Trucking Smoothly with Soy-Based Lubricant Pads
June 19, 2024
The Soy Transportation Coalition (STC) is partnering with trucking companies to keep rigs rolling sustainably. The organization is providing free samples of soy-based Gear Head Fifth Wheel Lubricant Pads, according to Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the STC.
“Soybean oil is one of the most effective ways of displacing petroleum-based products. The classic example is fuel; biodiesel or renewable diesel,” said Steenhoek. “But when you’ve got this grease that’s on this fifth wheel, some of that’s going to fall off eventually, and given the fact that it’s 80-plus percent soy-derived, that’s another benefit to the environment.”
Indeed, the 3-inch-by-3-inch pads, about the size of a square hockey puck, are listed on USDA’s Certified Biobased Product program. Steenhoek cites a positive response from the trucking firms that were given samples of the pads. The fact that they were free notwithstanding, the pads are easy to use, they’re clean, affordable and come with the added benefit of a marketing assist for soybean farmers.
“All these companies, large or small, they have sustainability goals,” said Steenhoek, referring to over-the-road freight haulers. “They need to be able to demonstrate ‘we’re examining every aspect of our business to try to show that we’re being sustainable.’”
Steenhoek uses a summer sports analogy to single out the South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council when talking about checkoff organizations that realize the importance of modest innovations.
“There’s been a lot of soybean farmers organizations, South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council being one of them, they understand that we need a number of these new use kind of marketing opportunities that are kind of the base-hit opportunities,” he told the South Dakota Soybean Network. “You’ve got things like the China export market, that’s a home-run market. We need a number of base-hit markets that fall into that category and when you have enough base hits, you start to really produce some runs. And so we certainly have that mentality with the Soy Transportation Coalition; South Dakota Soybean, they clearly have that mindset as well.”
Numbers associated with the fifth wheel lubricant pad market potential, however, indicate the product could result in more than just a few runs batted in.
“There are about 3 million semis operating in the United States, so that’s a 60-million-pounds-of-fifth-wheel-grease market,” according to Steenhoek. “How much soy-based fifth wheel grease will displace that and penetrate that that obviously remains to be seen, but there clearly is a market. And again, it is just one more of those base-hit opportunities to really help strengthen and diversify the marketing opportunities for soybean farmers.”