Photos: Technology & Maintenance Council Meeting
Some of the sights from the 60th annual meeting and exhibition of the Technology & Maintenance Council of the American Trucking Associations, held in Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 28-March 3, 2016.
Photo Gallery
Rush Truck Centers 10th Annual Tech Skills Rodeo
Day 1 of the Rush Truck Centers' 10th Annual Technician Skills competition featured 160 technicians and parts specialists from across the company's dealer network trying to diagnose staged bugs on trucks before the clock ran out. Most of the staged problems are electronic in nature, which requires technicans to run the appropriate troubleshooting steps and processes. More often than not, the problem has several trick dead ends that can mislead all but the best of them. Only 25 techs advanced to the finals.
TMC SuperTech 2015 in Photos
Take in some of the sights from the Technology & Maintenance Council's SuperTech 2015, held in Orlando, Fla.
2015 HDT Fact Book: Parts and Service
Meritor’s Mobile Training Van
Meritor launched its mobile training program in 2014 with two training vans designed to deliver onsite product and systems education to warehouse distributors, independent service garages, dealers and fleets in the United States and Canada. Today there are two vans in the US and one in Canada. Photos by Denise Rondini
PSI Behind the Scenes
Pressure Systems International held its annual Fleet Technology Event May 12-13 at its San Antonio, Texas, facility, where it makes the Meritor Tire Inflation System by PSI. HDT Equipment Editor Jim Park was there and got a first-hand look at how the systems are made.
2014 Rush Truck Centers Tech Skills Rodeo
The 9th Rush Truck Centers Tech Skills Rodeo in San Antonio, Texas pitted the company's top heavy and medium duty technicians against each other in trouble shooting challenges and written tests. It was an eventful couple of days with a supplier expo, exhibits from OEMs and celebrity drivers all in attendance. Photos by Steven Martinez.
Shell's New Shanghai Tech Center
Shell Lubricants opened up its newest technology center in Shanghai, China, last week to the first group of foreign journalists to tour the facility, which opened in March. The new facility will focus on Asia, the fastest-growing regional lubricants market in the world, but also will be part of a global R&D network that will impact North American lubes as well. (Read full story here.)
Shell Rotella Engine Teardown
A North Carolina fleet has been running a group of trucks on three different Shell Rotella oils -- a 15w-40, a 10w-30, and a 10w-30 that's been altered to provide a lower high-temp/high-shear number than is currently approved. A teardown of one of each after more than half a million miles shows virtually no difference in wear among the three engines. Learn more here. (By Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief.)
Inside Meritor's Parts Distribution Center
Ever wonder exactly how the parts you order get to you when you need them where you need them? Aftermarket Editor Denise Rondini recently visited Meritor's Florence, Ky., Parts Distribution Center. It handles 27 different product lines comprising 161,000 parts numbers. Each day 30 to 40 truckloads of parts and components arrive at the facility. An equal number of trucks leave the PDC each day carrying parts to dealers and independent parts distributors.
Truck Fleet Innovators: NFI's Bill Bliem
When Bill Bliem became vice president of maintenance at NFI five years ago, his first priority was to get maintenance costs under control. Then he moved on to fuel efficiency and has made great strides. Read more here.