Cargo control system maker Kinedyne LLC noted that many of its latest products are going to be particularly well-tuned to dealing with the demands of e-commerce, according to Paul Wolford, the company's vice president of sales and marketing.
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...Read the rest of this storyDustin Lancy, marketing manager for the Goodyear's commercial tire division, said that a proprietary poll of 590 fleets is helping focus the company on the key “must have” attributes of truck tires – and the top one is long miles to removal.
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...Read the rest of this storyTires are a major pain point for motor carriers, representing one of their top three operating costs, right after driver wages/benefits and fuel.
They can also represent a major safety issues as well: out of the 40,944 Level I inspections conducted on commercial vehicles during the annual 72-hour Roadcheck International roadside inspection blitz this year, 9,398 of them were placed out of service, with 15.1% of those violations directly related to tire and wheel problems.
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...Read the rest of this storyMedia out in force at Volvo press conference at the NACV Show. Photo: Evan Lockridge
">Media out in force at Volvo press conference at the NACV Show. Photo: Evan Lockridge
">ATLANTA. The numbers are not all in yet, but given preliminary figures and his own expert sense of how shows go, one of the organizers of the North American Commercial Vehicle Show was ready to declare it a solid success at the end of the third of its four-day inaugural run here at the Georgia World Congress Center.
In a Sept. 27 interview with HDT, Larry Turner, president and CEO of Chicago-based Hannover Fairs USA, said that he “wasn't surprised” that the show floor seemed “settled down” by that mid-afternoon. He attributed that to the “ebb and flow” of attendees into different areas of the exhibit hall. “There are a lot of folks concentrated in some of the larger booths, including where cafes are set up, and that impacts the flow of attendees and the look of the show floor.”
While show management won't release its final attendance figures until next Monday, Turner said that they're looking to come in at around 10,000 attendees. “That's not including roughly 5,000 exhibitor personnel and 243 members of the media.” He noted that some 20% of the attendees have been “walk-up registrations, including more today,” which suggests word of the new show is still getting out.
Turner pointed out that the NACV Show was “never attended for 50,000 people.” He said it is “not open to the public.” Rather, its primary registration effort was focused on attracting attendees who “own five or more trucks with [individual] owner-operators welcome as well. The vast majority of attendees are from private and public fleets. We were not looking to compete with the Mid America Trucking Show,” he added. “They have their [own niche] and we think we can coexist.”
He also said that registration had ...Read the rest of this story
ATLANTA — Dana has launched the SPL 250 Lite driveshaft at the North American Commercial Vehicle show in Atlanta, designed to be a lightweight option for most configurations of heavy-duty commercial vehicles.
The SPL 250 Lite can handle torque ratings up to 18,439 lb.-ft. and is up to 25 pounds lighter than competitive products, according to Dana. It has also been engineered for reduced noise, vibration and harshness levels, improved performance, and improved vehicle dynamics without compromising strength.
"The lower numeric axle ratios required to support engine downspeeding and improve fuel efficiency can cause significant stress to the drivetrain and alter harmonics in driveline components," said Mark Wallace, executive vice president of Dana and president of Dana Commercial Driveline Technologies. "Excessive vibration leads to unplanned downtime and driver fatigue on the road. The SPL 250 Lite driveshaft leverages proprietary precision manufacturing methods that ensure no NVH issues while delivering a smooth ride. It also reduces weight without sacrificing performance or durability."
The SPL 250 Lite driveshaft widens the range of applications supported by an updated family of lightweight, durable driveshaft products and expands on the launch of the SPL 350 Lite driveshaft earlier this year.
Designed with fewer components to reduce weight and enable faster, easier installation by OEMs, the driveshafts in this series feature extended component life and reduced maintenance. They also share service components with their existing SPL 350 and SPL 250 driveshaft counterparts to increase ease of service and simplify inventory for truck owners and service facilities.
Spicer D-Series Steer Axles with Integrated Air Disc BrakesDana also announced the addition of an aluminum hub option on Spicer D-Series steer axles with a 14,600-pound gross axle weight rating (GAWR). This new product expands the previously released 10,000-pound GAWR range to 13,200 pounds with aluminum hubs, and introduces a ...Read the rest of this story
Photos: Bendix
">Photos: Bendix
">ATLANTA — Bendix made a series of feature announcements at the North American Commercial Vehicle show in Atlanta, touting a series of safety-focused driver assistance and component enhancements available now and in the near future.
Bendix showed a new feature intended to automatically prevent rollaway called Intellipark. The automatic braking technology replaces the manual air parking brake with electronic switches that will automatically set the parking brake if the driver exits the vehicle without setting the parking brake.
With sensors that monitor the driver seat, seat belt, or cab door, the system will detect if a driver leaves the vehicle without engaging the parking brake and will automatically set it to prevent a dangerous or costly vehicle rollback.
“Rollaway incidents can be terribly damaging – if not deadly – and come at great cost to fleets in terms of money, resources, and reputation,” said Fred Andersky, Bendix director of customer solutions, controls. “And all because the parking brake didn't get set properly or was released accidentally. Automatic parking brake technology can help make these kinds of accidents – and their repercussions – a thing of the past.”
The Intellipark system is expected to enter fleet trials in 2018.
EnduraSure Spring Brake LineThe company has also announced the launch of the Bendix EnduraSure Spring Brake line, which includes an improved version of its standard chamber, and the addition of a new sealed, professional-grade model.
The new series offers even improved durability and performance in its standard EnduraSure product, while now giving fleets and owner-operators a premium option, the EnduraSure-Pro.
The new models, double-diaphragm chambers for foundation drum brakes, are now in production. They were designed to meet all SAE requirements for force output while meeting stroke and clevis combination needs. The EnduraSure series is produced by BSFB, a joint venture of Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems and Dana ...Read the rest of this story
Persio Lisboa talks to suppliers about the need to be leaders in technology to improve trucking productivity.
" >Persio Lisboa talks to suppliers about the need to be leaders in technology to improve trucking productivity.
" width="300" height="300">ATLANTA – Amidst a show where major topics of conversation included electrification of commercial vehicles and the path to autonomous trucks, one industry exec said the digital supply chain will be the next big breakthrough in trucking productivity.
Speaking to an audience of suppliers at the Heavy Duty Manufacturers Association Breakfast and Briefing at the inaugural North American Commercial Vehicle Show, Persio Lisboa, executive vice president and COO of Navistar International, predicted that data and analytics will drive advances in trucking industry productivity while imposing increasingly stringent design requirements for truck and component reliability.
The supply chain is changing rapidly, he noted, thanks in large part to the growth of e-commerce. “Customers' expectation are totally different today than they were five years ago; 48 hour delivery is starting to sound like a terribly long time.”
However, he said, this incredibly fast and efficient delivery system has a very inefficient back end. For every truckload of products that hit the front door of a customer, there are four other equivalent loads taking place to manage returns, transfers between PDCs, etc., he said – “an efficient system maintained by an inefficient supply chain.”
And who is paying for those inefficiencies? It's not the end consumer, he said, and it's not Amazon. Which means those in the supply chain are likely footing the bill.
Those inefficiencies are hardly news to fleets. As one customer told Navistar, “We don't need more drivers, we need more time driving." Large carriers typically report that drivers are only actually driving about 6.5 hours out of their 11 hours of available driving time. The rest is wasted on things like waiting to load and unload.
“The only answer that makes any sense is we need to ...Read the rest of this story
