Nov. 29, 2007 SC Johnson saved 1,800 tons of greenhouse gas emissions and $1.6 million over the past year by packing more product into each truck shipment.

These are the first-year results of SC Johnson's Truckload Utilization Project, which examined new ways to load the fullest, best-configured trucks possible. The company found that different weights and sizes of various products have a significant effect on how a truck should be packed for maximum efficiency. For example, a truck filled with cartons of plastic bags weighs far less than one carrying pallets of glass cleaner, which will hit the maximum weight for a vehicle before filling the trailer.

SC Johnson now packs multiple products in the same load so it can ship the same amount of product using fewer trucks. The company also tweaked its customer incentive program to encourage single-layer orders of product. This cuts the total number of pallets in each truck, further reducing vehicle weight and enabling more product to be loaded onto the trailer.

The company also improved shipping efficiency by using "day cabs" truck cabs with no sleeping compartment for the driver. The lighter day cabs allow more product to be loaded into the truck's trailer before the vehicle's maximum weight is reached. SC Johnson now uses day cabs for all shipments that can be completed in one work day.

"Loading a truck may seem simple, but making sure that a truck is truly 'full' is a science," says Pat Penman, SC Johnson's director of global environmental and safety actions. "Focusing on consistently hitting a trailer's maximum weight provided a huge opportunity to reduce our energy consumption, cut our greenhouse gas emissions and save money. It illustrates how innovation can drive prosperity and responsibility."