LUZERNE COUNTY, Pa. — Nicholas Trucking in Courtdale helps the United States Postal Service move mail from point A, to point B.
"We haul mail from the Scranton post office to all of the outer offices in Eastern PA so we are the middle man, we get it to the small trucks and the carriers take it out," said Nicholas Trucking Co. Chief Operating Officer, Alex Nicholas.
Nicholas Trucking chief operations officer Alex Nicholas, says with 37 trucks, the miles really rack up.
"For all 8 of our contracts in NEPA we do one million miles per year," said Nicholas.
That's why Nicholas Trucking decided to partner with ROUSH cleantech to add three near zero emission trucks that run on propane to its fleet.
"What we do is carbon copy the injection technology, liquid injection technology that we are all a custom to today with gasoline. So the vehicle when you turn the ignition key, the fuel pump is the same as gasoline it goes through the fuel line same as gasoline and goes into the injector the same as gasoline," explained Derek Whaley, ROUSH CleanTech Business Development Manager.
ROUSH Cleantech says the Autogas Technology helps cut down on greenhouse gasses.
"These trucks compared to a counterpart diesel truck are 75% cleaner than their counterpart with diesel and that's when it comes to nitrogen oxide emissions which is the leading reason for asthma for lung health but takes that off the road immediately," said Whaley.
Nicholas says the rising price of diesel was part of the reason for adding the propane trucks to the fleet. Propane is currently less than half the price of diesel.
"We've seen a huge fuel cost savings of about 53%, we are getting 4 miles per gallon more and we don't have any oil or diesel fluid cost and we are helping to save the environment as best we can," said Nicholas.
Nicholas Trucking was able to buy the new trucks using money from state grants.