A few months ago I blogged about a conversation I had had with a fleet manager about his experiences with biodiesel in a cold climate. He had never had a bad experience with biodiesel, even though he operated his vehicles in the harsh winters of the Grand Teton Mountain range, at an elevation of over 6,000 feet. His advice: You have to be smart about, and vary your biodiesel blend season by season.

Interestingly, readers continue to comment on that blog entry over two months after I wrote it, and I wonder why people keep asking questions about biodiesel. Could it be that there’s more interest out there than anyone suspects? Is it possible that there are many, many fleets out there that are ready and willing to switch to a biodiesel blend, but have held back because of some nagging doubts?

Earlier this week, as part of a biofuels advisory panel, I found myself fielding questions from the city managers and employees, and it gave me some insights into this invisible interest in biodiesel. Here at the table were four or five public works guys who were interested in trying biodiesel but were concerned that they would experience a severe lack of horsepower in their city trucks, that they would be plagued by no-starts in the winter, and that they would have to somehow “convert” their trucks to biodiesel use. I advised them that they would not experience any power loss, and they would not have to modify any post-1978 engines in any way, but that they would have to manage the process carefully to avoid cold weather problems, and I think I made serious progress with them, but the experience reminded me once again that there’s a lot of misinformation out there, and that if we could just get GOOD information to more fleets, they might be willing to make a positive change for our energy security.

It’s getting to be that time of year again–the time when many state fleet maintenance councils and individual companies host their technician competitions. If you follow Fleet Maintenance at all, then you know that we do a lot of reporting on state and company technician skills competitions, not to mention the national TMC SuperTech competition. A few years ago, this kind of event rarely made headlines; today it’s all the rage, and we’d like to think we’ve played a small role in raising awareness of these efforts to recognize and reward the best and brightest in our industry.

But we know we aren’t covering every event. Some of you may have company contests that no one outside your company has ever heard of. If so, we’d like to hear about it! How long has your company been holding tech competitions? Who have the winners been? If you think they deserve some public recognition, send us their names. Let’s make sure that the real heroes of this industry get the kudos they deserve!

I’ve been writing about alternative fuels for several years now, and as I’ve reported on the struggles and successes of the biodiesel, ethanol, natural gas, propane and hydrogen energy industries, I’ve always felt that I was on the sidelines looking in. Now, I know there are a lot of skeptics out there (one fellow trucking journalist recently told me that biodiesel was “snake oil”), and a lot of fleet managers will resist and even refuse to use any type of fuel that doesn’t come out of an oil well. That’s their right. But I’m a big supporter, and I’ve recently made some decisions to become more involved in alternative fuels.

First, I recently accepted an invitation from the State of Wisconsin’s Office of Energy Independence to join an advisory panel that will help steer county, city, town and village fleets towards the use of sustainable, alternative fuels. Our first gig comes up later this month in the town of Spring Green, and I’ll be reporting on that when the time comes.

Secondly, in an effort to put my money where my mouth is, I just bought a “flex fuel” vehicle, which I am now running on E85 ethanol. The car is a 2001 Ford Taurus SE wagon that I bought on auction from the State’s surplus fleet vehicle auction website. In the past five says since I picked up the wagon, a former University of Wisconsin fleet car, I’ve made three 200-mile round-trips to Chicago, and so far I’m very pleased with the performance of the vehicle. I’ll be reporting more on that in due time as well.

One thing I can tell you about the Taurus already: it has been very well maintained, a tribute to the University’s fleet maintenance professionals. Oh, and I bought it for about $1,000 under blue book, and in my town E85 goes for $1.69.9 a gallon. Who says going green can’t save you money?

Nebraska SuperTech is now accepting competitors!

And, not only are we accepting registrations, we already have a few people signed up. This is quite a relief to everyone in the SuperTech Steering Committee.

It’s nice to finally see all of our work coming to fruition. Of course, there have been hiccups along the way. But one of the things the STSC has done really well is come together to work through the hiccups. I think that’s the key for any of you who are trying to plan a competition- get a great group of volunteers who are committed to the cause to get together to help. Make sure to have people from many different backgrounds if you can, because that will make your group that much more knowledgeable.

Back to the registration process. It’s not that we didn’t think we could get people signed up; it’s just a great confirmation that technicians in Nebraska are excited about the chance to represent the state at the national competition. Imagine the bragging rights- being able to say you were Nebraska’s first-ever SuperTech grand champion! That’s a pretty big deal.

For those of you out there who live in Nebraska and want to enter SuperTech, go here!

The other day I got an interesting press release entitled: “Rocky Mountain Fleet Management Association® Endorses CAFM, CAFS Programs.” The news was of interest because we here at Fleet Maintenance actively support state and regional fleet maintenance groups like the Rocky Mountain Fleet Management Association (RMFMA), and because we are big fans of the CAFM and CAFS programs offered by the National Association of Fleet Administrators (NAFA). I was happy to see the headline because it made me think that someday every fleet maintenance council in the country may recognize these programs as the standard for fleet management education and certification, and I think this industry needs that.

We have a lot of great organizations in this industry that offer some valuable training and certification programs for fleet maintenance professionals, but to my knowledge only NAFA offers the only certification that focuses on management skills. What’s more, they have two programs: one, CAFM, for managers who want to enhance their skills, and another CAFS, for technicians who aspire to become managers. Although there are only 225 graduates of the program, there are at present 500 fleet professionals doing the coursework, and there’s no reason why those numbers shouldn’t be growing.

I encourage you to read the press release archived here on the fleetmag.com website, and go to www.nafa.org to learn more. It could be the best professional move you make all year.

Like all editors in the automotive and trucking business, I typically hear from my marketing and public relations friends at General Motors fairly regularly, but lately the giant has been eerily quiet…

I’m sure they have more important things to worry about these days. The news this week that the Obama administration had sought–and received–the removal of Rick Wagoner as CEO of GM, must have come as quite a shock to rank and file GM employees. It’s too early to say what this change might accomplish, but I think it can be argued that after 30 years at GM, Wagoner may have outstayed his welcome. Who knows, maybe it will even be worth the reported $23 million payoff Wagoner is receiving from GM to get someone new at the helm.

This past week, many of the members of the SuperTech Steering Committee traveled up to Norfolk, Neb., for the annual Nebraska Skills USA competition. I want to tip my virtual hat to the high school and college students who participated this year. There were over 40 students.

Students pursuing a career in diesel technology competed in 12 different skills stations this year. Even though these students are not professional technicians, they still attempted to tackle scenarios we would give to real-world professional technicians.

Hopefully, after a few years working as a successful technician in Nebraska, these students will have the chance to compete in a state SuperTech competition. And isn’t that our goal- to create talent from a younger age? I think we’re even creating a new recruiting and retention tool.

Again, I couldn’t be prouder of the students who took the time to compete. Many of them approached the judges afterward to learn more about things they could’ve done better. It gives me a lot of hope for these future super techs!