HDT Talks Trucking: Recent Episodes
HDT Talks Trucking
Go behind the scenes with the industry’s most seasoned trucking reporters. Heavy Duty Trucking’s editorial team uses decades of experience to bring you expert insights and interview industry professionals to discuss the latest news, trends, and technology that will help you run your fleet more efficiently, safely, and profitably.
Just how far will Foodliner stretch its oil drain intervals? Can Roehl Transport master artificial intelligence? Meet two of HDT's Truck Fleet Innovators on this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.Sponsored by CAT ScaleHDT’s Deborah Lockridge talks to two HDT Truck Fleet Innovators, Kyle Neumann of Foodliner and John Paape of Roehl Transport, during Heavy Duty Trucking Exchange.
In This Episode:
- Kyle Neumann's trailer innovations at Foodliner
- Foodliner's extended oil drain intervals
- How Neumann fosters innovation at Foodliner
- John Paape and Roehl Transport's custom IT
- The importance of partnerships in innovation
- AI and the importance of clean data
- What's next for Roehl?
Why aren't trucks as safe as airplanes? Should motor carriers be required to carry more insurance?
On this episode of HDT Talks Trucking, Deborah Lockridge talks to Lane Kidd of The Trucking Alliance about an essay he wrote on trucking's duty to public safety.
This episode sponsored byCAT Scale
In this episode:
Can you compare trucking's safety record to the airline industry's?
The Trucking Alliance’s ambitious goal to eliminate truck crash fatalities.
Emerging technology advancements like autonomous trucks and collision mitigation systems
Raising minimum insurance requirements for motor carriers — pros and cons
The problem with so few motor carriers having safety ratings from FMCSA
If victims of truck crashes were adequately compensated, would litigation drop?
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media! Twitter/X
When is trucking going to climb back up the back side of the latest cycle? How can trucking fleets do a better job of preparing for these ups and downs?On this episode of HDT Talks Trucking, HDT’s Deborah Lockridge talks to Brian Holland, president and CEO of Fleet Advantage, for a mid-year look at the state of the economy and the trucking industry — and some advice on making fleet purchasing decisions based on data and total cost of ownership.
In this episode of HDT Talks Trucking:
- Are we at the bottom of the freight cycle?
- What fleets need to look at to be better prepared to deal with freight cycles
- Have private fleets fared better than for-hire fleets?
- When are things going to get better?
- Preparing for upcoming emissions regulations and sustainability strategies
- The importance of a long-term strategy for fleet equipment procurement
- What about a pre-buy before those emissions regs kick in?
- The role of data in smart fleet procurement
- Artificial intelligence and trucking
The infrastructure needed to support California's hydrogen economy is not going to sprout up from the ground by itself.
Calstart is supporting that growth through programs like Zero-Emission Commercial Vehicles (EnergIIZE) Hydrogen funding lane. The program is intended to support ydrogenmedium- and heavy-duty as well as offroad vehicle infrastructure.
Kelly Ratchinsky, Calstart's technical project manager forhydrogen infrastructure, shares her insights with HDT equipment editor, Jim Park. Ratchinsky outlines what she envisions the future of the medium- and heavy-duty transportation industry will look like using hydrogen powered vehicles.
🏫 More About Calstart's hydrogen infrastructure funding initiatives:
Calstart homepage
Calstart's funding finder tool
Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project | California HVIP
EnergIIZE EnergIIZE homepage.
Learn what the Next Generation in Trucking Association is doing to bring more drivers and technicians into trucking as a first career choice.
One of the biggest challenges trucking fleets face is finding good drivers and diesel technicians. For various reasons, from regulations to insurance to a lack of awareness of trucking-related careers, it’s often a second career choice rather than one young people might pursue right out of high school.
On this episode of HDT Talks Trucking, HDT’s Deborah Lockridge talks to Lindsey Trent, president and co-founder of the Next Generation in Trucking Association, about how her group is working to change that.
Learn More About Bringing Younger People Into Trucking
- Younger Driver Pilot Program Drops 2 Controversial Requirements
- HDT Talks Trucking: Inside a High School Truck Driver Training Program
- 3 Things That Attract Younger Truck Drivers to a Fleet
- 6 Practices to Recruit Younger Truck Drivers
- High School Teacher Honored for Truck-Driving Curriculum
Hydrogen is widely thought of as the ideal energy source for long-haul trucking. It will take trucks places batteries can only dream of today.
Renewable sources of hydrogen promise carbon-free, zero-emissions energy for trucking.
We seem to be on the cusp of a new era; truly clean, greentrucking.
Or are we?
Dr. David Cebon has very strong opinions on the use ofhydrogen as a heavy-truck energy source. He doesn’t think it will work, and he backs his position with science and economics.
David is a professor of mechanical engineering at Cambridge University in England and a Fellow of theRoyal Academy of Engineering.
🏫 More About Clean Hydrogen
Estimating the Carbon Footprint of Hydrogen Production, by Robert Rapier
How Clean is Hydrogen, Actually? With Prof. David Cebon
Hydrogen or Electron Economy?
Is artificial intelligence the next big leap in truck driver recruiting and retention technology? Communicating with drivers on the road has come a long way since the days of pay phones, and it looks like AI will help take it even further.
This episode of HDT's Leadership Insights video podcast is produced in partnership with, and sponsored by, Tenstreet.
HDT’s Deborah Lockridge talks to Tenstreet CEO Tim Crawford about the current state of the driver market, how mobile technology is affecting trucking, AI-powered navigation combined with messaging, and more, including:
- What's going on in the truck driver market
- What can motor carriers do?
- What problems can connecting navigation, geofencing, and mobile communication technology address for drivers?
- Could this communication tech backfire and replace the important human touch?
- How Tenstreet is using generative AI
- What motor carriers should look for when implementing this or other new technology
Learn More About Using Technology in Driver Recruiting and Retention
- Why the Human Touch is Still Important in an Age of AI
- About Tenstreet's AI-Powered Solutions
- How Trucking Fleets Can Use Custom Apps to Preserve the Owner-Operator Model
Heavy-duty truck batteries are often overlooked — until a driver goes to crank up the truck and it won’t start. In an age where nearly every system on a truck is “smart,” can technology help?
This episode of HDT's Leadership Insights is sponsored by, and produced in partnership with, EnerSys, manufacturer of Odyssey Batteries.
HDT's Deborah Lockridge talks to Daniel Jones, applications field engineer for Enersys, for insights into questions such as:
- Why is it so hard to figure out when a battery is near the end of its life?
- What shortens battery life?
- What can a "smart" battery do?
🏫 Truck Battery Resources
- How to Get the Most from Your Truck Batteries
- 5 Tips to Keep Your Battery Running in the Summer Heat
Connect with HDT:
Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
Follow and connect with HDT on social media:
Twitter/X
The National Transportation Institute's Leah Shaver challenges some conventional thinking about women in trucking, from behind the wheel to the board room, in this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
Shaver is president and CEO of the National Transportation Institute, which recently surveyed women about the challenges they encounter in the trucking industry — and she has some ideas on what motor carriers can do to address them in this interview with HDT Editor and Associate Publisher Deborah Lockridge. It starts, she says, by addressing the barriers we’ve built for working moms, finding creative solutions to childcare, and overhauling the structures we’ve built to train industry newcomers. Learn More About Advancing Women in the Trucking IndustryNTI Survey Shines a Light on the Hurdles and Opportunities to Advancement for Women in Trucking
Real Talk: The One Vital Element We Must Get Right As an Industry for Women to Join us and Excel
Trucking and Women: Difficult Discussions a Must for Moving Forward🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media! TwitterFacebookLinkedIn
The automotive cybersecurity landscape is evolving, movingbeyond mere ransomware attacks on fleets. While that is something to be guarded against, hackers can now weaponize connected vehicles in ways that sooner or later will compromise safety.
Software defined vehicles and unsecure APIs and mobile services are opening new attack vectors for the bad guys to exploit. And new vectors are opening every day.
Upstream Security's president of North American operations, Hiam Kantor, joins HDT Equipment Editor Jim Park to discuss the scope of the problem, and look at what needs to be done to keep the Black Hats at bay.
