“Courage is being scared to death … but saddling up anyway.” –John Wayne.

You can hear the tires scream as we corner around the orange cones at a shade over 35 mph. Looking in the rear view mirrors perched on the cab’s nose, I can see the tanker we’re pulling keel over sharply. The only reason it doesn’t kiss pavement – taking myself and the driver of our tractor with it – are a long pair of outriggers that keep us upright. The G-forces push me out of my seat nonetheless, my stomach giving a sickening lurch, my heart rate hits the stratosphere, and my body tightens involuntarily – expecting the worst to come.

“Whoa, pretty aggressive on that one,” the driver said. (Talk about understatements.)

Yet the next time we take the corner, it’s a whole different story. This time, the truck’s engine de-throttles in a hurry, the air brakes pulsing in rapid succession, keeping us level with all 18 tires on the rough asphalt beneath us – showcasing the wonders of electronics stability control (ESC). My body still stiffens, again instinctively readying itself for trouble … but the moment passes much easier this time, the violence of our turn removed by active safety systems.

“That’s better,” the driver noted, almost to himself. (Oh, you can say that again.)

It was all part of a comprehensive safety technology demonstration put on by ArvinMeritor here on a wide patch of sandpaper-like blacktop scant feet from the runways of Orlando, Florida’s Executive Airport. Test drivers demonstrated the capabilities of trucks equipped with roll stability control (RSC), the aforementioned ESC, and the company’s newest safety product, called OnGuard: a forward-looking, radar-based adaptive cruise control system with active braking, which improves vehicle safety by automatically using the vehicle foundation brakes to alert the driver and decelerate the vehicle when a pre-set vehicle following distance is compromised.

Pursuing a pair of chase vehicles – a bobtailing tractor and a Chrysler minivan – drivers demonstrated how OnGuard would automatically cut engine power and activate the brakes to prevent a rear-end collision. And this isn’t prototype technology either: OnGuard is currently installed on nearly 200 vehicles and is targeted to become a factory-installed option on several truck brands by the third quarter this year.

(That’s Jon Morrison on the left, talking with Jean-Christophe Figueroa, VP-vehicle dynamics and controls for Meritor WABCO, on the right.)

“It’s designed to equip drivers with automated features that help ensure safe following distances and provide active braking as needed,” said Jon Morrison, president and general manager, Meritor WABCO Vehicle Control Systems. “The driver is still the most important element in maintaining vehicle safety; however, the system can provide the additional split-second deceleration needed to maintain control of the vehicle in an emergency situation.”

Meritor Wabco GM on collision mitigation

Description: Jon Morrison, president and general manager of Meritor Wabco, talks about how the company’s new collision mitigation system is built off proven technology.Listen here!

What a safety net for the commercial driver. You get distracted so much in heavy traffic – watching cars merging from the right, coming up on the left – that you can get caught by surprise by a sudden stoppage in front of you. Now here’s a technology that can cover you: providing 500-feet worth of constant forward vision, able to literally “see” around corners due to a gyroscope incorporated into the radar device itself. However, OnGuard’s algorithms are most effective at “locking in” on relevant objects at distances of 275 to 325 feet—a three-second following distance at highway speed. Not only does it warn you of an impending collision; it can actually step into the breech and start stopping the truck for you. (Can I please get this installed on my minivan?)

OnGuard collision mitigation podcast

Description: Alan Korn, chief engineer-vehicle dynamics and control for Meritor Wabco, explains how the OnGuard collision mitigation system is built off existing technology, making it easier to incorporate onto today’s heavy-duty trucks.Listen here!

This is a big deal for the trucking industry. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), such rear-end collisions account for over 20% of all heavy-truck crashes, with the truck the striking vehicle in 60% of those accidents. Inattention or poor decisions (e.g. driving too fast for the conditions or following too closely) are the primary factor in 66% of the collisions where fault is assigned to the truck driver, NHTSA noted.

