IdleAire Meets With TPO
By Michael Silence, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.
Apr. 9–Knoxville-based IdleAire Technologies has 216 anti-idling devices now operating in Knox County, the company told a regional transportation group Tuesday.
Carol Doty, manager of strategic affairs for IdleAire, said the company also plans to open another anti-idling location in Jefferson County, but she gave no time frame.
IdleAire made a brief presentation to a committee of the Knoxville Transportation Planning Organization, a multijurisdictional organization that has provided $2.8 million in funding to IdleAire. The TPO coordinates regional transportation planning for the Knoxville region. Organization members include the cities of Knoxville, Alcoa, Maryville, Farragut and Lenoir City and Knox, Blount, Loudon and Sevier counties.
IdleAire officials answered a few background questions posed by TPO committee members but declined to make predictions or comments about future company performance, citing Securities and Exchange Commission restrictions while the company considers going public.
Doty noted the company now has 131 locations in 34 states, and that the devices have had more than 2.8 million visits.
IdleAire, which operates locations in Knox County at the Petro Stopping Center and Travel Centers of America locations on Watt Road at Interstate 40 and a Travel Centers of America site on I-40 at Strawberry Plains, manufactures and maintains in-cab electrification units for the long-haul trucking industry.
The units supply electricity, heat, air conditioning, Internet and satellite TV connections, on-demand movies and even educational videos through consoles that fit in truck windows for a fee. The power units allow truckers to turn off their engines, thus saving diesel fuel and reducing pollution.
Use of the devices has been slow in evolving, Doty acknowledged.
“To change drivers’ habits has been a real challenge. They are just accustomed to idling,” she told the committee.
In a report filed with the SEC last week, IdleAire said it “expects to report a net loss of approximately $93 million and revenues of approximately $37 million for fiscal year 2007, as compared to a $60 million net loss and revenues of $14 million for fiscal year 2006.”
The filing also said that “there is substantial doubt about the Registrant’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
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