Truckers are the pros at coping with high fuel prices.
With diesel fuel verging on the $5 mark, professional truck drivers have had to try their best to get the most out of a tank.
"By the fuel being so expensive, it forces us to find ways to be more efficient," said Mark Stets, regional fuel maintenance manager for the trucking company Con-way.
Employees of Con-way gathered in Belle on Wednesday to celebrate the company's 20 years of growth and expansion in West Virginia. Con-way wouldn't be successful without efficiency being a priority.
Con-way opened its first service center in West Virginia -- in Triadelphia -- in 1987. Today, Con-way Freight employs 167 West Virginia residents at 13 locations. Nationally, the company has become one of America's leading motor carriers with more than 400 locations, some 20,000 total employees and a fleet of more than 32,000 tractors and trailers.
Some employees took a few moments during Wednesday's celebration to talk about how skyrocketing fuel costs have affected the way they operate.
Fuel remains the biggest expenditure for Con-way, Stets said.
The company's trucks average about 6.2 miles per gallon of diesel. With diesel fuel costing about $4.90 in West Virginia, the company can foot an $833 bill after one trip to the pumps.
On the whole, the company spends about $50 million a year in fuel.
For companies like Con-way, conservation is largely in the hands of the drivers.
Changes are not being made to company trucks to ensure fuel efficiency. Because the engines are federally mandated, Con-way can't change them.
"There's nothing we can do without upsetting the engine manufacturer's settings or the federal government," Stets said.
He said the company does try different tests on the trucks to see if ways to save fuel can be found.
These days, drivers are told to drive 62 miles per hour now, three miles an hour slower than they used to drive, Stets said.
Drivers also are told to turn their trucks completely off when they park them. They used to just let the trucks idle -- sometimes running all night -- to stabilize the workings of the truck, he said.
Shutting down even 10 trucks a night saves the company money, agreed Jay Sykes, who is a driver -- or driver sales representative, as Con-way calls its employees.
"It's sort of like everything else," he said. "Cross your T's and dot your I's."
There's an incentive for the drivers, he said. What Con-way saves in fuel becomes profit for the company, which in turn bumps up the employees' salaries.
"It's a win-win situation," Sykes said.
So, conserving fuel has become a must in the industry.
"We're, of course, transportation- and fuel-oriented. We have to conserve fuel," said driver Tom Rowland. "We have to be fuel conscious. It will make or break you."
Times have changed dramatically in the past few years, agreed driver Kenneth Grimmett.
"When I started driving trucks back in '94, the company I worked for was buying diesel for a little over a dollar," Grimmett said. "That's five-fold now."
He added, "We're not the only ones trying to save fuel either. I see the general public slowing down, too." To see more of the Charleston Daily Mail or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dailymail.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Charleston Daily Mail, W.Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
