SmartTruck announced the appointment of John Brown as vice president of sales and marketing. In this role, Brown will lead the company's drive to establish and maintain its position as the trucking industry's innovative leader in fuel-saving aerodynamic systems. He will be responsible for managing all marketing and sales activities, including expanding marketplace awareness and new customer development.
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...Read the rest of this storyINDIANAPOLIS. This week at the Work Truck Show, Alliance AutoGas conversion techs took attendees through a step-by-step live conversion of a 2017 F-250. The conversion features Alliance AutoGas' EPA and NFPA 58 compliant Engineered Fuel System featuring a “plug and play” single plug wiring connector.
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...Read the rest of this storyJacobs Vehicle Systems announced the launch of a compression release engine brake for the International A26 engine.
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...Read the rest of this storyINDIANAPOLIS. Truck Bodies & Equipment International (TBEI), which is a holding company for six dump truck body and trailer equipment manufacturers, showcased a host of different products at the 2017 National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA) Work Truck Show.
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...Read the rest of this storyScreenshot via Nvidia
">Screenshot via Nvidia
">Paccar has announced is teaming up with American technology company Nvidia to develop an autonomous vehicle solution.
The collaboration represents the latest such effort for a technology company to enter the self-driving truck market that also includes entries from Google, Uber, and several startups.
Nvidia is known for making graphics processing units for the PC gaming market and as a chip maker for mobile computing. With Paccar, the two companies developed a proof-of-concept self-driving truck with Level 4 capability built on the Nvidia Drive PX 2 technology. Level 4 capability is defined as a system that completely drives itself.
The collaboration was announced by Nvidia founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang at the Bosch Connected World conference in Berlin, Germany. At the conference, Huang showed a video of the Paccar self-driving concept on a closed course, handling a wide range of situations without a driver.
The Nvidia Drive PX 2 is an artificial intelligence car computing platform that designed to examine in real time what is happening around a vehicle, locate itself on a map and plot a safe path based on this information. The technology combines sensors, cameras, and deep computer learning.
Related: New Autonomous Startups Have Different Takes on Self-Driving Tech
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...Read the rest of this storyOne ELD provider, Eroad, is using a third-party verification program to help give customers peace of mind. Photo: Eroad
">One ELD provider, Eroad, is using a third-party verification program to help give customers peace of mind. Photo: Eroad
">If you see an announcement that an electronic logging device has been “FMCSA certified” to meet the new mandatory ELD regulations that go into effect Dec. 17, you might assume that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has performed some sort of testing to verify that that the ELD does in fact comply with those regulations.
That assumption would be wrong.
Earlier this year, FMCSA posted a notice on its Facebook page that “some ELD manufacturers are improperly marketing their devices as ‘FMCSA-certified.' This is incorrect. FMCSA maintains an online registry of devices vendor-certified by the manufacturer.”
In guidance last September, FMCSA advised, “Prior to purchasing an ELD, carriers and drivers should confirm that the device is certified and registered with FMCSA and listed at this website: https://3pdp.fmcsa.dot.gov/ELD/ELDList.aspx. Devices not vendor-certified by manufacturers and registered with FMCSA may not be compliant with the FMCSRs.”
But in reality, there's no guarantee that the ones on the list are actually compliant, either.
Registration, not verification“In order to certify their product, ELD manufacturers simply conduct their own tests,” explains Alexis Cappelle, ELD program manager for Continental Corp. “However, the tests may or may not follow FMCSA's test specifications. As a result, fleets may not know if an ELD registered on FMCSA's website is actually compliant. A system registered today may be found non-compliant tomorrow and removed from the list.”
John Seidl, a longtime commercial enforcement officer who's now a transportation consultant with Integrated Risk Solutions, puts it a bit more bluntly: To get on the list, “In layman's terms, you just say, ‘I'm an ELD.'”
To get on the list, “In layman's terms, you just say, ‘I'm an ELD.'”
Tom Cuthbertson, TITLE with Omnitracs, explains that “it's a registration process; it's ...Read the rest of this story
American Trucking Associations is launching an Economic Summit that will bring together chief economists from several trade associations for an outlook on each speaker's industry and how it could impact trucking.
The first annual ATA Economic Summit is scheduled for July 20 in Arlington. Va., at the Westin Arlington Gateway and is aimed at the association's motor carrier and private fleet members. The event will feature experts spanning several industries from manufacturing to construction to retail.
“We know trucking is the backbone of the supply chain,” said Bob Costello, ATA chief economist, “With this summit, we want to bring together experts from other adjacent industries to explore the state of the economy and trends that impact trucking and the U.S. economy at large.”
Among the organizations expected to be represented at the Summit are ACT Research, the American Chemistry Council, the Associated General Contractors, the Beer Institute, the National Automobile Dealers Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Restaurant Association, and more to be announced later. The ATA's Costello will also give an outlook for the carrier industry.
“Knowledge is power,” said Chris Spear ATA president and CEO, “This Summit will offer the opportunity for fleet executives to gain the insights and knowledge necessary to make informed decisions.”
For more information about the Summit and limited sponsorship opportunities, click here.
Related: Mining for Economic Gold
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