A pair of entrepreneurs have signed an agreement to market an innovative truck trailer with movable side panels in North America.

Bob Hakken and Duke De Leeuw of Holland, MI, signed a deal with Wingliner International to distribute Wingliner System kits in the Canada, Mexico and the U.S., according to web site Rapid Growth. The venture, dubbed Wingliner North America, will produce and sell the Wingliner kits in the hopes of revolutionizing the market.

“We just really believe in this product and see a bright future,” says Hakken. “This could really snowball into something really big because it’s cost effective. We’re very excited.”

The side walls of a Wingliner, which is popular in Austria, can be moved into nearly any position, including flat in less than 10 seconds by using hydraulics. The sidewall lifts up, folding in half as it goes up to eventually sit flat on the roof of the trailer, exposing the entire trailer.

The kits retrofit onto a chassis of any type of commercial vehicle, the guys said – truck, trailer, semi-truck, swap trailer, container or dump. The advantages of the trailers, they claim, is that goods can be accessed easily resulting in a reduction of time and operating costs associated with the loading and unloading process.

“In the trucking industry, pent-up demand is growing,” Hakken says. “So many fleet owners have been sitting on the sidelines due the economy. But as that turns, they’ll be faced with replacing equipment on the road. They’ll be looking for ways to become more efficient.”

Currently, Wagner Wood Products, owned by Hakken and De Leeux, uses one of the trailers; although there are a handful of others in operation the U.S. According to the Rapid Growth story, the pair learned of the Wingliner when they were looking for a more efficient trailer for hauling plywood.

If the product catches on here in the U.S., Hakken and De Leeux could become very rich men.

For all the grief that Walmart receives for being the big, bad neighbor that drives out smaller competitors, there is no doubt the company is not all Grinch – especially during the holiday season.

What probably flew under the radar was the announcement last week of a $32 million Holiday Giving Campaign to fight hunger. A key initiative of that plan is the donation of 35 refrigerator trucks to 35 different Feeding America food banks in major cities across the country. Each truck came loaded with Great Value-branded products and fresh apples. The total cost of the donated trucks is $3 milllion. To see a video about the donation, click here.

“In this economy, families and seniors across the country who rely on food banks have been hit especially hard,” said Margaret McKenna, president of the Walmart Foundation. “As Walmart stores continue to be the price leader on groceries, our partnership with Feeding America is helping us do our part to put more food on the dinner table. Our business and our charitable giving are united in the commitment to eradicate hunger in America.”

Feeding America estimates the trucks will transport up to 52.5 million pounds of food year, the equivalent of 41 million additional meals. That will take a bite out of hunger.

But for some of the local organizations, that one truck means it can double the number of meals it provides. A story in the Victoria Advocate in Texas reports on how much the one truck means for the tiny food bank. According to the story, the food bank is expanding its retail store donations program and starting a mobile food pantry program, but with only one truck before, the success of those programs was likely going to be limited.

“This will help us double, maybe triple, our retail store pickups,” Dennis Brown, executive director of the Food Bank of the Gold Crescent, told the paper. “That means during the next three to five years, another million pounds of food we can distribute in the Victoria area.”

“With more than 90 million pounds of food donated to Feeding America’s network of food banks, Walmart is Feeding America’s top corporate partner in the fight against hunger,” said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America. “These 35 new refrigerated trucks are critical to the food banks and will make an enormous impact in allowing the safe transport of nutritious food to millions of people in need around the country. No American should go hungry, and we are proud to partner with Walmart and fight to end domestic hunger.”

For more information on Walmart’s charitable endeavors, including its fight against hunger, visit Walmart’s web site.

One of the great traditions during the Christmas season is the annual U.S Capitol Christmas tree. This year’s tree will have a connection to the trucking industry, and not just along the transportation route.

Remote asset tracking provider SkyBitz will be offering free tracking of the tree’s trip from the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in Arizona along a route that will visit cities throughout Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia and Maryland.

The public can log onto a special web site at www.trackthetree.com beginning on Nov. 10 and following it on its journey. SkyBitz’s GLS asset tracking services will provide the software.

“We are excited to provide this unique and interactive experience for everyone, young and old, to get engaged in this event and the activities and history that surround it,” said SkyBitz senior vp of marketing Craig Montgomery.

The tree, which will be cut down Nov. 7, will leave Eagar, AZ, on Nov. 10. It is an 85-ft. blue spruce and will arrive in Washington, D.C., on either Nov. 29 or 30, according to Mike Monfred, DOT & compliance manager of Southwest Industrial Rigging, based in Phoenix. Southwest is handling the transportation of the tree.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the arrival of Aldo Leopold to the Apache National Forest, so it’s only fitting that the tree is coming from that area and has been named the “The Aldo Leopold Centennial Tree.”

Leopold was considered a pioneer in the conversation of natural resources. So it’s also fitting that this year will mark the first time the tree has been transported in a vehicle running on alternative fuel. Southwest will be using two tractors to deliver the tree, associated “companion trees” and 6,000 ornaments.

The tractor pulling the tree itself is a 1991 Mack with a red, white and blue color scheme. The company will also use a 2001 Peterbilt for the second load. According to Monfred, the tree itself will travel on a Fontaine flat bed stretch trailer with an insertable deck. The trailer will extended to its full 80-ft. length and the total travel length of the vehicle will 102 ft.

The Peterbilt will haul a 53-ft. Utility Trailer van. Both trucks will make stops in Flagstaff, Show Low, Springerville, and Window Rock, AR, and Gallup, NM. Along the stops, 6,000 ornaments and 80 “companion trees,” which will be displayed around the Capitol Tree, will be added to the convoy.

But what really brings this project home is what brought Leopold to the Apache National Forest in the first place – conservation. The two tractors will make the trip running on biodiesel, the first time the Capitol Christmas Tree will be transported with a renewable fuel, according to Monfred.

For all of us who believe that companies want to do right by the environment first and foremost, a lesson was delivered on Friday that being green is still about making money.

Smith Electric Vehicles and its parent company Tanfield Group pulled out of its agreement to supply Ford Motor Co. with battery electric technology to convert the Ford Transit Connect into an all-electric model in the second half of 2010.

The reason: Tanfield doesn’t want the competition. It admitted as much in a press release announcing the move.

In the release, Tanfield stated “it was concerned that the market for electric car-derived vans would become increasingly competitive.” See Tanfield, through Smith Electric Vehicles, recently debuted the electric Smith Newton and according to the release, the company “believes that investing in the existing Smith platforms represents a better use of its financial resources, allowing it to take full advantage of a potentially very sizeable market and to gain market traction more quickly.”

In other words, Smith didn’t want to be supplying a competitor with the technology it was basing its own vehicle on. I don’t necessarily blame them, but sometimes the greater good should prevail.

For Ford’s part, it quickly partnered with Azure Dynamics and delivery of the electric Transit Connect should not be delayed. It was, and still is, slated for a debut in the second half of 2010. That’s the good news.

Let’s not cast a cloud over all companies because there are plenty of businesses willing to share their technological developments with any and all competitors because they believe it is the right thing to do. And it’s certainly not wrong for any company to want to keep its proprietary technology in-house.

In the end, the U.S. and Canadian truck market should still see an electric Transit Connect sometime next year, and perhaps with Smith going it alone, there will be viable competition in the electric van market. Let’s hope.