March 24, 2011
It was cool but bright the day before ConExpo opened in Las Vegas, and there, gleaming in the sun like a big piece of pewter, was a side-dump trailer whose steel underframe was completely galvanized
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Thursday, March 24, 2011 7:32 PM | » Comments(0)
March 16, 2011
Most truckers are good guys and good citizens who appreciate law and order.
Their tractor-trailers make good road blocks, and drivers have been known to deploy them to help police officers capture criminals on the run
Tags: safety
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Wednesday, March 16, 2011 10:30 PM | » Comments(0)
February 25, 2011
Most trailers used for product promotion are vans whose broad sides become rolling billboards for truck components of some kind or other. But here we have an end-dump trailer whose message is aimed at construction guys
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Friday, February 25, 2011 11:26 AM | » Comments(0)
February 8, 2011
A second generation load decking system from Ancra International is adding 10 to 30 percent to payloads while reducing damage claims by as much as 50 percent for Con-way Freight, a carrier representative said
Tags: Dry Vans
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, February 8, 2011 8:11 PM | » Comments(1)
February 6, 2011
Every so often I see one of these odd, squarish trailers being pulled down an interstate and wonder, "What are those things?" Last fall, while driving down U.S. 23 near Toledo, I spotted a pair parked in a lot and swung around to check 'em out
Tags: Specialty
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Sunday, February 6, 2011 2:47 PM | » Comments(0)
February 6, 2011
We've just heard of a website that displays incidents of freight spilled from tractor-trailers onto highways
Tags: safety
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Sunday, February 6, 2011 12:00 AM | » Comments(0)
January 25, 2011
Last week we got a press release from Titan Trailers that described a customer's use of wood-chip transporters in the woods and roads of Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Tags: Specialty
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, January 25, 2011 11:59 AM | » Comments(0)
January 5, 2011
Imagine that you banged up your car and you've sent it to the factory for fixing. You can't do that, but if you own a dump or flatbed trailer, you can
Tags: Maintenance
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Wednesday, January 5, 2011 9:25 AM | » Comments(0)
December 13, 2010
The domestic refrigerated containers used by C.R. England in its award-winning TempStack intermodal operation enter service only after a long journey from Asia to the American Midwest. And their typical hauls are likewise lengthy
Tags: Reefers
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Monday, December 13, 2010 7:03 AM | » Comments(4)
December 7, 2010
Long-hauling of perishable commodities by rail using advanced temperature-controlled 53-foot containers last year saved C.R. England more than 3.5 million gallons of fuel compared to over-the-road operations. For that, the carrier won Thermo King's Energy Efficiency Leader Award, with a ceremony set for today
Tags: Reefers
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, December 7, 2010 8:30 AM | » Comments(0)
November 30, 2010
New commercial trailer registrations for the first nine months of the year were up 42 percent compared to the same period last year, according to Polk's quarterly Commercial Vehicle Market Intelligence Report
Tags: Trends
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, November 30, 2010 12:02 PM | » Comments(0)
November 12, 2010
A couple of new, sophisticated trailer aero add-ons were on display caddy-corner to each other on the show floor at the recent American Trucking Associations management conference and exhibition
Tags: fuel economy
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Friday, November 12, 2010 6:19 AM | » Comments(1)
November 3, 2010
It's been 72 years since Fredrick McKinley Jones devised what is claimed to have been the first successful mechanical refrigeration system for truck-trailers, and his story goes beyond invention
Tags: Reefers
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Wednesday, November 3, 2010 6:27 AM | » Comments(0)
October 27, 2010
Reader John M. King Jr. sent us this description and photos of the hauling of a massive load in the Carolinas. The contractor employed a pair of "multi-line" platform trailers from Mommoet in Holland, with each line being a row of hydraulically suspended and steered wheels
Tags: Specialty
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Wednesday, October 27, 2010 12:26 PM | » Comments(2)
October 18, 2010
Trailer merchants listened to good news about their immediate business prospects from forecaster Eric Starks, who predicted steady sales increases into 2011 and through '12 and '13, though he observed that a dismal 2009 will make percentages larger and better than actual production numbers
Tags: Dry Vans
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Monday, October 18, 2010 9:43 PM | » Comments(1)
October 10, 2010
'Tis the most glorious time of year, when the air turns cool and crisp, tree leaves turn red, gold and yellow, and trucks and tractor-trailers begin working with cutters and threshers to bring in the harvest
Tags: Specialty
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Sunday, October 10, 2010 2:57 PM | » Comments(0)
September 28, 2010
Converter dollies have been around so long that you'd think every one on the road is built about as correctly as can be. But some lack handles that drivers can grasp to lift dollies' front ends, and those might also be the ones that don't have enough counterbalancing weight
Tags: Specialty
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, September 28, 2010 8:24 PM | » Comments(0)
September 19, 2010
Vanguard Trailer's president, Charlie Mudd, agrees with industry economists in repeating sales forecasts of 90,000 dry vans for 2011 and 120,000 for 2012.
Tags: Trends
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Sunday, September 19, 2010 11:57 AM | » Comments(0)
September 15, 2010
Mesilla Valley Transportation, known for its efforts at saving fuel, is equipping its entire fleet of 3,500 long-haul trailers with side skirts and a folding boat tail that together claim an economy betterment of almost 12 percent at highway speeds
Tags: fuel economy
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Wednesday, September 15, 2010 8:31 AM | » Comments(0)
September 9, 2010
With more freight moving as the economy revives, fleets are pulling dormant trailers away from fences and putting them into service. But those trailers probably sat through at least one harsh winter and summer, and maintenance on them may have been neglected.
Tags: Maintenance
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Thursday, September 9, 2010 7:17 AM | » Comments(0)
August 31, 2010
Some truck owners have begun buying trailer side skirts because they need them to legally run in California
Tags: fuel economy
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, August 31, 2010 2:49 PM | » Comments(1)
August 20, 2010
After several years of testing showed trailer side skirts save considerable fuel and therefore cut exhaust emissions from tractors that pull them, Interstate Distributor Co. has begun installing them on 2,058 reefers and dry vans at its maintenance facilities in the Pacific Northwest
Tags: fuel economy
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Friday, August 20, 2010 8:20 AM | » Comments(0)
August 10, 2010
It takes people and equipment to put together ATA's National Truck Driving Championships each year, and on both sides there are some unusual linkups. Some drivers compete in vehicle classes they don't normally work in, and some tractors pull trailers they don't normally touch
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, August 10, 2010 12:20 PM | » Comments(0)
August 5, 2010
A short video now making the rounds of truck folks' e-mail boxes shows a huge and heavy steel I-beam girder, and the trailer dollies it's on, falling over in a freeway curve
Tags: safety
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Thursday, August 5, 2010 7:57 AM | » Comments(2)
July 27, 2010
Fifty-three feet became the predominant length for vans and temperature-controlled trailers by the end of the 1990s, when they replaced 48-footers in most fleets. But while shippers demand 53s, their full volume is seldom used
Tags: Trends
Author: Tom Berg | Posted @ Tuesday, July 27, 2010 9:24 AM | » Comments(0)