Heavy Duty Fleets Honored for Sustainability and Efficiency at FTX

James Cade of Ruan Transportation Managment at the awards ceremony for the Heavy Duty Sustainability category. Photo: Jim Park

Several heavy duty fleets were recognized and six took the top honors for sustainability and efficiency at the 2016 Fleet Technology Expo at an Oct. 19 ceremony in Schaumburg, Ill.

The awards recognized fleets that have made significant contributions to environmental sustainability and fleet efficiencies in the heavy duty commercial vehicle industry.

Nominees for the awards used alternative fuels, new technologies, software and training to gain efficiency and maintain a level of sustainability.

James Cade of Ruan Transportation Management, John King of the City of Columbus, and Jeffery Bonnema of Ozinga Bros were all given the top honors for the Heavy Duty Sustainability award.

In the Heavy Duty Efficiency category, Richard Knight of Knight Waste Services, Myles Kuperus of Kuperus Trucking and Bobby Jones of Duquesne Light Company were the three award winners.

Now in its second year, the Fleet Technology Expo is an event hosted by Heavy Duty Trucking, Automotive Fleet and Green Fleet magazines for all fleet types, focusing on ways to improve operational efficiencies. The conference features educational sessions covering topics like telematics, alternative fuels equipment and strategies for streamlining fleet operations.

For more information, visit the FTX website.

Related: NHTSA Official Talks Autonomous Vehicles, Safety Tech at FTX

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Commentary: Online Parts Sales Growing

Every industry is transitioning to online sales as the world is becoming more digitized and people are getting more accustomed to online purchases in their personal lives. According to Dave Seewack, CEO and founder of FinditParts, the trucking industry is no different. In fact, he says his company, founded in 2010 as an online supplier of heavy-duty truck and trailer parts, has seen double-digit growth in 2016.

At the same time, Seewack says when it comes to truck and trailer parts, “We are in the infancy stage. Historically heavy-duty has always been known as being 10 to 15 years behind automotive, and automotive is just starting to become very powerful online.”

He adds, “I think the online buying space as it relates to heavy-duty is at the very beginning and we have not yet begun to see what the opportunity is. I think explosive growth is ahead for us.”

Seewack says when FinditParts was first launched it was the third or fourth vendor of choice for some fleets. “People turned to the online option when they went to their local distributor and that distributor did not have the part they were looking for. They then went to a second or third place, and when they still couldn't find it, they started Googling it and found it online.”

As fleet personnel have become more comfortable purchasing items in their personal lives, they are starting to become more comfortable with online purchases for their businesses.

And Seewack says buying from an online vendor is not all that different from buying from a brick and mortar store. Trust has to be developed whenever a fleet enters a relationship with a new vendor. He believes online may have an advantage in this area because “with local distributors, the relationship is often built with the outside salesperson or the counterperson.” ...Read the rest of this story

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