Watch this Episode of HDT Talks Trucking to Learn:
- The scope of the cyber security threat
- How hackers are getting around built-in securityfeatures
- How these hacks can impact safety
- New attack vectors coming through APIs andmobile services
- The emerging threat to electric vehicles
- How some vehicle owners are hacking into theirown vehicles to jailbreak them
More About the Newest Cybersecurity Threats
Upstream Security
Upstream Security's Global Automotive Cybersecurity Report
Additional News Stories on Vehicle Hacking
Keep the Hackers Out: How TruckingCompanies Can Up Their Cybersecurity Game
ORBCOMM ransomware attack causes trucking fleetmanagement outage
Teen hacker says he’s found way to remotely control 25Tesla EVs around the world
Hacker Exploits Sirius XM Flaw to Remotely Unlock, HonkHorn on Cars
Hackers caused a massive traffic jam in Moscow using aride-hailing app
With more attention being paid to Scope 3 emissions, mayneed to take a more proactive approach and a deeper dive into your company’s operations to attract and keep customers.
On this episode of HDT Talks Trucking, HDT’s DeborahLockridge talks with one fleet that’s ahead of the curve in meeting shipper demands for more sustainable transportation. Shawntell Kroese, AVP of Sustainability and Sales Operations, Werner Enterprises, talks about thecompany’s ambitious emissions-reduction goals, how it’s working on getting there, what Scope 3 emissions are, why fleets need to be paying attention, and advice on where to start.
Links
Regulators Aren't the Only Factor Driving Decarbonization
EPA’s Scope 3 Guidance
Werner’s ESG Progress
HDT Emerging Leader Leads Werner Diversity Efforts
We are seeing a distressing increase in the number of truckrollover crashes these days. And while they are fewer in number, the number of runaway truck crashes on mountain grades remain a problem. What's behind the increase isn't completely clear, but many believe it's a lack of driver training and understanding of vehicle dynamics.
Brian Bullock, the founder Road-Aware Safety Systems, hasbeen studying such crashes for years. He has a pretty good handle on the problem, and he's bringing a solution to the table. He joins HDT Equipment Editor Jim Park to discuss drivers' apparent lack of awareness of vehicle dynamics (and in some cases of proper and safe driving techniques), and to explain how to solve this problem.
More About Preventing Vehicle-Dynamics Related Crashes
Road-Aware's home page
Mountain Driving 101 video series, featuring Equipment EditorJim Park
How a well-designed driver safety program will pay dividends
We are seeing a distressing increase in the number of truck rollover crashes these days. And while they are fewer in number, the number of runaway truck crashes on mountain grades remain a problem.
What's behind the increase isn't completely clear, but many believe it's a lack of driver training and understanding of vehicle dynamics.
Brian Bullock, the founder Road-Aware Safety Systems, has been studying such crashes for years. He has a pretty good handle on the problem, and he's bringing a solution to the table.
He joins HDT Equipment Editor Jim Park to discuss drivers' apparent lack of awareness of vehicledynamics (and in some cases of proper and safe driving techniques), and to explain how to solve this problem.
🏫 More About Preventing Vehicle-Dynamics Related Crashes
Road-Aware's home page
Mountain Driving 101 video series, featuring Equipment Editor Jim Park
How a well-designed driver safety program will pay dividends
Truck driver log falsification violations can lead to out-of-service orders, fines, bad federal safety scores, failed DOT audits, civil penalties, even nuclear verdicts. What can motor carriers do?
Log falsifications were the fourth most common driver-relatedviolation discovered in roadside inspections from 2019 to 2023. And they’re thesecond most common violation discovered in compliance reviews of motor carriers. Brandon Wiseman, president of Trucksafe Consulting, explains why — and what trucking companies can do about it — in this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
Learn More About False Driver Logs and Hours of Service Violations
Trucksafe: Controlling Driver Log Falsifications
Personal Conveyance: Is it Worth It?
4 Ways to Know if Personal Conveyance is Being UsedCorrectly
5 Enforcement Metrics Fleets Should Monitor
Did you know that your fleet’s driver manuals and policies could become the detonator of a nuclear verdict against your trucking company? We’ll learn more about this plaintiffs’ attorney tactic from trucking attorney Doug Marcello in this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
This episode is sponsored by Scraper Systems Snow Removal by Rite Hite
If you’re concerned about how to defend your company against aggressive plaintiffs’ attorneys who target trucking, you’ve probably heard of the “reptile theory.” But there’s another type of attack that has gotten less attention, and it means your safety manuals and policies could be a goldmine for them – and a landmine for you.
HDT Editor & Associate Publisher Deborah Lockridge talks to Doug Marcello, longtime trucking attorney with Saxton & Stump, and chief legal officer for Bluewire, about what he calls the “Rules of the Road” tactic.
Microgrids, sometimes called distributed energy resources, are local sources of electricity operating separately from the utility grid. They typically produce electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar, but they can also be powered by hydro, natural gas, hydrogen, or even small modular nuclear reactors.
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by Scraper Systems
Joshua Goldman, vice president of E-mobility at microgrid and DER deployment advisor Xendee, says off-grid energy sources offer resiliency from power outages while helping to level the cost of electricity supplied by utility companies. Could a microgrid kickstart your transition from diesel to BEV?
Watch this Episode of HDT Talks Trucking to Learn:
- What are microgrids?
- Using energy stored during the day to charge trucks at night
- Practical applications for fleets using microgrids
- Selling stored energy back to the grid
- Navigating the design/build processHow to plan for future growth
- What are the first steps toward energy independence?
- Take your microgrid to the next level.
More About Microgrids
Microgrid Resources Coalition
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Xendee
A. Duie Pyle’s microgrid
Challenges of Charging Commercial Trucks
One Energy is an industrial power company and installer ofon-site, behind-the-meter, wind energy systems. In early October, the company unveiled its first 30 megawatt battery-electric truck charging site. The site is fully developed, energized, and waiting for its first fleet customers in Findlay, Ohio.
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by:
CAT Scale — Learn more about its WeighMyTruck app.
And by Scraper Systems snow removal
One Energy is a Utility 2.0 company. It sits between the consumer and the utility company, and because it's more agile than a utility, it can make this happen. Fast.
One Energy went from shovels in the ground to flipping the proverbial switch, in just eight months. One Energy CEO Jereme Kent joins Jim Park to talk about the project, its potential and why he chose to build this facility in Findlay Ohio.
In this episode:
- The difference between a utility company and Utility 2.0
- Why Findlay Ohio could be an ideal site for a megawattcharging hub
- Why did One Energy not build this site in California?
- Are Findlay's colder winters a barrier to success?
- Is it okay to charge trucks in a coal-powered state likeOhio?
- How electricity costs will affect fleets' operatingmargins
- How a megawatt charging hub works
- Is this concept the truckstop of the future?
Learn more about electric trucks in HDT's Electric Truck Progress Report
Meet Sarah Cates. She's the rock-star safety director at ThomasE. Keller Trucking of Defiance, Ohio. Her bosses love her. Her drivers love her. And she's the recipient of HDT's 2023 Safety & Compliance award, sponsored by J.J. Keller & Associates. Cates has been the director of safety for only three years, but her success in totally transforming the company’s safety culture prompted not one, but two, of her colleagues to nominate her for the award.
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by:
CAT Scale — Learn more about its WeighMyTruck app.
And by Scraper Systems snow removal
Cates transformed the safety culture at the company, implemented driver-facing, AI-based camera safety systems without losing any drivers, and slashed its crash indicator score. All that and more during a period when the company grew from 100 to 300 trucks.
In this episode:
- What makes Sarah Cates tick
- How she transitioned from Logistics to Safety
- The key to earning drivers' respect
- The right way to introduce controversial technologies
- How to develop a camera privacy policy
- How she manages a multi-generational workforce
What can trucking fleets do now to transform their operations and be ready to take advantage of the next freight upturn? HDT's Deborah Lockridge talked to Tom McLeod about why this is the right time for a tune-up.
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by:
CAT Scale — Learn more about its WeighMyTruck app.
And by Scraper Systems snow removal
When freight is slower, it's a great opportunity to work "on" your business rather than just "in" your business. Tom McLeod, founder and chief executive of McLeod Software, talks about ways to give your fleet a tune-up.
“Once you really look at the numbers, you will almost always be surprised at what's in there, and that’s golden.”
