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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Vans Update: Surging Sales, Growing Choices

It's a great year for sales of cargo vans. The National Truck Equipment Association recently revised its 2016 forecast for U.S./Mexico Class 1-3 commercial van sales upward from a previously forecast 7% year-to-year gain up to 10% this year — to be followed by an 8% increase next year.

Perhaps that's partly because buyers are finding lots more than tires to kick when they check out the latest models.

David Sowers, head of Ram Truck brand marketing, says the Great Recession built pent-up demand, with the average age of vans climbing to 10 years. It now stands at 7 years. “Last year, Class 1-4 vans and chassis sales reached almost 400,000. We expect that to rise by 10 to 15% this year,” Sowers says. “Pent-up demand is being met, and there's growth in small businesses since 2009 that's also driving sales. Both fleets and small business owners are buying more vans.”

He says the two largest groups of buyers are delivery and “mobile worksite” operations. Lots more delivery vans are being sold to UPS and FedEx, and Ram has secured a contract for 12,000 units with the U.S. Postal Service.

Ford says total commercial van sales for 2015 were 423,094, including full-size and compact commercial vans, according to Yaroslav Hetman, Ford's brand manager for Transit, Transit Connect and E-Series. “Year to date through August, the segment is up 16%, with total van sales of 312,705 vs. 268,625 last year.” He says much of that growth is being driven by sales of the full-size Ford Transit, adding that “Ford sold more vans in August 2016 than it has at any other time in history.”

“We are literally selling every van we can build — even with three production shifts and capacity utilization above 100%,” says Joe Langhauser, full-size van product manager for General Motors Fleet. “In ...Read the rest of this story