ITI Offers Online Urban Driving Courses

Photo: ITI

Instructional Technologies has announced a series of online Urban Driving courses, designed to teach urban driving techniques for a variety of configurations, including light-, medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles. ITI provides training solutions for the transportation industry, including the Pro-Tread online driver training system.

Urban Driving training lays out critical points of safely managing the urban driving environment. For each vehicle configuration, the courses provide specific information about urban driving and defensive driving practices, including:

“Urban driving is one of the most challenging and stressful jobs in trucking that requires different skills than freeway driving,” said Laura McMillan, vice president of training development at ITI. “There are distinct challenges related to traffic, routes, turns and distractions. Our new Urban Driving courses were developed to arm drivers with the information they need to drive safely and effectively when these challenges exist.”

ITI makes use of an effective mastery learning training strategy, an instructional method by which the student must master each subject before moving to the next.

The online strategy is designed to improve employee safety behaviors and provide defensible proof that a student has mastered a topic. Fleets have the flexibility to use off-the-shelf Pro-Tread lessons, engage ITI's Pro-Service team to develop customized content, and use ITI's secure hosting services for their own content.

“Our customers brought the need for Urban Driving courses to us,” McMillan stated. “To reduce the likelihood of accidents, these new lessons promote safety among drivers that operate exclusively in those environments and drivers that have to transition from the relative safety of highways to city streets.”

For more information, click here.

Related: Defensive Driving Program Focuses on Distracted Drivers

Follow @HDTrucking on Twitter

Optronics Adds SuperLamp to More Lighting Options

Photo: Optronics

Optronics International plans to make LED SuperLamp technology available on a variety of lamp products, including headlamps, back-up lamps, marker/clearance lamps, and work lamps, as well as interior cab and trailer lighting.

LED SuperLamp technology had previously only been available on the company's stop/tail/turn lamps and is designed to protect lights and increase durability. SuperLamp lights are coated to resist specific chemical agents, including petroleum distillates such as coolant ethylene and coolant propylene, diesel fuel, battery fluid, brake fluid, transmission fluid, organic solvents, methanol, detergents, cleaners, and urea. The coating is applied to the entire exterior of each SuperLamp, and lenses and housings have been engineered to accept and bond with the coating.

“Lamps using Optronics' LED SuperLamp technology are currently in pilot programs with numerous OEMs and have recently been selected as standard equipment on Class 8 Peterbilt tractors,” said Brett Johnson, president and CEO of Optronics International.

The electronic circuitry inside most LED lamps is vulnerable to ambient factors such as transient voltage, electromagnetic interference, and electrostatic discharge. These conditions can occur in, on and around a vehicle.

Lamps featuring LED SuperLamp technology are not damaged by transient voltage, EMI and ESD, and because they are also designed with solid-state, surface-mount device technology, their LEDs are able to continue to function even if a lamp's circuit board is completely submerged in water.

LED SuperLamps have also been tested and have proven their ability to resist component degeneration as a result of UV exposure, flammability, vibration, temperature cycling, accelerated aging, high-velocity water spray, free-fall drops, humidity, salt fog corrosion, dust, thermal shock and gravel bombardment.

“The introduction of the LED SuperLamp and subsequent adoption of this technology is a testament to its durability, practicality, and cost-effectiveness,” said Johnson. “Moreover, it is an example of the right product at the right time, and one ...Read the rest of this story

How data can improve your fleet’s efficiency

For some, “data” can be an intimidating term. And the thought of using it for day-to-day decisions seems lofty, impractical or expensive. It's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of your business, but important that you utilize your full arsenal of tools – data is your ally, not your enemy. Data isn't just about computer servers and mobile apps. In fact, there is information right at your fingertips that can greatly improve the efficiency of your fleet.

Listen to What Your Equipment Tells You

read more

GM Offers Standard 5/100 Warranty on Gasoline Cabovers

Photo of Chevrolet Low Cab Forward courtesy of GM.

General Motors has begun offering a standard 5-year or 100,000-mile warranty with its gasoline-powered Chevrolet Low Cab Forward trucks to qualified fleet customers, which would make it the only cab-over-engine manufacturer to offer these terms without an extended warranty.

GM began offering the warranty terms with its 2016-model-year Low Cab Forward 3500 and 4500, which are powered by a GM-sourced 6.0L V-8 Vortec gasoline engine that delivers up to 297 horsepower and 372 lb.-ft. of torque through a 6-speed Allison 1000 transmission. The trucks are available in regular and crew cab models.

A qualified commercial customer must purchase five or more vehicles in the past 12 months or own or lease at least 15 vehicles in service. The fleet purchaser must also have a Fleet Account Number (FAN).

GM offers the trucks as rebadged versions of cabovers sold by Isuzu Commercial Truck of America. Isuzu offers the NPR and NPR-HD gasoline cabovers, which are powered by the same GM-sourced engine and transmission powertrain.

Isuzu offers a standard powertrain warranty of 3 years or 75,000 miles and optional 5-year of extended warranties of 100,000 or 120,000 miles.

A third cabover manufacturer, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck of America will begin offering a trio of 2019-model-year cabovers powered by the gasoline engine in early 2018, including the FE130, FE160 and FE180 under an agreement with Power Solutions International, Inc. (PSI). The manufacturer made the announcement at the Work Truck Show earlier this year, and hasn't announced the warranty it will offer on the trucks.

Hino doesn't currently offer a gasoline-powered cabover in its lineup.

Gasoline cabover warranties typically differ from diesel cabover warranties because the trucks see different usage patterns. Diesel cabovers are typically rack up higher odometer numbers in their first three years or use compared to gasoline trucks. A typical ...Read the rest of this story

Spot Truckload Posts Inch Higher, Effects of Harvey Still to Come

While Hurricane Harvey hit on Friday, Aug. 25, its effect on supply chains and spot truckload rates won't be fully reflected until a week later, according to the freight matching service provider DAT Solutions, which reported spot truckload rates were stable for the seven day period ending Aug. 26.

It reported there was a continuation of unusually high demand for truckload capacity during the week, falling just 1.8% from the week before, as the number of posted loads increased 1%, according to its load boards

Van load posts increased 6% and truck posts declined 1%; flatbed load posts declined 7% while truck posts dipped 3%; and reefer load posts increased 5% and truck posts fell 2%. Reefer volumes continue to tick up, with reefer demand being especially strong in the Upper Midwest.

Load-to-truck ratios rose 7% for vans, hitting 5.2 to 1, while reefers increased 7% to 10 to 1. The flatbed ratio fell 4% to 26.5 to 1. Of course, all this could change once the current week is in the books with relief supplies heading to the flooding zone.

National average rates were unchanged compared to the previous week, with vans at $1.78 per mile, flatbeds at $2.18 per mile and reefers at $2.07 per mile. All rates include fuel surcharges.

During this time the national average on-highway diesel price added a penny to $2.61 per gallon. Fuel prices are likely to rise more in the coming weeks because so many refineries are offline in Houston, however diesel prices have failed to spike like they did following Hurrican Katrina in 2004.

In Houston, the average outbound van rate was up a penny to $1.69 per mile, with the bulk of activity taking place before the weekend. Looking ahead, spot rates are expected to rise for loads heading into Houston and staging areas for relief ...Read the rest of this story

Driver iQ’s employment verification service available for carriers

Driver iQ announced its SingleCheck Employment Verification online service is available to motor carriers for processing all direct employment verification requests on current and past drivers.

read more

Cummins readies next-gen, future commercial power

read more