Equipment & Tech

COLUMBUS, Ind. – ACT Research recently completed a ride-along on Hyliion’s HyperTruck ERX, a Class 8 hybrid battery-electric and natural gas powertrain that uses a Peterbilt tractor. The event gave ACT researchers “a chance to dive deeper into one of the various decarbonization options available for fleets,” a news release stated. As one of the many Class 8 decarbonization options, ACT hoped to learn more in a hands-on review of the HyperTruck ERX and how this vehicle fits into the matrix of ACT’s forecast and total-cost-of-ownership model. As part of the upcoming third edition of CHARGING FORWARD, a report that collects and analyzes: Propulsion systems evolution of battery- and fuel-cell electric, natural gas, internal hydrogen combustion, hybrid, and gasoline powertrains. Government regulations and subsidies. Electric, hydrogen, natural gas, and gasoline supply and infrastructure. ACT Research will be updating the TCO model of 50 unique vehicle applications around the globe through 2040. Vehicles like Hyliion’s HyperTruck ERX and the application solution they address will be examined to forecast the key considerations and adoption of different powertrains based on a bottoms-up approach of ACT’s model. “We’ve really spent a considerable amount of time looking at the regulatory landscape to understand how policies and regulations will impact ZEV adoption,” Lydia Vieth, ACT Research analyst of electrification and autonomy, said. “Everything from ZEV mandates and NOx emissions regulations to relaxing weight penalties and local air quality rules. Regulatory impacts are built into our TCO model, and we’ve made it easy for our clients to factor in their own subsidies and incentives. This means ACT is able to give our clients not only decarbonization adoption rates for 50 working applications of Classes 4-8 vehicles, but a complete understanding of the factors and circumstances driving those adoption rates around the world.”

PHOENIX – Trucker Path has announced the formation of a partnership with American Truck Business Services (ATBS). “Tax and business planning and reporting are often a challenge for drivers and small fleets,” Chris Oliver, CMO at Trucker Path, said. “The services that we’re offering to the Trucker Path community through our partnership with ATBS will make it easier for them to manage their businesses. These discounted offerings from ATBS are the latest example of how we’re focused on delivering relevant and valuable solutions that help our community of truckers operate their businesses more efficiently and effectively.” The Trucker Path community of owner-operators, drivers and small fleets can now access the ATBS RumbleStrip series of services through a secure client portal: RumbleStrip Essentials — Bookkeeping and tax services, including profit and loss statements, estimated quarterly and year-end federal and state tax returns, and unlimited access for tax questions. RumbleStrip Professional — All RumbleStrip Essentials services and a deduction maximizer, detailed profit plans, business and personal budget plans, industry benchmarking and unlimited tax and business consulting. RumbleStrip Enterprise — A complete back-office solution that includes all RumbleStrip Essentials and RumbleStrip Professional services as well as corporate tax returns, bank and credit card statement reconciliation, business incorporation, and unlimited tax, business and payroll consulting. Payroll and entity formation services are also available to RumbleStrip Enterprise users for an additional fee. “With Trucker Path, we can now bring our comprehensive and convenient tax and accounting services to their large audience of drivers,” Todd Amen, President and CEO at ATBS, said. “Through our joint efforts, we can help the entire Trucker Path community balance the time it takes to meet business responsibilities with the very important need to have free time to spend with family, friends and on personal interests. We are excited to be working with Trucker Path.”

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Schneider will soon begin taking delivery of nearly 100 Class 8 battery electric vehicles (BEV) at its intermodal operations in Southern California. Schneider’s first Freightliner eCascadia, manufactured by Daimler Truck North America (DTNA), is set to roll off the assembly line at the Portland, Oregon, DTNA plant, a news release stated. The carrier had previously reported orders for 62 eCascadias. Now the company will deploy an additional 30 BEVs from DTNA. As a result, Schneider will have one of the largest electric fleets in North America, “marking a critical step in the company’s efforts to operationalize zero emission vehicles into its truck fleet,” according to the news release. “The integration of nearly 100 zero emission vehicles is an important milestone for Schneider as we are moving beyond the battery electric truck testing phase to running an operation at scale,” said Schneider President and CEO Mark Rourke. “In combination with rail movement, we can offer our intermodal customers meaningful emissions reduction value by utilizing BEV dray trucks.” Rourke said that battery electric trucks are “crucial in meeting Schneider’s sustainability goals of reducing CO2 per-mile emissions by 7.5% by 2025 and 60% by 2035.” Schneider has already achieved more than half of its 2025 goal by reducing per-mile emissions by 5%. The new eCascadias have the potential to avoid over 81,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per day and over the course of a year that is equivalent to removing 2,400 gas-powered cars from the road, the news release stated. Schneider is already familiar with electric vehicle technology, having piloted an eCascadia for six months through Freightliner’s Customer Experience fleet. “As the leading heavy-duty truck manufacturer, we are fully committed to reduce emissions with our vehicles and to move the commercial transportation industry into a more sustainable future,” said DTNA Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing David Carson. “We are proud to share the same vision with Schneider and to partner closely with them on integrating eCascadias into their fleet.” Schneider expects all 92 BEVs to be operational in its fleet by the end of 2023.