In this episode:
Get educated on new technologies
How software will be affected by electric and autonomous trucks
Are you getting the most out of your software?
Using data to improve your fleet's operations
Having a truck placed out of service during a roadside inspection means unhappy drivers and customers, truck downtime, expensive repairs, fines, and dings on your safety score. What if someone other than a DOT inspector had noticed the problem?
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by Scraper Systems
And by CAT Scale. Learn more about its WeighMyTruck app
Listen to this episode of HDT Talks Trucking to learn how you can use same defect-detecting mindset that inspectors use. John Seidl is vice president of risk services at Reliance Partners, the owner of transportation consulting company Trucking Wins, and a former Wisconsin State Patrol roadside inspection officer.
Links for more information:
Reliance Partners
Trucking Wins Safety Consulting
2023 North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria (Handbook & Pictorial)
Why do Brake Defects Put so Many Trucks Out of Service?
Behind the Scenes at a Weigh Station
Trucking has a parking problem. The number of trucks seeking parking exceeds the number of available spaces. Projections suggest the number of trucks requiring overnight parking will grow significantly in the coming years. The federal government has pledged close to $1 billion to develop additional truck parking. Will that be enough? Will those spaces come soon enough?
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by Double Coin
And by CAT Scale and its WeighMyTruck app.
Jim Ward, president of the Truckload Carriers Association, joins HDT Equipment Editor Jim Park to discuss the scope of the problem, some potential solutions, and the thorny issue of paying for parking.
Watch this Episode of HDT Talks Trucking to Learn:
- The scope of the parking shortage
- The cost of lost productivity and operational inefficiencies
- How a lack of parking affects safety
- Government funding to build more parking
- Where parking is needed most acutely
- Redesigning rest areas for better utilization
- The benefits of paying for parking
- Should carriers co-develop their own parking sites?
ATRI’s Research on Truck Parking
Top 20 Dangerous Highway Ramp Spots For Truck Parking
Commentary by Jim Park: Of Course Trucking Should Pay for Parking
Bison Transport is arguably the safest large fleet in North America. Bison has taken home the Truckload Carriers Association Grand Prize fleet safety award for large carrier fleets for 13 years in a row. The company has won top honors no less than 16 times in all.
In this episode, you’ll meet one of the architects of Bison’s safety master plan, Garth Pitzel.
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by Double Coin
And by CAT Scale. Learn more about its WeighMyTruck app.
Bison Transport is a big believer in leveraging technology to improve safety, but the real focus of the safety program is the driver. Garth says when fleets talk about protecting their assets most people are referring to the truck, the trailer, and the customer’s freight.
“At Bison, we talk about protecting our people. When the driver makes it home safely from trip so does the truck, the trailer, and the customer’s freight.”
Trucking fleet owner John Vaccaro became a big believer in automatic emergency braking, dashcams, and other advanced safety systems after he nearly lost his business due to what could have been a so-called nuclear verdict.
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by Double Coin.
Are automatic emergency braking systems ready for prime time? As the comment period wraps up on the federal government’s proposal to make AEB mandatory, HDT Talks Trucking brings you Deborah Lockridge's interview with John Vaccaro of Bettaway.
Topics in this episode include:
- John Vaccaro's nuclear verdict nightmare
- Investing in advanced safety systems
- New Freightliner Cascadias with Detroit Assurance 5
- Driver reaction to new safety system
- Dashcam advances
- Safety beyond technology
- A culture of safety
Dig Deeper into AEB, ADAS, and Nuclear Verdicts
- How a Trucking Company Fought Back a Nuclear Verdict
- Are ADAS and AEB Finally Ready for Prime Time?
- How to Make Automatic Emergency Braking Right For Your Fleet
Understanding what your drivers are experiencing and how they feel about their jobs is critical to keeping them happy. Happy drivers tend to stay put. This episode is about the importance of opening up communication channels with your drivers – and keeping them open.
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by Double Coin.
Automated dispatch systems may be more efficient than direct two-way conversations, but they make the transaction impersonal. A few lines of text on a screen offer few clues about how the other party is feeling. The driver might be happy today, but ready to head for the door tomorrow. How will you ever know if you never actually talk to them?
In this episode, Max Farrell, the CEO of Workhound, joins HDT’s Jim Park to discuss the importance of communication and keeping channels open to employees, including:
- Creating a Real-Time Feedback Loop Between Workers and the Company
- Why Praise is Critical
- Opening Up Communication Channels
- Identifying Micro Issues for Macro Changes
- Driver Feedback and Troublesome Customers
- Why Resolving Issues Pays Dividends
- Honest Feedback: Gift or Insult?
- Why Two-Way Autonomous Chats Work
Learn more about driver communication at HDT's Truckinginfo.com website:
- 3 Ways Fleets Can Improve Driver Communications
- How Cowan is More Efficiently Connecting Truck Drivers and Dispatchers
- How Fleets Can Benefit From Mobile Apps
More from Workhound
- Why Driver Feedback is the Key to Driver Retention
- 2023: Annual Trends Report
The softer freight market has made truck drivers more likely to seek greener pastures. What can fleets learn about recruiting and retention from job application data?
This episode of HDT's Leadership Insights video podcast is produced in partnership with, and sponsored by, Tenstreet. Make driver communication more transparent, effective and easy at Tenstreet.com.
HDT Editor and Associate Publisher Deborah Lockridge talks to Tenstreet founder Tim Crawford about what trends his company is seeing in job driver applications, with some advice on how to use that information for better driver recruiting and retention.
- What is driver application data showing about the state of the industry?
- Are drivers moving away from something or to something?
- When the grass on the other side of the fence is more attractive.
- How often does the average driver get into the job market?
- What does the data mean for recruiting and retention?
- Why it's so important to be clear and transparent with current and prospective drivers
- How job-hunting varies for more experiened drivers
-
Don't let problems in your recruiting process keep a good driver from applying again.
-
5 Ways Fleets Can Compete for Truck Drivers in a Tough Labor Market
- Drivers: Hire Fewer, Keep More From the HDT Archives (2007): Recruiting In The Information Age
**Today, clean diesels make up 57% of the commercial vehicle population. That’s nearly double where we were a decade ago. And it’s a 10% jump over this time last year. So what's going on?
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by Double Coin**.
The march toward a low-carbon, low emission future has been slow and technically challenging. But we are making progress. The population of near-zero emissions diesel technology trucks continues to grow.
Equipment Editor Jim Park talks with Allen Schaeffer, the executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum about the progress industry has made over the past 19 years to reduce emissions and improved the fuel efficiency of diesel engines.
In This Episode:
- Diesel is no longer a dirty word
- States with the highest adoption of clean diesel technology
- Diesel surpasses 55% brake thermal efficiency
- The promise of SuperTruck: advancing clean diesel technology
- Allen Schaeffer comments on the EMA/CARB agreement
More About the Diesel Technology Forum
https://dieselforum.org/
HDT's 2022 Newsmaker of the Year: The Internal Combustion Engine
https://www.truckinginfo.com/10189508/newsmaker-of-the-year-the-internal-combustion-engine
What Does the CARB Compromise Mean for Trucking?
https://www.truckinginfo.com/10201924/what-does-carb-emissions-compromise-mean-for-trucking
**At a time when fleet expansion is an iffy proposition, adding additional carrying capacity to your existing fleet can lower equipment costs, increase profits, and even help reduce your carbon footprint.
This episode of HDT's Leadership Insights video podcast is sponsored by, and produced in partnership with Kinedyne.**
**There are only so many square feet of floor space in a trailer, and some cargo just doesn’t take kindly to double-stacking. But there’s an easy way to double your floor space, as HDT's Jim Park learns in this conversation with Kinedyne’s Joe Vergeldedios.
Vergeldedios is product segment manager for Kinedyne’s decking solutions line. His job is helping fleets unlock the potential of a truly full trailer. In this podcase, he and Jim will discuss how expanding capacity can increase profits and create an easier and safer work environment. Joe and Jim will also discuss which sectors show the greatest benefit from adding trailer capacity, look at pre-purchase considerations and talk system maintenance.**
Learn More About Maximizing Trailer Cargo Capacity:
- How Fleets Can Maximize Available Trailer Capacity
- Kinedyne Adds Decking System Design to Increase Trailer Space
Where is the autonomous/self-driving truck industry today? How much longer will we have to wait for Level 4 to mature? What's the holdup?
