C.R. England has awarded a 2013 Harley-Davidson Sportster Seventy-Two to one of its company drivers for showing improvement in miles per gallon average and average idle percentage for the third quarter of 2013. Farid Nakhla won the ninth Harley-Davidson awarded quarterly to drivers in the two years England has sponsored this fuel efficiency promotion.
Nakhla has been with C.R. England since 2012 and makes his home in Bayonne, N.J. He drives a 2012 Freightliner Cascadia in England’s Intermodal Division. Originally from Egypt, he is fluent in Arabic, English, French and German.
Nakhla was able to maintain an 8.18 mile per gallon average in the 3rd quarter with an 18.18 percent idle average. His mpg is well higher than one mpg greater than his fleet and division average. He said that some of the keys to his success with fuel include assuring tires are inflated to 100 psi, never leaving his truck idling even when hooking/unhooking a trailer and using gears and acceleration properly and giving himself plenty of time to run loads at 50-55 mph.
The other finalists in the competition were David Hargreaves, Midwest Regional Division; Alan Welton, Dedicated Division; Jason Sullivan, Dedicated Division and Wes Hastie, National Over the Road Division.
The third quarter promotion, which ran from July 1 to Sept.31 and required drivers to have met the following: Availability at 75 percent or higher, an average mpg of 7.3, an idle of less than 30 percent, fuel stop compliance at 90 percent or higher and no chargeable late loads or accidents. Competition included company drivers that had a start date no later than July 1.
