Trucks at Work Blog

“Rural roads are critically important to the success of our industry.” –Marvin Childers, president of The Poultry Federation

In the last of three reports compiled by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) dissecting U.S. transportation infrastructure needs, the group takes a hard look at situation faced by the rural areas of our nation.

This report – dubbed Connecting Rural and Urban America – of course calls for more investment in the transportation infrastructure serving America (for when do reports like this actually request LESS money, I ask you?)

Aside from that funding debate – and it’s a debate worth having – AASHTO’s research makes important points we should not soon forget about how important it is to make sure we maintain robust connections between rural and urban America. For example:

• Over 60 million people live in rural parts of the country – one out of every five Americans;

• In 2008, almost one out of eight people aged 65 and older lived in rural areas – equating to 9.6 million people;

• Some 66 cities with populations of 50,000 or more - including one state capital - do not have immediate access to the Interstate system;

• During the next 30 years, 80% of the nation’s population growth is expected to concentrate in the South and West.

And let’s not forget something even more critical: Rural America is in many ways the “breadbasket” of the country as a whole. So getting the food its farms and other agricultural businesses produce to the urban tables where much of the U.S.’s populace resides requires solid transportation pathways.

Take Mississippi, for example – home to AASHTO President and Mississippi DOT Executive Director Larry L. “Butch” Brown.

Agriculture in Mississippi is approximately a $6.3 billion dollar industry, with over 42,000 farms covering 11 million acres or more. “In Mississippi, we’re fortunate to have good waterways, ports, highways, and rail,” noted Brown. “But we must ensure that all rural states have good transportation options that will enable them to generate jobs and create strong economic growth.”

“Rural roads are critically important to the success of our industry,” said Marvin Childers, president of The Poultry Federation.

“Getting feed delivered to our farms and the chickens, turkeys and eggs delivered from the farms to our processing plants in a timely manner must take place for our industry to succeed,” he added. “Trucking is a critical mode of transportation for rural America. It carries 70% of agricultural and food products and provides the link between farmers, manufacturers, processors and markets. We cannot survive without a quality transportation system. Improving and keeping our transportation infrastructure in good repair is very, very important to the economy of this region.”

“The people who live in rural areas rely on commercial trucks, cell phones, and the Internet just as much as any city dweller,” AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley pointed out. “Yet many of our highways that serve rural areas were built back in the 1960s. Why do we expect our modern society to run on an archaic transportation system? We need a transportation system that works for the entire country of today – not one that struggles just to keep up with yesterday.”

That perspective, not surprisingly, is joined at the hip with a call for more spending on the transportation infrastructure serving rural America – and AASHTO’s report offers a three-point funding plan with those issues in mind:

• Continue to fund rural portions of the Interstate Highway System and other Federal-aid highways that connect America;

• Double federal investment in rural transit systems to meet rising demand; and

• Expand the existing capacity of the Interstate system; upgrade rural routes to Interstate standards; and connect newly urbanized areas to the Interstate system.

All of those ideas make sense, of course – if, that is, we weren’t dead broke as a nation, with $14 trillion in debt and federal government spending far exceeding tax revenues by about $1 trillion a year at this point.

The hard, cold facts of the transportation matter is that America can’t afford to invest what’s needed; unless, of course, we make drastic cuts in other areas of the bloated federal budget to pay for it. And that just doesn’t seem likely, at least anytime in the near future.

“We’re evolving technologies to develop the capability where vehicles will be able to avoid crashes.” –John Capp, director for gobal active safety for Cadillac

Many folks are going to scoff at the concept of a “crash proof car” and probably rightly so for many reasons. I mean, let’s face it: no matter how perfect the technology, a very fallible human being is going to be behind the wheel, making the key decisions governing a vehicle’s actions.

So if that human being is fatigued, distracted, or even worse, drunk or drugged, even the best vehicle safety technology package in world would be hard pressed to prevent a crash.

Yet, all that being said, vehicle engineers are pressing ahead with the concept of a “crash proof” car – because, frankly, many of them think it’s something that isn’t all that far-fetched.

Take John Capp (seen at right), director for global active safety for Cadillac, a division of General Motors. He believes a host of existing technologies have already brought us a good way down the “crash proof” vehicle path. For example, he pointed to a host of active safety technologies already in place on the 2010 Cadillac DTS Platinum sedan – systems that many truckers can get on big rigs, as well:

Lane departure warning: Camera-based lane detection system that warns the driver when he or she leaves their lane without signaling. The camera, mounted near the inside rearview mirror, identifies traffic lane markings and provides audible alerts.

Blind spot alert: Twin radar beacons that detect an object in a vehicle’s blind zone and provide a visual warning in the outside side mirror.

Adaptive cruise control: sensors detect objects in a vehicle’s path and slow the vehicle down to avoid a collision.

I myself recently took a 2009 Chrysler Town & Country minivan equipped with a blind spot alert system on a 100 mile or so test run, and let me tell you, that proved a huge help on crowded fast-moving highways. A yellow triangle in the driver’s side view mirror would light up when vehicles were in my blind spot, and if I activated the turn signal in that direction a warning chime sounded – one that automatically cut off the radio so I’d be fully alerted to the danger.

[Other OEMs are boosting the safety footprint of their vehicles. Here are some of the safety improvements Ford Motor Co. added to its F-150 pickup last year.]

Cadillac’s Clapp added that near-term safety technologies his team is now experimenting with include in-vehicle Doppler radar, which could help drivers better identify obstructions or traffic jams on the road ahead.

Looking even further out, Capp envisions the construction of “autonomous vehicles,” ones that can communicate with each other, as well as traffic signals and buildings, to further enhance their safety response if not eventually learn to drive themselves.

