David Hoover, director, outbound Logistics for Meijer, is constantly looking for ways to be more efficient, whether it's more fuel-efficient engines or eliminating empty backhauls. Meijer finished converting its 170-truck fleet of regional daycabs to the 2010 engines last fall, enjoying a 5% increase in fuel economy. Last year the fleet started trading some of those in for the latest EPA/NHTSA 2014 engines in the Freightliner Cascadia Evolution. The new trucks are showing a 12% improvement in fuel economy over the ones they replaced. Read more here.
During his first years at Frito-Lay more than 20 years ago, Mike O’Connell was focused on the warehousing end of the distribution business. About eight years ago, with the help of a talented team of engineers and others (who O’Connell is adamant about giving part of the credit for his success), he has turned the Frito-Lay fleet into a model of efficiency and sustainability and today is senior director, supply chain. Read more here.
The annual Mid-America Trucking Show is being held this week in Louisville, Kentucky. Trucking journalists and trucking enthusiasts are excited to see what's new in trucking. The day before the show kicked off, press conferences and the Fleet Forum provided plenty of pre-show information.
Truck drivers don't always get credit for the good they do. This collection of photos is from a few of the Convoy events Equipment Editor Jim Park has attended over the years. It's easy to tell from the pictures that drivers put a lot into these fundraisers. But it's more than just raising money. It's a bunch of people that often work in isolation coming together for a cause and showing the underlying sense of community that exists among drivers -- and is rarely seen in public.
Rush Truck Centers’ eighth annual Tech Skills Rodeo Dec. 15-17 drew about 550 people to San Antonio. That included 106 technicians who competed in 13 equipment categories for cash and other prizes. Most brought along wives or girlfriends. Top champ was Jason Swann, from Dallas, who received his award from Rush Chairman Rusty Rush and Nascar driver Tony Stewart. Here are some views of happenings in the convention center’s testing hall and at the banquet on Tuesday night as photographed by HDT Senior Editor Tom Berg.
Wreaths Across America, along with nearly 30,000 volunteers, placed remembrance wreaths on the headstones of more than 143,000 veterans at Arlington National Cemetery on Dec. 14. This is the organization’s 22nd year laying wreaths at our Nation’s cemetery and marks the largest number ever delivered. Across the country, 540,000 remembrance wreaths were placed in honor of veterans at 908 locations (including Arlington).
ORLANDO -- The American Trucking Associations' annual Management Conference and Exhibition began on Sunday in sunny (but very humid) Orlando, Fla. Here is a just a sampling of what’s been going on. For the latest news from the show go to www.truckinginfo.com/list/tag/ata2013.aspx and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/hdtrucking. Photos by Evan Lockridge.
World-class brakes don't happen by accident. Meritor has invested millions of dollars in its air disc brake research and development program at its Cwmbran Wales manufacturing facility. Engineers gather data from 14 testing clusters to reveal areas for potential improvement. The in-lab testing is validated by field testing. The result is an air brake that deployed around the globe is dozens of different applications. Here's a glimpse of some of the testing Meritor employs.
- Photos by Equipment Editor Jim Park
In the May 2013 issue of Heavy Duty Trucking, Editors Tom Berg and Jim Park described their experiences taking Kenworth's T880 out for a test drive. They snapped these pictures.
PSI hosted an event recently which featured a plant tour of their facility in San Antonio, Texas.
In the April issue of Heavy Duty Trucking, Equipment Editor Jim Park related his experience taking Navistar's Prostar+ with a Cummins ISX under the hood our for a Test Drive.
