Diesel Power Helps Deliver Vaccines for the Holidays and Beyond

Refrigerated trucks will be essential to Operation Warp Speed

Most people don't give much thought to what's involved in delivering food to our neighborhood grocery shelves. It's some kind of magical process that we take for granted, though farmers and cattle ranchers have never taken it for granted. Every cog in the distribution chain wheel knows they are just a cog but also integral to a bigger whole: feeding our nation's families.

The same applies to energy transfer. How energy gets created and how it gets distributed are things most of us don't give much thought to. Fortunately there are people who do all that thinking for us, so that we can recharge the batteries on our laptops, iPhones and other devices every day.

This week I saw a story in the Diesel Technology Forum about the role diesel will play in getting Covid under control and our nation working again. The article begins with a paragraph about the strain this pandemic had put on the trucking industry this summer simply to keep the food supply going. The second paragraph notes that getting Operation Warp Speed up to speed, rolling out 300 million vaccines to our entire population, is going to be a challenge but that our nation's diesel-powered haulers are already preparing to play their role, do their part.

The author states that our nation's trucking network "is up to the challenge thanks to diesel power, keeping critical supply chains moving for decades and most recently, ensuring essential goods are available during the pandemic. Today, the fleet of commercial vehicles is predominantly powered by diesel engines and fuel with nearly all – 97 percent – of the fleet of tractor-trailers being powered by diesel."

The two approved vaccines have special handling criteria that present special problems. For example, typical "reefer trucks" (refrigerated trucks) only have to keep frozen foods at a temperature below freezing. These vaccines must be maintained in extremely cold temperatures, and that extreme cold chain must not be broken.

The reliability of diesel transport trucks is one reason the fight against Covid needs our trucking industry. In addition, only diesel trucks have the range and capacity to make the long distance deliveries they have to make. 

No other fuel or technology type has a more extensive global goods movement network of trucks, trains, ships and planes that will meet this challenge all the while continuing to deliver essential goods and the expected increase in online shopping for gifts for the holiday season. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) alone is ready to deliver more than 28 million packages per day between Dec. 16-21 and will average 20.5 million packages per day through the remainder of the year.

As I noted above, we take a lot for granted and seldom appreciate the shipping industry the way we should. Add in FedEx and UPS numbers, and the mind-boggling efficiencies that have been developed in order to make fast, accurate deliveries is something that did not happen overnight. We've come a long ways from the Pony Express. 

You can read the full story here.

Related Links
Safe and Efficient Transport: Why Choose A Refrigerated Truck?
The Impact of Refrigeration (History Magazine)