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Wouldn't a truck, carrying almost twice as much weight, use almost twice as much fuel? Also, I think that (given normal combustion engines), the more power you

Wouldn't a truck, carrying almost twice as much weight, use almost twice as much fuel? Also, I think that (given normal combustion engines), the more power you try to get out of them, the worse the efficiency of the engine, so any gains you can gain from the "almost twice as much fuel" would just be lost there anyway.

Qz 17y ago
No, because the truck itself weighs several tons, which is what I mean by the overhead of the shipping mechanism. You're right that the engine efficiency does go down with increased weight, but at the same time we can't have 1 billion mini trucks running around carrying 1 soda bottle each -- there are gains and losses for every factor you try to optimize. As another example, many laundry detergent makers have started making "3x concentrated" detergent, which is basically the same number of loads as a regular jug but in a smaller bottle, and they advertise that part of the reason for it is that it reduces shipping costs. Now the weight change there wouldn't be as much because we're not talking about packing efficiency, but it's an example that reducing volume by itself does reduce shipping costs for these companies. I don't know for certain that reducing the volume by 50% will guaranteed reduce fuel costs because that's a lot of math to do, but I think it's a good guess based on the above info.
- ultrasaurus 17y ago
  My understanding was that a lot of the "benefit" of more concentrated laundry detergent was that people think it's 3x was valuable when they buy it, but they put far more than a third as much in each load -- so they buy & use more. (in this case, I'm pretty sure "them" includes me)
  - Qz 17y ago
    Oh yes I'm fully aware of that. It's more of a problem with dishwashing detergent than laundry detergent. Concentrated dishwashing detergent is a huge scam because the same amount comes out of the bottle when you squeeze it (also why I dislike hand soap pump dispensers). With laundry detergent, they have smaller caps to fill so at least if you pay attention then you won't over-use it. I've also noticed that a lot of food product vendors are turning the old 'more is cheaper' paradigm upside down. I keep running into products where the 24oz container is more expensive than two of the 12oz containers, etc. It's just like the extra large pizza scams.
- TeHCrAzY 17y ago
  Good point re. The weight of the truck, it's a huge overhead that I completely overlooked.

Qz 17y ago

No, because the truck itself weighs several tons, which is what I mean by the overhead of the shipping mechanism. You're right that the engine efficiency does go down with increased weight, but at the same time we can't have 1 billion mini trucks running around carrying 1 soda bottle each -- there are gains and losses for every factor you try to optimize. As another example, many laundry detergent makers have started making "3x concentrated" detergent, which is basically the same number of loads as a regular jug but in a smaller bottle, and they advertise that part of the reason for it is that it reduces shipping costs. Now the weight change there wouldn't be as much because we're not talking about packing efficiency, but it's an example that reducing volume by itself does reduce shipping costs for these companies. I don't know for certain that reducing the volume by 50% will guaranteed reduce fuel costs because that's a lot of math to do, but I think it's a good guess based on the above info.

ultrasaurus 17y ago
My understanding was that a lot of the "benefit" of more concentrated laundry detergent was that people think it's 3x was valuable when they buy it, but they put far more than a third as much in each load -- so they buy & use more. (in this case, I'm pretty sure "them" includes me)
- Qz 17y ago
  Oh yes I'm fully aware of that. It's more of a problem with dishwashing detergent than laundry detergent. Concentrated dishwashing detergent is a huge scam because the same amount comes out of the bottle when you squeeze it (also why I dislike hand soap pump dispensers). With laundry detergent, they have smaller caps to fill so at least if you pay attention then you won't over-use it. I've also noticed that a lot of food product vendors are turning the old 'more is cheaper' paradigm upside down. I keep running into products where the 24oz container is more expensive than two of the 12oz containers, etc. It's just like the extra large pizza scams.
TeHCrAzY 17y ago
Good point re. The weight of the truck, it's a huge overhead that I completely overlooked.