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by Double Coin.
Autonomous or self-driving trucks have been with us for more than a decade, yet no company has yet placed a full Level-4 truck into regular revenue service without a human driver aboard. In the early days, few predicted it would take this long for self-driving technology to hit the road.
HDT invited two industry pioneers to discuss the current state of heavy duty self-driving trucks. This episode features Joanna Buttler, head of Daimler Trucks’ Global Autonomous Technology Group, and Peter Vaughan Schmidt, CEO of Torc Robotics.
More About Autonomous Trucks:
How Do Autonomous Trucks “See” the World?
Autonomous Trucks Could Reshape How We Think About Insurance
NHTSA AV Safety
It’s easy enough to buy a battery-electric truck, but fleets are being forced to wait up to two years for their chargers. Site design, permitting, and construction take forever. Matt Horton, CEO of Voltera Power, talks to Jim Park on HDT Talks Trucking on how fleets can navigate these waters. Voltera develops charging facilities for light, medium and heavy vehicles. Horton says the upfront costs of developing charging facilities are sidelining some fleets. Others just don’t have the resources to wade through the bureaucratic swamp and get shovels in the ground. Horton discusses the challenges, and offers advice on how to get your BEV up and running as quickly as possible:
- Why are we pushing so hard to electrify right now?
- Why is infrastructure such a problem?
- Charging deserts
- Getting power to the wheels
- Is grid capacity allocated on a first come, first served basis?
- How much energy is 5 megawatts?
- Is the cost of power, including infrastructure, comparable to diesel?
- How far off is a true public charging network?
More About Charging Infrastructure
Challenges of Charging Commercial Trucks
NACFE Guidance Report on Charging Infrastructure for Battery-Electric Vehicles
The Rush to Battery-Electric Trucks: Putting the Cart Before the Horse
Former USA Truck CEO James Reed recently joined Kodiak Robotics as chief operating officer. What's the former fleet exec's perspective on self-driving truck technology?Reed joins HDT's Deborah Lockridge on HDT Talks Trucking to talk about the move and the state of the autonomous-truck industry. Learn more about:
- Why Reed joined Kodiak Robotics
- What needs to happen for self-driving trucks to become a reality
- Can autonomous trucks be as safe as human drivers?
- Are autonomous trucks a threat to driver jobs?
More About Self-Driving Trucks and Kodiak Robotics
- Autonomous Trucks Could Reshape How We Think About Insurance
- How Do Autonomous Trucks “See” the World?
- Kodiak Robotics Demonstrates Tire Blowout on Self-Driving Truck
There's a lot more to adopting electric trucks than batteries and range, as HDT's Deborah Lockridge explores in this conversation with Hendrickson's Jeff Sass on this episode of HDT's Leadership Insights, produced in partnership with, and sponsored by, Hendrickson.
Jeff Sass, vice president of marketing for Hendrickson, has spent decades in the truck business, and he’s been talking frankly about how technology is changing the industry for years. Three years ago at HDT's Heavy Duty Trucking Exchange event, he promised that "electric trucks are coming." And indeed, they are here. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t still a lot of questions and a lot of hurdles to overcome, from weight to cradle-to-grave issues.
Learn More About Electric Trucks
- Will Electric Trucks Need New Suspensions?
- Electric Truck Ecosystem: What it Takes to Run BEVs
Topics Covered in This Episode:
- Electric trucks are here
- EV range and battery weight
- Dealing with EV weight challenges
- Last-mile delivery and electric trucks
- How much is electricity going to cost to charge BEV trucks?
- Broader environmental concerns of battery-electric trucks
Sign up for the HDT e-newsletter!
Follow and connect with HDT on social media:
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed some significant changes to its Safety Measurement System, which is how it prioritizes motor carriers for enforcement. What will those potential changes mean to trucking companies?
In this episode of HDT Talks Trucking, HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge joins Brandon Wiseman of Trucksafe Consulting to discuss FMCSA’s recently processed changes to the SMS. Has the FMCSA fixed the problems in how it measures motor carrier safety? We’ll see. HDT dives into the five changes all carriers should know about.
In This Episode:
- Can we build a low-NOx engine that keeps everybody happy?
- What happens if the engine makers can’t deliver?
- Will there be an alternative to Low-NOx diesels available before 2027?
- Can natural gas engines fill the gap?
- Is there a risk of a significant pre-buy?
More About EPA's 2027 Low-NOx rule
- EPA Publishes Stringent New-Truck Emissions Regulations
- Guinea Pigs 2.0: Can Trucking Comply with a Near Impossible NOx Reduction?
- Senators Push Against Truck Emissions Rule
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media.
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
👀 Prefer to watch? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking videocast:
- Subscribe to HDTT on Youtube.
- Check out HDTT on TruckingInfo.com.
Truck and engine makers have less than three years to pull off a minor engineering miracle to meet EPA’s 2027 ultra-low-NOx rules. The stringent new emissions regulations for diesel engines take effect on Jan. 1, 2027. That means the first of the engines designed to meet those standards will hit the street in early 2026.
Hear from ACT Research Vice President and Senior Analyst Tim Denoyer about the likelihood of a pre-buy occurring ahead of the new emissions rules. In this HDT Talks Trucking interview with HDT Equipment Editor Jim Park, Denoyer explains why he believes the cost and complexity of the new trucks and engines will see fleets stocking up on pre-2027 trucks before the 2026 deadline.
In This Episode:
- The California pre-buy
- Emissions cost may outstrip fuel savings
- Used truck pricing will be very competitive
- Fewer diesel engine makers
- The impact of the CARB Omnibus Clean Trucks rule
- The impact of GHG Phase 3 in 2030
- Industry will survive, and probably be stronger
More About EPA 2027
EPA 2027 and Beyond: How Will New Low-NOx Rules Affect Fleets?
Is the Largest Truck Prebuy Ever on the Horizon?
Environmental Group Says ‘No Evidence’ of Truck Prebuys
Electric and alternative-fuel vehicles aren't new to UPS, but the company recently took delivery of its first fully electric Class 8 truck, a Freightliner eCascadia.
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by Scraper Systems.
HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge talks to Anthony Marshall, VP of Maintenance and Engineering-Transportation Equipment at UPS, about how the new BEV fits into its operations, driver reaction, figuring ROI, UPS' sustainability goals, and more on this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
Learn More About Electric Trucks* Freightliner Delivers First eCascadia Electric Trucks * 9 Keys to Drawing a Roadmap to Zero Fleet Emissions
🚨 Visit HDT's Truckinginfo.com to stay up to date on the latest industry news.
📰Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
🎥Watch a version of this interview on HDT's YouTube Channel
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed some significant changes to its Safety Measurement System, which is how it prioritizes motor carriers for enforcement. What will those potential changes mean to trucking companies?
This episode is sponsored by Scaper Systems.
In this episode of HDT Talks Trucking, HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge joins Brandon Wiseman of Trucksafe Consulting to discuss FMCSA’s recently processed changes to the SMS. Has the FMCSA fixed the problems in how it measures motor carrier safety? We’ll see. HDT dives into the five changes all carriers should know about.
In This Episode:* History of FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System * Why regulated motor carriers should pay attention to the FMCSA SMS * First potential change to the SMS: Reorganizing the safety measurement categories * Second change: Consolidating and reorganizing violations * Third change: Simplified violations severity weights * Fourth change: Comparing through propionate percentiles * Fifth change: Intervention thresholds
🏫 ResourcesFMCSA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking:
- Revised Carrier Safety Measurement System
- Compliance Safety Accountability Prioritization Preview
- Trucksafe Consulting
Learn More About How FMCSA Prioritizes Motor Carriers:
- 5 Enforcement Metrics Fleet Should Monitor
- 5 Things Fleets Should Know About DOT Audits
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media.
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
👀 Prefer to watch? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking videocast:
- Subscribe to HDTT on Youtube.
- Check out HDTT on TruckingInfo.com.
Automatic electronic tolling is becoming more and more common. But a missed plate-read or other error can quickly add up to big bucks for trucking fleets both large and small.
This episode of HDT's Leadership Insights video podcast is sponsored by, and produced in partnership with, PrePass.
