The American Trucking Associations' Technology & Maintenance Council has created nine new task forces that will meet for the first time at TMC's 2012 Fall Meeting, Sept. 10-13 in Pittsburgh, covering topics such as tires, corrosion, CSA and visibility.


The new task forces include:

Total Cost of Tire Ownership. This task force will develop a recommended practice addressing how to determine the total cost of tire ownership.

Underinflation Guidelines for CSA. This task force will develop a recommended practice for establishing the definition of an underinflated tire for use by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's CSA enforcement program.

Corrosion of Engine and Underhood Components. This task force will develop a recommended practice pertaining to preventing and/or minimizing corrosion of engine and underhood components.

Evaluating Reusable Filters. This task force will develop a recommended practice on evaluating reusable filter media for various engine filtration applications.

Universal Downtime Tracking. This task force will develop guidelines for tracking downtime for commercial vehicles.

RP 634 Update (Ride Height Adjustment). This task force is updating RP 634 on ride height adjustment procedures.

RP 643 Update (Air Ride Suspension Maintenance). This task force is updating RP 643 on air-ride suspension maintenance.

Vehicle Alternative Fuels Identification Symbols. This task force will develop recommendations for identification symbols for alternative fuels used with commercial vehicles.

360-degree Visibility. This task force will challenge industry to declare advanced technology development plans capable of achieving 360-degree driver visibility using standard measurement techniques and objectives defined in TMC RP 428 and SAE J1750. This will help eliminate blind spots and poor visibility often encountered by drivers of tractor-trailers.