Environmental progress from a trucking company?

Environmental progress. From a trucking company?
Yes!
How about saving almost 3.2 million gallons of fuel, and keeping 71 million pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere? That's just one year's savings from a single trucking company.
Con-way Freight announced this week that it is reducing its speed limiters, also called governors, from 65 mph to 62 mph.
They are not the first or last to make that move. For example, Celadon Group Inc. out of Indianapolis lowered their limiters from 65 mph to 63 mph last November, according to Communications Manager Craig M. Koven.
Many trucking companies have extensive voluntary environmental programs, some of which are monitored and assisted by the Environmental Protection Agency, through its SmartWay Transport Partnership program.
The EPA offered its praises.  "I commend Con-way Freight for integrating clean, innovative strategies and technologies into its fleet operations to reduce energy use and meet its SmartWay environmental commitments," said Margo T. Oge, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Transportation and Air Quality.
Environmental sustainability programs have three benefits. John G. Labrie describes the first two:
"Freight transportation, by its nature, is a significant consumer of carbon-based energy resources. Yet it also is one where if we look creatively at how we operate the business, we can find and adopt practices that reduce our carbon footprint and help the bottom line," said Labrie, president of Con-way Freight. "Fuel conservation and cost savings aside, this speed reduction initiative will have the single largest impact on carbon footprint reduction of any operational or business practice change available to us." 
The third benefit is safety. Research has shown that reducing vehicle speeds reduces both the number and severity of highway crashes.  That is one reason why the American Trucking Associations petitioned the federal government a year ago to require that all new trucks sold in the United States have speed limiters set to 68 mph or lower. We also asked the feds to make tampering with limiters illegal and to set a national speed limit of 65 mph.
You'll see more news about the environment in these postings in coming days. Most trucking companies, and all major trucking companies, have successful environmental programs that include improving truck and trailer aerodynamics, reducing idling, buying lower emission tractors and recycling equipment and materials.