LE MARS, Iowa — Schuster and E-SMART have announced the completion of a collaboration to bring E-SMART technology to Schuster’s fleet of more than 400 trucks. E-SMART claims its active, real time speed control decreases speeding events by up to 88%, according to a news release. Deployment was achieved in three months. “E-Smart has performed beyond our expectations, helping us to lower our speed events by over 75%,” said Steve Schuster, President, and CEO. “We have been searching for a solution like this for years and E-SMART has provided it. We have also been able to utilize other features of the technology such as geofencing speeds in customer lots and low bridge avoidance.” The E-SMART solution uses GPS technology to determine vehicle location to actively manage its maximum allowed speed, provide real-time safety alerts and identify known hazard areas such as low clearance bridges, the news release stated. “Fleets currently using the E-SMART technology report a significant decrease in speed-related infringements and accidents, along with an extensive savings among toll-related fines,” E-SMART officials said. “From the first meeting with Schuster management it was clear that they had envisioned this technology long before it was available,” Mathieu Boivin, CEO at E-SMART said. “This kind of visionary planning in safety is what industry leaders are made of. We are proud to partner with Schuster in helping them to achieve the highest safety standards.”

AVON, Ohio – Daylight hours are shorter, and temperatures are dropping across the U.S. and Canada, signaling the season where commercial vehicle drivers are increasingly likely to encounter slushy, snowy and icy road conditions. Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems is offering tips to help drivers better understand how technology can assist them in being safer on the roads during rough conditions. “During our ride-and-drive safety technology demonstrations, two questions frequently pop up,” said Fred Andersky, director of demos, sales and service training at Bendix. “The first is, ‘What can I expect from collision mitigation on a slick road?’ and the second is, ‘Could an automatic brake application cause me to lose control?’ Conveniently, the answers are found in the inclusion of full-stability technology as a building block of collision mitigation.” Understanding collision mitigation technologies Systems are built upon full-stability control, which has been required on most new Class 7 and 8 air-braked tractors in the U.S. since 2017. Full-stability technologies — generally known in the industry as electronic stability control — are designed to help drivers mitigate rollovers. They’re also engineered to potentially help a driver in some loss-of-control, or some loss-of-vehicle-traction, conditions that can be experienced during wintry weather. “Just like any safety technology, full stability is there to assist the driver – the driver is always in control of the vehicle at all times,” Andersky said. “And it is important to remember that the system has limits: You can drive too fast and negate its benefit. But by building the collision mitigation technology on top of stability control — which is itself built on the antilock braking system — we’re helping both drivers and the collision mitigation system keep control when brakes are applied.” Collision mitigation systems may help drivers avoid forward crash situations by reducing the throttle and/or applying the brakes when the system detects a potentially threatening forward collision. The difference is that instead of a driver physically stepping on and off the pedals to engage and disengage the brakes and throttle, a collision mitigation system may deliver the interventions using electronics in the braking system. Using input gathered by radar, camera and system sensors, a collision mitigation system’s electronic control unit continuously assesses the vehicle’s situation. If the system determines a forward collision is imminent, then it sends signals to the brake controller, which may reduce the throttle and/or apply the brakes. Prior to cutting the throttle and braking, collision mitigation technology may deliver in-cab alerts as the gap between the truck and a forward vehicle closes. It may also provide an alert before intervening. Like a driver, the collision mitigation system may need to brake whether the road is slick or not. It’s important to keep this point in mind: Safety technologies complement safe driving practices. No commercial vehicle safety technology replaces a skilled, alert driver exercising safe driving techniques and proactive, comprehensive driver training. In terms of road conditions, collision mitigation systems are subject to the same laws of physics as a driver: What happens with the applications of brakes on a slick surface — a surface with the potential loss of vehicle traction? The vehicle slows and eventually stops. If skidding starts to occur, then the ABS and stability control systems may intervene to help the driver keep control in some situations. The same is true for a collision mitigation system. The obvious difference is that when either the driver or the collision mitigation technology is braking on a slick surface instead of a dry surface, the vehicle requires more time and distance to come to a stop. Real-world examples The Bendix team spends a portion of every winter at the Keweenaw Research Center in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where