USA Truck Renews with EPA SmartWay Transport Partnership

USA Truck Renews with the U.S. EPA SmartWay Transport Partnership

VAN BUREN, AK / Trailer Technician / March 23, 2021 / USA Truck, Inc. (NASDAQ:USAK) today announced that it has submitted and received approval for their current data submission to the SmartWay® Transport Partnership, an innovative collaboration between U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and industry. The SmartWay Transport Partnership provides a framework to assess the environmental and energy efficiency of goods movement supply chains.

USAT will continue to contribute to the Partnership’s savings of 312 million barrels of oil, $41.8 billion on fuel costs and 133 metric tons of CO2, 2.6 million tons of NOx and 109 million tons of PM… This is the equivalent of the annual electricity use in 20 million homes. By renewing our SmartWay Transport Partnership, USA Truck demonstrates its strong environmental leadership and corporate responsibility.

Developed jointly in early 2003 by EPA and Charter Partners represented by industry stakeholders, environmental groups, American Trucking Associations, and Business for Social Responsibility, this innovative program celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2014. Partners rely upon SmartWay tools and approaches to track and reduce emissions and fuel use from goods movement. The Partnership currently has over 3,000 Partners including shipper, logistics companies, truck, rail, barge, and multimodal carriers.

USAT has strived to improve fuel economy throughout its business. In the last 3 years, USA Truck has averaged a CO2 gram per mile reduction of 20, which is equal a total reduction of CO2 by 11,785 metric tons.

Below is a list of USAT’s implemented equipment strategies over last three years:

Tractors

• Tightened tractor to trailer gaps through frame length reduction to optimize fuel economy by reducing aero drag
• Implemented Flow below wheel and chassis aerodynamic devices to optimize fuel economy by reducing aero drag
• Implemented Air disk brakes on steer axles to reduce stopping distances and reduce steer axle brake lining replacement frequency
• Implemented Collision Mitigation systems to all tractor builds
• Implemented tractor blind spotter detection and notification systems to all tractor builds
• Worked extremely close with engine and transmission manufacturer to optimize all vehicle parameter settings for best possible fuel economy
• Implemented full fleet automated transmissions for fuel economy gains and excessive drivetrain replacement expenses
• Implemented air release 5th wheel to reduce driver work comp claims
• Implemented robust tractor telematics system for all location and tractor fault code information Implemented DriveCam event recorder system
• Implemented spare tire program to reduce downtime and Over the road tire expenses
• Implemented ambient air temp controlled idle control system, in the place of EPU system that required high idle time for battery charging and extremely high battery replacement expenses
• Testing Solar power battery charging capabilities for reduced idle, reduced fuel burn, reduced jump starts, and increase battery capacity for drivers in key off situations

Trailers:

• Implemented trailer skirt replacement repair stance rather than removing damaged trailer skirts Implemented Solar powered trailer telematics
• Maintained trailer skirt installation on all new trailer purchases
• Currently testing air disk brakes for reducing stopping distance and increasing trailer brake lining life, at the same time reducing the typical reoccurring foundation brake component failures associated with slack adjusters, brake chambers, and adjustment issues
• Currently testing robust telematics associated with tire air pressure monitoring with low pressure notification by email
• Testing 3 different self-deploying trailer tails for aerodynamic and MPG optimizing
• Moved to full LED lighting on trailer light bulb replacements to reduce lighting failures and electrical amperage draw
• Currently retrofitting trailer telematics from a 3G to a 5G platform Facilities
• Replaced incandescent lighting with LED to reduce electricity usage
• Implemented Facility Smart chargers for battery charging, charger shuts off when battery has reached charging potential rather than constant run battery charging for reduced electrical usage