“We take fuel economy seriously, so we're always looking for technologies we can take advantage of today and in the future,” said Gerry Mead, Sr., vice president of maintenance at U.S. Xpress, the Chattanooga, TN-based truckload carrier. “Last fall, for example, we hosted In-Service Fuel Testing to compare the fuel efficiency of engine-drivetrain components and help validate the decisions we make about our equipment.”
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The trucking industry has long depended on diesel engines and fuel to drive our nation's fleet of heavy-duty vehicles. However, with the tremendous strides that have been made in alternative fuels and electric vehicle technologies, including emissions reductions, price competitiveness, and fuel efficiency, we may have finally reached the turning point where diesel trucks begin to take a back seat.
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Early on in life, Gary Strausbaugh, a top expert private fleet manager and NPTC's highly respected and beloved volunteer leader, had every intention of following in his father's vocational footsteps in agriculture. He grew up on a family farm in Ohio, where his father worked full-time while his mother pursued her career as a school teacher.
Active in 4-H, Gary raised hogs for county fair competitions, worked part-time in a feed mill, and later enrolled in Ohio State University's Agricultural School majoring in animal science.
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Deadlines make life interesting. Just ask the editor of Fleet Owner, who religiously informs me of my monthly cutoff date to get this column in. Quite obviously, I always want to write about something suitable, important to the industry, and at times, relate the position of the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) on the issue if it proves to be a pertinent point.
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I live roughly 28 miles from the Fleet Owner office. On a good day, it takes me between an hour and an hour-and-a-half to get to work. But good days are hard to come by.
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...Read the rest of this storyDaseke, a consolidator and owner of flatbed and specialized transportation and logistics solutions in North America, has announced a merger that adds The Steelman Companies to its family.
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All sorts of technological changes are occurring to commercial vehicles large and small these days—to the point where a variety of them are actually driving themselves, no human hands on the wheel required.
While self-driving trucks (at this point at least) still remain something of a future endeavor, other new technologies enjoy broader usage across the industry, especially in terms of safety: blind spot detection, collision mitigation, automatic emergency braking, and electronic stability control, to name a few.
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