FAQ

Question:	Answer:
Q: What is FETruck.org?	FETruck.org was originally created as the home to my year long study of aerodynamic trucks on the New Jersey Turnpike introduced here and found here. But I am now growing it into a clearinghouse for fuel efficiency products, software, services, and techniques for trucks.
Q: Why FETruck?	A: For many reasons: Tweeting from @fetrucks buys me a few characters over something longer, other names were not available on as many sites, and I didn’t want to tie the site intensely to just one thing – FE Trucks can be taken a bit more ambiguously. Given that I might put information up about other forms of transportation and energy efficiency, the openness of the name helps.
Q: Why do so much work for something that already exists?	A: That the site took as long as it did is proof that the data on this site doesn’t exist elsewhere. Partial product lists exist in print and on the Internet but they are not comprehensive dossiers of every fuel efficient trucking technology and company. I hope to present EVERY company offering a particular legitimate solution and EVERY technology used to improve the efficiency of freight movement. And if it does exist elsewhere, I am not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Q: But Trucking Efficiency seems to have already done what you are doing?	A: Um, ahhh, LOOK A BUNNY! Ok, seriously, my ambitions for this site grew as I worked on it. Around the the time I was ready to publish, I discovered the North American Council for Freight Efficiency / Carbon War Room / Trucking Efficiency / Rocky Mountain Institute Trucking Efficiency website. It is awesome and you should spend as much time as you can over there. Their work is much of what I imagined this site would take on. But I do believe there is a role for other organizations in reinforcing and enhancing what Trucking Efficiency is accomplishing, while exploring areas they have not yet taken up.
Q: I see some errors on your site.	A: Yes, you do. I made the decision from the idea’s earliest days that the perfect would not be the enemy of the good.  And with the magical self-correcting mechanism of the Internet, I figured it would improve over time. So, where’s that correction email from you ☺?!
Q: You changed the data / results of your study; I thought studies were supposed to remain fixed once completed?	A: Real scientific studies are mostly the way you say; mine is NOT a real scientific study. This study is one guy who used a set of rules to try to understand a piece of the world. That said, the changes I am making are only corrections and clarifications based on subsequent research and unearthing of the (re)discovery of previously collected data.
Q: I am a ___, how do you expect me to use this site?	A: How you use the site will depend on your role and needs. Fleet Managers may use the site to create a list of companies selling a particular technology. Owner / Operators might use the site to choose the most useful or interesting upgrades to their trucks. Efficiency Technologists might use the site to stimulate new energy saving ideas and inventions. Greenhouse Gas Fighters may find some information useful in their gaseous reduction quest. Heck, even Buy-Side and Sell-Side Stock Analysts might find some of the device and service company lists useful in speeding up their research. Tell me; how are YOU using the site?
Q: Why don’t you list models for Company _______? Why did you break out products for Company A but not for Company B? Is there a reason you didn’t follow the same rule for every report / study / list / spreadsheet / table / database?	As this site was constructed, judgment calls were made as to which products deserved their own line versus being bundled with their corporate parent. Those judgments are related to their centrality to this project, product or service effectiveness, available information, differentiation between similar models, complexity of the product, number of features for a given product or service, and so on. Over time, products will be broken out from their parents, more detail will be provided, etc. Parts, components and wholesaled products are not “retailed” to end users and often lack outward facing literature regarding their products features and thus what can be presented here. Finally, for unknown reasons, I sometimes changed my horse in mid-stream.
Q: I sent you a whiz bang company with a great technology / service but you haven’t listed it on the page I identified; why are you ignoring me?	Wherever possible, I will be relying on independent scientific assessments of products to identify their appropriate page, if any. With so many sub par and quack products, many created for transportation applications, I may place a product into a ‘sandbox’ until it has proven its worth and may not place it at all if I am already aware that it is snake-oil.
Q: You listed Random Company X and I am not sure why.	They probably have some relationship to transportation efficiency technologies.  For example, venture capital firms, hedge funds, private equity firms, or holding companies often own large portions or entire companies of interest to this site. In those cases, I sometimes, but not always, give them their own record to offer a fuller picture of who makes what investments in the transportation industry.
Q: How do I know you are not presenting biased results?	A: I do have an agenda and it is to spread these technologies, services and techniques further, wider and deeper (geographically, across more industries, and more pervasively in every industry / sector) – and more quickly – than they already are spreading. Since my goal is maximum distribution of as much information as is possible in as user friendly a manner as possible, selectivity generally doesn’t advance my agenda. I disclose every conflict I can think of on my Disclosure Page and will update it as I discover, think of, or am told of new ones. I will disclose when I consult on or with, invest in, or publish tests of, transportation and freight technologies and companies.
Q: Why don’t you have more about really cool concept trucks?	I grew up drinking the concept car Coolaid. I wanted every newly introduced model from nearly every manufacturer. By the time the production model came along, most of the car’s good looks had evaporated along with the most of the technologies inside of them. While I will cover important concept vehicles as educational tools (see my entry for the AirFlow Truck in this table by typing Airflow Truck into the search box), I need to remain as hard nosed as I can, else I end up covering one vaporware product after another.
Q: You tables and reports contain many links that aren’t good anymore; what is up with that?	Linkrot, an old geek name for broken links, is rife the Internet over and this site is not immune. While the causes for it are numerous, the most common cause on this site is faded companies and mergers. Given the time from my research to publication on the site, dozens of cited companies have gone bankrupt or been acquired. And if an acquiring company doesn’t pay attention, links from the acquired company stop working and give error messages. Over time, I will try to come up with techniques to reduce this issue but it will not go away. Please wait until February 2106 (unless I remove this note before that) to contact me about broken links to other websites but feel free to contact me anytime about broken links within or to fetruck.org.

 

FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions, a standard Q&A format used on the Internet.