Transplace Shipper Symposium to Feature SmartWay

SmartWay will present and take part in a panel discussion at the 2008 Transplace Shipper Symposium in Rogers at the Embassy Suites April 22-24.

The organization of more than 700 partners in shipping, logistics and related industries developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will lead a program on “Transportation’s Greener Future” as part of the overall theme of sustainability in the supply chain.

Presenters will also include executives from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Colgate-Palmolive, Pep Boys, REI, Rock-Tenn, MIT and Burlington Northern Santa Fe.

By 2012, the SmartWay Transport Partnership initiative aims to reduce between 33 million and 66 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and up to 200,000 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions per year.

At the same time, the initiative will result in fuel savings of up to 150 million barrels of oil annually.

Transplace Inc., a third-party logistics provider based in Plano, Texas, with a 37 percent equity ownership in the company held by J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell, is holding its annual conference in Northwest Arkansas for the first time.

Transplace has been a SmartWay partner since 2006 and has made participation in the SmartWay Transport Partnership a key component of its Carrier Merit Program, which categorizes carriers into tiers based on strict and demanding performance factors.

Transplace encourages all contracted carriers to participate in the SmartWay program and has established a key goal for 2008 to make participation in the SmartWay program a requirement for consideration and achievement of their Platinum Carrier status.

“Transplace has demonstrated its great commitment to developing leading environmental practices,” said Mitch Greenberg, program manager of SmartWay. “The Shipper Symposium is an excellent forum for shippers and carriers to come together and discuss ways to make positive environmental changes across the transportation industry.”

Wal-Mart on Track To Meet Fuel Goals

In September, SmartWay honored 34 partners for their efforts to improve sustainability in the supply chain.

P.A.M. Transportation Services Inc. of Tontitown and Wal-Mart earned Excellence Awards in the carrier category.

Wal-Mart, which operates a private fleet of 7,200 tractors and more than 50,000 trailers, is on track to hit its goal of a 25 percent fuel efficiency improvement by the end of 2008. The company is targeting a 50 percent improvement by 2015.

Announced in 2005, Wal-Mart has already achieved a 20 percent improvement, from 5.9 miles per gallon to 7.1. Multiplied across Wal-Mart’s fleet, whose drivers average 115,000 miles per year, the savings add up to more than 26 million gallons of diesel saved in 2007.

The EPA estimates that Wal-Mart’s truck fleet eliminated 678,954 tons of carbon dioxide, 38.1 tons of nitrogen oxide and 1,539 tons of particulate matter from entering the atmosphere in 2006 alone.

J.B. Hunt, another SmartWay partner, says it has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 54 percent, particulate matter by 80 percent and nitrous oxide emissions by 82 percent through intermodal, empty mile reductions and idle management.

The net result from those three efforts has been a total of 1 million tons in reduced greenhouse emissions, or an average of 15 tons per truck per year.