Pete Giorgianni presented details of the SmartWay Transport Partnership programme, which has operated since 2004 in the United States, during the annual RFA Convention in the Drakensberg in May.

SmartWay is a carbon accounting system that rewards companies that reduce their fuel use and carbon emissions in their truck fleets.

Giorgianni said the needs of the freight industry in the US were changing, due to greater customer and consumer awareness of environmental issues, changing investor, lender and insurer requirements, rising, volatile energy prices and driver wages and the globalisation of supply chains.

Since 2004, SmartWay has grown to about 3 000 partners, with broad freight industry support in the US and Canada. He said that, since 2004, SmartWay partners saved 51 million metric tons of Co2, 120 million barrels of oil and 5 billion gallons of fuel.

SmartWay is said to provide a balanced approach, built on simplicity, accuracy, flexibility and transparency.