(Alan Korn, Meritor WABCO’s chief engineer)

Yet … will fleets buy it? It’s not cheap, for starters (list price is $4,500). Second, insurance companies still don’t seem willing to give any discounts to fleets that step up and buy such technology, nor for RSC (list price $700) or ESC (list price $1,700). “We’re trying to work all the angles, especially when it comes to insurance discounts,” Morrison told me. “We’re all trying to show them where the benefits are versus the costs.”

Melletat explains safety benefits

Description: Mark Melletat, senior manager-marketing and communications, explains why driver acceptance of collision mitigation technology is a critical step for fleets, so carriers can gain the safety benefits this technology offers.Listen here!

One fleet even brought its insurance agent to the demonstration, to show them just how revolutionary this technology can be in terms of improving highway safety.

Yet, as Joe Plomin, vice president for ArvinMeritor’s truck components group, told me at some point it’s got to be about more than just the cost of this technology. “It can’t just be all about cost savings, though that’s important,” he explained. “At some point, it has to be about doing the right thing, about improving safety for the fleet, the driver, and the public. The focus has to be on what we can do to make trucking safety.”

Sure, making active safety systems more affordable is critical – trucking is a business after all – but with all the new safety systems now readily available from ArvinMeritor, Bendix, Eaton, and other suppliers, it’s foolish to relegate them to a dusty shelf entirely based on a dollars and cents equation. This technology can save lives – a lot of them. It’s time we find a way to get it to take a more active role in this industry.

I’m sort of a neat freak when it comes to keeping our family cars clean and tidy (which will surprise the hell out of my college roommates, no doubt, who knew me as ‘King Slob’ of our living quarters back in the day).

My wife isn’t a big fan of this behavior, gritting her teeth when she sees me vacuuming or washing one of our aging rides – telling me on more than one occasion that, “If you are such a clean freak, why aren’t you cleaning the bathrooms?” Well, you don’t take the bathroom over to the neighbor’s house, nor do you take the neighbor’s kids and the rest of the soccer team in the bathroom to games. The bathroom doesn’t pick the boss up at the airport, nor does it help your friends move to a new home.

The point is that vehicles become an extension of ourselves, in a way, when we interact with others, either for fun or for business. Their condition sends a message just as a loud and clear as personal dress and grooming habits. I once got a cargo facilities tour from a public relations professional in their personal vehicle and it was so dirty and foul smelling that it made me ill.

Most truckers understand how their vehicle’s appearance – interior as well as exterior – impacts how they are perceived, which extends to their personal appearance as well. But it’s not just about looking good – keeping your truck clean also helps it last longer.

Tim Brady, one of our excellent contributing editors and former owner-operator himself, told me he used to keep a small pressure washer handy in his truck so he could clean off all the road salt and grime off his rig at regular intervals – reducing the affects of corrosion. As Brady worked in the moving business, he added that keeping his truck clean helped immensely on the public relations front, too, as he’d be parked in front of someone’s home for long stretches of time.

Keeping it clean for me extends to keeping my rides regularly maintained as well – with the crankcase filled with clean oil, the transmission with clean fluid, the radiator with clean green coolant. Keeping tabs on those metrics helped make my S-10 pickup last 16 years and my Jeep go 11 years – and that’s some pretty good life cycle value, if I say so myself.

Highway tractors take a lot more pounding in some wretched conditions than anything I ever faced, of course (and my vehicles never pulled 80,000 pounds on a daily basis, either), but I’ve seen first-hand the benefits truckers can get by keeping their rigs in tip-top shape.

More times than I can count, wending my way along the parked rigs at the Mid America Trucking Show, among others, I’ve been struck by how many 10-year-old (or more!) tractors I see out there, weathered but clean, ready to roll out and haul more freight. Their drivers show them off with obvious pride, and it’s hard not to notice the clean dashboards, seats, tidy sleeper berths, etc., they maintain. They might not be show trucks, but they are always clean as a whistle and ready to roll.

