The “green” committee's most recent initiative is a tire-pressure equalizer that facilitates the checking of tire pressure on delivery trucks. Through the use of a “cat's eye,” the driver can walk around the truck and visually check if the tires are inflated to their proper weight. If they are under-inflated, the cat's eye will be open, thus requiring a pressure adjustment. With most delivery trucks running on a dual-tire system, with four sets of two tires on each side of the vehicle, RSC's research showed that typically to check each tire with a tire gauge, particularly time-consuming and difficult on the inner tires, it could take a driver nearly an hour, especially when weight adjustments were necessary. Typically a driver would walk around the truck, kick or pound a tire with a hammer, and if the weight seemed “close enough” the driver would get on the road.

“If you're running under-inflated, there's a safety factor involved,” says Ron Harkness, an RSC green team member. “The Department of Transportation found that 20.9 percent of the accidents on highways involving large trucks were caused by under-inflation. So the equalizer is a win-win from all areas, saving fuel, maintenance and efficiency costs and keeping RSC drivers safe.”

With the tire-pressure equalizer, the driver can tell just by sight if the tire is under-inflated. Hooking up the air hose to a gauge that connects the inner and outer tire, the driver can quickly and easily fill the tire to its proper weight. The driver can check and fill the entire truck in about 15 minutes.

RSC's green team is constantly looking at ways to improve the environment, including working with vendors to reduce equipment emissions. “That's an area where we have an impact due to the strength of our relationships with our vendors,” says Groman. “We have great vendors who are interested in the same things and want to do it for the right reasons.”

Groman adds that RSC's customers are also driving innovation. “Everything we do is usually the result of what our customers want,” he adds. “Many of our customers are concerned about the environment, and some know they need greener equipment to be awarded a contract from a particular government agency or vendor who is concerned about trying to reduce emissions.”

The green team is continually working on ways the company can improve internally, such as a recent recycling effort, and is studying a number of initiatives that can improve efficiency and safety as well as improve the environment.

“We hope our entire industry embraces this way of thinking,” says Groman. “Not only will it be the right thing for their bottom line, but it will be the right thing for the environment and we'll all win if that's the case.”