“We see things moving toward a point in the future where perhaps vehicles won’t crash,” said Capp. “That’s why we continue to work on developing advanced safety technologies that alert drivers to potential dangers around them.”

[Of course, it goes without saying that “crash proofing” a car includes designing them so the occupants are protected even if the vehicle itself gets torn to pieces. That work is done at places such as General Motor’s safety center at the Milford Proving Grounds, located just north of Detroit..]

Like I said earlier, truckers are no stranger to these types of safety systems. And indeed, suppliers on the trucking side of the vehicle world are themselves still working to improve upon them. For example, Iteris just rolled out a new system called SafetyDirect that is designed to analyze real-time driver performance captured via the company’s lane departure warning or “LDW” system, relaying that data directly to fleet operators through integration with the truck’s existing fleet communications system.

Such real-time transmission of data provides an immediate warning to fleet operators if their drivers are having difficulty staying in their lanes; often a first indicator of driver drowsiness or other potential problems.

Now, a lot of truck drivers might now be thinking, “Hey, this is nothing more than a way to spy on me.” And yes, there’s truth to that. But consider this: according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, rear-end, lane change and roadway departure crashes account for approximately 3.6 million police-reported crashes each year on U.S. roadways, with those three crash types resulting in about 27,500 of the country’s roughly 42,000 annual traffic fatalities.

Consider this, too: Iteris said that fleets using its LDW system report an average 84% reduction in lane departure-related accidents, which includes inadvertent lane change, sideswipe or run-off-road accidents.

So, if used properly, an LDW system connected back to a fleet’s safety department might give someone a chance to tell a driver, ‘Hey, you feel OK? You’re weaving out there on the road. Why don’t you take a break?’ And that might be all it takes to prevent a crash – even a minor one – and save both the driver and the fleet a lot of grief.

“This study highlights the magnitude of the problem of crash-related injuries from a cost perspective, and the numbers are staggering.” –Dr. Grant Baldwin, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s division of unintentional injury prevention

Think on this number for a minute: $99 billion. That’s the cost of medical care and productivity losses associated with injuries from motor vehicle crashes in just a one-year period, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

That roughly equates to a $500 yearly bill for each licensed driver in the U.S., the study found.

Now, the CDC’s researches used 2005 data for this research because it provided the most current source of national fatal and non-fatal injury and cost data from multiple sources.

Still, even with the five-year time lag in mind, the numbers still paint a shocking picture to say the least.

The one-year costs of fatal and non-fatal crash-related injuries segmented by type totaled $70 billion (71% of total costs) for people riding in motor vehicles, such as cars and light trucks; some $12 billion for motorcyclists; $10 billion for pedestrians; and $5 billion for bicyclists, according to the CDC’s analysis.

Here are some other despairing factoids:

• Costs related to fatal motor vehicle-related injuries totaled $58 billion. The cost of non-fatal injuries resulting in hospitalization amounted to $28 billion, and the cost of injuries to people treated in emergency departments and released was $14 billion.

• More men were killed (70%) and injured (52%) in motor vehicle crashes than women, with injuries and deaths among men represented 74% (some $74 billion) of all costs.

• Teens and young adults made up 28 percent of all fatal and nonfatal motor vehicle injuries and 31% of the costs ($31 billion) – and young people represent only 14% of the U.S. population.

• Motorcyclists made up 6% of all fatalities and injuries but 12% of the costs, likely due to the severity of their injuries.

• Pedestrians, who have no protection when they are hit by vehicles and are also often severely injured, made up 5% of all injuries but 10% of total costs.

Now, the CDC’s Injury Center believes a large portion of the deaths, injuries and related costs of highway crashes can be avoided by refocusing enforcement efforts in several key areas, such as:

• Graduated driver licensing (GDL) policies: these laws allow new teen drivers to get experience on the road in lower-risk situations as they gain experience over time and are proven to reduce teen crashes. Strong GDL laws have been associated with up to 40% decreases in crashes among 16-year-old drivers, the CDC said.

• Child safety seat distribution and education programs: increased use of correctly installed and fitted child safety seats could help reduce the $3.6 billion annual bill for injuries to children, the cost of deaths and injuries determined by this study for this population group.

• Primary seat belt laws: these laws allow motorists to be stopped and cited for not wearing seat belts. Seat belts reduce the risk of death to those riding in the front seat by about half, the CDC noted.

• Enhanced seat belt enforcement programs: Enhanced enforcement programs in which law enforcement officers focus on getting people to buckle up (e.g.: Click It or Ticket), are effective at increasing safety belt use and reducing deaths and injuries, the agency pointed out.

• Motorcycle and bicycle helmet laws: helmets can reduce the risk of death in a motorcycle crash by more than one-third and reduce the risk of brain injury by 69%.

• Sobriety checkpoints: these checkpoints, where drivers are stopped to assess their level of alcohol impairment, can reduce alcohol-related crash deaths by more than 20%.

However, it should be noted here that trucking is doing its part to improve the overall safety picture on our roadways.

For starters, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), large truck fatalities declined to 4,808 in 2007 – the lowest large truck fatality rate since 1992, and a 4.4% decrease from 2006.

Fatalities in large truck crashes also dropped for three years in a row, from 5,240 in 2005 to 4,808 in 2007, a total decline of 8.2%. Injuries are down as well, dropping to 101,000 in 2007 – a 4.7% reduction since 2006 and a big decline from a peak of 142,000 injuries in 1999.