You know, trailer security is a pretty big issue in this country, although it rarely makes the headlines. That’s a direct result in the booming growth in cargo theft – a crime that, in many places, still carries little in the way of penalties while offering a hefty monetary return.

Annual losses to cargo theft are hard to pin down, though. Estimates range from $3.5 billion annually, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), to between $10 billion and $15 billion per year, as calculated by the International Cargo Security Council. Indirect costs related to cargo theft – not including all law enforcement or security technology costs – range from $20 billion to $60 billion each year, according to several industry estimates.

“Cargo theft is our number-one priority,” said Unit Chief Eric Ives, who heads the Major Theft Unit in the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division in a report issues by the agency last year. According to Ives, the average freight on a trailer is valued between $12,000 and $3 million with the most common theft “hotspots” bring truck yards, hubs for commercial freight carriers, and port cities.

One way the trucking industry is looking to combat cargo theft while also getting some other efficiency benefits in the bargain is by tracking trailers. Making trailer tracking technology affordable, however, is a debate that’s raged for many years now in trucking. Now it looks like the latest chapter is going to be opened next month (January 8th to be precise) courtesy of an online “webinar” hosted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the American Trucking Research Institute (ATRI).

The January 8th “webinar” will focus on carrier utilization of un-tethered trailer tracking systems (UTT) and their potential to improve asset management while beefing up security in trucking operations. One of the participants is Mike Gabbei, chief information officer for Celadon Trucking Services. He’s someone I’ve interviewed before on technology topics and let me tell you his insight will be particularly valuable as he has a good knack for turning “technospeak” into clear English. Another will be Al Hoffer, director of trailer operations for Landstar Systems – another carrier that’s no slouch when it comes to using technology to improve efficiency (and thus cut costs while boosting profits).

To register for the webinar, send an email to FMCSA_Host@dot.gov and include the words “UTT Webinar” in the subject line. The online conference starts at 12 noon eastern standard on Jan. 8 and should run for about one and half hours, according to ATRI. Confirmation notices will be emailed within 24 hours of registration, containing the web address, phone number, and other relevant information for participation.

Whether you are considering using such technology or not for your fleet, I think it’s well worth attending, because one day – I am most certain of this – commercial truck trailers will all be equipped with some sort of tracking device, maybe by federal mandate.

“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Talked to Darry Stuart last week about trends in truck maintenance, focusing on the rapid increase in technological complexity of trucks, plus the computers and other electronic the tools technicians use to take care of them. While he freely admits that you can’t properly take care of trucks, nor run today’s modern shop, without the aid of computers and related technology, it’s still “the simple stuff” that costs fleets the most money in terms of maintenance – and generates the most vehicle downtime.

“Tires and brakes: those are still the top two maintenance items, in terms of dollars and out of service rates,” he told me by phone from his office in Boston. “The most basic things on trucks relate to the highest maintenance cost. That’s the reality of life in this business.”

Tires, for example, are typically the third-highest cost in any fleet’s budget – right behind labor costs and fuel. Then there’s brakes: according to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), brake-related citations remain the number one reason for putting vehicles out of service (OOS), with 30.1% of OOS citations pertaining to faults in brake-adjustment in 2005, with another 25.2% involving brake systems. By comparison, in 2005, lighting problems accounted for just 11.8% of OOS citations, tires and wheels 8.9%, safe loading 8.5% and suspensions 5.1%.

“The basic stuff – the non-computerized stuff – is what keeps the truck up and running,” Stuart said. Part of the problem revolves around how maintenance is being conducted in this computerized day and age, too, as fleet managers today are more likely to be holed up in their offices hour after hour, glued to computer screens and data files, rather than walking around the shop to see how things are going.

“Even today, with all the electronic data available, I still firmly believe ‘management by walking around’ must remain a key part of the maintenance manager’s day,” Stuart said. “You’ve got to be out on the floor where the work gets done, to see what’s going smoothly and what’s not.”

