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Tinker vehicle office exploring ways to 'turn over green leaf'

  • Published
  • By Mike W. Ray
  • 72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  A battery-powered vehicle to transport people and parts needed throughout Tinker Air Force Base would improve the air quality and reduce fuel consumption, the vehicle control lead for the 76th Maintenance Support Group's Vehicle Control Office said recently.

David Davenport made that observation during a demonstration of an all-electric van.

In one building on the base, for example, "there are all kinds of components," Mr. Davenport said. "We use two Tiger trucks to make the milk run," the transporting of parts and other supplies to and from the myriad work sites in the mammoth building, which houses 62 acres of work space under one roof.

"Our mission is to support our aircraft needs, and to do this we must transport tooling and aircraft components" to many of the 460 buildings on the 5,500-acre Air Force base. "This may take several trips a day" into and out of the buildings. "We enter these buildings with combustible-engine vehicles to make these deliveries, and that is creating poor air quality from exhaust emissions, not to mention the fuel that's being consumed," Mr. Davenport said.

In addition, some of the smaller Tinker vehicles are not "street legal" and "don't have the range and capacity" of larger vehicles.

Mr. Davenport said the 76th Maintenance Wing has a fleet of 270 conventional vehicles such as pickups, vans, cranes, high-lifts, tugs, refueling trucks, sweepers, aircraft tow tractors, and forklifts (mostly gasoline-powered but a few all-electric units). The wing has 430 smaller conveyances, too, including golf carts and "industrial utility-type carts," he said. "We also have several vehicles and pieces of equipment that operate on compressed natural gas and propane," Mr. Davenport said.

"However, we do not have any full-size electric vehicles within our conventional fleet account," he said. "We believe a total-electric industrial-type vehicle could fulfill a high percentage of our transportation needs, such as aircraft components, tooling, and personnel."

According to Mr. Davenport, the U.S. Environmental Protection Acts of 1992 and 2005, and an Executive Order issued in 2007:
  • direct federal agencies to procure specific minimum levels of alternative fuel vehicles;
  • mandate the use of alternative fuels in AFVs when appropriate;
  • require increased use of alternative fuels by 10 percent a year through fiscal year 2015;
  • mandate total consumption of petroleum products to be trimmed by 2 percent annually through FY2015; and
  • require the use of plug-in hybrid vehicles when they are commercially available at a cost reasonably comparable, on the basis of life-cycle cost, to non-PIH vehicles.
"We have complied with the federal mandates within the 76th Maintenance Wing fleet," Mr. Davenport said.

At Tinker, all diesel-powered vehicles consume 100 percent bio-diesel produced from fats or oils, and all gasoline-powered vehicles that are E-85 (flex-fuel) compatible run on fuel that is about 70 percent ethanol and 30 percent petroleum-based gasoline, records reflect.

"With electric vehicles, the 76th VCO could 'turn over a green leaf' and go that extra mile to ensure that we are creating a better environment for Tinker Air Force Base and for the surrounding community," Mr. Davenport said.