The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality houses the Smartway program. Smartway identifies transportation options that reduce emissions. The Smartway brand “signifies a partnership among government, business and consumers to protect our environment, reduce fuel consumption, and improve our air quality for future generations.” The EPA has implemented this program to help companies save money and in turn protect the environment.
To further realize the importance of this program, Smartway will assist in the financing of greener vehicles, so more companies can participate. For carriers, purchasing a Smartway green vehicle may require more upfront costs, but ultimately can save thousands per year on fuel costs and assist in protecting the environment. The EPA’s Green Vehicle Guide allows you to look up information regarding emissions and mileage on any car or truck. This can be useful when making a purchase decision for your company or even personal use. The guide also allows to search all Smartway approved vehicles.
The Smartway program predicts saving between 3.3 and 6.6 billion gallons of diesel fuel per year. This translates to almost 150 million barrels of oil. This much oil, on average, supports around 12 million cars per year. With around 150 million barrels of oil being saved per year, Smartway is able to help their partners save $10 billion in operating costs.
SupplyChainBrain’s video It’s Smart To Be Green takes an in depth view of the financial savings and environmental benefits of the program. You may have to create an account with SupplyChainBrain to view the video, but do not worry – it’s an extremely short process and they will not spam you with email. In fact, if you haven’t taken a look around the SupplyChainBrain website, I highly suggest you do. It is full of great information.
For us at ShippingDiscounts.com,we think it’s important to be green. The majority of our partner carriers belong to the Smartway program – 28 carriers to be exact. Hopefully you think it’s important too, so contact us to book your next shipment with one of our green partner carriers.
Freight Density is the amount your freight weighs per cubic foot.
Calculating freight density is extremely important when shipping freight. Carriers need to know the weight of your shipment in order to charge the correct rate for shipping. Obviously, the heavier a shipment is, the more expensive it will be to ship. Freight density is also used to determine Freight Class.
A recent blog posting about freight density on freightsavingstips.com led me to write today’s post.
Here is the quickest way to calculate freight density:
- Multiply length, width, and height in inches. Your equation should look like this: (L x W x H). This answer gives you total cubic inches.
- Divide total cubic inches (your answer from Step 1) by 1728. 1728 is the number of cubic inches found in 1 cubic foot. Your new equation should look like this: (Total cubic inches / 1728 inches). This will give you total cubic feet of your shipment.
- Then, divide the weight of your shipment by total cubic feet. Your equation should be: (Weight in pounds/ Total cubic feet). Your answer will be in lbs. per cubic foot. This is density.
If you are palletizing your shipment, use the dimensions of the pallet with the dimensions of the freight for your equations. The combined height of the carton should be added to the height of the pallet. The total weight of the shipment would be the weight of the freight added to the weight of the pallet.
At ShippingDiscounts.com, we encourage our customers to know their freight density and freight class. This will give accurate pricing up front and you as a customer will know the exact amount of shipping your freight. It is not uncommon that freight will be reweighed by the carrier. Ultimately, customers will pay more after their shipment has been transported because their freight weighed more than what was estimated. This can be alleviated if you know your freight density before your shipment is released.