Some fleets may have been hesitant to jump into the new EPA-2007 engines, but not Knight Transportation.
The company last week took receipt of its 1,000th tractor equipped with an engine certified to meet the 2007 EPA emission standards.
As a four-year member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay Transport Partnership Program, Knight was honored with the SmartWay Partners in Excellence Award in 2007.
Knight's efforts to improve fuel efficiency and help the environment include maintaining an updated and modern fleet of tractors and refraining from cycle purchasing around new EPA standards. Specs focus on aerodynamic body styling, an optimized tractor/trailer gap, reduced tractor weight specifications, lightweight and high-cube 53-foot trailers, optimized engine technology, fuel-efficient tires, in-cab heaters that do not require the engine to idle, and ambient temperature idle management sensors. Knight trucks are also governed to run at lower speed limits.
The EPA's SmartWay model estimates that through these efforts, Knight Transportation annually eliminates 892 million pounds of CO2, 3.5 million pounds of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and 98,000 pounds of particulate matter.
Knight Transportation said these cleaner-burning engines now represent nearly 30 percent of its company-owned fleet. Beginning with the availability of a new generation of engines in 2010, Knight expects to continue to improve by reducing NOx emissions another 90 percent, making these emissions almost non-existent.