Trucking accounts for one-fourth of the fuel used on U.S. roads | Hacker News Reader

Trucking accounts for one-fourth of the fuel used on U.S. roads

axios.com

28 pointshhs14 comments

Which - provided that the trucks are used to transport/deliver (hopefully) needed goods, leaves us with three-fourths of fuel used on roads for (likely) less needed uses.

Seriously, from what I read as experiences here on HN, it is common to have daily commuting times of more than 1 hour (twice) to "deliver" (and bring back home) someone (by means of a huge, relatively heavy and gas guzzling 5 or more seater with only one person aboard) that very likely could have stayed home (working from there) seems like an easier target.

As it was stated here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18577934

https://angel.co/blog/what-startups-really-mean-by-why-shoul...

>The pioneers who are connecting the global human family and removing barriers of time and space won't take you seriously unless you brunch at the same restaurants they do.

Electric trucks can't get here fast enough.

I've always been fascinated by biodiesel (using cooking oil to power diesel engines). I wonder if that would be a good stop gap solution until electric is viable.

Ends up clear cutting the rainforest to grow more soybeans, and there is nowhere near enough used vegetable oil for use at scale.

Luckily EVs and high efficiency internal combustion vehicles are driving down the demand for ethanol in the US and obviating the need to consider biofuels as a petroleum alternative.

Depends on the source of course. McDonalds in the UK claim to fuel about half their fleet of delivery vehicle with the used oil from their own restaurants.

If you get the source right, biofuels are great. But as you say, get it wrong (e.g. the EU policy of encouraging bioethanol) and it is disastrous for biodiversity.

I'm surprised we are not doing more with sewage, but I suspect that is to do with the difficulty of processing such a mixed substance, and the amount of infrastructure that would have to be changed.

I’m familiar with efforts to use sewage and landfill gas for small scale fleet fueling needs (local municipality and garbage collection vehicles), I just don’t think it scales up much beyond that.

I have to agree with @toomuchtodo -- the "bio" part gets gamed by the industry.

That said, I own a "biodiesel" vehicle and hope to find the time and opportunity to actually make my own fuel.

Is the energy infrastructure to charge electric trucks available to ramp?

There is enough electrical generation capacity in the US to move about 80% of light vehicles over to electric without any additional generation brought online. Heavy trucks consuming power would send market signals to bring more generation capacity online (likely renewables and natural gas).

The demand spikes are what is going to be tricky, but will likely be solved with onsite batteries to smooth demand from the utility (VW buys batteries from Tesla to do this at US charging stations they’re required to install as part of their Dieselgate settlement).

It’s possible Tesla’s Semi manufacturing kicks off shortly with Gigafactory 3 coming online in China this month, reducing reliance on Gigafactory 1 for cell and pack production for China-bound Model 3s.

Why are electric road vehicles obviously the answer? For shorter trips to end users, fine, but we have something that’s great at moving heavy things long distances, they’re called trains.

They don’t even need batteries to run, electrified trains have existed for over a hundred years at this point and they have the benefit of also not needing synthetic rubber for tyres that wears and sprays non-degradable parts all over and to boot don’t need as many drivers, saving you much of the money that computer controlled vehicles would.

And, they can take one to two weeks to deliver a product. I ordered a large automotive hoist and received it by truck in three days delivered from Kentucky to Kansas.

Think money. If you're invested in some product that is sitting around for two weeks, that's lost money.

Only because it hasn’t really been invested in.

Why would you say that? At what point during product shipment from factory to distribution center or retail outlet is the product actually investment free, as in, no money went into the product that hasn't been recovered back from it?

In other news, three quarters of the fuel used on US roads are used to ferry people around.

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