Truck Writers of North America named four finalists for their 2010 Technical Achievement Award during the Technology & Maintenance Council's annual meeting in Tampa last week.
The winner will be announced next month during the Louisville truck show, TWNA says.

The four finalists are:
* HMP Thermal De-Icer from Heat Matt, designed to help remove snow and ice from trailer tops;
* Wheel Torque Solutions from Alcoa and several other companies, aimed at securing truck wheels and prevent wheel-off incidents;
* 14X Tandem Drive Axle from Meritor, for application and durability features; and
* Bose Ride System, a suspension seat that electronically cancels road vibrations.

The award finalists were recognized at TMC by veteran truck journalists Paul Abelson of Road King and Land Line magazines, and Tom Berg of Heavy Duty Trucking and Construction Equipment magazines. Both are members of TWNA's award selection committee. Other members of the committee are James
Menzies of Canada's Truck News and Truck West (chair), John Baxter of Randall-Reilly Publishing), Peter Carter of Today's Trucking, Paul Hartley of AddMedia, and Jim Park of Heavy Duty Trucking.

The review process began with judges nominating candidate products, which then were ranked according to certain criteria. The four highest scoring products became the finalists.

To be eligible, a product or service has to show technical innovation, have a wide applicability and availability in trucking, and offer significant benefits. While complete vehicles are not eligible, components and systems are.

The winner is usually announced at a TMC awards luncheon, but this time only it will be unveiled at TWNA's Industry Awards Banquet on March 31st at the Mid American Trucking Show.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Technical Achievement Award. It was first presented in 1991 to Grote Industries for its red LED marker lamp.
Grote since has provided trophies for subsequent winners.

"In 20 years as the sponsor of the trophy, we have seen the positive impact
it has had across all manufacturing sectors," said John Grote, vice president of sales and marketing. "I want to praise TWNA for highlighting worthy technical advancements and for raising industry-wide awareness of the importance of technological innovation."

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.

For more info and tickets to the TWNA awards banquet, see www.twna.org.