That also applies to the part’s room, he stressed. “You need to know not only what parts you have but where they are located,” Stuart emphasized. “A computer does not keep a part’s room neat and clean. It may tell you what’s in the room, but what good is that information if you can’t find it?”

It’s a reminder indeed that no matter how technologically advanced trucking gets, keeping a close eye on the simple stuff must remain a bedrock management principle.

“I’m going to rise today/and change this world.” –from the song “Rise Today” by Alter Bridge.

Couple weeks back, the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) made a pretty bold move in my estimation to beef up commercial vehicle safety: asking all the major North American heavy truck manufacturers to make anti-rollover devices standard equipment on all new Class 8 trucks.

Right now, two heavy truck OEMs – Volvo and Mack – have made one of the three currently existing anti-rollover systems standard equipment on all their new Class 8 trucks, with the others offering anti-rollover technology as an option. The CTA’s CEO, David Bradley, stressed that while such technology won’t prevent every rollover, it’ll go a long way to eliminating the majority of them.

“Of course, any stability system cannot prevent all situations and is in no way a replacement for good drivers and good driving practices,” he said in a written statement. “However, CTA is convinced that the current anti-rollover technology performs well with all types of tractor-trailer configurations and should become part of all standard new vehicle packages.”

The CTA started hammering on this issue after a spate of rollover truck crashes in central Canada this past summer that caused fatalities, serious injuries and/or highway shutdowns in some cases. “Whether all or some of these rollovers were the fault of the truck driver, or more than likely the fault of a car driver who cut off a truck, does not change the fact that our members feel from experience that the truck anti-rollover devices currently available for installation on new tractors can help prevent some of these incidents and is therefore pretty cheap insurance,” said Bradley.

He also noted that the next step is to consider wider use of electronic stability control or ESC on commerical trucks, which adds directional control benefits to the anti-rollover package. The U.S. government is mandating ESC for all new cars and light trucks by 2011 and Canada is considering whether to create a similar light-vehicle mandate as well. Bradley said that, while neither the U.S. nor Canadian governments has yet made a move to mandate the technology on heavy trucks, regulatory options are being investigated.

Before fleets on this side of the border start grousing about the cost of complying with such mandates – and fleets will pay extra bucks to cover the cost of making anti-rollover technology a standard feature, make no mistake about that – consider some of these numbers.

When Volvo made Bendix’s Electronic Stability Program (ESP) a standard feature on all of its VN and VT Class 8 tractors, it added about $995 to the base price of both models. In terms of dollars, what is that $995 for an ESP system really buying? Volvo crunched the numbers and the results are pretty compelling. The average cost of a single rollover is $109,000: $50,000 to repair the vehicle, $20,000 in cargo claims, $10,000 for towing, $10,000 for clean-up, $10,000 in down time, and $10,000 for higher insurance premiums

At a 5% profit margin, a fleet would have to generate $2 million in revenue to pay for one rollover accident, Volvo calculated – so paying $995 is pretty cheap by comparison.

Of course, this is just the start of the debate – the CTA is calling only for voluntary action right now. But it’s worth noting that this isn’t a government agency or safety group calling for this – these are the fleets themselves, the folks who’ll have to pony up the bucks for this safety technology. It’s good to see this kind of support shaping up for safety systems.

“Success is not something to wait for; it’s something to work for.” –Anonymous

It’s been a fact of life for decades now: U.S. automakers getting readily beaten up by their Japanese counterparts in reliability and durability ratings. Toyota, especially, proved itself to be the heavyweight champ, with its solid Camry sedan taking the top slot hands down year in and year out.

Until now, that is.

According to Consumer Reports’ 2007 Annual Car Reliability Survey, after years of sterling reliability, Toyota is showing cracks in its armor. The V6 version of the company’s top-selling Camry, and the four-wheel-drive V8 version of the Tundra pickup, both redesigned for 2007, now rate below average in Consumer Reports’ predicted reliability rating. In addition, the all-wheel-drive version of the Lexus GS sedan also received a below average rating.

