Will New GHG Emissions Prompt a Prebuy?

Unlike previous emissions regulations that actually cut fuel economy, new GHG regs are making trucks more fuel efficient than ever. Photo: Daimler Trucks North America

A new report says the industry will likely see a pre-emission boom in Class 8 truck sales in 2019 and 2020, before a sharp drop into 2021 — but others say this time around is different.

The prebuy is predicted in the new North American On-Highway Commercial Vehicle Engine Outlook by Americas Commercial Transportation (ACT) Research and Rhein Associates.

“New and revised engine introductions over the next few years, together with emission impacts, will lead to changes in demand,” said Tom Rhein, President of Rhein Associates.

Total North American Class 8 truck production peaked in 2015, ACT notes, and it's predicting lower demand in 2016 and 2017 followed by recovery leading up to that pre-buy.

However, not everyone is convinced that we will see the same type of prebuy that we did ahead of the 2007 emissions regulations, when uncertainty about selective catalytic reduction technology

At the American Trucking Associations' Management Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas, Martin Daum, head of Daimler Trucks North America, said the new Phase 2 greenhouse gas fuel/economy regulations offer manufacturers more flexibility to achieve the required targets, as well as a longer lead time for developing technologies that will be reliable.

"It's not that you have to do something tomorrow. so you have time to really study, plan, test, push. Long term planning gets rewarded. And it gives us certainty, with clear targets between now and 2030 for each vehicle and engine category.”

Daum said this should help avoid the disruptive pre-buy cycles that plagued the emissions regulations of the 2000s, noting that we are still seeing the “aftershocks” from the huge oscillation after the 2006 prebuy.

Similarly, when asked about the likelihood of a prebuy at an ...Read the rest of this story

Rand McNally Launches Next Generation E-Log and Fleet Management Device

The DC 200 comes in both matte silver and champagne gold colors. The light on top changes color to indicate different functions. Green means it's connected to the app. Blue indicates an over-the-air software update is happening. It flashes red and green when booting up. Photo: Deborah Lockridge.

Rand McNally unveiled a sleek, new electronic logging and fleet management device with cellular connectivity at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition.

Available later this year, the DC 200 is designed to meet the needs of small- and medium-sized fleets looking to use existing Android devices.

"The DC 200 was designed for small- and medium-sized fleets – as well as larger fleets – looking for a cost-effective ELD plus fleet management tools that are increasingly critical to the industry," explained Stephen Fletcher, CEO of Rand McNally. "The multi-mode cell modem in the device enables fleet managers to track their trucks in near real-time as well as message drivers."

The DC 200 is part of Rand McNally's DriverConnect ecosystem. So is the Bluetooth plug-and-play ELD 50 introduced earlier this year for owner-operators and professional drivers.

“The beauty of it is a small fleet owner who has both employee and owner-operator drivers can mix and match — it goes through the same back end” as the ELD 50, said Ravi Kodavarti, director of commercial transportation products at Rand McNally.

The low-profile, 5-inch long device (which comes in two different colors) sits on the dash and plugs into a truck's diagnostic port via a single Y cable. The device works with both 6- and 9-pin, type 1 and type 2 ports. Through a Bluetooth and proprietary Wi-Fi connection, the device sends driving data to the free Rand McNally DriverConnect app, where drivers can view current hours of service logs as well as DVIR documents. The DC 200 ...Read the rest of this story

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