Although it has been accomplished many times by others before my achieving this milestone in my career, much can be said about what it takes for me to jump into this category of fuel efficiency. Running local Los Angeles in traffic daily, having to constantly deal with grades like Grapevine and Baker on a regular basis and hauling all different sizes and shapes of dry freight are factors that don’t lend any helping hand when it comes to squeezing the most out of every last drop of fuel. Having stepped into my first Cascadia Evolution nearly five years ago now, which I turned in with well under a lifetime average of 7-MPG using it to do what I do, I have found myself striving ever since to reach numbers even close to what my fellow OTR Team Run Smart Pro counterparts have attained. With the greatest tool of efficiency having been in my hands for a few months now, I have been inching closer and closer to that ever-elusive 9-MPG tank-full in my 2018 Freightliner New Cascadia.
It has not been a rarity at all for me to see solid 7.5-8.5 MPG fill-ups on paper in this New Cascadia, which in itself is leaps and bounds above what I ever accomplished with any of its predecessors in my hands. Gaining three-quarters to a full MPG on average is quite a bit of fuel savings, which was even accomplished while trying to re-teach myself in the new truck how to be efficient in a diesel truck again, having come out of two previous CNG-fueled trucks. This tank full had me sitting pretty, but I won’t doctor it up like you see in some social media posts and say it was all 45K pounds in the box and 90% hills at a 6% grade…uphill both ways! This was achieved in part by a “perfect storm” of conditions finally appearing here locally to push myself and the new truck to the limit of local fuel economy perfection.
The first two days were local driving in the Los Angeles metro area, with plenty of traffic and a 50/50 mix of heavy and light loads. There were some empty miles involved as well, as I typically have to transit through traffic across the basin for a reload elsewhere while empty, which happened on this set of tanks once. I decided to take a power-only load from the Los Angeles area up to Sacramento after these local days to allow me to pick up a trailer I had purchased for a new contractor, which had me sitting at a rather light gross of around 49K pounds. Coming back I had decided to pick up a load of organic vanilla soy milk to see how the new ride did with a load in it, which had me sitting in at a gross weight of 78.5K pounds all the way from NorCal back to Los Angeles. Having not made special plans to “only” purposely book light freight to achieve this goal of mine, I was greatful it worked out to be a good mix to represent all aspects of things I typically haul.
You see a lot of talk out there in the world of truck fuel economy about 9+ MPG and 10+ MPG, but reaching it can be a rather hard thing to do for a local hauler. I used to get all “jazzed up” when I used to see 7-MPG roll across my notepad for fueling when I got my first Cascadia Evolution. Now that numbers like 7-8 MPG are more common, I find myself adapting to the technology and pushing myself to better utilize the truck’s tools that it is equipped with to try and one-up myself continuously. Although I know I have a better chance of hitting the Powerball than turning in one of my trucks with a lifetime of 9+ MPG, I am happy to now know I can at least “soar with the eagles” for a moment and have a taste of that “9+ Mile Per Gallon Club”!