Steps Provide Safe Trailer Access

Designed for van trailers or straight trucks with a 48-inch deck height, Ancra's new trailer access steps provide a high-strength and durable solution for easily accessing trailers.

The trailer access steps are designed to be permanently mounted under a trailer door and can be easily pulled out to aid in accessing the inside of the trailer.

Built with interlocking tabs and slot construction at key points, its unique joint design can hold up to 350 pounds. All 2-step and 3-step units are manufactured with a choice of either a highly visible safety yellow powered coat or a hot dip galvanized zinc coat for optimum corrosion resistance.

Unlike other standard access steps, Ancra's trailer access steps include a latch to hold the step securely in position providing a strong, safe and secure way to stow until needed. The trailer access steps are built with an aggressive formed anti-slip surface and self-cleaning design that allows snow and ice to drop through the tread to avoid buildup.

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TMW Systems Appoints Senior Vice President and General Manager

Ray West Photo: TMW Systems

Ray West has been appointed senior vice president and general manager of TMW Systems' portfolio of transportation management systems, the company announced.

In his new role, West will oversee all of TMW's TMS properties, including the TMW.Suite, Innovative, TL2000, and TruckMate platforms.

“This is a period of significant investment and innovation for TMW, and Ray's deep experience and proven leadership will help us deliver exciting new capabilities and value to our customers,” said Timothy Leonard, executive vice president of operations and technology for TMW. “Anyone who has met Ray has experienced his passion for this industry and his commitment to the success of our customers.”

West joined TMW Systems in 2007, initially leading the company's TL2000 business in Indianapolis, Ind. Two years later, he oversaw the integration of the former Innovative Computing Corporation into TMW. He most recently served as senior vice president and general manager of TMW's Innovative, TL2000 and TruckMate lines of business.

West is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who founded a number of privately held companies early in his career, including Thoroughbred Systems, which developed mobile communications and dispatch software. He later served as vice president of information technology for Atlas Van Lines – where he was an active member of the TMWSuite Advisory Board – and director of product development for Qualcomm.

He holds a master's degree in manufacturing management from Kettering University. He and his family will relocate from Nashville, Tenn., to TMW's headquarters near Cleveland, Ohio.

Related: How ‘Intelligent' is Your Business?

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Class action lawsuit against Swift to proceed

Truck-Lite names new vp of sales

Truck-Lite Co. has named John Cecco the new vice president of sales. In addition to aftermarket sales, Cecco will oversee Truck-Lite's customer service, pricing and forecasting departments after the retirement of Bob Ives, former vice president of business development.

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Trucker Path app surpasses 1.5 million installs

Trucker Path announced that the app has surpassed 1.5 million installs and is the first in the trucking industry to reach over one million downloads on Google Play. Meanwhile, Trucker Path's freight-matching marketplace Truckloads app has reached over 250,000 downloads.

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Waymo Sues Uber, Otto Over Stolen Autonomous Technology

Alphabet's self-driving car unit Waymo is suing Uber and its Otto autonomous trucking subsidiary for stealing the company's autonomous vehicle sensor technology. Alphabet is also the parent company of Google.

In court documents, Waymo accuses Otto and Uber of taking the company's intellectual property in order to avoid the risk, time, and expense of independently developing the technology on its own.

Waymo's case centers around its custom-built LIDAR or Light Detection and Ranging sensor technology. The sensors allow a vehicle to see a 3D picture of the world around it to detect and measure the shape, speed, and movement of obstacles. Not simply accusing Uber and Otto of copying the technology, Waymo's was given a tip that Otto's LIDAR design bore a striking resemblance to its own.

In its own investigation, Waymo found evidence that former employee and current Otto co-founder Anthony Levandowski downloaded over 14,000 confidential and proprietary design files for Waymo's hardware systems, according to a blog post from the company. These files included blueprints, design files and testing documentation totaling 9.7 GB of data.

Waymo accuses Levandowski of using specialized software installed onto his company laptop to achieve this. The company said that after he transferred the information to an external hard drive, he wiped and reformatted his laptop in an attempt to erase evidence.

“We believe these actions were part of a concerted plan to steal Waymo's trade secrets and intellectual property,” the company stated in its blog post.

Waymo said that it has devoted seven years to research and development for the technology, building up more than 1.5 million miles of self-driving experience on public roads and even more than that in simulations.

Related: Uber, Otto Talk About Plans to Transform Trucking

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Startup Firm Unveils Prototype Autonomous Truck

Prototype autonomous truck in Nevada desert. Photo: Embark

Yet another startup tech firm has rolled into the autonomous truck arena. San Mateo, Calif.-based Embark publicly revealed its prototype self-driving truck on Feb. 24.

The company, which gained approval from the State of Nevada earlier this year to begin testing its truck on public roads, said its self-driving technology enables a truck “to drive from exit to exit on the freeway without any human input.”

Embark said its tractor-trailer setup uses a combination of radars, cameras and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) depth sensors “to perceive the world around it.” The data points captured are processed via a form of Artificial Intelligence known as Deep Neural Nets (DNNs) that “allow the truck to learn from its own experience— much like humans learn from practice.”

“Analyzing terabyte upon terabyte of real-world data, Embark's DNNs have learned how to see through glare, fog and darkness on their own,” said Alex Rodrigues, CEO and co-founder of Embark. “We've programmed them with a set of rules to help safely navigate most situations, how to safely learn from the unexpected, and how to apply that experience to new situations going forward.”

Embark's truck is built specifically for “long, simple stretches of freeway driving between cities, rather than all aspects of driving.”

Like other autonomous truck designs, including the Freightliner Inspiration truck and the Otto (owned by Uber) truck, Embark's computerized truck is meant to be handed off to a human driver once it heads off the highway, who will then navigate local streets to the destination. “A human driver will still touch every load, but with Embark they're able to move more loads per day, handing off hundreds of miles of freeway driving to their robot partners,” is how the company put it.

Rodrigues said he was inspired to launch Embark after ...Read the rest of this story