The Truck Writers of North America has announced the top five finalists for its 2016 Technical Achievement Award, including engines, a disc brake, a steel wheel, and electronic cruise control products.

TWNA will announce the winner on March 1 during an industry awards luncheon at the Technology  & Maintenance Council’s Annual Meeting & Transportation Technology Exhibition in Nashville, Tenn.  

For the first time, the annual awards is being named after Jim Winsor, a respected 50-year truck journalist and TWNA member who passed away in 2015.

This year’s five finalists for the 2016 TWNA Technical Achievement Awards are:

• Accuride EverSteel wheel with a special anti-corrosion treatment

• Cummins X15 Efficiency series diesel, whose advances to meet federal Phase 2 greenhouse gas emissions rules include an Atkinson Cycle combustion mode

• Mack and Volvo “wave” piston, part of engine upgrades to comply with new GHG regulations

• SAF-Holland P89 disc brake, a high-performance, lightweight and moderate-cost braking product

• Volvo iSee and Mack Predictive cruise control, which “learns” routes and operates a truck’s powertrain to gain maximum efficiency

Each year, the group’s award committee, comprised of trucking industry publication editors, rank items nominated by TWNA members and choose five award finalists and the eventual winner. To be eligible, a product or service from the named year must show technical innovation, have a wide applicability and availability in trucking, and offer significant operating benefits.

“It took a while for us to sort through the nominees and narrow the field to just five products,” said Jim Park, award committee chairman and Equipment Editor of Heavy Duty Trucking and Contributing Editor of Today’s Trucking. “There were some spirited discussions, but we used a scoring method in our voting that put numbers to opinions, and that got us to this point. It was all done by email.”

Other members of the award committee and their associated publications are Paul Abelson, of Land Line; John Baxter, freelance technical writer; Tom Berg, Heavy Duty Trucking and Construction Equipment; Jason Cannon, CCJ; David Kolman, Fleet Maintenance; James Menzies, Today’s Trucking; Jason Morgan, Fleet Equipment; Jack Roberts, Heavy Duty Trucking; and John G. Smith, Today’s Trucking.

Founded in 1988, TWNA is a professional organization composed of writers, editors, public relations specialists, marketing personnel and others involved in the business of creating or producing information related to the world of trucking.