The rhythmic hum of a diesel engine has long been the heartbeat of the North American supply chain. But lately, that heartbeat sounds a lot more like a ticking financial time bomb. Walk up to any fuel pump in Ontario, and the numbers staring back at you are brutal. Retail diesel prices have blown past the $2-a-liter mark, leaving fleet owners watching their profit margins evaporate into thin air.
Yet, inside the headquarters of Minimax Express, the mood this week was remarkably upbeat.
The company just welcomed three brand-new Freightliner Cascadia trucks to its fleet. Look closely at the back of the cabs, though, and you won’t find standard diesel tanks. Instead, these rigs are packed with high-capacity compressed natural gas (CNG) cylinders.
“With the price of diesel right now, we look pretty smart,” quipped Yves Poirier, president of Minimax Express.
It is a well-timed victory for a company that refused to give up on alternative fuels, even when its first attempt fell flat. As geopolitical tensions ripple across the globe and fuel markets swing wildly, Minimax is proving that going green isn’t just an environmental statement anymore. It is a shrewd, defensive business strategy that keeps goods moving while keeping costs down.
The Road Back from a Failed First Attempt
This isn’t the company’s first time experimenting with alternative fuels. Minimax has actually had its eye on the natural gas space for a long time. Years ago, they dipped their toes into the market using a 15-liter liquefied natural gas (LNG) engine developed by Westport.
To put it mildly, it didn’t go well.
“We did dip our toes in natural gas years ago with LNG and Westport and that didn’t work out very well,” Yves Poirier acknowledged. The technology just wasn’t ready for prime time, and the engine was eventually discontinued.
That failure left a massive void in the Canadian trucking landscape. Cummins tried to step in with a 12-liter engine called the ISX12N, but for many Canadian fleets, it just didn’t have the muscle. Trucking in Canada isn’t like highway cruising in the flatlands of the American Midwest. Between heavy payloads and grueling winter terrain, Canadian carriers needed a heavyweight champion.
Enter the Cummins X15N. This 15-liter natural gas engine promised to deliver the exact same torque, power, and rugged performance as a traditional diesel engine, without the massive carbon footprint or the volatile price tag.
Minimax decided to take a calculated risk, putting their very first X15N-powered rig on the road in January 2025. The gamble paid off immediately. The truck handled the roads beautifully, proving that natural gas could finally stand toe-to-toe with diesel performance.
When the Stars Align: Subsidies and Soaring Costs
Sometimes in business, timing is everything. Just as Minimax was realizing the X15N engine was the real deal, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) rolled out Stream 2 of its Green Freight Program. The initiative was designed to inject serious cash incentives into the transportation sector to help fleets buy cleaner-burning trucks.
Suddenly, a perfect storm of market forces came together:
Diesel prices were skyrocketing past historic highs.
The federal government was offering lucrative financial incentives.
A highly capable, heavy-duty engine was finally available.
Corporate shippers were putting immense pressure on carriers to clean up their supply chains.
Recognizing the golden opportunity, Minimax manager Richard Poirier teamed up with FPInnovations’ PIT Group, a technical organization specializing in testing and evaluating commercial vehicle technologies. Together, they analyzed the data, built a rock-solid business use case, and successfully secured federal funding to add five more CNG-fueled trucks to their lineup.
The first wave of those new trucks has already hit the pavement, operating out of Drummondville, Quebec. The location is strategic. Drummondville features a dedicated CNG fueling station that pumps renewable natural gas (RNG). This is a critical detail because the Canadian government’s subsidy program requires participating fleets to fill up with at least 1% renewable gas.
Sourcing RNG in Ontario can still be tricky, but Minimax is already ahead of the curve. The company is actively negotiating with a business in the Cornwall, Ontario area that is building a brand-new biodigester. Once fully operational, this facility will supply 100% pure RNG. The three newest Freightliners will be stationed right there in Cornwall, dedicated to serving a local customer who has been aggressively pushing for more sustainable freight options.
The Hard Math Behind the Switch
Let’s talk numbers, because beautiful trucks mean nothing if they break the bank. Buying a natural gas truck isn’t cheap. In fact, these rigs carry a steep premium, costing about $125,000 more per vehicle than a standard diesel equivalent.
That is where the federal subsidies become a massive game-changer. With the government offsetting a chunk of that upfront cost, Yves Poirier expects to fully recover the extra investment in just two years. If diesel prices stay at their current inflated rates, that payback period drops even lower.
But even if the government funding completely disappeared tomorrow, Minimax insists the financial math still works. In normal economic times, natural gas runs about 20% to 30% cheaper than diesel. Right now, the gap is a mile wide.
Currently, the fleet pays roughly $1.10 per kilogram for an 8% RNG fuel blend. When you convert that into diesel-equivalent terms, it works out to a mind-blowing 81 cents per liter.
“I think there’s a business case, even with no subsidies, on these trucks,” Yves Poirier said.
Fuel Cost Comparison (Diesel Equivalent)
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Natural Gas (CNG): $0.81 / Liter │
├──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Current Diesel: $2.00+ / Liter │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
Beyond the pump, these trucks offer a hidden asset: their fuel tanks. Sourced from Hexagon Agility, the lightweight composite tanks are engineered to be incredibly durable. In fact, they are built to last through the lifecycles of two separate trucks.
