Commentary: Clean Hydrogen-Powered Vehicles: Are We There Yet?

Commentary: Clean Hydrogen-Powered Vehicles: Are We There Yet?

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Rolf Lockwood

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Rolf Lockwood

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When I first entered the trucking fray in the late 1970s, I wrote about an engineering professor who was convinced that hydrogen could answer just about every need in the world of motive power. Yet here we are, almost 40 years later, with...well, not quite enough to show for it.

Hydrogen isn't usually seen so much as a fuel but as a source of electricity by way of a chemical reaction within a fuel cell. Like the recently introduced Nikola One long-haul tractor.

Chemists and engineers are still hard at it, perhaps nowhere more so than at Ballard Power Systems in Burnaby, British Columbia. It's been making hydrogen fuel cells for a couple of decades now, and they do have the better part of 100 city buses running on electricity derived from a fuel cell.

Some of those buses are Daimler vehicles, and the German manufacturer is at the forefront of hydrogen development. It's certainly not alone. Honda, for example, had a fuel-cell car available for sale in 2010, said to cost $1 million to build.

Hyundai is further ahead than most others. Its European arm recently signed a deal to hand over 60 ix35 fuel cell cars to a Paris-based electric taxi startup. Already the world's largest fuel cell taxi fleet, it uses five such cars that Hyundai delivered in 2015 and plans to have several hundred within five years.

The ix35 is said to be the world's first mass-produced and commercially available fuel cell electric vehicle. Currently there are more than 300 of them running in 12 European countries, more than all other manufacturers combined. The car's range is a commendable 370 miles.

There are also those who think hydrogen can be used directly as a fuel in what's known as a Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine. In fact one company in ...Read the rest of this story

The Big and Small of the Last Mile Delivery

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Final-mile delivery, like this one by XPO Last Mile, requires not only getting the product there in a specific time window, but often can involve getting it into the customers' home and even setting it up. Photo: XPO Logistics

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Final-mile delivery, like this one by XPO Last Mile, requires not only getting the product there in a specific time window, but often can involve getting it into the customers' home and even setting it up. Photo: XPO Logistics

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When A. Duie Pyle analyzed several months' worth of delivery data by shipment size, it discovered a large portion of deliveries were actually quite small shipments for a less-than-truckload carrier. And there, the Northeast regional LTL saw an opportunity in last-mile delivery.

Enter the Express Solutions business, which aims to offer same-day service in all the metropolitan markets in the Northeast by the end of the year.

Last-mile delivery, sometimes called final mile, is an item's final destination in the supply chain, whether that be the local Walmart or shoe store or office building — or increasingly, thanks to the rise of e-commerce and omni-channel marketing, the customer's home.

Because e-commerce is booming, the need for final-mile delivery means both headaches and opportunities for companies in a wide swath of the transportation and logistics business, from small couriers to UPS and FedEx, and from regional delivery fleets to big LTL and truckload carriers like XPO Logistics and Schneider.

“The rise of e-commerce has created a tidal wave of demand for last-mile logistics — it requires ongoing investments in scale and technology to keep ahead of consumer expectations,” says Charlie Hitt, president of XPO Last Mile.

At one end of the scale, for small packages, technology such as drones and robots are being explored. At the other end, an increasing appetite for delivery of larger items means less-than-truckload and truckload carriers are increasingly getting involved. “White-glove” services, which involve not just delivery, but also assembly, setup and installation, are booming. And behind the scenes, making the complex requirements of last-mile delivery possible — and more importantly, profitable — is ...Read the rest of this story

Digital Inflator Features Precise Measurements

Dill's 7260 Digital Inflator Gauge Series has a range from 0-170 p.s.i. and digital displays air pressure in 0.5 increments to help with inflating tires.

By pressing a button on the LCD backlit screen, users have the option to switch between Bar, kPa or p.s.i. The inflator is designed with a single trigger with a built-in bleed feature for precise air pressure adjustment.

Dill's inflators are offered in multiple configurations, including two-foot and six-foot lengths.

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Sponsored Content: Grease Today Keeps the Mechanic Away

Fleet owners across the country acknowledge that regular vehicle maintenance is vital to keeping their operation running smoothly. While checking the oil, filters and odometer is usually top-of-mind, the importance of grease is often overlooked.

From the point of application to the type of grease you're using, the following habits can keep equipment running longer and more consistently — no matter your work load.

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