Test Drive: International’s Driver-Centric LT

The 2018 LT from International is close to 10% more fuel efficient than a 2015 ProStar, 500 pounds lighter, and much more driver-centric. Photos: Jim Park

International's new LT highway tractor may look much like the 11-year-old ProStar it replaces, but the resemblance is barely skin deep. The LT retains the signature International grille — though it's shaped differently if you look closely — but almost everything behind the grille was touched in some way by the sweeping overhaul of the company's best-selling highway truck.

The primary drivers in the reshaping exercise were increased fuel efficiency and driver appeal. “If drivers do not want to drive the trucks, fleets aren't going to buy them,” said Denny Mooney, International's senior vice president, global product development.

Designers conducted dozens of driver clinics to get feedback from folks who use the product, and a few interesting themes emerged. For one, truck drivers want a truck designed like a truck.

“Career truck drivers aren't interested in automotive designing like chrome accents and such. They want trucks designed to do a job,” said Jeff Sass, International's senior vice president, sales and marketing, when the truck was unveiled.

Feedback from drivers resulted in a review of more than 500 points of contact between the driver and the truck. The result was a cab with more elbow, hip, and leg room, along with a more ergonomic but truck-like dash layout and greatly improved mirror design. By popular demand, International even put the air horn back where it “belongs,” on a lanyard above the driver-side door.

Sass calls the LT “the most driver-centric Class 8 vehicle we've ever built.”

A very close second design priority was fuel economy. At the Las Vegas launch of the LT in fall of 2016, International's then-President Bill Kozek said the 2018 LT with an N13 engine would be 7% ...Read the rest of this story

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Commentary: Being Green Goes Beyond Low Emissions

What does it mean to say you run a “green” fleet? Is it just a matter of buying the latest trucks with hyper-compliant engines? Of spec'ing the latest in aerodynamics? It's both, of course – and much more besides.

Rolf Lockwood

Put another way, going green is not just a matter of tailpipe emissions, according to Kary Schaefer, general manager of marketing and strategy at Daimler Trucks North America. It's also about efficiency and uptime, and everything stands on three pillars: safety, connectivity, and propulsion systems. The truly green fleet is one that wastes as little as possible, in every sense.

The keynote speaker at the recent Green Truck Summit in Indianapolis, Indiana, ahead of the Work Truck Show, Schaefer cited a major fleet that used to see one in every four of its trucks involved in an accident each year. After installing advanced safety systems such as stability control and collision mitigation, that ratio became one in 19. Rear-end collisions dropped dramatically. Such gains in uptime, in productivity, make a very good business case for safety, Schaefer said.

Connectivity is a means to an end, she continued, one key result being mounds of data that offer “significant opportunities” in many operational areas. And it's not a technology restricted to highway trucks, she added. Connectivity is just as useful in the vocational world, for example in driver coaching.

The buzz around electric trucks suggests they're being seen as the ultimate in “green” trucking, but don't hold your breath. There are hurdles to leap, Schaefer said, in moving the idea forward: range, weight, cost, and charging.

Battery costs have been diminishing, she said, but could well go up as demand increases. The high cost of replacing a battery pack is another issue, and we're a long way from figuring out residual values for electric trucks.

Another ...Read the rest of this story

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Veteran Transportation Analyst Launches Website for Industry Insights

Veteran transportaiton industry analyst Noël Perry has launched his own website, Transport Futures, where he will provide his own personal insights on a variety of industry topics. Screenshot via transportfutures.net

Noël Perry, Truckstop.com's chief economist and former longtime analyst for FTR Transportation Intelligence, has launched a new website called Transport Futures that will serve as a platform to share industry insights.

A key component of Transport Futures will be Perry's blog, The Transport Navigator, which will be available through a subscription and will offer his analysis of breaking stories.

“If it moves, I'm watching it – and thinking deeply about it. I wanted a place where I could share information as soon as good data is available, allowing my readers to react to market pressures right now,” said Perry.

Perry will continue his affiliation with Truckstop.com, using the company's data in his analysis on Transport Futures. The Transport Navigator blog is an enhanced version of his long-running FTR newsletter, State of Freight, according to Perry. However, Perry is no longer associated with FTR.

Perry indicated that his new work will reflect the additional time and creative freedom he now has to devote to his analysis and will be available exclusively through Transport Futures.

“I've always been fascinated by the radical changes that have revolutionized the transportation industry,” said Perry. “My choice in naming my new site Transport Futures is a pointed reminder of that interest.”

To view Perry's website, go to www.transportfutures.net.

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