TORONTO, Ont. — FlowBelow Aero, a maker of aerodynamic wheel covers and fairings, today announced its first major deal with a Canadian fleet.

After extensive testing, Groupe Trans-West announced it will be adding the devices to its entire fleet of 180 tractors. The wheel covers and fairings direct air away from underneath the cab and towards the trailer side fairings. FlowBelow claims fuel savings of 2.25%. Groupe Trans-West had PIT test the device and the fuel savings were in the ballpark of what was promised.

The company then deployed the device on 20 tractors and ran them over the winter to ensure there’d be no reliability issues. Those trucks achieved fuel savings of more than 2%, enough to provide a one-year payback and to make the investment across the entire fleet, Andre Boisvert, vice-president of technology and development at Groupe Trans-West revealed during an interview at Truck World.

The kits take about an hour to install.

“For any fuel-saving technology that we consider, we first look to see if the device has been tested by the PIT Group,” said Boisvert. “Since the group had not tested the device before, we coordinated with them to run the test.  We were pleasantly surprised when the fuel savings results from the third party testing we did were aligned with the fuel savings that FlowBelow claimed, which helped to make the decision to retrofit our entire fleet an easy one.”

FlowBelow currently has 15,000 units deployed in the US across 500 fleets. It recently announced Daimler Trucks North America is now offering the kits as a factory-installed option

“Groupe Trans-West is an award winning Canadian fleet and industry leader in fuel efficiency and technology adoption,” said Josh Butler, president of FlowBelow Aero. “We look forward to expanding our presence in Canada and project that wide-spread adoption of the FlowBelow Tractor AeroKit would save the Canadian trucking industry over 100 million gallons of fuel over the next decade, significantly decreasing transportation costs as well as the emissions impact of trucking on the environment.”

Butler said he’s considering establishing a Canadian distribution network. Currently, it ships its product direct to Canadian customers.