Ian MacDonald, senior vice president of sales for the Americas at Hexagon Agility, explained that when the first truck is ready to be retired, the tanks simply come off, get a quick software update and a fresh coat of paint, and get bolted right onto a brand-new chassis. That slashes the replacement cost of the next vehicle significantly.
What Drivers and Mechanics Think
It is one thing for executives in boardroom meetings to praise a new technology, but how do the people who actually use the equipment feel?
According to Marc Poirier, vice president of Minimax, the driver feedback has been nothing short of rave reviews.
“I’ve heard it’s quieter, has more torque, and more power,” he said. Drivers who were initially skeptical about losing highway performance have been pleasantly surprised. They are also incredibly impressed by the range. One Minimax driver reported squeezing up to 1,500 kilometers out of a single fill-up, effectively erasing any lingering “range anxiety.”
The fueling process itself is a breeze, taking about 12 minutes—practically identical to standard diesel fueling times. There is plenty of infrastructure too, with enough public stations dotting the busy Highway 401 corridor from Quebec all the way to Windsor, Ontario. Plus, a new public station is opening right in Minimax’s backyard in Cornwall later this year.
Over in the maintenance shop, head mechanic Rolly St-Denis is smiling widely. The company purchased the trucks through Globocam sales representative Dave Savard, and while the dealership is handling early maintenance, Minimax is already upgrading its own shops to bring the repair work in-house.
Technicians are eager to get trained on the new systems, particularly for one satisfying reason: the total elimination of traditional diesel exhaust aftertreatment systems.
Natural gas burns so cleanly that it doesn’t require the notoriously finicky diesel particulate filters (DPF) or selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems that constantly plague modern diesel operations with costly breakdowns. “That’s going to be a big bonus,” St-Denis laughed.
Pros vs. Cons of the Switch to CNG
┌──────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Pros │ Cons │
├──────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Fuel costs cut by over 50% │ $125,000 higher upfront vehicle cost │
│ No complex DPF/SCR exhaust systems │ Adds ~2,000 lbs of vehicle weight │
│ Massive reduction in CO2 emissions │ Requires specialized shop upgrades │
└──────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────┘
There is one minor compromise to note: weight. Hexagon’s fuel tanks weigh about 2,000 pounds when empty and 3,600 pounds when completely full. However, because the natural gas engine itself is slightly lighter and lacks a bulky exhaust system, the net weight penalty sits at around 2,000 pounds.
For cross-border routes, this isn’t an issue at all. U.S. federal highways offer a specific 2,000-pound weight exemption for clean-energy commercial vehicles, neutralizing the payload penalty.
Why Electric Rigs Were Left in the Cold
You might wonder why a forward-thinking fleet like Minimax didn’t skip natural gas entirely and leap straight into battery-electric vehicles (BEVs). It is a question the executive team looked at very closely. They did their homework on electric semis, but the reality of Canadian geography quickly killed the idea.
“When I learned that in the winter, we’re going to lose 30-40% of our range, I just kind of gave up,” Yves Poirier recalled. “Because for our application, it wouldn’t work.”
Freezing Canadian winters are notoriously brutal on lithium-ion batteries. Losing nearly half your driving range when the thermometer drops isn’t just an inconvenience in the logistics world—it is an operational catastrophe that ruins delivery schedules. For a less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier like Minimax, which has run regional routes across Ontario and Quebec since 1991, reliability is everything. CNG offered a predictable, weather-resistant path to decarbonization that electric trucks simply couldn’t match.
The Real-World Impact: Why This Story Matters
Founded over three decades ago, Minimax has grown to operate roughly 170 trucks and 250 trailers across six regional hubs. They aren’t a massive multi-national conglomerate with infinite money to burn on experimental corporate vanity projects. They are a practical, family-run regional carrier. And that is exactly why their successful pivot to natural gas matters so much to the rest of the industry.
It proves that sustainability is no longer a luxury item or a compliance chore. Shippers are changing how they award contracts. “I feel like now, when you look at an RFP (request for proposal) or when you talk to a shipper, it’s a bit more prevalent than it was five years ago,” Yves Poirier explained.
After completing a grueling 100-hour EcoVadis sustainability audit, the company realized it had a massive opportunity to shrink its environmental footprint. Today, they hire an independent third-party firm to meticulously track their carbon reduction data so they can hand verified proof directly to their eco-conscious corporate clients.
The environmental payoff is substantial. Early data assessments reveal that just the first six CNG trucks in Minimax’s fleet will collectively eliminate a staggering 222 tons of $CO_2$ emissions every single year.
As the logistics industry stands at a historical crossroads, Minimax’s journey offers a powerful lesson to businesses everywhere. You don’t have to wait for a flawless, futuristic utopia of zero-emission electric infrastructure to start making a difference. By leveraging practical, existing technologies like the Cummins X15N engine and renewable gas, fleets can protect their bottom lines from volatile oil markets right now, proving that doing the right thing for the planet is also the best thing for business.
