The Road to 8,000
By Slade Williams, Senior Fleet Operations Manager
A friend remarked recently that I seemed as if a massive weight had been removed from my shoulders. And, in many ways, he was right.
I work in AT&T’s Fleet Operations, where my team and I are responsible for achieving the company’s ten year goal of deploying approximately 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) by year-end 2018. Part of that goal included deploying 8,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles. Today, we revealed we met that goal, amassing one of the largest corporate CNG fleets in the country.
It wasn’t easy to get here, and we are celebrating each person at AT&T who contributed to meeting this milestone. Over the last few years, many dedicated people put in the hours to match the right vehicle with the right business unit in the right location to push us further down the path to putting the keys in the ignition of that 8,000th vehicle.
The placement of these 8,000 vehicles has positive impacts for both our business and the environment.
Through our CNG program, AT&T avoided the purchase of 11.4 million gallons of unleaded fuel through 2013. On the business side, cost savings on a cost-per-gallon basis consistently remained in the 30-40 percent range, as compared to unleaded fuel. This lower cost of fuel translates into millions of dollars per year in savings for AT&T. On the environmental side, natural gas burns cleaner than conventional gasoline and diesel due to its lower carbon content.
It feels good to know that the work I did with my team had – and continues to have – a direct and positive impact on these core aspects of AT&T’s business and the world around us.
As people across AT&T’s fleet operations gather today to celebrate reaching this milestone, I feel the sense of pride and relief that comes from completing such a monumental effort. Tomorrow? Tomorrow we get right back to work as we forge ahead on our road to deploying 15,000 AFVs.
