Truck Writers of North America has announced the top five finalists for its 2015 Technical Achievement Award, given annually to a supplier for a significant new product or service.

The group will announce the winner during an awards luncheon at the Technology & Maintenance Council’s annual meeting and equipment exhibition on March 2 in Nashville, Tenn.

The top five finalists for the latest award are:

• Detroit Assurance safety system from Daimler Trucks North America

• Eaton’s Procision 7-speed medium-duty automated manual transmission

• Meritor Wabco’s SmartTrac automatic trailer lift axle control system

• Phillips Industries’ Lite-Sentry trailer-chassis light monitoring system

• Silver Eagle Manufacturing T-Dolly adjustable trailer converter dolly

Other nominees for the 2015 award were Volvo Trucks’ Adaptive Loading 6x2 tandem-axle system; Trucker Path’s navigational assistance and load sourcing app; Thermo King’s ThermoLite solar panels; and Rotavan’s RG-3 swiveling kingpin.

Each year, members of TWNA’s Technical Achievement Award committee suggest entries and vote to choose five award finalists. Committee members are editors representing the industry’s major publications. The chairman is Jim Park, HDT’s senior equipment editor, and among its members is Tom Berg, HDT’s senior editor.

To be eligible, a product or service has to show technical innovation, have a wide applicability and availability in trucking, and offer significant benefits. Committee members discuss their nominees, rank components and systems, and then vote, all by email. 

TWNA presented its first Technical Achievement Award in 1991 to Grote Industries for its then-novel red LED marker lamp, and since has honored companies large and small. The winner of the 2014 award was Aperia Technology’s Halo automatic tire inflation system.

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 and disseminating information related to the world of trucking.