3PL news: Saddle Creek finishes construction of CNG fueling station

Third-party logistics (3PL) services provider Saddle Creek Corp. recently said it has completed construction of a compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station at its Lakeland, Fla.-based headquarters.

Company officials said this $2.2 million facility will be used to fuel the company’s fleet of CNG-powered trucks.

This follows a September announcement from Saddle Creek in which the company announced it invested in 40 Freightliner natural gas trucks for its for-hire fleet. These Freightliner Business Class M2 112 tractors run on CNG and are expected to reduce Saddle Creek’s for-hire fleet by roughly 103,000 pounds per truck. And the company said it plans to have 120 CNG tractors in its fleet by 2013.

“The station will provide the fuel needed to help us put cleaner, safer, quieter trucks on the road,” said Mike DelBovo, Saddle Creek Transportation president, in an interview. “As a result, we can help our customers support their own corporate sustainability initiatives while being a good environmental citizen ourselves. Using this alternative fuel will also help us to stabilize transportation costs since the cost of natural gas is less volatile than diesel.”

DelBovo added that when the CNG fleet is expanded to 120 trucks, the “vast majority” of Saddle Creek’s trucks will run on alternative fuel.

This fueling station, said Saddle Creek, is the first of its kind for a for-hire fleet in Florida and was built by Clean Energy. Saddle Creek added that it is designed to fuel 120 trucks per day and is equipped with “fast-fill” pumps which offer the flexibility to fuel on demand as well as 20 “time-fill” stations which fill tanks over a long period of time.

At a time when diesel and oil prices are not showing any sign of letting up, Saddle Creek is taking steps to be as energy efficient as possible and is focused on the future.

“Looking ahead, we intend to build on our momentum at Saddle Creek and continually seek out new opportunities to make green initiatives a part of our daily operations—installing motion and light sensors in our warehouses, building LEED-certified facilities whenever possible, implementing aggressive recycling programs, and more,” said DelBovo. “We are committed to being a responsible member of the communities in which we operate.”