Today there are more than 50 toll authorities, and the tolls they collect are growing. In the past decade, consumer prices have increased almost 17%, but toll costs are up 73%, according to numbers from PrePass. HDT"s Deborah Lockridge talks to Bob Trent, vice president of communications for PrePass, about potential pitfalls in automatic electronic tolling and how trucking fleets can avoid problems.
When Hyliion’s natural gas-powered long-range ERX (electric range extender) Hypertruck hits the streets later this year, it’s expected to be marginally lighter and less expensive (after incentives and credits) than midrange battery electric trucks. Company founder and CEO, Thomas Healy says it has up to 1,000 miles of range including up to 75 zero-emissions miles on batteries only. Hyliion is betting big that’s enough to peak truckers’ interest.
This episode is sponsored by Scaper Systems.
HDT’s Equipment Editor Jim Park went to Hyliion’s Austin, Texas, headquarters to drive the ERX in late 2022. After the drive, he sat down with Thomas Healy to talk about the thinking behind the ERX, the benefits of range-extender configurations, and the GHG reduction potential of renewable natural gas. Is it a viable alternative to pure battery electric? Will it help us transition from diesel to some form of zero-emissions truck, or is the ERX all we really need?
What’s in this episode:
- Getting past our previous experience with natural gas engines
- Does natural gas have a future?
- ERX and emissions reduction credits
- How much does an ERX Hypertruck cost?
- The pathway to hydrogen
- Getting the truck to market
- ... and more!
🏫 Resources
Hyliion
HDT Hyliion Test Drive
Hyliion Virtual Ride and Drive
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
🎧 Prefer to listen? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking podcast!
Spotify
Apple
It's recently appeared that self-driving trucks are not going to be hauling freight down the road without a driver as quickly as some developers and investors had expected. But startup tech company Waabi says its AI-focused approach will allow it to commercialize the technology faster.
HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge talks to Waabi's Dustin Koehl, a former fleet manager and HDT Emerging Leader, about how the company's approach differs and why they call themselves the next generation of autonomous trucks.
Note: In the interview, Koehl hints at a big OEM announcement. Since our interview, Volvo Group Venture Capital announced an investment in Waabi Innovation Inc.
In This Episode:* Has autonomous-truck development hit a wall? * Using AI to train Waabi Driver * Where is Waabi in the development process? * Working with truck makers * Will autonomous trucks put drivers out of work? * Path to commercialization * What needs to happen for self-driving trucks to become an everyday reality in logistics?
🏫 ResourcesAutonomous Truck Startup Unveils AI-first Waabi Driver
How Waabi World Works
How Do Autonomous Trucks “See” the World?
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media.
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
👀 Prefer to watch? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking videocast:
- Subscribe to HDTT on Youtube.
- Check out HDTT on TruckingInfo.com.
Nikola Corp. is not without its share of drama. Company founder and then-CEO, Trevor Milton, was convicted last fall on one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud related to allegedly false statements he made to investors. A little over a year later, the company seems to be on firmer footing, following the appointment of its new CEO, Michael Lohscheller. He took the company reins on November 2, 2022.
HDT Equipment Editor Jim Park sat down with Michael Lohscheller for a wide-ranging discussion about the company’s plans to manufacture a soon-to-be-unveiled fuel cell electric truck at the Coolidge, Arizona manufacturing facility, its hydrogen production plans, and the roll-out of the battery-electric Nikola Tre.
🏫 More About Nikola and Zero-Emission Trucks:
Nikola
Is Hydrogen Really Trucking’s Fuel of the Future?
Nikola Launches Mobile Fueler for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Trucks
Nikola Founder Trevor Milton Convicted of Fraud
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media.
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
Come January 2024, most refrigerated truck fleets operating in California will need to have at least 15% of the fleet converted to fully electric refrigeration units. Thermo King’s Preeti Subramanian, senior product manager for truck products, explains what that rule will mean for fleets both large and small.
This episode of HDT's Leadership Insights video podcast, the third and final in a series, is sponsored by, and produced in partnership with, Thermo King.
While the industry hasn’t yet seen a formal rule on refrigerated trailer products from the California Air Resources Board or the Environmental Protection Agency, just about everyone agrees it’s likely to require an all-electric solution. Thermo King Trailer/Rail Portfolio Leader Sam Doerr explains his company’s approach to the pending rule and how it might affect the users of mobile refrigeration products.
In this episode, we discuss:
- The roll-out of a more climate-friendly refrigerant, R452A, and its impact on TRU users
- California’s zero-emissions requirements for refrigerated straight-truck fleets
- Thermo King’s e-1000 all-electric TRU designed for battery-electric trucks
- What Thermo King has learned about how customers use their trailers and how electrification will affect them
- What might happen if a truck breaks down, leaving no opportunity to charge the reefer batteries
🏫 Resources
- Podcast - Leadership Insights with Thermo King, Part 1: The Pathway to TRU Electrification
- Podcast - Leadership Insights with Thermo King, Part 2: Standardizing Emerging TRU Technologies
- Article - California’s Straight-Truck TRU Deadline Puts the Squeeze on Fleets
- Sign up for the HDT newsletter
The editors of Heavy Duty Trucking, and hosts of HDT Talks Trucking, come together to talk about their top stories of 2022 in this special editorial panel episode.
This episode is sponsored by Citgo. Learn more at citgolubes.com
Throughout the year HDT Talks Trucking has been covering the top story each month in our Behind the News segment, those picks were based on website analytics data, but in this episode, we bring together our top editors to see what has stuck out to them the most in the industry, and in their own reporting. Welcome HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge, Senior Contributing Editor Jack Roberts, Equipment Editor Jim Park and Managing Editor Vesna Brajkovic.
In this episode, we discuss:
- AB5: The end of the owner-operator business model as we know it.
- Truck electrification: The realization that it's not going to be easy or cheap to electrify the Class 8 trucking industry
- Alternative fuels developments
- Autonomous trucking: What do shake-ups in the self-driving truck world mean for the industry?
🏫 Resources
From Jack Roberts: 3 Things I Learned About Trucking Tech in 2022
From Deborah Lockridge: The Broader Freight Impact of California’s AB5 [Video]
Jack Robert's ride-and-drive of the Plus Autonomous System: Behind the Wheel of the Plus Autonomous System
TuSimple, Navistar End Autonomous Truck Partnership
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media.
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
👀 Prefer to watch? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking videocast:
- Subscribe to HDTT on Youtube.
- Check out HDTT on TruckingInfo.com.
Despite what you may have heard, no, we’re not running out of diesel fuel. But – low stockpiles do mean higher prices. In this episode of HDT Talks Trucking, we break down what you should know and what this means for trucking fleets.
This episode is sponsored by Citgo. Learn more at citgolubes.com
Heavy Duty Trucking's top story from November was the news that stockpiles of distillate fuels (meaning diesel fuel and heating oil) were low. HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge joins Managing Editor Vesna Brajkovic to talk:
- What low distillate fuel stockpiles mean for trucking fleets
- Misconceptions of a diesel fuel shortage
- What conditions lead to these high diesel prices
- How these conditions compare to previous numbers
- When will diesel fuel costs drop
- and more!
🏫 Resources
No, We Aren’t Running Out of Diesel Fuel — But Low Stockpiles Mean Higher Prices
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media.
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
👀 Prefer to watch? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking videocast:
- Subscribe to HDTT on Youtube.
- Check out HDTT on TruckingInfo.com.
Smart trailers, the internet of things, cloud computing, APIs … if this all makes your head swim, this episode of HDT Leadership Insights explores how these technologies can come together to help fleet managers effectively use the reams of data available to them today.
This episode of HDT's Leadership Insights video podcast is sponsored by, and produced in partnership with Clarience Technologies.
Deborah Lockridge, editor in chief, Heavy Duty Trucking, talks to Nada Jiddou, executive vice president of Clarience Technologies and general manager of Road Ready, about:
- Smart trailers
- Breakdowns
- Internet of things
- Cloud computing
- APIs
- Putting it all together
Internet security analysts say the number of ransomware attacks ballooned by 105% in 2022 compared to 2021 — and 2021 saw a 61% increase over 2020. Experts expect those numbers to be even higher next year. It’s no longer a case of if, but when, your trucking company will be targeted.