Now let’s turn to seat-belt usage among commercial drivers. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) reported that overall safety belt use by commercial drivers climbed to 74% in 2009 from 65% in 2007, with seat belt use at 78% in states with primary safety belt laws – allowing law enforcement to stop drivers for not using a safety belt – versus 67% in states with weaker laws.

The agency’s study also found that national and regional fleet drivers showed a 78% use rate compared to owner-operators, whose usage rate was 64%. More importantly, overall seat belt use among commercial drivers of all types has jumped dramatically in a very short time – from 48% in 2004 and 2005 to over 74% today.

“This is significant because, if you look at truck driver fatalities in highway crashes, a large portion of them weren’t wearing their seat belts,” explained Steve Keppler, executive director for the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA).

“That seat belt usage rate not only directly impacts the number of lives saved on the highways, it also gives drivers a better opportunity to stay in control of the vehicle and perhaps reduce the severity of a crash – though that benefit is very difficult to quantify,” he stressed.

It also highlights, I believe, the willingness among commercial drivers to change behaviors behind the wheel in order to protect themselves and the other motorists around them on the highways. Something we should not forget as the debate continues on about how to lower the fatalities, injuries, and related costs of vehicle crashes.

“These are some pretty impressive numbers.” –Ralph Stockmayer, manager of sustainability, Penske Truck Leasing

I had the chance to sit in on a Discovery Forum 2010 session put together by Penske Truck Leasing the other day at one of its new facilities in Chester, VA – located just a little ways south of Richmond, the state’s capital.

Penske is holding a total of nearly 20 Discovery Forum sessions at select locations chosen from its nearly 1,000 facilities in the U.S. to help update its customer base on two critical topics: the new emission control technology installed on today’s trucks and the ramifications of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) new Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 (CSA 2010) regulations, due to start going into full effect by November.

The reason Penske is doing this is pretty simple, Chris Anderholm, the company’s area vice president for the Carolinas, told me: there’s an awful lot of change happening very fast right now in trucking, so fleets need to get up to speed quickly on how these changes will affect their operations.

“Since 2002, we’ve witnessed an extraordinary amount of change in this industry, especially in terms of emission technology and safety regulations,” he said. “So we wanted to make sure our customers are aware of all that’s happening and how it might change their business.”

Penske tapped longtime veteran Ralph Stockmayer – currently the company’s manager of sustainability – to give an overview of the emission technology issue, relating what information Penske’s been able to glean on the subject over the last few years.

[Here’s a view of some of his presentation. The 2% he talks about in here relates to the consumption of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), which is discussed further down in this post.]

Now, Stockmayer brings an interesting perspective to this issue. A 42-year veteran of the trucking industry, he spent 29 years as a private fleet manager of a 100-truck operation, with the last 14 spent in various positions within Penske Truck Leasing. He also put together a 32-page primer breaking down the intricacies of truck fuel economy six years ago – a booklet now in its third printing.

Stockmayer began his presentation pointing out a few key facts. First, there are two 2010 emission control technology packages – selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems and enhanced exhaust gas recirculation (E-EGR). Second, only Navistar, which builds International-braded trucks and MaxxForce-branded diesel engines, uses E-EGR; everyone else uses SCR.

“We’ve had two years worth of experience with trucks equipped with SCR; both in terms of demonstration units and equipment placed with customers for every day service,” he said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a similar experience with E-EGR; we haven’t received any of these engines yet.”

That means while Penske has data to report on the performance of SCR, it doesn’t have a comparable set on the E-EGR solution. “This isn’t to say we’re down on Navistar’s solution; in fact, we’ve got 300 trucks on order with them now,” Stockmayer stressed. “We just haven’t had the chance to test it out yet, so we don’t have any performance data.”

With SCR, however, it’s a different story. Stockmayer pointed to a fleet-wide comparison conducted with one of Penske’s customers between trucks equipped with 2007 emission-compliant Detroit Diesel Corp. (DDC) Series 60 engines and DDC’s new 2010 DD-13 models using SCR. Both engines were rated at 455 horsepower, pulling 80,000-pound rigs in the Midwest.

The Series 60 trucks averaged 5.656 miles per gallon (mpg) while the DD-13 trucks delivered an average of 6.3 mpg – an 11.3% gain, Stockmayer reported. Now, that figure needs to be reduced by 2% to account for the amount of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) being sprayed into the exhaust stream as part of the SCR solution to reduce oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions down to the required level of 0.2 grams per brake horsepower hour (g/hp-hr).

Still, said Stockmayer, a net 9.3% fuel economy gain is impressive – especially since the OEMs predicted a far more conservative 3% to 5% gain.

Penske is now also ordering Volvo VNL sleeper-cab tractors, equipped with Volvo’s own D13 engine. Stockmayer noted that a demonstration Volvo VNL unit being shared with Penske customers achieved 6.91 mpg on a 500-plus mile run, despite nearly 45% engine idle time – again, a significant fuel economy achievement.

Now, this doesn’t mean the SCR experience is all peaches and cream. For starters, it is adding anywhere from $8,500 to $11,000 to the list price of a 2010 truck, depending on its gross vehicle weight (GVW) and engine displacement. There’s also the additional weight of the SCR components to factor in, additional maintenance required for the system, as well as the consumption of DEF to consider as well.

“Right now, we’re seeing an average of 2% DEF consumption – roughly two gallons of DEF for every 100 gallons of diesel fuel,” Stockmayer said. Roughly, that means drivers will need to fill up with DEF about every third time they fill up on fuel.

So far, the per-gallon cost of DEF is running equal to diesel fuel except when sold in small volumes, he noted, such as the two gallon bottles available in truckstops; those “jugs” are running $4 to $5 right now per container.

