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| Trucking firm taking biodiesel promotion on road
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Location: Blogs In The Media |
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| Posted by: Community Fuels |
6/15/2005 |
This summer, a Southern Illinois trucking firm plans to take biodiesel and its benefits on the road — literally.
Nashville-based Norrenberns Truck Service (NOTS) is running its 162 semi-tractor trailers on B11 (11 percent biodiesel fuel), in part to support farmers.
NOTS annually consumes some 2.5 million gallons of diesel: “Hopefully, this is a way to relieve our pressure on using foreign oil,” NOTS Vice President of Business Development Kevin Brink said.
Brink’s brother, Gregg, a Marion County Farm Bureau Board member, was largely responsible for selling NOTS on biodiesel. Gregg stressed biodiesel’s environmental and domestic energy benefits as well as Illinois’ biofuels sales tax credit and the new federal biodiesel blender’s credit, which together have made B11 an economical fleet option.
Now, working with the Illinois Soybean Association, NOTS plans to spread the word via what Brink calls a “billboard on wheels.”
Biodiesel promotional graphics will be placed on the side of the firm’s trailers, just as NOTS has provided free mobile “advertising” for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Brink hopes NOTS can help spread biodiesel awareness among motorists as well as truckers and other diesel users.
“We might not be doing this if it wasn’t for my brother pushing us and telling us all about (biodiesel) through the Farm Bureau,” he told Farm Week.
“American trucking fleets need to know more about this. They need to push this across the country, working with their states and seeing what (incentives) are available. Each state’s a little different.
“If we can educate the trucking companies and fleet owners and get them go to their state legislators, the soybean associations, the Farm Bureaus, and say, ‘Hey, we want some incentives to help us to switch to biodiesel,’ then hopefully all the states can offer something to encourage people to go to biodiesel.”
Xenia-based Knapp Oil supplies his company’s biodiesel, via six dedicated fuel bays located near the NOTS facility.
Illinois’ sales tax credit kicks in at the 11 percent biodiesel level, but NOTS is contemplating future use of higher blends, especially if diesel manufacturers endorse their use and further biodiesel incentives are approved.
At the same time, Brink is encouraged by the growing number of fuel refiners open to on-site “rack blending” of biodiesel fuels and proposed new biodiesel production ventures.
“The more we can produce, the more it may bring the price down,” he said.
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