Burned by a snake-oil salesman approach to technology...

The Rocky Mountain Institute announced this morning the inaugural meeting of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency.

The immodest goal is to reinvent the U.S. trucking industry to carry just as much freight on half as much energy.

RMI claims there is a “lack of trustworthy information evaluating different technologies” for fleets to make investment decisions.

The new group as part of RMI’s “MObility and Vehicle Efficiency” team (MOVE), will collect, assess, and circulate information on performance and efficiency benefits to technology developers, fleet owners, and truck drivers, said a statement from the transportation research and consulting team at RMI in Boulder, Colorado.

“The freight industry, and the trucking industry in particular, have been burned by a snake-oil salesman approach to technology, and it is difficult for end-users of innovative technologies to accelerate market adoption,” said Hiroko Kawai, principal of RMI’s MOVE team.

“The same challenges are also shared by producers of technologies; they cannot accelerate the market adoption of their R&D efforts, and it is hard for them to lead the market even when they offer the necessary innovations,” Kawai concluded.

The North American Council for Freight Efficiency will:

• Define freight efficiency metrics in a way that is consistent with industry customers. Build and maintain an easy-to-access clearinghouse of information.
• Rate technologies or methods based on certified testing and results, according to context, and interoperability.
• Develop new methods and gather new information as needed.
• Evaluate and advise users on improvements about configurations and maintenance based on industry best practices.
• Educate drivers and fleets about conditions that affect efficiency.
• Predict efficiency gains for specific technology combinations.

The meeting will be held November 3, 2009 at the University of Chicago. More information is available at http://www.freightefficiency.org.