By contrast, said David Champion, senior director of Consumer Reports’ Auto Test Center, Ford Motor Co.’s domestic brands have made considerable improvements – in fact, 41 of 44 Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury models (a whopping 93%!!!!) in the magazine’s survey scored average or better in predicted reliability. The Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan are among the most reliable cars and, along with the two-wheel-drive Ford F-150 V6 make up three of the only four domestic models on Consumer Reports’ “Most Reliable” list.

CR’s 2007 survey also shows that the odds of getting a reliable new vehicle from Ford are the best the magazine has seen in years, says Champion. “Ford continues to improve,” he noted in the company’s press release announcing these new statistics. “The reliability of their cars has steadily improved over the years, and is showing consistency.”

Now, despite its sudden problems, Toyota (including Lexus and Scion) still ranks third in reliability among all automakers, behind only Honda and Subaru. Still, because of these findings, CR will no longer recommend any new or redesigned Toyota-built models without reliability data on a specific design. Previously, new and redesigned Toyota models were recommended because of the automaker’s excellent track record, even if CR didn’t have sufficient reliability data on the new model. The company won’t be doing that anymore until Toyota returns to its previous record of outstanding overall reliability, CR stressed.

This comes on the heels of Buick’s big win earlier this year on J.D. Power and Associates’ 2007 Vehicle Dependability Study, where it TIED with Lexus to rank highest among nameplates in vehicle dependability – marking the first time in 12 years that another brand ties with Lexus for the highest-rank position, according to J.D. Power. Following in the top five rankings are Cadillac, Mercury and Honda, respectively, the company said.

“With three non-premium nameplates—Buick, Honda and Mercury—ranking within the top five, and particularly with Buick tying with Lexus for the top rank, consumers seeking a vehicle with strong dependability have good choices at various price levels,” said Neal Oddes, director of product research and analysis for J.D. Power and Associates. “Consumers don’t necessarily need to pay premium prices to obtain high quality and dependability.”

Now, while these are great achievements, domestic automakers still have a ways to go. Despite Ford’s improvement, CR’s research still found that U.S. brands account for almost half the models – some 20 out of 44 – on its list of “Least Reliable” models, with 13 from General Motors, six from Chrysler, and one from Ford. European manufacturers account for 17 models, including six each from Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen/Audi

Yet these reliability ratings achievements deserve some notice – especially as the U.S. companies we used to call the Big 3 not only build many of the light and medium trucks fleets buy, they account for a huge amount of the freight truckers haul, especially in terms of supplying the Big 3’s U.S. factories.

“Automakers may reap numerous benefits from producing dependable vehicles – not only in higher residual values, decreased warranty costs and opportunities for remarketing their vehicles, but also in higher customer satisfaction and increased likelihood of customers recommending or purchasing newer dependable models,” said J.D. Power’s Oddes. “This is why it is especially important for automakers to successfully launch new vehicle models with high initial quality and appeal—models that perform well in these regards tend to exhibit particularly strong dependability later in their life cycle.”

So a richly-deserved tip of the hat to the former “Big 3.” Now they must sustain this pace and make churning out more and more highly reliable models like clockwork.

“Be faithful in small things, because it is in them that your strength lies.” — Mother Teresa

Had an interesting chat with Allan Berger, vice president of Arriba Equipment Service down in Houston TX, by way of email not too long ago. We were talking about tires — specifically about the life cycle of trailer tires — when he shared a telling experience gained back when he worked as VPof equipment at Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI), which used to be one of the largest refuse fleets in the country until it got bought out by rival Allied Waste several years ago.

Allan told me that his shop found that, in certain operations, the front tires on the forward tandem axle on short wheelbase low COE front loaders like the Mack MR wore twice as fast as those on the rear tandem. In addition, in some operations, the tires on the right side of both tandem axles wore almost twice as fast as on the left side. That perplexed him and, as it cost his fleet money, he set out to find out what was going on.

