In 2014, Aaustin Express had a fleet of 175 vehicles, and of those 175, 90 were converted to propane autogas.
Adam McCloe, Vice President of Operations for Aaustin Express, Inc. and GM Freight, Inc., explained that they had tested three different systems in their fleets, and their experience with the Icon Liquid Injection System was that their efficiency loss at not being gasoline was substantially less.
“We only saw a five to eight percent efficiency loss versus the twelve to fifteen percent with the Vapor System.” McCloe stated. “Fuel is our second largest expense, so we said ‘how are we going to manage our fuel better?’ With propane autogas, our ROI on a conversion is approximately seven to eight months.”
“[Propane autogas] allowed us to be an industry leader in our sector of business, and our customers want to grow and expand our company because of how innovative we have been and continue to be.”
Adam McCloe, Vice President of Operations for Aaustin Express, Inc. and GM Freight, Inc.
Aaustin Express was in the research phase for around a year and a half. At the time, they looked into Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
“The CNG tanks were larger than propane tanks, they were going to sacrifice cargo space for us and then the fueling stations were extremely expensive to set up and there weren’t enough public fueling stations in a lot of our locations. Propane was much more easily deployable for us in our fleet.”
“It’s allowed us to be an industry leader in our sector of the business, and our customers want to grow and expand our company because of how innovative we have been and continue to be. We’re saving $3,425 a day – that’s going to be up near $7,000 – $8,000 a day once we’re fully converted to propane autogas.”
Buying propane vehicles or converting your fleets to propane autogas is made easier with the rebates available from the Ohio Propane Gas Association. The OPGA is offering up to $5,000 per entity, $1,000 each for vehicles or mowers.
