets, a DEC-funded project Wayne helped develop showing fleet operators in Chittenden and Rutland counties the benefits of adopting an idling reduction policy. He helped develop the project’s toolkit and PowerPoint presentation – providing technical facts on diesel truck idling, the health and economic impacts, and model policies.

Working one-on-one with fleet operators, 75 requested toolkits, and Wayne gave 30 presentations. In a one-year period, the project met its first phase goals, as 12 business and municipal fleets adopted policies, having a positive impact on approximately 165 trucks. This includes Koffee Kup Bakery, a Burlington-based company that adopted a policy after a presentation showed that they were spending up to $100,000 annually in unnecessary idling of their 60-truck fleet.

Vermont Idle-Free Fleets continues in its second phase in 2011 of working with town energy committees and local community organizations to implement the project in 10 selected towns.

There are plenty of fleet operators in Vermont comprising more than 20,000 medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, of which more than 15,000 are diesels. And especially since there remains no truck idling reduction law in this state, education is the key to improving our health and reducing fossil fuel use. Idle-Free for Fleet$ will build on the success of Vermont Idle-Free Fleets by continuing Wayne's successful one-on-one approach with fleet operators throughout the rest of the state.

As stated above, the goal of Idle-Free For Fleet$ is to increase the number of fleets adopting an idling reduction policy by 20. So far, business fleets from Vermont or serving Vermont, Vermont State agencies, and Vermont towns have combined for more than 35 policies:

KNOWN VERMONT FLEET OPERATORS AND INSTITUTIONS WITH IDLING REDUCTION POLICIES
(either native to or operating in Vermont)
FOLLOW LINKS TO IDLING REDUCTION POLICIES OR RELATED INITIATIVES
FLEET OPERATED BUSINESSES & MUNICIPALITIES WITH IDLING REDUCTION POLICIES
Burlington FoodService (Reinhart)
Chittenden Solid Waste District
Green Mountain Power
Land-Air Express
Vermont Gas
Vermont Transit Co.
Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS)
NON-FLEET OPERATED BUSINESSES WITH IDLING REDUCTION POLICIES
Brattleboro Savings & Loan Assoc.
Vermont State Employees Credit Union (VSECU)

Check back for updates on the progress of the Idle-Free For Fleet$ grant proposal.
We look forward to working with Vermont Fleet Operators.