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by Citgo. Learn more at citgolubes.com
Big fleets have the resources to at least try to ward off a cyber attack, but where does that leave smaller fleets, ones without dedicated IT staff to develop and implement security measures? To gain a clearer understanding of the significance of this threat, HDT Equipment Editor Jim Park spoke with Mark Zakos, president of DG Technologies. He’s also the chair of the ATA’s Technology & Maintenance Council’s Cyber Security Issues Task Force.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Is trucking immune from cyberattack?
- What would attackers want with a truck fleet’s data?
- Who are the hackers and what do they want?
- Why would hackers even bother with Mom & Pop fleets?
- Prevention isn’t that complicated; so why aren’t we taking precautions?
- Are we making progress in the fight against cyber threats?
🏫 Resources:
U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
C2A Security (vehicle security)
Upstream Cybersecurity
ATA Fleet Cywatch
Q&A: Upstream CEO on Protecting Trucks Against Cyberattacks
Explore some of the ways data can help you navigate some of the challenges facing trucking fleets, from fuel economy to downtime to parking.
This episode of HDT's Leadership Insights podcast is sponsored by, and produced in partnership with, Geotab.
It’s nearly impossible to compete and succeed in trucking without using data to keep your fleet productive and safe. And the past couple of years have brought new pain points or the resurrection of old ones, many of which also can be addressed using data.
For some ideas on how data can help, HDT's Deborah Lockridge talks to Geotab’s Steve White, business development manager, heavy truck, on topics such as:
- High fuel costs
- Do you know how much DEF you use?
- Dialing in to save dollars
- Maintenance savings
- Truck parking
Fingerprint scans, facial recognition, and vocal recognition are becoming relatively common in the trucking industry… and it’s leading to some lawsuits. Learn more about privacy rights and biometric data collection, and what trucking fleets should be looking out for, in this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
This episode is sponsored by Citgo. Learn more ➡ http://www.citgolubes.com/
Our top story from October was news of more than 44,000 truck drivers in Illinois winning a lawsuit against BNSF Railway for unlawfully collecting fingerprint scans at rail yards the drivers entered while dropping and picking up loads. To dive into the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act and the greater implications of biometric data collection in trucking, HDT Managing Editor Vesna Brajkovic talked with Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary Partner Andrew Butcher for this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
In this episode, we dicuss:
- What is the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act?
- What is biometric data?
- Prevalence of biometric privacy laws in the U.S.
- What should carriers in Illinois be looking out for when it comes to BIPA?
- How should trucking companies avoid lawsuits relating to biometric information collection?
- Who's responsible for data collection and BIPA compliance?
- Industries impacted by biometric data collection laws
🏫 Resources:
Truck Drivers Win Lawsuit Against BNSF for Unlawful Fingerprint Scans
Truck Drivers Must Be Informed of Biometric Scans in Illinois
Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
👀 Prefer to watch? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking video series!
TruckingInfo.com
Youtube
We’ve heard about smart trailers and smart tires and even smart wiring harnesses — what about smart suspensions?
This episode of HDT's Leadership Insights podcast is sponsored by, and produced in partnership with, Link Manufacturing.
In this HDT Leadership Insights interview, Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge talks to Link President Jim Huls about how this technology can improve driver retention, safety, and efficiency.
🎙 In this episode:
- Smart suspensions
- Driver comfort
- Saving fuel
- Health and safety
Learn more: Driving Link’s Smooth-Riding Semi-Active Cab Suspension
HDT Talk Trucking sits down with the founder of McLeod Software at the McLeod Software User Conference in Nashville to talk the progression of his trucking software company from simply printing a freight bill and driver paycheck in 1985 to what it is today.
This episode is sponsored by Citgo. Learn more at citgolubes.com
Learn more about Tom McLeod, president, CEO and founder of McLeod Software, and his career path. Interview by HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge.
🏫 Learn More
McLeod Market Analysis Tool Breaks Down Truckload Capacity, Volume
Blocking & Tackling Helps with Trucking's Unsettling Environment [Commentary]
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
👀 Prefer to watch? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking video version!
Why is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration contemplating changes to its mandatory electronic logging device rules — and what changes could be in the works?
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by Citgo.
Learn more ➡ www.citgolubes.com
Behind the News: Our top story on Truckinginfo.com from September was a notice from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration asking for input about possible changes to the ELD regulations. To dive into this, HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge talked to Brandon Wiseman, president of TruckSafe Consulting and partner with Childress Law.
⏱ Topics include:
- Why is FMCSA considering changes to the ELD rules?
- Pre-2000 engine exemptions
- ELD malfunctions and paper logs
- Revoking ELD certification
- ELD specifications
- Should U.S. follow Canada's lead on ELD certification?
- What happens next?
🏫 ELD Resources:
- FMCSA Considering Changes to ELD Rules
- The Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on ELDs
- ELD FAQs
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
Last year, Plus began selling its PlusDrive Level 2 autonomous control system, positioning it in the market as an advanced driver safety/assistance system. HDT Senior Contributing Editor Jack Roberts recently talked to Plus Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Shawn Kerrigan about the pathway his company has followed and how he sees the future of autonomous technology in trucking evolving.
This episode is sponsored by CAT Scale
Learn more at www.weighmytruck.com
Topics covered include:
- Who is Plus?
- Fleet reaction to PlusDrive
- Why Level 2 autonomy?
- Less driver stress
- PlusDrive is in customer hands
- Maintenance and self-calibration
🏫 Learn More:
- Behind the Wheel of the PlusDrive Autonomous System
- How Do Autonomous Trucks “See” the World?
Spencer Patton’s company is one of the largest FedEx Ground contractors in the United States — or it was, until his outspoken criticism of FedEx Ground led to the company canceling his contract and filing suit against another company he owns. HDT’s Deborah Lockridge talks to fellow fleet editor Chris Brown, who’s been covering the story and interviewed Patton, in this episode of the Behind the New segment of HDT Talks Trucking.
This episode is sponsored by CAT Scale. Learn more about its WeighMyTruck app.
Patton has been an outspoken advocate for the roughly 6,000 contractors that deliver packages for FedEx Ground. He has been delivering a public message alleging that FedEx Ground has expanded its profit margins through proceeds from fuel surcharges without allowing contractors to share in those proceeds. He also maintains that FedEx Ground has not adequately addressed other strains on contractor profits, such as Sunday deliveries.
Learn more about Spencer Patton and the situation facing last-mile delivery contractors in this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
🏫 Resources:
Delivery Fleet Challenges: Fuel, Labor, and Supply Chain — Chris Brown’s interview with Spencer Patton
The Battle Between FedEx Ground and Now-Former Contractor
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
👀 Prefer to watch? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking video series!
Youtube
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance conducts two major brake inspection initiatives each year, and year over year, the brake defect out-of-service rate remains about the same. Why aren’t we making progress in bringing that rate down?
Will Schaefer is the Director of Safety Programs at the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, and he has some thoughts on why the OOS rate isn’t improving. It’s got little to do with the brakes themselves. Schaefer and HDT’s Jim Park dig into some of the some of the reasons behind the seemingly immovable brake defect out-of-service rate, including:
- cursory equipment inspections.
- technicians that don’t understand the brake safety regulations.
- poor driver training related to equipment inspections.
This episode is sponsored by CAT Scale.
Learn more about its WeighMyTruck app ➡ http://www.weighmytruck.com/
🏫 Resources:
Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Brake Safety Week
View Last Year’s Results
9 Brake Inspection Tips
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
🎥 Prefer to watch? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking video version!
News from the Supreme Court means the end of the owner-operator model as we know it in California – and it could have repercussions nationwide. HDT's editors share what they know about California's AB5 law in this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
This episode is sponsored by CAT Scale. Learn more about its WeighMyTruck app.
Each month, HDT's editors take a look behind some of Truckinginfo.com's top news stories of the month. In July, our coverage of independent trucker protests in California dominated our top five stories. For this episode of HDT Talks Trucking’s Behind the News, we recap those stories and take a look at how AB5 could affect freight logistics, volumes and rates into and out of the state, including:
- AB5 protests at California ports
- Impact on container wait times in Oakland
- Transloading on the state border?
- What DAT information can tell us about AB5
- and more!