It turned out that in city operations, BFI’s trucks were routed to drive down one side of a street and to keep making right turns into and out of stops, thus always pivoting on the right rear tires and rolling on the left rear tires. The trucks were then routed to pick up the same way when driving back on the other side of the street. The short wheel base helped maneuverability but prevented rolling into turns, i.e. the tires were being scrubbed. While this provided a more efficient collection operation, it came with a price.

Yet in country operations where the pick ups were more widely located, these trucks made as many right hand as left hand turns going down the same roads — it made sense on these routes not to double back — so tire life was greatly improved. However, the lower collection density meant more miles had to be driven and more fuel burned to collect the same amount of trash as a city collection route.

Talking with Allan about these particular findings from his refuse fleet days reminded me just how important the small details are in the trucking business in general — from vocational operations up to the OTR guys. Gain a tenth of a mile per gallon in fuel efficiency for tractor trailers and suddenly an OTR fleet is saving potnetially thousands of dollars a week. Manage the wear rate on your trash truck tires and again lots of money can get returned to your bottom line.

That’s why I think the fleet manager’s job is even more vital today than in the past, despite many who might feel that job description may be heading for extinction. “Bean counters” living in the carpeted finance office are never going to be able to look at uneven tire wear on a truck and figure out what’s causing it — and solving that kind of puzzle can mean the difference between saving or losing money in the trucking business. Because as so many fleet managers past and present have told me and keep telling me, this is an industry where pennies matter — save a few here and there, and suddenly the whole balance sheet can shift from red to black.

“Knowledge must come through action.” –Sophocles

Mention the name “Wal-Mart” in mixed company and you’ll usually get a lot of grumpy, mean looks. Frankly, most folks don’t like the giant retailer one bit and for a variety of reasons — low-paid labor without benefits, heavy reliance on “Made in China” goods, or how they’ve driven mom and pop stores out of business. Go ahead, pick a problem, and I guarantee you someone is trying to pin it on Wal-Mart.

This isn’t to say they are a saintly corporation, now — far from it. And many of the grievances leveled against the company are true (though maybe not to the extent we see and read about in the mainstream media). But one HUGE thing that gets overlooked by almost everyone is how Wal-Mart is changing the game: Not so much in retailing and logistics anymore — they’re past masters in those areas — but in their role as motivator for innovation in trucking, specifically in terms of boosting tractor trailer fuel economy while lowering pollution. They are also putting a richly deserved emphasis on the role their drivers play not only in terms of company and vehicle performance but in the community at large.

I got to see this first hand in Dallas a few weeks back when Peterbilt Motors and its sister company Kenworth unveiled prototype hybrid Class 8 tractors — built in an exclusive partnership with Eaton — that are being delivered to Wal-Mart for field trials. These are tractors that will one day be able to operate like Toyota’s Prius — humming along on electricity in stop and go urban operations — while also being able to power HVAC systems for the night without having to idle the diesel engine. And Wal-Mart’s been the goad in getting this project off the ground — without their commitment to buying and testing these trucks, neither Peterbilt nor Kenworth would be doing this. It’s just too expensive to gamble on market acceptance these days.

I talked to Tracy Rosser, the former VP-corporate traffic for Wal-Mart, about the company’s innovation strategy earlier this year. He’s since moved on to a new position, but his insight shows how innovation at this level can still have some big economic payoffs for fleets.

“Our fleet strategy mirrors our corporate and logistics strategies – we need to improve operational efficiency so we can keep costs down to remain competitive in the global market,” he explained to me. “We’re trying to control more of our freight and get more density in our lanes so we can maximize driver and asset productivity, thus keeping control of our costs.”

Rosser pointed to the major efficiency gains Wal-Mart achieved for its private fleet of 7,000 tractors – trucks that haul goods from the company’s 39 distribution centers to its 1,075 stores in the U.S. The company originally wanted to improve fleet efficiency by 25% within three years, largely measured by gains in fuel economy. But by getting suggestions from its drivers, switching to new tractor specs, and making operational to its trucking operations pattern, Rosser said those targets were met within just one year.

