Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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INNOVATORS In order to roll out its CNG truck Fair Oaks Farms' scrubbing equipment converts biogas into biomethane natural gas, which is odorized to create renewable natural gas suitable for use in CNG-pow- ered trucks. program, Fair Oaks Farms first secured an agreement with Kroger to determine which of the grocer's milk production facilities it would supply using CNG trucks, as well as a mini- mum number of loads to each facility. The company then agreed to sublease the milk delivery operation to Des Moines, Iowa-based Ruan Transpor- tation, which supplies roughly 110 drivers to the effort. "There are some significant logisti- cal challenges that Ruan is working on with us," says Stoermann. "Not only do you have basically a system of production at Fair Oaks Farms that is dynamic, but the (Kroger milk) pro- duction process is dynamic as well." Fair Oaks Farms isn't making all Fair Oaks Farms for tradable renew- able identification numbers (RINs). "We believe this will be the first proj- ect that ever generates RINs from an anaerobic digester on a dairy farm," says Stoermann. "There may be some landfills doing this, but this is the first time a dairy waste project has been taken to RINs." Last year, Fair Oaks Farms pur- chased 42 CNG tractors equipped with Cummins ISL G 9-liter engines and entered an agreement with Clean Energy to build two CNG fueling sta- tions – one in Fair Oaks and another in Sellersburg in southern Indiana. Fair Oaks Farms began supply- ing natural gas for compression and distribution to the Fair Oaks fueling station last month. It will produce enough natural gas to meet all of its CNG demand and will add enough natural gas to the pipeline in north- west Indiana to offset the usage of CNG at the Sellersburg location. Once fully operational, the CNG program will remove the need for 1.5 to 2.2 million gallons of diesel fuel. "We are in a very unique situation," says Corbett. "As long as we are in the business of milking cows, we will never run out of gas." The overall program, made pos- sible in part by the Greater Indiana Clean Cities Program, is supported by grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 administered through the U.S. Department of Energy's State Energy Program and Clean Cities Program and the Indiana Office of Energy Development. Making the investment work Perhaps the biggest challenge in the entire process is ensuring Fair Oaks Farms realizes a return on its invest- ment. To do so, the company has to keep the trucks moving around the clock. Dairy production is well suited to such an operation since the cows are milked on a continual basis three times per day. "There's nothing more dedicated than a dairy operation because milk is produced every day and delivered every day over long distances," says Corbett. 50 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2012 of its milk runs to the Kroger plants using CNG trucks – only the loads with a daily year-round commit- ment. "When looking at CNG trucks, not only do you have to look at high usage, you have to look at consistent year-round routes," Stoermann says. Where possible, Fair Oaks Farms has designed drop-and-hook routes to Kroger's facilities in Indianapo- lis, Sellersburg and Winchester: The driver delivers a full tanker of milk, picks up an empty tanker and heads home where another driver is ready to haul the next load. Fair Oaks Farms' CNG truck fleet ultimately will transport 53 6,100-gal- lon loads of milk per day – 90 million gallons per year – and travel more than 11 million miles annually. "It's our goal to run these trucks 250,000 miles per year," says Stoermann. "You can't get 250,000 miles without drop- ping and hooking and getting back on the road." CCJ INNOVATORS profiles carriers and fleets that have found innovative ways to overcome trucking's challenges. If you know a carrier that has displayed innovation, contact Jeff Crissey at jcrissey@ccjmagazine.com or 800-633-5953.