Work Truck Show News

Jecka Glasman, president and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso, announcing new products at the Work Truck Show in Indianapolis. Photo: David Cullen

The NTEA Work Truck Show is currently underway in Indianapolis, bringing with it important announcements for light- and medium-duty vocational vehicle operators and upfitters. Check our our coverage of the new trucks and technologies, updates on existing vehicles, and the latest engines and products.

Highlights include:

• Green Truck Summit keynote looks at how green electric trucks really are

• Mitsubishi Fuso's all-electric truck

• Detroit's new medium-duty vocational engine

• What to expect in Chevy's new medium-duty truck

• More applications for Eaton's Procision transmission

And more.

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Work Truck Show News

Jecka Glasman, president and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso, announcing new products at the Work Truck Show in Indianapolis. Photo: David Cullen

The NTEA Work Truck Show is currently underway in Indianapolis bringing with it important announcements from the trucking world.

That's why we're sending out a newsletter filled with all the biggest news from the Work Truck Show so far, to keep our readers up to date on what is going on, as it's happening.

From new trucks and technologies, to updates on existing vehicles, as well the latest engines and products, we're covering it all. So scroll through the newsletter and stay up to date on the past few days' news.

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Economic Watch: Fed Pushes Interest Rates Higher Amid Improving Signs

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday increased the nation's benchmark interest rate for the third time since its first hike in nearly a decade in December 2015, amid evidence of a steady economy and indications of more interest rate increases later this year.

The 0.25% jump in the federal funds rate (the interest rate banks charge each other for overnight loans to meet reserve requirements), pushes its target to 0.75%-1% following the previous hike in December 2016.

According to the Federal Reserve, information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in February indicates that the labor market has continued to strengthen, that economic activity has continued to expand at a moderate pace, and that job gains have remained solid with little change in unemployment.

“Household spending has continued to rise moderately while business fixed investment appears to have firmed somewhat,” the statement said. “Inflation has increased in recent quarters, moving close to the committee's 2% longer-run objective. Excluding energy and food prices, inflation was little changed and continued to run somewhat below 2%.”

The central bank is forecasting two more rate hikes this year, three in 2018 and at least three in 2019, to bring the federal funds rate to 3%, slightly earlier than its previous goal of 2020. Earlier some analysts were predicting there could be as many as four rate hikes in 2017.

The Fed also left its total economic growth GDP forecast nearly unchanged at 2.1% for this year and 1.9% for 2019, while projecting an unemployment rate of 4.5% for the next three years.

When asked what this and other rates hikes mean for trucking, American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello said, “Obviously financing costs will rise with the rise in interest rates, including for equipment and loans for expansions.” But he also noted there are positives.

“Two of the biggest for ...Read the rest of this story

The Hottest Industry In The Land

New technology is transforming trucking and bringing new players with new ideas into the industry. Photo: Mercedes-Benz 

On Monday morning this week, MIT, one of the leading engineering schools on the planet, published its list of Breakthrough Technologies for 2017, with “Driverless Trucks” holding down the number one position.

At this point, if you've been in the trucking industry for longer than five years, it's perfectly fine to sit back, look around in amazement and wonder just what in the hell is going on?

Trucking hasn't been this hot a property since Burt Reynolds had real hair. At this point, mainstream media news stories concerning this industry - and the technological revolution it is either going through, or about to go through (depending on who you're talking to) - are becoming a daily event.

Why is that?

The movement of goods has been a staple of civilization since humans figured out the fundamentals of trade. It goes without saying that a lot of history and technology has been fueled by the desire to move goods around the planet as efficiently as possible. A century ago, some early pioneers decided to put the internal combustion engine to work doing exactly that and, over time, the industry that we know and love today gradually took shape. And while this industry has never been as efficient and professional as it is today, it's still not good enough.

That, in a nutshell, is what in the hell is going on.

We've been in the developing stages of an Internet-fueled global super economy for a decade or so now and it seems fair to say that we're on the cusp of seeing that super economy go white-hot. The signs are everywhere:

UPS Invests More Than $90M In Natural Gas

Photo: UPS

UPS said it will invest more than $90 million in natural gas facilities and vehicles, including fueling stations, compressed natural gas trucks, and liquefied natural gas vehicles.

The company plans to build an additional six CNG fueling stations and add 30 new CNG tractors and terminal trucks as well as 50 LNG vehicles to its alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet.

“With more than 4,400 natural gas vehicles and a network of fueling stations, UPS has had great results using natural gas as an alternative fuel in our fleet,” said Mark Wallace, UPS senior vice president of global engineering and sustainability. “We know the importance of investing in natural gas globally for our fleet and the alternative fuel market. In 2016, we used more than 61 million gallons of natural gas in our ground fleet, which included 4.6 million gallons of renewable natural gas. This helped us to avoid the use of conventional gas and diesel, and decreased CO2 emissions by 100,000 metric tons.”

Last year, UPS invested $100 million in CNG fueling stations and vehicles. The company currently operates 31 CNG fueling stations in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Tennessee and West Virginia. It runs CNG vehicles in 38 states in addition to ones in Germany, the Netherlands, and Thailand.

The six new CNG stations will be built in Ontario, California; Orlando, Florida; Salina, Kansas; Louisville, Kentucky; Greensboro, North Carolina, and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Renewable natural gas will be used at the station in Ontario. UPS also purchased 50 additional LNG vehicles that were deployed in Indianapolis, Indiana; Chicago; Earth City, Missouri; and Nashville, Tennessee, where UPS has existing LNG stations.

Since 2009, UPS has invested more than $750 million in alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles and fueling stations globally. The company has ...Read the rest of this story

2017 Work Truck Show in Pictures

The 2017 Work Truck Show offered up an array of new trucks, engines, and other commercial vehicle announcements. The show runs from March 14 to 17 in Indianapolis. Read our coverage here. Photos by Chris Brown.

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Ram Commercial Enhances Truck, Van Upfitting

Ram Commercial introduced its Augmented Reality Upfit Configurator and Q Pro certification program to help dealers and auxiliary equipment providers set up its trucks and vans for commercial users at the Work Truck Show in Indianapolis.

The upfit configurator is a tablet-based app Ram showed at its booth at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November that allows fleet customers to view possible upfits for a Ram vehicle. The app was initially developed for the ProMaster full-size van, but has been expanded to include the ProMaster City compact van and the Chassis Cab lineup that includes the 3500, 4500, and 5500.

Ram is offering the configurator to dealers and upfitters.

Q Pro is a new qualification process that allows upfitters to certify their product with Ram Engineering. The program provides resources to survey, make reccomendations, and certify upfitter products for quality, reliability, durability, and regulatory compliance. Standardized process controls help ensure the upfitted vehicle retains the manufacturer warranty.

Related: Ram's Tablet App Helps Fleets Configure Vans

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