Still, even with all of that taken into consideration, Penske’s data shows that SCR is proving itself rather well in the field – especially in terms of boosting fuel economy. And if those fuel savings stay consistent, it could help fleets generate a decent return on investment (ROI) to help them offset the higher initial cost and ongoing maintenance expense of this new technology.

Only time will tell.

“We’re not sure of all the fleets out there – especially the 10 to 20 truck operators – fully understand the equipment implications of the new CSA 2010 rules. That’s why we’re engaging in several outreach efforts, to try and explain what these new regulations in terms of how fleets take care of their equipment.” –Jeff Sass, marketing manager, Paccar Parts

The implementation date for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) new Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 (CSA 2010) set of safety regulations isn’t far off – it’s November this year, to be exact – and when these new rules go into full effect, many fleets are going to find more emphasis placed on how they maintain their equipment than ever before.

For example, the new CSA 2010 program identifies 10 different groups of parts and accessories that the government considers critical for safe operation, stressed Chris Harrison, general manager of CIT Kenworth of Morton, IL

Among them are lamps, reflective devices, electrical wiring, brakes, glazing and window construction, fuel systems, coupling devices including fifth wheels, miscellaneous equipment such as heaters, and frames, cab and body components, he explained.

As a result, Harrison recommends truck operators and maintenance managers take a number of steps can take to make sure their equipment complies with the new CSA 2010 rules. Those steps include:

• Wash trucks and trailers routinely, particularly during the winter season to remove chemical de-icers and road salts. Routine washings not only prevent corrosion of the body, it also prevents the buildup and potential damage to truck and trailer electrical systems and wheel components, including brakes. Routine washings also help prevent build up of road salts on fifth wheels, which can cause them to seize up. Allowing calcium chlorides and salts to settle on truck and trailer parts for long periods of time can encourage premature damage, particularly if any cracks or chips develop in the protective coating.

• Develop a routine maintenance program for trailers. That includes periodic inspections and replacement of trailer brakes, such as spring brake chambers. Trailers can often sit unused for long periods of time in truck operations, meaning maintenance issues can sometimes go overlooked.

• Consider a replacement program for truck, tractor and trailer lights. New light emitting diode (LED) lighting products can enhance detection of the vehicle or trailer when it’s parked in a dark or dimly lit parking lot or on the side of a road, something that’s particularly important in the dead of winter.

• Follow engine manufacturers’ recommendations for regular valve adjustments and diesel particulate filter [DPF] cleanings. Note this this is needed only for trucks equipped with 2007 or later compliant emission systems.

• Conduct regular analysis of your engine oil condition. This can help you identify potential failures prior to a major expense or downtime.

“As with any vehicle or trailer, regular preventive maintenance properly conducted can identify the potential for problems in the shop before they occur on the road or become a violation of the new federal regulations,” Harrison stressed.

Another big issue is what to do about placing trucks parked for long stretches back into freight-hauling service. “Checking out idled trucks used for spare parts during the economic downturn before they return to service will be particularly important after new federal safety regulations go into effect,” he said.

Harrison said before returning an idled truck to service, it should always be thoroughly checked out – preferably by a trained, qualified technician – since CSA 2010 establishes vehicle maintenance as one of seven categories under which carriers will be examined.

Andy Cox, service manager for CIT Kenworth of Chicago in Joliet, IL, added that the practice of using idled trucks for spare parts was common among a variety of customers from line haulers to construction companies.

Cox recommends an automated parts inventory and fleet maintenance tracking program can be helpful here, particularly ones highlighted in the CSA 2010 rulebook.

“One of the issues we run into is where parts have been taken off of sidelined trucks, but no records were ever kept of which parts were removed,” Cox said. “So if they took a fuel pressure sensor, for example, and no one wrote it down, then nobody would notice until somebody tried to start the truck.”

Here are some other critical areas to double check, he noted, as idled equipment gets prepped for a return to active duty:

• Check the fuel tanks, fuel lines, and fuel filters before putting idled trucks back into service. During the winter, water or moisture can condensate on top of the fuel tank from the fuel constantly freezing and thawing. The lower the fuel level in the tank, the bigger the problem can be, he added. Algae begins to form, actually, from the water condensation within the tank, not the diesel fuel itself, but it can ultimately contaminate the fuel.

• Do not use diesel additives to treat algae in a fuel tank. The truck should be towed to a repair facility that can drain the fuel tank, the fuel pump and fuel lines, properly dispose of the contaminated fuel and clean the injectors and filters, he added. Using additives inside the tank can make the contamination problem worse, particularly if the truck has a 2007 model or newer engine. Newer engines depend on a fuel with very low sulfur content in order to meet the strict emission limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the California Air Resources Board.

• Replace damaged fuel tanks with OEM-quality replacement tanks. These should be ones uses the same thickness and grade of aluminum standards called for in OEM manufacturing.

• Check engine oil seals. When trucks sit for long periods of time without being routinely started and allowed to run for brief amounts of time, the rubber in the seals can actually dry out and deteriorate.

• Examine drive belts, hoses, fittings and adaptors, plus the exhaust system for leaks.

These are just some of the things fleets must keep a closer eye upon as a new set of safety regulations begins to take hold this winter.

“As more aerodynamic improvements are added to trucks and trailers, they are creating a bigger ‘tunnel effect’ under the vehicle, significantly increasing the air temperature and thus the stress on components such as ujoints.” –Jim Holman, chief engineer-drivershaft products for Dana Holding Corp.

Ah, pity the poor universal joint assembly – more commonly known as a “ujoint” within the trucking community. Tucked away out of sight and often out of mind under the belly of today’s trucks, ujoints find themselves dealing with ever increasing stress due to higher under-vehicle air temperatures and greater torque loads.