“In 2006, we added APUs (auxiliary power units) to our vehicles to reduce idling, made aerodynamic improvements to our tractors, switched to more fuel-efficient tires, and had our drivers adopt more fuel efficient practices largely suggested by them, such as progressive shifting,” he told me. “We also now turn 96.5% of our trucks at the shipping docks in under two hours. Those changes helped us boost average fleet fuel economy to 7.1 mpg for all except two months last year — that’s how we achieved our efficiency targets.”

Rosser noted that Wal-Mart doesn’t plan to stop there. “By 2015, we plan to achieve 100% fuel efficiency gains for our fleet,” he said. “That will come not only from further improvements to the trucks and operating patterns, but from changes in our packaging as well, which will affect shipment weights.”

But it’s not just about the numbers either — that’s the other interesting thing about Wal-Mart’s trucking presence. For instance, the company has been a huge supporter of Trucker Buddy for almost a decade now, getting its drivers matched up with elementary schools across the country. Sure, a nice PR ploy, some would say. I would note that you’d get more positive exposure — and keep your drivers focused on driving — by making a big donation to say the Ronald McDonald House every year. But Wal-Mart realizes that drivers get a lot out of the Trucker Buddy connection, finding it’s a win-win for the company, driver, and community alike on a lot of unexpected levels.

“We’ve been involved now with Trucker Buddy for 10 years and we initially just got involved with it as just another opportunity to connect our people with the communities they live in,” Tim Harris, Wal-Mart’s regional transportation manager, grocery-western division, told me a few weeks back. “But we’re finding that our drivers just get so much out of it. Not only is it inspiring to them, it’s changing the image of truck drivers overall in their communities.”

Harris said not only are children responding positively to the pen-pal-style relationship Trucker Buddy helps form between drivers and schools, but so are the parents.

“I’ve gotten letters from countless parents telling me how much of an impact this program had on their child. That makes a difference in terms of how drivers are viewed in their communities and in the public at large,” he said to me. “The Trucker Buddy program has impacted one million kids so far and we’re happy to keep supporting it any way we can.”

It also tells you something that company is willing to sent key executives out into the field to show it’s support of such programs, both to the public and to its own drivers. That’s how far Wal-Mart is willing to go to change the game in trucking, at least.

A special treat came my way last week when I met up with Tom and Debbie Berkel to tour their brand new Double Eagle sleeper — more like a house than a sleeper, actually. A veteran husband and wife driving team that’ve worked 26 years for Mercer Transportation, they had longed to make their 13-year old Kenworth a true “home away from home” for some time — and now they’ve made their dream come true.

And what a sleeper! It containers a shower, fold-down double bed, double sink, refrigerator and freezer, microwave and convection oven, flat screen TV, and just tons of cabinets. Their satellite TV can be adjusted from inside the truck, so Tom doesn’t have to go out into bad weather anymore, get up on the roof, and manually manipulate the satellite dish himself. The decor just makes it feel like home, too — with the walls and ceilings a nice soft off-white and the cabinets a rich wood grain. The flooring is pergo, so it looks like wood, though Tom put a real wood floor in the driving compartment.

Best of all are the “little touches” that make it feel like home: characters from the movie “Finding Nemo” inhabit the shower, while the cabinets have lady bug, Mickey Mouse, and beautiful rose-shaped knobs — the rose knobs a tribute to Debbie’s mom, who passed away three years ago.

OK, so it’s gorgeous — and lots of truckers have sleepers as big and as nice if not nicer. And sure you can debate how a sleeper of this size impacts fuel economy, payload capacity, turning radius, etc. But after talking with Tom and Debbie (absolutely two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet anywhere) you begin to realize just how life-changing a sleeper like this can be to a truck driving team.

