Start Up: ATDynamics
Andrew Smith and his fellow teammates from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business joined with an inventor who had discovered that a rectangular box is the least efficient shape for transport trucks to pull down the highway because it causes so much drag.
Together, they founded ATDynamics to transform the shape of tractor trailers by adding skirts to the bottom of the trailer and a sloped, collapsible trailer tail that alleviates the air suction behind the truck.
The airflow product improves fuel efficiency by 10% and pays for itself in one to two years if the truck travels at least 50,000 miles a year, Smith says.
Right now, tucking companies are voluntarily buying it to generate more profit, but Smith and his team of 10 employees landed in exactly the right place at the right time.
Starting in 2010, to comply with a mandate from the California Air Resources Board, all trucks will have to be fitted with the equipment in order to enter the state. Smith anticipates that other states will follow suit.
Photo by Advanced Transit Dynamics, Inc..
Jaclyn on April 29th, 2009 8:47 am
That is a very genius idea. I can see where just a huge rectangle shape would slow down the truck quite a bit, where as the new shape that they have created will increase air flow and thus hopefully increasing the speed and functionalbility of the truck itself.
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