So it’s no wonder component makers are working up new ujoint designs, to handle the harsher work environments these products now face. For whether you operate heavy- or light-duty trucks, the ujoints remains a critical linchpin between the engine, transmission, and axles – transferring ever-greater amounts of engine power to the wheels with no relaxation in standards for durability, reliability, and longevity.

[Here’s just one example of a ujoint in action; a light-duty model that’s developed a nasty knock due to the rigors of its job requirement.]

Now, though, Dana Holding Corp. is rolling out a new ujoint design for heavy-duty trucks – one designed to handle the increasing amounts of punishment increasingly being dealt out on a daily basis underneath the chassis.

The company’s new Spicer Life Series (SPL) Model 250 for Class 8 tractors is designed to offer a 40% improvement in dynamic bearing capacity to create a driveline with 70% more power density compared – all within the same-sized package as previous versions, according to Jim Holman, Dana’s chief engineer for driveshaft products.

Some of the new features of Dana’s SPL-250 ujoint include a new bearing package with larger needle bearings for increased capacity, a special Viton synthetic seal for improved grease retention and serviceability, and a thermoplastic seal guard to exclude contaminants. In addition, the company is “factory filling” the new SPL-250 with synthetic lubricant to help boost bearing life past its initial three-year/350,000-mile lubrication interval.

So, why all the hubbub in this space over this new component? Actually, it’s actually in response to how the environment under today’s Class 8 truck chassis is radically changing, requiring a shift in thinking about how fleets take care of components living “down under” so to speak.

“As more aerodynamic improvements are added to trucks and trailers, they are creating a bigger ‘tunnel effect’ under the vehicle, significantly increasing the air temperature and thus the stress on components such as ujoints,” Dana’s Holman told me. “That’s happening due in part to the higher amounts of heat being generated by low-emission engines.”

It’s a vexing issue, because in the past, the free flow of air underneath a truck helped cool down components to a degree, he explained.

Now, with aerodynamic changes “walling off” the undercarriage, the only air flowing underneath a vehicle is coming out of the engine compartment – air already fiery in nature due to exhaust gas reciriculation (EGR) and other emission-control systems, Holman said. As a result, it’s not uncommon for under-chassis temperatures to reach 200 degrees Fahrenheit, he told me.

That’s but one reason Dana did what he calls a “360 degree” evaluation of the SPL-250 – and one outcome of that effortwas the development of a new synthetic grease specifically designed to operate in those extremely hot under-carriage conditions now being found under trucks.

Then there’s increased engine power to handle, as well. “Even though customers are slowing down to improve fuel efficiency, thus lowering the number of driveshaft rotations, more torque is being transmitted through each rotation,” Holman noted. “That’s increasing the force being applied through the ujoint in addition to the hotter air temperatures it’s being exposed to.

[You can see clearly in this shot how hard as ujoint works – and this is on a light-duty truck!]

Tom DeHaven, Dana’s senior manager for driveshaft products, added that there are typically five ujoints on a Class 8 truck – three “main” driveline ujoints and two on the inner axle. The SPL 250 is a main driveline joint, whereas the company’s SPL 170 – which underwent design improvements not long ago – are inner axle models.

The key with both, however, is regular preventive maintenance (PM) – checking them every time a truck comes in for service. “You need to check for looseness at every PM; you want your drivers and technicians to look at them regularly, just to make sure everything is OK,” he said.

The thing is, with fleets looking to extend service intervals on everything from engine coolant and oil changes, those PM checks are getting fewer and farther in between – adding to the need for design improvements, DeHaven said.

“In Europe, for example, they’ve largely gone to a maintenance-free ujoint design,” he said. “The problem is, truck operating conditions in Europe are very different from ones in North America – they don’t experience the true long-haul stresses on trucks we see in the U.S. That’s why we still encourage fleets to make regular checks on ujoints part of their PM practices.”

“The main goal of this project is help the city of Flint, MI, basically get all the fuel for their vehicles for free.” –Brenda Lemke, Kettering University

So I’m reading about a project that Kettering University recently wrapped up, whereby they converted a 2500HD Chevy Silverado pickup to a dual-fuel system, capable of running on either gasoline or natural gas. Yet the goal of the project is NOT to run this pickup of natural gas, but rather on the “biomethane” byproduct given off by the city of Flint, MI’s wastewater treatment plant.

Here’s the cool part: if this works right, Flint is basically going to power all of its buses and city vehicles (cars and trucks alike) on the biomethane produced from the waste leftover water treatment process. In effect, the city would get fuel for all of its vehicles for free, once it pays off the cost of installing technology used to capture and “clean” the biomethane given off from wastewater treatment.

“We got involved in this project about a year ago through a grant the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) received from the DOE (Department of Energy),” Brenda Lemke from Kettering told me by phone.

“The city of Flint had already formed a partnership to captures and process the gas given off by the wastewater treatment process,” she added. “So we got involved to help determine if that gas could be a practical source of fuel for all manner of vehicles.”

A few years back, Flint forged a partnership with Swedish Biogas International to work on a “biogas-to-energy” project. Sweden, as many might not know, does NOT have natural gas resources within its borders, so it relies on “biogas,” also known as “biomethane,” as an alternative fuel for vehicles.

Now, many such biogas projects in the U.S. aim to take the “clean” methane they produce and feed it into natural gas pipelines to earn some money.

[Here’s an example of one in California, which takes the manure produced from 2,600 dairy cows and turns it into natural gas used to produce electricity and heat homes.]

