GREENSBORO, N.C. — Volvo Trucks North America hosted Penske Truck Leasing executives at the Volvo Trucks Customer Center in Dublin, Virginia, on Thursday, Oct. 13, to commemorate the delivery of the 25,000th truck in a partnership that has spanned the last two decades.
On hand for the ceremony were board members of the Volvo Group Board of Directors, including President and Chief Executive Officer Martin Lundstedt and President of Volvo Trucks North America Peter Voorhoeve. Accepting delivery of the trucks were Penske executives Art Vallely, president of Penske Truck Leasing and Paul Rosa, senior vice president of procurement and fleet planning at Penske.
“We are extremely proud of the relationship that we have with Penske,” Voorhoeve said. “Over the past two decades, we’ve been able to deliver 25,000 trucks to them for their operations here in North America and are encouraged about the future with Penske as both companies have a passion and focus on sustainability and safety. Penske has been an early adopter of our Volvo VNR Electric truck and put trucks from the Volvo LIGHTS project in operation. Additionally, they have been early adopters of our new D13TC, focusing on creating greater fuel efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions in diesel technology as we transition into the future of decarbonized transportation solutions.”
Truck No. 25,000 is a VNL300 featuring the D13TC engine that was delivered on Sept. 29. The turbo-compounded engine is designed for fuel savings and CO2 reductions on a wide variety of applications.
“We are pleased to celebrate this milestone with our longtime and valued friends at Volvo,” Vallely said. “We appreciate their innovative approach to quality, safety, driver comfort and more recently their advancements with fleet electrification. We look forward to continuing to work together in the future.”
Penske has also outfitted nearly 2,000 trucks with Volvo Dynamic Steering (VDS), a feature that uses an electric motor above the hydraulic steering gear to provide additional torque when necessary. The VDS system receives input 2,000 times per second through sensors on the truck monitoring yaw rate, steering angle, wheel speed and the driver’s own action.
Volvo officials say this provides added safety in crosswind, heavy braking, on uneven lanes, pothole collisions or in the event of rapid tire deflation or sidewall failure.
“In addition to its many safety features, VDS provides a more comfortable overall driving experience with less steering input required, especially when ranging at slow speeds, adding to a less fatigued driver,” according to Volvo.
Penske has also elected to outfit many trucks with the fully integrated system featuring Apple CarPlay which allows drivers to safely use their favorite navigation apps, hands-free calling and other driver productivity functions while keeping their eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel.
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