there is no shortage of brutal winter conditions for putting vehicles and safety systems to the test. Joining the engineers and other personnel on site, Andersky — who holds a Class A CDL and regularly drives at Bendix demonstrations — had the opportunity to get behind the wheel to put a truck through normal demo maneuvers, but on a surface of slick, packed snow. He drove a 6×4 tractor with a loaded trailer, air disc brakes, and a gross vehicle combination weight of 65,000 pounds, and performed tests involving both a stationary and slow-moving forward vehicle. “The first thing to understand is that the collision mitigation system must detect the situation ahead, then perform calculations to determine if or when alerts or automatic braking is needed,” Andy Pilkington, Bendix product group director of ADAS/HAD, said. “The faster the truck approaches the forward vehicle (whether it is stationary or moving), the more difficult it is to detect and the less time the system has to react. For demonstration purposes, Fred ran two common traffic scenarios to better illustrate system reaction.” First, approaching a stationary car at a moderate speed, the vehicle’s collision mitigation system detected the situation and intervened as designed: By alerting the driver, cutting the throttle and applying the brakes to assist. However, because of the approach speed and slick surface, the vehicle slid — just as if the driver had applied the brakes. “Sometimes there is not enough time or friction with the road surface to provide any alert or sufficient braking force to mitigate impact with the forward vehicle,” Pilkington said. “In other situations, the truck can partially decelerate and may still impact the forward vehicle with a lesser speed. And in yet another set of circumstances, there is sufficient friction with the road surface and time to detect the situation to prevent impact altogether.” Andersky said that the driver must stay alert and deal with potentially threatening situations themselves and that collision mitigation systems are driver assistance, not driver replacement. The next maneuver, at a higher speed, simulates the common situation of a slow-moving vehicle in a driver’s lane of travel, with the tractor-trailer coming up fast on a slower-moving vehicle. As before, after the system detected the situation, it alerted and applied the brakes – and in both cases, while the vehicle slowed, the speed reduction alone did not avoid the forward vehicle: Andersky needed to swerve to prevent the collision. “The same possibilities detailed in the first maneuver exist here as well,” Pilkington said. “Sometimes only an alert is given or limited braking is applied, or in other situations, maximum braking occurs; the response is contingent on the exact situation, the closure rate with the forward vehicle, and how much time the system has to detect the situation and react.” “In other words, the system reacted as it was designed and allowed me the opportunity to take action,” Andersky said. “Not all that surprising. Whether the forward vehicle is moving or stationary, bringing a loaded tractor-trailer to a stop requires more time and distance on a slick surface.” Science and reality of the road The coefficient of friction represents the amount of friction between two surfaces — the lower it is, the more easily the two surfaces will slide. Compared to a dry asphalt or concrete surface, the coefficient of friction of truck tires on hard-packed snow or ice is up to 87% less. Combine this situation with the mass and speed of a combination vehicle – 80,000 lbs. and 55 miles per hour, for instance – and it roughly compares to the stopping distance on various surfaces, bringing the science into the real world. Bendix testing shows that the truck that takes 335 feet to stop on dry pavement, for example, will likely take 466 feet to stop on a wet road, 965 feet to stop on packed snow, and 1,625 feet – more than a quarter mile – to stop on ice. Nearly triple the stopping distance between snow and dry road, and almost five times as long to stop on ice as a dry surface. This means both the driver and the system need to be aware of what is happening down the road to react in time. “This is the perfect illustration of why driver alerts are so critical,” Pilkington said. “Giving the drivers time to react before a system intervenes helps capitalize on their abilities to see farther and also to steer — something most of today’s collision mitigation technologies don’t do.” Pilkington said it also shows the value of the collision mitigation system on a slick surface: Beyond the interventions, depending on the situation, the alerts can help re-engage the driver to brake or take other action to avoid a hazard. And if the driver intervenes to steer around the situation, then full stability can possibly help them keep control of the vehicle. As to any potential loss of control caused by system-generated collision mitigation braking, it is no more of an issue than a driver applying brakes on the same surface, especially since the full-stability system is already integrated to help maintain control. “Ultimately, safe, alert drivers are the single most important factor to help mitigate collisions on slick roads,” Andersky said. “They have advantages over technology – sight and steering – and they’re trained to recognize the crucial factors in increasing following distance to create reaction time when the weather gets bad.”  