In Flint’s case, the city wants to tap into this “waste gas” for vehicle fuel. It just so happened that one of Kettering’s alumni, Rebecca Royer, is the owner and president of Baytech Corp., a California company that builds natural gas “conversion kits” for vehicles. Using one of Baytech’s kits, Kettering’s research team converted the aforementioned 2500 HD Silverado this April so it could operate on both natural gas and gasoline.

The natural gas is stored in a tank in the truck bed at 3,600 PSI (pounds per square inch), Lemke told me, and is piped into the engine bay, ending at the top of the engine. “Baytech’s kits also ‘reflashes’ the vehicle’s ECU [engine control module] so it ‘knows’ when it’s running on gasoline or natural gas,” she noted. “That way, if there’s a problem, the diagnostic program will know whether it’s issue occurring when running on gasoline or natural gas.”

Lemke also said the on-board computer switches automatically between gasoline and natural gas while driving. Because the composition of natural gas and biomethane are so similar, the truck should run well with biomethane in the tank instead of natural gas, she added.

Again, getting vehicles to run on biomethane isn’t a new endeavor by any means. For example, the city of Lille, France, converted most of its city bus fleet to run on biogas a few years ago (an effort detailed in the clip below.)

Sweden’s Volvo Trucks is also testing a biomethane gas-powered heavy truck right now in Sweden and Great Britain; one that provides the same power and driveability as a diesel vehicle.

“This unique technology allows us to combine the advantages of gas with the diesel engine’s high efficiency rating, which is about 30 to 40% superior to that of the spark plug engine,” commented Lars Martensson, environmental director for Volvo Trucks, in a story compiled by my editorial compatriot Brian Straight last year. “As a result, this truck consumes considerably less energy than traditional gas trucks do.”

Volvo’s biomethane-powered trucks, which it said meet Euro 5 exhaust emissions standards, will be fuelled by a mixture of methane gas and diesel fuel, including biodiesel. Both natural gas and biogas consist of methane, but natural gas is a fossil fuel while biogas is produced from biodegradable material such as waste.

“Methane gas is by far the most accessible fuel as an alternative to diesel,” said Martensson. “There are larger reserves of natural gas than oil. But above all, production of climate-neutral biogas is gaining momentum in many countries, which solves the most urgent problem, reducing CO2 [carbon dioxide] emissions.”

Indeed, the potential to use biomethane as a vehicle fuel is the also going to be the subject of a one-day workshop being sponsored by the California-based group Clean Transportation Technologies and Solutions (CalStart) on November 18 this year.

One reason biomethane is getting so much attention all of the sudden is that many studies are discerning that it could be a huge potential source of energy – and an easily renewable source at that. For example, the Öko-Instituts and the Institut für Energetik in Leipzig carried out a study a couple of years ago and found, if current production trends continue, all of Europe’s natural gas imports from Russia could be covered by locally produced biogas/biomethane within 20 years.

The EU currently imports some 40% of all its natural gas from Russia, the study noted, and 2030, this dependency will have increased to 60% (all else being equal). Yet Europe’s potential for the sustainable production of biomethane is 17.7 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) per year – roughly the total amount of natural gas currently consumed by the entire European Union. The production of 17.7 Tcf of biomethane, fed into the EU’s power grid, could result in a reduction of 15% of Europe’s CO2 emissions.

That’s a pretty enticing prospect – and is one reason why I suspect we’ll be seeing more pilot tests of biomethane in a variety of applications, including vehicles, in the near future.

“We are mining this vast storehouse of information to help fleets improve safety and efficiency, reduce distracted driving incidents and save lives.” –Jason Palmer, SmartDrive Systems

OK: hold on a minute here.

I’m all for cracking down on texting and talking on the cell phone while driving, for it’s a no-brainer that these activities distract vehicle operators – of cars and commercial trucks alike – thus significantly increasing the risk of crashes.

But here’s the problem: more “mundane” activities are getting lumped under the heading “distractions while driving” that I don’t think should be there – especially if, by designating them as such, we’ll be giving police officers the authority to write tickets for such activities.

[Remember, though: texting and talking on the phone while driving remain VERY bad ideas. Here’s a good story put together by a New Mexico TV news team to illustrate this point. Be patient: you’ll have to sit through a 15 second Allstate commercial first.]

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. SmartDrive Systems, which provides in-cab video systems to commercial fleets, recently released the results of its latest SmartDrive Distracted Driving Index (SDDI) – a quarterly benchmark of driving distraction rates among its customer base.

The SDDI data is derived from the firm’s SmartDrive Safety program, which uses in-vehicle recorders to capture video, audio and vehicle data during sudden stops, swerves, collisions and other events. Event data is then categorized and scored according to over 50 safety observations points. Then SmartDrive takes that SDDI data and compares drivers in their first three weeks in the SmartDrive Safety program with drivers who have benefited from more time in the program.

The most recent iteration of the SDDI study evaluated more than 3.51 million video events recorded in April, May and June this year, involving 21,456 commercial drivers. It discerned that the incidence of distracted driving among new drivers in the program was 11.8%, up from almost 10.8% in the first quarter of 2010.

But here’s the slippery slope. SmartDrive logged the five most common distractions, according to its research, and noted changes in their occurence from the first to second quarter. Take a look:

• Object in Hand = 3.9%, down 11%

• Handheld Mobile Phone = 1.9%, up 27%

• Beverage = 1.6%, up 7%

• Smoking = 1.3%, up 30%

• Operating Handheld Device = 1.1%, up 38%

Um … consuming a BEVERAGE behind the wheel is a distraction now? And SMOKING? Whoa, wait a minute here. I mean, it is one thing to be yakking on the phone or trying to type out ‘luv yr mutt’ on one of those Lilliputian mobile device keyboards, but taking a swig of COFFEE?

