Saddle Creek Corp., a nationwide third-party logistics provider, announced it has completed construction of a compressed-natural-gas (CNG) fueling station at its headquarters in Lakeland, Fla. The $2.2 million facility will provide fuel for Saddle Creek's new fleet of CNG trucks. CNG is a clean-burning alternative fuel with near-zero emissions.
The company began operating 40 of the Freightliner Business Class(R) M2 112 tractors in January and plans to have 120 CNG tractors in its fleet by 2013.
The trucks will be based at the 3PL's headquarter campus in Lakeland, Fla., and will handle deliveries throughout the Florida peninsula and southern Georgia. The company says CNG vehicles are significantly quieter, safer and more cost effective than their diesel counterparts and rely on a renewable, domestic fuel source.
The fueling station is the first such facility for a for-hire fleet in Florida and the exclusive fuel source for Saddle Creek's fleet. The station was built by Clean Energy, a CNG site developer. Designed to fuel 120 trucks per day, it is equipped with four "fast-fill" pumps that fuel on demand as well as 20 "time-fill stations" that fill the tanks over a longer period of time.
"Today is a significant landmark in Saddle Creek's commitment to sustainability," said Mike DelBovo, president, Saddle Creek Transportation. "The first 40 new tractors, alone, will substantially reduce our fleet's carbon footprint by 4,200,000 lbs of carbon per year. It's like taking 364 cars off the road each year."
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