New Clean Air, Fuel Saving Technology Arrives at West Virginia Truck Stop

A new technology that improves air quality, conserves fuel and puts better rested long-haul drivers on the highways has been installed in one of West Virginia’s largest truck stops along the heavily traveled I-70 corridor.

IdleAire Technologies Corporation, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based company, has completed installation of its patented, award-winning Advanced Truckstop Electrification (ATE®) technology in the TravelCenters of America (TA) location at Exit 11 in Wheeling. The West Virginia installation is part of the company’s national deployment of more than 200 new locations announced earlier this year.

By providing filtered central heating and air conditioning, along with electrical outlets and a variety of communications and entertainment options into each truck cab, IdleAire allows long-haul drivers to shut off their engines instead of idling them to maintain comfortable cab temperatures while resting. Drivers are required to rest for at least 10 hours for every 11 on the road.

“If each of the 63 parking spaces we have equipped with IdleAire is used only for the minimum 10-hour rest period, then we can eliminate over 2,400 metric tons of diesel emissions annually and conserve about 230,000 gallons of fuel that would have been consumed idling and moving no product,” said IdleAire Chief Operating Officer Lynn Youngs. “Of course the spaces are available 24 hours a day, not just 10.”

IdleAire installs, operates and maintains the system, which also provides a phone line, multiple ways to access high-speed Internet, television and movies on demand. The only equipment any truck needs to access the system is a $10 window adapter that allows IdleAire’s service module to fit in the passenger window.

Fleets with signed agreements with IdleAire pay $1.85 an hour for basic services. Over 1,700 fleets have such agreements with the company and many fleets pay for IdleAire’s basic services for their company drivers because of the savings in fuel, maintenance and engine wear & tear, and because it serves as a driver retention and recruitment tool.

Since its first three small pilot installations in 2001, the company has delivered over 9 million hours of service to drivers and fleets across the nation and eliminated approximately 100,000 metric tons of diesel emissions.