🏫 Resources
California Truck Owner-Operators Slow Traffic, Protest AB5
AB5 Protests Hit Port of Oakland
Port of Oakland Reopens After Trucker Protests, but Questions Remain About AB5
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
🎧 Prefer to listen? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking podcast!
- Spotify
- Apple
Cummins recently invited transportation journalists to Columbus, Indiana to discuss zero and near-zero emissions powertrain products it has in development, including a 6.7-liter engine that runs on 87 octane gasoline, and an battery-electric drivetrain for a Class 7 delivery truck. Jack Roberts and Jim Park share their observations on these two vehicles as well as the company's plans to position itself as a leading global provider of alternative powertrain products.
This episode is sponsored by CAT Scale. Learn more about its WeighMyTruck app.
Each month, HDT's editors take a look behind some of Truckinginfo.com's top stories of the month. For June, the top story was news that the Supreme Court would not hear a case about whether California's AB5 law was unconstitutional. In this video we discuss:
- Recap of Visit to Cummins Facility
- Review of Dodge Ram 2500 with the New B6.7 Octane Engine
- The M2 Freight Runner and the Move to Gasoline
- Footage from Cummins 6.7L Gasoline Dodge Ram
- Review of the Isuzu All-Electric
- Footage From the Isuzu FTR Class 6 Cummins Battery-Electric Powertrain
- The Road Ahead for Cummins
🏫 Resources
- Cummins Returns to its Pioneering Roots to Meet Emissions Goals
https://www.truckinginfo.com/10175501/cummins-returns-to-its-pioneering-roots * Cummins’ X15N: The Right Engine at the Right Time?
https://www.truckinginfo.com/10177563/cummins-x15n-the-right-engine-at-the-right-time * The ‘Messy Middle’ On The Road To Decarbonized Trucking
https://www.truckinginfo.com/10164154/the-messy-middle-on-the-road-to-decarbonized-trucking
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
🎧 Prefer to listen? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking podcast!
- Spotify
- Apple
News from the Supreme Court means the end of the owner-operator model as we know it in California – and it could have repercussions nationwide. HDT's editors share what they know about California's AB5 law in this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
This episode is sponsored by CAT Scale. Learn more about its WeighMyTruck app.
Each month, HDT's editors take a look behind some of Truckinginfo.com's top stories of the month. For June, the top story was news that the Supreme Court would not hear a case about whether California's AB5 law was unconstitutional. In this video we discuss:
- Why the AB5 news was such a big story
- What is AB5?
- Why is the AB5 law necessary?
- How did AB5 end up in the Supreme Court?
- Reaction of AB5 from the trucking industry
- What can California motor carriers do about AB5?
- and more!
🏫 Resources
California Truck Owner-Operators Slow Traffic, Protest AB5
Fruehauf Returns to U.S. Trailer Production After 25 Years
Cummins Returns to its Pioneering Roots to Meet Emissions Goals
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
🎧 Prefer to listen? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking podcast!
- Spotify
- Apple
Cummins is betting its new X15N 15-liter natural gas engine is going to change the market for natural-gas-powered trucks. HDT's Jim Park stopped by the Cummins booth at ACT Expo recently to learn more.
This episode of HDT Talks Trucking is sponsored by Clarience Technologies.
Puneet Jhawar, the general manager of Cummins global natural gas business, walks us through Cummins’ reasons for developing this new engine and explains why it’s different from any previous natural gas engines the company has been involved with and how it fits in to emissions-reduction goals and regulations.
- What makes this engine different?
- Cummins' "fuel-agnostic" approach
- Meeting environmental regulations
- Hydrogen version in the works
🏫 Resources: * Cummins Returns to its Pioneering Roots to Meet Emissions Goals * Cummins Debuts 15L Hydrogen Engine * The ‘Messy Middle’ On The Road To Decarbonized Trucking
Just what would it take for a truck stop to offer charging for long-haul electric trucks? We talk to Delia Meier of the Iowa 80 Group and CAT Scale to get the truck-stop view on that and on driver satisfaction.
This episode of HDT's Leadership Insights podcast is sponsored by, and produced in partnership with, CAT Scale and its WeighMyTruck app.
In this episode:
- The push to reduce trucking's carbon footprint
- The challenges of long-haul trucking electrification
- Driver shortage and productivity
- Keeping drivers happy
Resources:
- Iowa 80 Truck Stop
- Behind the News: Clean-Truck Trends from ACT Expo [Video]
Follow and connect with HDT on social media:
What are the latest trends in the push to decarbonize the trucking industry? Is electrification the answer? HDT's editors share what they learned at ACT Expo in this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
This episode is sponsored by Clarience Technologies.
Each month, HDT's editors take a look behind some of Truckinginfo.com's top stories of the month. For May, it was all about electrification and alternative fuels. Equipment Editor Jim Park and Senior Contributing Editor Jack Roberts sit down with Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge to discuss what they took away from ACT Expo — plus the unusual experience of being in a Euro-style cabover here in the U.S.
🏫 Resources:
- 5 Takeaways from ACT Expo 2022
- Cummins CEO: Get on the Path to Net-Zero Emissions
- Cummins Debuts 15L Hydrogen Engine
🤝Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
🎥Watch a version of this interview on HDT's YouTube Channel
Are your recruiting and retention teams keeping up with the changing truck driver job market? Learn more in this episode of HDT Talks Trucking's Leadership Insights interview.
This episode of HDT's Leadership Insights podcast is sponsored by, and produced in partnership with, Tenstreet.
Tim Crawford, Tenstreet co-founder and CEO, talks to HDT’s Jim Park about the trends Tenstreet tracks that define the driver-carrier relationship, and gives on advice to fleets that want to stay ahead of the evolving dynamic.
🎙 In this Episode:
• Truck driver job seeking habits
• Hiring trends in Q1 2022
• Top things carriers can do to improve their hiring outcomes
• and more!
🚨 Stay up to date on the latest industry news ➡ http://www.truckinginfo.com
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media:
🎧 Prefer to listen? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking podcast!
Spotify
Apple
⏱ Timestamps ⏱
0:00 Introduction
1:36 How have truck driver's job seeking behaviors changed?
2:43 Do fleets have less of a choice when it comes to hiring drivers?
3:38 What driver recruiting and retention trends have you seen in the first quarter of 2022?
9:18 What carrier approaches are most successful?
11:09 Top things carriers can do to improve their hiring outcomes
Battery electric is currently the dominant alternative to diesel discussed as the way to a zero-emissions future, but it’s not the only option. Jim Park and John Zelasko, chief sales officer at FEV North America, explore the various powertrain technologies likely to power tomorrow's fleets.
🎙 In this episode:
- About FEV and its stake in the commercial vehicle market
- EV adoption rates on the heavy duty side of the trucking industry
- Level of interest among prospective buyers of battery-electric trucks
- Market fit for alternative-fuel solutions
- New engines or conversions for alternative fuels
- How to keep diesel engines around a little longer
This episode is sponsored by Clarience Technologies.
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
🎥 Watch a shorter video version of this interview on HDT’s YouTube channel.
Trucking fleets face more and more pressures to create strong sustainability goals. But how do you figure out the right goals for your operations?
This episode is sponsored by, and produced in partnership, with Geotab.
Steve White, Geotab’s business development manager, heavy truck, talks to HDT’s Deborah Lockridge about how fleets can use telematics and data to find out where they are on their sustainability journey, where they want to go, and measure their progress in getting there.
🎙 In this episode:
- Sustainability goals aren’t just for big fleets
- Using telematics and data to assess opportunities
- Measuring progress
- Potential pitfalls in setting sustainability goals
- and more!
🚨 Visit HDT to stay up to date on the latest industry news.
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
Like HDT on Facebook.
Follow HDT on Twitter.
🎥 Watch a shorter video version of this interview on HDT’s YouTube channel.
Get insights behind the the top trucking news from April 2022 with HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge, Managing Editor Vesna Brajkovic and Equipment Editor Jim Park on this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
This episode is sponsored by Clarience Technologies. Learn more about here.
🎙 Today's topics include:
- Achates Power developing an opposed-piston diesel engine that meets CARB's 2027 emissions regulations
- Walmart's driver pay raises and private fleet development program
🚨Stay up to date on the latest industry news from HDT ➡ http://www.truckinginfo.com
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter.