“Take the shower — you go into a truck stop shower and you wait in line, and they can be none-too-clean,” Debbie told me. “Having my own shower allows me to clean up when I want, as I need to, without being rushed.” She also noted that their fold-down bed runs down the cab wall, not across the back of the cab, greatly reducing road vibration, so they sleep much better as a result.

Cooking their own meals has been a huge plus, Debbie added, allowing them to eat healthier and save money at the same time. She showed off a freezer packed with roasts and ground beef, as well as bread dough ready to be defrosted for the oven. Fresh baked bread out on the road! You can’t beat that — and Tom said that by eating better and at more regular meal times helped him lose 20 pounds.

Double Eagle’s flexible construction plan also allowed them to lay out the design of their sleeper the way they wanted — without a lot of upcharges. Light fixtures you’d find in a typical home didn’t cost extra to install, for example, enhancing the home-like feel the Berkels were after.

Having this sleeper also allowed them to save money when they took quick vacations at various points across the country as they didn’t need hotel rooms. Tom also installed an extra 40 gallon water tank just for washing his truck, saving him the $60 it typically costs them to run their Kenworth through a commerical facility. And these are only a few of the myriad ways the Berkels make that sleeper pay for itself.

While not every driving team or driver can afford the Berkels’ set-up, the sleeper they’ve created with Double Eagle’s help really shows off a lot of possibilities — especially the ways life on the road can be made easier and more enjoyable for drivers as a whole.

“Consistency is the key.” — Roy Sanders

I got to spend the good part of a day with Roy, taking a tour of International Truck & Engine Corp.’s Garland, TX, truck assembly plant — which is his baby now, since he’s the manufacturing and facilities manager here. Roy’s worked at International for 16 years, with the last three spent here at Garland, so he’s had a front row seat to view an amazing amount of change to the truck building process — changes that are designed to give you, the fleet owner, a more reliable, durable, and higher quality product.

Roy explained that it’s all about consistency — installing a component, painting a cab, spacing the axles and wheel hubs — the right way every single time, hour after hour, truck after truck. International — and every other truck manufacturer, I might add — has spent millions to develop new manufactuing processes to give customers this consistency, yet at the same time preserve much of the customization they demand in their vehicles.

“No two trucks we build here are alike — the are all completely different,” he told me. “A dump truck with tandem rear axles may be followed by a day cab tractor with a single rear axle, followed by a concrete pumper with a tandem rear and tage axle arrangement. That’s a lot of complexity but we need to handle that with the same consistency that the auto manufacturers do.”

Roy’s factory builds mostly severe service, vocational, and military trucks and that range makes attaining consistency that much harder. “We’re dealing with anywhere from 20 to 30 different axle combinations alone on our line — that’s a lot of variation we have to manage,” he said.

Amid the whir and scream of torque wrenches, hoists, and other equipment, Roy explained that every truck OEM is trying to imitate the way the automakers build cars — especially the high end brands, such as Lexus. They want to deliver the same level of product quality, yet in a package durable enough to take more pounding than a Lexus would see in two or three lifetimes.

It’s a very detailed process now, with pre-test checks of components conducted in many cases right after they are installed on a chassis to see if they are working properly. Validation supervisors roam the line conducting their own checks as well, with a series of final checks spaced out at the end of the building process — a 10 minute dyno test for each truck, a quick run over a bump lane to make sure the suspension is solid, and a variety of electronic diagnostics to make sure everything is ship shape, to name but a few.

All of this is geared not only to making trucks better but delivering them to you, the customer, faster. Gone are the days when individual components would be constructed by hand for hours, with the quality of the work depending on how tired the line workers became as the day wore on. Now, pre-made components — called modules — get quickly put into place and tested out, so an entire truck can be built in about an hour and a half. Just building a battery box by hand used to take three hours alone, noted Roy.

“If you had told me five years ago we could do what we are doing today in terms of production speed and quality control, I would have told you it would be impossible,” he said. “But here we are doing it. And it’s all geared to giving the customer a better, more durable product for their business in a much shorter time span. That’s our overriding goal now and for the future.”