Crowley Trucking, Inc. announced that it has joined the SmartWay Transport' Partnership, a voluntary collaboration between the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the freight industry designed to increase energy efficiency while significantly reducing greenhouse gases and air pollution.

By being accepted as a SmartWay Transport' Partner, Crowley has pledged to contribute to the partnership's goal of reducing between 33 - 66 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and up to 200,000 tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions per year by 2012. Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas, and nitrogen oxide is an air pollutant that contributes to smog. At the same time, the initiative should result in fuel savings of up to 150 million barrels of oil annually.

"Anything we can do to reduce emissions and conserve fuel will have a positive impact on our employees, customers, members of communities in which we do business, and the world in general," said Maureen Cunningham, Crowley's vice president of operations in Jacksonville. "We felt it was important to take a leadership position on this issue, and we will be strongly encouraging our trucking partners, with whom we contract for supplemental trucking services, to apply and join the SmartWay program."

Crowley's primary emphasis will be on reducing truck idling times.

"We're looking at ways to cut engine idling through driver awareness," Cunningham said. "At the same time, we're investigating auxiliary power sources to keep drivers cool in the summer and warm in the winter when their engines are turned off. We also think we can achieve fuel and emission reductions by looking at the tires we use and how they are inflated."

Crowley Trucking, a subsidiary of Crowley Liner Services, has some 72 drivers and 56 trucks based in Pennsauken, NJ, and Jacksonville and Port Everglades, FL. Drivers haul short and medium distances primarily along the Eastern Seaboard. In addition, Crowley contracts for trucking services with more than 380 carriers of various sizes, with about 50 of those companies handling about 85 percent of the over-the-road moves for the liner services group.

The SmartWay Transport' Partnership brings together major freight shippers, trucking companies, railroads, logistics companies and others to pursue mutually beneficial efficiencies that result in emissions reductions and other environmental improvements, as well as cost savings to the companies. The Partnership currently has nearly 600 Partners.