To quote a severely edited line from the movie Pulp Fiction: it ain’t in the same ball park; it ain’t the same league; it ain’t even the same dang sport!

And this is not a laughing matter (despite my attempt at near-humor), for SmartDrive is going to provide its SDDI findings at the U.S. Dept. of Transportation at the agency’s 2010 Distracted Driving Summit, scheduled for Sept. 21, 2010, in Washington, D.C.

Here’s something else to consider: according to the very video data pool SmartDrive compiled, sipping beverages and smoking don’t seem to be the leading cause of distraction; nor are they likely to be behaviors associated with what the company terms “near collision” events.

For example, two distractions in particular continue to plague newer commercial drivers: operating a handheld device and using a handheld mobile phone. In both instances, just 5% of the new drivers in the second quarter accounted for the majority of events involving those devices; some 57% of all mobile phone incidents captured and 47% of all operating-handheld-device incidents.

[SmartDrive, by the way, calls this group “the 5% factor” in its report, noting that 5% of new drivers accounted for 33% of all recorded distracted driving incidents in its second quarter analysis, while 10% of new drivers accounted for more than 56% of all risky driving events in the same period.]

SmartDrive also expanded its study to include analysis of near-collisions by all drivers, along with the behaviors that led up to those events. By analyzing in-cab activity captured on video in the 15 seconds prior to those events, the company’s evaluators were able to observe several behaviors associated with the near-collisions.

The four most common behaviors observed in near-collision events in the second quarter were: drowsiness/falling asleep, running through a stoplight or stop sign, engaging in a lane change (merging or passing) and following at an unsafe distance.

Drowsiness was 23.2 times more likely to occur in near-collision events than in events which were not categorized as near collisions; and running stoplights or stop signs was 13.3 times more likely. But I’d be willing to BET that sipping and smoking were NOT major causation factors in those near-collisions.

Make no mistake, though: this issue of “distracted driving” is very serious and needs to be addressed. But we must also be VERY careful what we designate as a “distraction” going forward, too, or it might very well spark some serious pushback against efforts to get the public to change driving behaviors.

“The movement of data through the global supply chain is now as important as the movement of freight.” –Bill Todd, business development manager, CargoWise

One of the more interesting facets about the freight world these days regards the high importance now attached to the speedy (and accurate) flow of data.

This isn’t a new topic, of course: indeed, the need to quickly obtain correct information concerning domestic and global shipments alike is an issue that dates back to the first movements of freight (whenever the heck THAT was!)

[You know, this is as good a time as any to take a step back and think about what goes into the supply chain in the first place. Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business put together a slick twelve-part video series on this very topic – including a whole section on information technology, which you’ll see in a bit. Here’s the first part, providing a neat “overview” of what supply chain management truly entails.]

In the past, though, data didn’t have to be super-precise: rough approximations of delivery times were the norm, largely because transit times themselves varied wildly. Nowadays, of course, precision is the goal of the freight world, with billions of electronic bytes flying far ahead of actual shipments to clear national clear borders so they can arrive “just in time” to be plugged into production lines or placed on shelves for purchase.

That need for precise and speedy data is only going to increase in the future, too, in the opinion of Bill Todd, business development manager for logistics software provider CargoWise.

“For example, we’re increasingly witnessing a dramatic shift in the kind of data requests importers are seeking during the bid process,” he explained recently. “The focus is shifting from the ability to classify and perform the necessary import data entries to being able to provide accurate import data that traces the importation process back to the origin of the goods.”

Todd (at right) added that this shift in importers’ data requirements has been driven by the sheer increase in the volume of imports over the past 20 years, which means that much of the critical data related to the import process is not available until the shipment clears customs for entry.

The result is that not only is the data often incomplete, but frequently contains hidden costs or data stored in different “buckets,” making it difficult for the importer to accurately assess the true landed cost of an import shipment.

“The fact is that the software systems of most large importers have no way to gather all of the needed data from their internal systems,” Todd noted. “Therefore, they must rely on their freight forwarder and customs broker to provide the critical data they need. As a result of this, along with expanding global supply chains and new reporting regulations, we are seeing a shift to the end-to-end management of data back to the origin of shipment, in addition to the movement of freight in order to remain profitable.”

In today’s global economy, he said, the current trend in obtaining shipment data is to track the information deeper into the supply chain to gain greater visibility – all the way down to the purchase order level and line items in the original purchase order.

“Total visibility throughout the supply chain, from the actual site of origin to final destination, is now the ultimate goal,” Todd stressed. “Importers today are increasingly requiring visibility from the time components leave the manufacturer to the time they arrive at final destination.”

[Here’s ASU’s take on the information technology needs of modern-day supply chains.]

To do so, importers want customized reports from their broker, or the ability to generate their own reports which include many of the data fields in the entry itself. “They must rely heavily on the import data obtained from their freight forwarders and customs house brokers to manage the supply chain more effectively and to accurately compare global sourcing points,” he pointed out.

“Even in an increasingly challenging business environment, most logistics service providers and customs house brokers can capably move the freight and clear entries,” Todd added. “But, as the movement of data has become notably more important than just the movement of shipments, the role of the broker as classification expert has shifted back to the importer of record.

Here’s the important part of all of this, he said; something even truckers need to think about: “Competition throughout the entire supply chain has narrowed margins between the most and least expensive logistics providers,” Todd stressed. “In this competitive logistics management atmosphere, the ability to provide total, extended supply chain visibility and customized reporting tools can make the difference in who wins and maintains business.”

