Straws: Just Like Trucks (only very different)
Starbucks announced in 2018 that it would eliminate all plastic straws. That seemed like a smart move: plastic populates our landfills and oceans and is not biodegradable. The fine print, though, showed that Starbucks would phase out those straws over the next year and a half. Sure enough: as of this past September, no more plastic straws. They do have a hybrid adult sippy cup-like strawless lid for certain drinks. Still, it’s a step forward.
Financially, better to use up inventory than, say, dump a billion plastic straws all at once.
With that in mind, we were struck by a sentence in a recent Transport Topics article, Trucking Takes Initial Steps Toward a Zero-Emission Future:
Walmart’s fleet sits in the top five of largest private carriers in North America. So, we’re seeing momentum toward that zero-emission future.
That said, why 2040 ⏤ nearly two decades from now?
We’re realistic in that the industry can’t transition immediately. Among the current challenges of electric- and hydrogen-fueled vehicles are a number of logistics issues, including fueling stations put into service strategically across the nation. That takes time.
Another possibility? The planned obsolescence of existing Class 8 fleets. A semi truck’s lifespan averages 10-15 years. Factor in sometimes huge variables, like miles driven and average weights of the loads. (Heavy haul freight is going to put much more of a strain on everything than 50 pallets of pillows in boxes.) And add to it the reliability of replacement parts. All said, trucks tend to have a fairly long shelf life, especially with so many moving parts.
The idea, we suspect, is that Walmart wants to get as much use ⏤ and, therefore, as much value ⏤ from its existing diesel fleet as possible while it transitions into that zero-emission future.