DETROIT – Detroit officials announced Wednesday, Dec. 7, that they had reached a milestone in their heavy-duty engine production (HDEP) with their millionth engine produced at the manufacturing facility in Redford, Michigan. The HDEP product family at Detroit includes DD13, DD15 and DD16 engines, all produced in-house. The company planned an all-campus celebration on Dec. 7 at the Redford campus to commemorate the event and recognize all employees and workforce who have helped achieve this milestone. “Detroit has been building world-class, state-of-the-art engines with industry-leading technology for over 84 years,” Matt Pfaffenbach, head of operations at Detroit, said. “The campus is home to 2,900 employees. Our work is built on a foundation of pride, hard work and innovation. We are extremely proud of this achievement and the advancements we bring to the industry. Our Detroit heavy-duty engines provide customers the best fuel-efficiency and economy with millions of miles of reliability and durability. Producing one million heavy-duty engines in the Detroit plant is a huge achievement and we are excited to keep that momentum going.”

CHARLOTTE, NC — Document digitization company Whip Around has launched a new management solution for fleet managers and drivers that’s designed to improve compliance. “Fleets that use paper-based recordkeeping tend to have more challenges recording data, maintaining records, missing important deadlines, locating proper records on request and easily identifying compliance gaps in documents and dates,” Steve Keppler of Scopelitis Transportation Consulting said. “Using an electronic system address all of these weaknesses. It helps carriers be proactive to keep them compliant and identify issues early on before they become a problem.” Whip Around Wallet is available on the web and mobile. Documents are stored in the cloud and can be tagged, “making it faster and easier for drivers to access all the documentation they need while on the road,” a news release stated. Wallet can set expiration dates, renewal notifications and retention sunset reminders on documents, according to the news release. “It definitely helps our drivers remain compliant,” Ryan Weinstein of M&M Waste said. “It’s really easy to use and made us a lot more organized. We can check that we’ve got all the required paperwork, and if we’re missing something from one truck, we can grab it.” A range of documentation can be stored in Wallet, including: Vehicle permits and cab cards. Carrier insurance policies. Driver medical certificates. Evidence of periodic inspections. Period inspector credentials. ELD documentation. Trailer documents. “With Whip Around Wallet, fleet managers can have peace of mind that they have set their teams up for success,” Elizabeth Santorelly, vice president of product at Whip Around, said. “It’s another step towards Whip Around’s promise to help customers take control of their fleet maintenance processes, improve safety and compliance, and reduce costs and downtime.”  

WASHINGTON — More than 31,000 big trucks and buses are being recalled by Navistar due to improper heat treating on hex flange lock nuts. According to recall notices filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — 22V-869 and 22V-869 — the defect could result in unstable steering, increasing the possibility of a crash. Company officials say they aren’t aware of any crashes related to the issue. Included in the recall are certain 2021-22 International CV and 2022-23 HV models, along with 2023 models of the HX, Lonestar, LT, MV and RH. The defective parts — used between January and August 2022, depending on the vehicle — did not fail at the time of vehicle assembly. Navistar officials said they quarantined vehicles in their plants on Aug. 26 until they were sure  good parts were being used in production. Navistar dealers will replace all suspect hex flange lock nuts with those made to its design specifications for form and surface hardness. Dealers and owners of the affected vehicles will be notified by first-class mail beginning Jan. 20.

AUSTIN, Texas — The Tesla Semi Class 8 electric truck has successfully completed its first fully loaded, long-haul journey on a full charge, company owner Elon Musk announced Sunday via Twitter. “The Tesla team just completed a 500 mile drive in a Tesla Semi that weighs 81,000 pounds,” Musk tweeted. Musk announced on Oct. 7 that his company’s first production Tesla Semi’s will be delivered to soda giant PepsiCo on Dec. 1. PepsiCo reserved 100 of the electric tractors in 2017. This followed an Aug. 10 announcement by Musk that the Tesla Semi trucks would begin shipping this year. Tesla claims that the Semi uses less energy than 2 kWh/mile (1.24 kWh/km) on average. The battery’s capacity would be less than 1,000 kWh at a 500-mile range. Tesla says it plans to increase manufacturing output of the Semi to 50,000 units annually by the end of 2024.