Now, this shouldn’t be news to anyone working in the freight business, but it’s important in terms of establishing “why” truckers and others need pay attention to how accurate and fast they can transmit freight data as well as the freight itself. For data flow is going to remain a critical competitive battleground for years to come.

“The old traditional trailer designs using different metals – i.e. aluminum in lieu of steel – and cutting corners to reduce weight have been virtually exhausted. That’s why we’ve spent a lot of time and money developing new products.” –Hank Prochazka, vp-sales and marketing with Fontaine Trailers

Let’s face it: for many years, most trucking operators regarded trailers as something of an afterthought. Far more attention got paid to the front of the tractor-trailer and for some very good reasons, too; the biggest one being a Class 8 truck costs a lot of coin.

Nowadays, though, trailers are getting almost as much attention, and for good reasons of their own.

Take for example California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) broad heavy-duty vehicle greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction mandate that went into effect Jan. 1 this year, requiring fleets operating 53-ft refrigerated or dry van trailers to use models certified under the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay program, or use trailer aerodynamic devices to achieve 5% fuel savings for dry vans and 4% fuel savings for refrigerated models.

While flatbed trailers are lucky enough (for now, at least) to avoid being targeted by such regulatory efforts, that doesn’t mean they get to stand pat – not by a long shot. Even flatbeds are rapidly changing as fleets and owner-operators alike demand models that can haul more, last longer, and save fuel – all in an effort to help the trucker reduce bottom-line costs over time.

“Most fleets expect lighter weight flatbed trailers to be more fuel efficient, but that is not necessarily the case,” Hank Prochazka, vp-sales and marketing with Fontaine Trailers, told me recently.

“A traditional trailer that is 1,000 pounds lighter only equates to a few dollars per year in fuel savings,” he explained. “To improve fuel economy with a flatbed, the flexibility of a trailer needs to be recognized as the critical factor. When a traditional flatbed travels down the road it bends more than a box van since it does not have side walls and a roof to help support it. This bending and flexing magnifies tire scrub and intensifies the frictional forces that pull against the power equipment. Obviously, this reduces fuel mileage and causes tires to wear prematurely.”

Prochazka noted that it’s a simple law of physics that the straighter a flatbed tracks, the better the fuel mileage. That’s one reason why Fontaine developed its “unitized flooring system” for its new Revolution trailer line. “A ‘unitized’ floor does not bend and flex like traditional designs, while drivers do not feel the ‘sway and pull’ behind them, resulting in better traction, less friction and improved fuel economy,” he pointed out.

That flooring design also helps fleets spec’ing wide-based tires on their flatbeds in an effort to gain both fuel economy and weight savings.

“We have noticed an increase in the flatbed demand for these tires, [but] fleets that try them are usually disappointed by the poor tire life caused by trailer flex and tire scrub associated with traditional flatbed trailers,” Prochazka told me.

“The unitized flooring, though, solves this problem as its straighter track virtually eliminates tire scrub and leads to an increase in wide-base tire life,” he said.

All of this is critical, Prochazka noted, because customers are looking at lower deck heights for their flatbeds – some moving from 48-in. x 102-in. decks to 53-in. x 102-in. decks to offer their customers more versatility. “All this comes with the added weight concerns,” he stressed.

“There is an active demand for both unit weight reduction and increased floor loading capacity,” added David Pickup, manager of product engineering development for Wabash National.

Though Wabash is known mainly for its DuraPlate dry van trailer model, Pickup said all trailer models are feeling the squeeze on weight, longevity, etc.

“These requirements are, and will continue to be, a driver [for] the use of newer, higher strength materials, together with associated changes in design to ensure their optimal use,” he told me. “We’ll also see increasing demand – driven by both legislative and environmental reasons – for the greater incorporation of aerodynamic devices into the trailer structure rather than as ‘after the fact’ add-ons.”

To gain greater longevity, trailer makers are stepping up their efforts to combat the negative effects of corrosion. Fontaine’s Prochazka said design changes are one weapon OEMs are using. “On traditional trailers, cross-members pass through holes that are punched into the main-beams. But our Revolution design eliminates this major point of corrosion due to dirt, snow and ice accumulation since the enclosed floor rests on top of the main-beams,” he noted.

Steve Zaborowski, senior vp-operations for XTRA Lease, pointed out to me that his company is spec’ing its undercarriages more frequently with galvanized steel and coated with a variety of paints to help them better resist corrosion. This is also true for trailer brake shoes, which XTRA now buys with special liners to help them resist what’s called “rust jacking.”

“The magnesium chloride and other chemicals they use to clear ice and snow off the road can get into the brakes and cause the brake shoes to crack,” Zaborowski told me. “It’s not a safety issue, because we’d catch something like that during inspections when trailers enter and leave our yards. But it leads to shorter product life, costing us time and money to replace. By getting shoes with shields on them, we avoid that cost for us and our customers.”

“Corrosion resistance of both the under frame and the rear frame have certainly become a key factor for many customers,” added Rob Fortney, Wabash’s general sales manager. “That’s why we offer a hot dipped galvanized rear frame and under ride guard as well as a full stainless steel offering. We are also working with a number of our suppliers to expand the number of other components we can offer with galvanizing such as cross members, bogies, support gear bracing, etc.”

Looking into the future, customers are going to continue examining their business environment first – what shippers will demand, changes in regulations, fuel and other operating costs and competitive environment – and then establishing their true cost of ownership over that expected life span of the equipment, Fontaine’s Prochazka told me.

“Customers are typically willing to pay more up front for better equipment if they can see savings down the road,” he explained.

And if that perspective holds up in the rough and tumble world of trucking, that’ll be one of the biggest changes to the world of trailers.