![]() It costs Waste Management about $3 million for each large lot it converts to operate on CNG. So far, the company has about 1,400 trucks running on natural gas and plans to expand that total gradually as part of its normal replacement of about 1,000 trucks annually, Woods said. ![]() The trucks are decidedly less noisy than their diesel-powered counterparts, quiet enough for Rosales to talk without yelling in the cab of the vehicle, which has monitors and alarms to warn of gas leaks. "She said, 'I didn't even hear you,'" Rosales said of the resident, who had grown used to the noisy reminder of a rumbling diesel engine before moving her garbage outside. ![]() At least one resident in The Woodlands has had to chase after a garbage truck because she didn't realize it was on her block until it already moved on, Waste Mangement driver Servando Rosales said. It's also what waste pickup customers want - most of the time. "This goes right to the heart of the business and the margin," Woods said. Waste Management's CNG trucks refuel overnight from unattended slow-fill pumps at each parking spot, so they don't have to line up and wait at a single diesel pump. ![]() The company saves $3 for each gallon-equivalent of CNG it uses instead of diesel, and recent changes in prices of heavy-duty trucks made the vehicles more viable, Woods said.Īt a Waste Management truck lot in Seattle, for example, the company found that its costs dropped from up to $11 for every hour a driver worked with a truck to about $3 an hour once it converted the entire location to CNG vehicles, partly because of savings from refueling time, Woods said. "The economics and payback of natural gas are so strong that it dwarfs any other technology," said Eric Woods, vice president of fleet and logistics for Waste Management. The Houston-based refuse collection giant is the latest in a line of major corporations, including UPS and AT&T, to expand their use of natural gas in fleet vehicles - convinced it is the cheapest and most environmentally friendly option to power their daily road operations. ![]()
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