Logging tech reduces fleet’s carbon footprint, promotes safer driving

This story first appeared in The Long Haul 2024, an annual special section that celebrates National Truck Driver Appreciation Week by looking at Eastern Iowa’s trucking industry.

New technology is helping West Side Transport’s drivers save fuel, lower their carbon footprint and practice better driving habits.

The trucking company based in Cedar Rapids has partnered with ISAAC Instruments to equip its more than 500 trucks with new electronic logging devices. These new ELDs do more than record driving time, according to Kris Gordon, director of recruiting and sustainability.

“It’s night and day,” Gordon said of the new system compared to what West Side Transport was using before.

The devices are tablets that are installed on the truck’s dashboard and connect to a camera system fixed to the vehicle. They serve the same purpose as older ELDs, but they also measure accelerator and brake pressure, as well as turning velocity and time spent coasting.

Cory Richmond, director of operations, said acceleration and coasting are two metrics that are particularly important to efficiency.

Using these metrics, which were chosen by West Side Transport, the driver can review instances when they turned or braked too hard or rode the accelerator too much. The feedback provided can save fuel and extend the useful life of brake systems. Logs of specific instances can be revisited within the tablet’s system.

“It’s something I’ve thought about and added it into my own driving,” Richmond said. “Most people go straight from the accelerator to the brake when they’re approaching a stoplight. This incentivizes you to turn off the cruise earlier and begin to stop sooner at stoplights. It also helps with wear and tear.”

Turning velocity can also be significant from a safety standpoint. Overturns and rollovers are among the most common accidents involving semi trucks. About half of rollovers are fatal, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reports that 78 percent of rollovers are due to driver error.

“Milliseconds matter,” Gordon said. “Overturns are a huge accident. This encourages the driver to start braking sooner and start looking ahead. It forces them to enhance their driving habits.”

West Side Transport has been using the ISAAC technology since November 2023. The first several months were spent collecting data as the company examined how it may best apply its feedback to guide its fleet.

Gordon described the tablet interface as “very intuitive,” similar to the average tablet or smartphone that most drivers are familiar with.

“Before you had to run a report. Now it’s at their fingertips,” Gordon said. “They just click a couple buttons, and it tells them where their (metrics) are at.”

Beginning Aug. 1, drivers’ good habits are giving them the opportunity to earn bonuses.

“The better you do, the more fuel you save,” Gordon said. “So we’re going to cut our drivers in on some of those savings.”

Based on the research West Side Transport has done, Gordon said following the guidance of the ELDs has yielded a 5-10 percent fuel savings.

In the long term, Gordon expects West Side Transport to see a 5-15 percent improvement in fuel efficiency.

Richmond has heard a variety of responses from his drivers. With time, he hopes the bonus program will win over the skeptics.

The bottom-line savings are part of the reason the company adopted this new technology. It also aims to reduce its environmental impact.

“There is definitely movement within the industry, even in the last 12 months, to focus on that sustainability. It’s a big motivating factor for us as well,” Gordon said. “Customers are asking us, ‘What are you guys doing to reduce your carbon footprint?’ We fully expect the answer to that to be part of if they do business with us.”

The company has long aimed to lower its emissions, Gordon said. It is ranked highly in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Smartway program: a program launched in 2004 to help freight companies improve efficiency and sustainability.

Staying in tune with the latest technology that helps meet sustainability goals is among West Side Transport’s priorities.

“For West Side Transport, one of our goals and missions is to look for ways to reduce our carbon footprint,” Richmond said. “That is something we will be looking out for every quarter.”

Among newer developments, it is looking into is compressed natural gas.

Compressed natural gas is more widely available along the coasts, with a small handful of stations carrying it in Iowa, including stations in Davenport and Dubuque. It emits less carbon and can often be purchased for less than more common fuels.

“We are poised to make a significant investment into that market,” Gordon said.

The trucking industry is often at the forefront in adopting technology that will later become common among cars and passenger vehicles. The technology seen in West Side Transport’s fleet today is what can be expected in a car tomorrow, Gordon said.