At its most basic level, a work truck is a piece of equipment that helps your employees do their jobs. Since well-designed equipment enhances productivity, your objective when designing a work truck is to optimize the vehicle to achieve the best overall return for dollar spent.
Prime Inc., Springfield, Mo., has its entire fleet equipped with auxiliary power units to limit idling, with an automatic 5-minute idle shutdown timer. But its tanker fleet was experiencing significantly higher idling, because product had to be kept heated to the right temperature.
The transportation law, MAP-21, upped the financial security requirements for freight brokers and forwarders to $75,000. The law offers options for the new financial security requirement, but specifics are not always clear. With the FMCSA deadline approaching in just a week, here is some information on an option for small- to mid-size brokers and for carriers who also act as brokers.
Monarch Beverage Co. of Indianapolis is spending $16.5 million to convert its truck fleet to natural gas.
Says the butcher: “We eat what we sell.” Says Kwik-Trip: “We burn what we sell.” That’s natural gas, sold in liquefied and compressed form at 15 of the 430 retail filling stations the company operates in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.
Natural gas. Biodiesel. Dimethyl ether. Hybrid. Electric. Algae-based diesel. Hydrogen fuel cells. There’s a virtual smorgasbord of available and potential fuel sources to power medium- and heavy-duty trucks. The critical question becomes which one, or which combination of fuel sources, represent the best path for fleets, manufacturers and the industry.
There are lots or reasons not to embrace fuel-saving technology (some better than others), but validation exists for tire-pressure mitigation systems. And the payback is significant.
Diesel fuel injectors these days are incredibly complex, and that means remanufactured fuel injectors need extra scrutiny. Bosch, which supplies new and remanufactured diesel fuel injectors, recently tested remanufactured and rebuilt common rail injectors and found 70% failed the test.
Cargo Transporters, Claremont, N.C, wasn’t doing much re-occuring driver training other than a few defensive driving classes, but in 2010 decided to require six hours of either online or classroom training. It was so successful that in 2011 they increased it to eight hours, according to President Dennis Dellinger.
It’s not uncommon to find highway trucks with front axles and suspensions rated for 13,200 pounds. While 12,000-pound axles were the industry norm for many years, the move to 13,200-pound axles came with the addition of all that emissions reduction gear. Are you running a steer tire rated for that weight?
During the early years of the Great Recession, almost all trailer manufacturers experienced a sharp drop in demand for their wares. Dry bulk pneumatic trailers, however, were about to get a boon. Read more about the state of the dry bulk pneumatic trailer segment, how fracking has affected the industry, plus trailer-spec’ing tips.
Despite the per-gallon savings a fleet might enjoy with alternative fuel, the full cost of alternative fuels goes well beyond that. The Propane Education and Research Council says propane autogas offers advantages over natural gas when it comes to the fueling infrastructure.
Time is money, and that’s the essence of a front-discharge mixer. It drives right up to where concrete’s needed and, after the driver adds chute extensions, starts offloading. Terex/Advance Mixer in Fort Wayne, Ind., makes rear-discharge drums for mounting on conventional truck chassis, but its heart is in the front-discharge version that it builds all-new and as glider kits.
If you’re skeptical about the future of natural gas in trucking, meet Thomas O’Brien, president and CEO of TravelCenters of America.
Trucking companies, drivers and the general public who share the road with trucks would all benefit from an approach that treats truck driver health as an ongoing project rather than every-other-year paperwork – and the new National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners could be a step in that direction.
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