Last week, for-hire general-freight carrier Central Freight Lines (CFL) announced that it will test 15 new Peterbilt natural-gas-powered tractors through a grant from the Houston-Galveston Area Council.
‘With the Houston-Galveston Area Council's backing, we can fully evaluate how natural gas tractors will help further our goals and help fight air pollution in some of the major metropolitan areas we serve, including Houston, which has higher air pollution levels than most large cities in the country,’ explains Don Orr, CFL's president and CEO.
CFL says the fleet of natural gas tractor will be used for local pickups and deliveries in the Houston-Galveston service area, where natural gas fueling infrastructure is available. The higher up-front cost of the engines, Orr notes, will be ‘returned to the company in the significantly lower cost of natural gas.’
The 15 new trucks are 2013 Peterbilt 384 4X2 models equipped with 75-gallon diesel equivalent compressed natural gas (CNG) units from Agility Fuel Systems and ISL-G 320/2200 engines from Cummins Westport.
