There’s another Canadian trucking company trading in diesel-powered tractors for ones powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). Sutco Contracting announced the purchase of six Kenworth tractors powered by Westport’s since-discontinued 15L LNG engine. Sutco is a small company, but thanks to an incentive program with FortisBC, it was able to put together a business case for buying costly LNG-powered trucks. President Chris Sutherland said he was pleased with the power and performance from the new trucks.

“The power is all there,” said Chris Sutherland, president of Sutco. “I’ve been driving trucks for twenty years and I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at first, but when I got behind the wheel of the demo truck I was immediately impressed with the power and knew these trucks would be successful in their designated application.”

These trucks will be deployed in Sutco’s wood residual fleet, based out of Chilliwack. It’s the first forestry fleet I’m aware of that has taken the plunge, though forestry is actually a very good application for LNG. These trucks tend to stay close to home, pull heavy weights, and put on a lot of miles. So, if you’re keeping score, Canada’s 15L LNG fleet now consists of about: 50 LNG Peterbilts in Abbotsford B.C., operated by Vedder Transport; 15 LNG Petes running LCVs for Bison in Alberta; about 125 LNG trucks from Robert Transport in Quebec; two LNG trucks from YN Gonthier in Quebec; and now six LNG-powered forestry trucks from Sutco Contracting. It’s still a small market, but a slowly growing one.