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media:
- LinkedIn ➡ https://www.linkedin.com/company/heavy-duty-trucking-magazine
- Facebook ➡ https://www.facebook.com/heavydutytrucking
- Twitter ➡ https://twitter.com/hdtrucking
👀 Prefer to watch? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking video podcast.
- Follow us on Spotify
- Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
- Subscribe on Google Podcasts
⏱ Timestamps ⏱
0:00 Introduction
1:08 Walmart Deploys Near-Zero Opposed-Piston Diesel Engine
1:50 What Is an Opposed-Piston Diesel Engine?
6:25 Walmart Launches Private Fleet Development Program
The first functional diesel engine was tested in 1897, making the “heat engine” 125 years old this year. Will the diesel see 150 years of service? Allen Schaeffer, the executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum joined HDT’s Jim Park on Rudolph Diesel’s 164th birthday with a tribute to the engine’s inventor and look forward at its future.
🏫 Resources
Diesel Technology Forum
DTF: Nearer to Zero - The Big Picture on EPA’s Latest Proposed Emissions Regs
Rudolph Diesel’s Enduring Invention
🚨 Visit HDT to stay up to date on the latest industry news.
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
Connect with HDT on LinkedIn. Like HDT on Facebook. Follow HDT on Twitter.
🎥 Watch a shorter video version of this interview on HDT’s YouTube channel.
Get updates and insights on the top trucking news from March 2022 with HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge and Managing Editor Vesna Brajkovic on this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
This episode is sponsored by:
Circle K Pro
Learn more about the Circle K Fleet Card.
Clarience Technologies
Learn more about Clarience Technologies.
🎙 Today's topics include:
- Reinstated Independent Contractor Definition
- Navistar’s New San Antonio Plant
- Fuel Prices
- And more
🚨Stay up to date on the latest industry news from HDT: ➡ http://www.truckinginfo.com
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter: https://bob.dragonforms.com/loading.do?omedasite=BOB6226_HDTPref&PK=YouTubeHDTTTDescription
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media:
- LinkedIn ➡ https://www.linkedin.com/company/heavy-duty-trucking-magazine
- Facebook ➡ https://www.facebook.com/heavydutytrucking
- Twitter ➡ https://twitter.com/hdtrucking
🎧 Prefer to listen? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking audio podcast:
- Follow us on Spotify
- Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
- Subscribe on Google Podcasts
⏱ Timestamps
- 0:00 Introduction
- 0:51 Reinstating the Independent Contractor Definition
- 4:22 Navistar’s Opens New San Antonio Plant
- 5:56 EPA Proposed Emissions Rules Would Cut NOx 60%
- 8:50 Diesel Fuel Prices Raise, and then Dip
- 11:02 Supply Chain Uncertainty Leads OEMs to Carefully Control Class 8 Orders
Wireless electronic truck inspections could revolutionize the harvesting of data from commercial vehicles. Inspections will be faster and more comprehensive, allowing far more inspections to be conducted every day. But there’s infrastructure to consider, and cost, and fleet sensitivity to sharing proprietary data. On this episode of HDT Leadership Insights, Steve Vaughn of PrePass explains how these inspections would be carried out, and the implications for industry.
🏫 Resources
Pre-Pass
CVSA Adds New Level VIII Electronic Inspection
🚨 Visit HDT to stay up to date on the latest industry news.
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
Like HDT on Facebook.
Follow HDT on Twitter.
🎥 Watch a shorter video version of this interview on HDT’s YouTube channel.
With diesel prices at or near record highs, HDT Talks Trucking shares tips from fuel-buying expert Glen Sokolis about how fleets can save money beyond better fuel mileage.
This episode is sponsored by Circle K. Learn more about the Circle K Fleet Card.
Glen Sokolis is CEO of Sokolis Group, a company he founded nearly 20 years ago to help fleets save money on fuel. Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge talks to Glen about why oil and fuel prices have spiked and what fleets can do about it short- and long-term.
🏫 Resources
- What Can Your Fleet Fuel Invoices Tell You About Saving Money on Fuel?
- Top 5 Mobile Fueling FAQs
🚨 Visit HDT's Truckinginfo.com to stay up to date on the latest industry news.
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
🎥 Watch a version of this interview on HDT's YouTube Channel
The electrification of transport refrigeration equipment is evolving but charging and power sharing must be standardized before adoption occurs at scale. Host Jim Park and Matt Srnec, Thermo King’s lead electrical system engineer discuss the benefits and barriers to standardizing electric TRU technology. Fleets looking toward investing in electric TRUs and e-PTO will gain much from Matt’s insight.
This episode of HDT Leadership Insights is sponsored by and produced in partnership with Thermo King.
🏫 Resources
Download Thermo King's TRU Electrification position paper
Thermo King's Electrification landing page
🚨 Visit HDT to stay up to date on the latest industry news.
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
Connect with HDT on LinkedIn. Like HDT on Facebook. Follow HDT on Twitter.
🎥 Watch a shorter video version of this interview on HDT's YouTube channel
Get updates and insights on the top trucking news from February 2022 with HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge and Managing Editor Vesna Brajkovic on this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
This episode is sponsored by Circle K Pro. Learn more about the Circle K Fleet Card.
🎙 Today's topics include:
- Cummins and the Road to Zero Emissions
- How Will Russia-Ukraine Conflict Affect You?
- CVSA's Inspection Blitz
- And more
🚨Stay up to date on the latest industry news from HDT: ➡ truckinginfo.com
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter.
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media:
A study published late in 2021 by the Supply Chain Management Research Center at the University of Arkansas is casting doubt on the safety benefits of ELDs. Researchers found that crash rates and incidents of unsafe driving among small fleets and owner-operators increased relative to large fleets following ELD implementation in December 2017. On this episode of HDT Talks Trucking, one of the study’s coauthors, Andrew Balthrop of the Sam M. Walton College of Business, explains his findings.
This episode is sponsored by Circle K. Learn more about the Circle K Fleet Card.
🏫 Resources
(PDF) Did the Electronic Logging Device Mandate Reduce Accidents? - ResearchGate
🚨 Visit HDT to stay up to date on the latest industry news.
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
🎥 Watch a version of this interview on HDT's YouTube Channel
Get updates and insights on the top trucking news from January 2022 with HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge and Managing Editor Vesna Brajkovic on this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
This episode is sponsored by Circle K. Learn more about the Circle K Fleet Card.
🎙 Today's topics include:
- Controversy Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates
- New FMCSA Leadership
- Werner Getting Natural Gas, Hydrogen Engines
- and more!
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media.
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
🎧 Prefer to listen? Check out the HDT Talks Trucking podcast:
- Follow HDTTT on Spotify.
- Subscribe to HDTTT on Apple Podcasts.
- Subscribe to HDTTT on Google Podcasts.
⏱ Timestamps ⏱
0:00 Introduction
0:41 U.S.-Canada Border Closed to Unvaccinated Truckers
3:03 OSHA's COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Struck Down by SCOTUS
4:18 New Chief at FMCSA
5:35 Werner-Cummins Natural Gas and Hydrogen ICE
6:45 Collecting Biometric Information from Drivers in Illinois
The driver in the Lakewood, Colo. crash, Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, paid a stiff price for his actions on the afternoon of April 25, 2019.
It would be easy to argue that the crash was entirely his fault, but my guest, Accident Plan founder and CEO, Brendan Dawson, says the carrier and the broker he was working for at the time bear some responsibility for not ensuring he was trained to drive in mountainous terrain. Would training have prevented that crash? Could more comprehensive training prevent other crashes?
This episode is sponsored by Circle K. Learn more about the Circle K Fleet Card.
🏫 Resources!
- Trucking Defense Network YouTube channel
- Trucker Gets 110-Year Sentence for Fatal Runaway Truck Pileup
- 110-Year Trucker Sentence Cut to 10 by Governor
- Mountain Driving Video Series
- What Went Wrong in Colorado's Deadly Truck Crash?
🚨 Visit HDT to stay up to date on the latest industry news.
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
🎥 Watch an extended conversation with Mr. Dawson and Jim Park.
Battery size and weight are significant barriers to developing electric power systems for mobile refrigeration units. Integration of the charging systems and AC/DC converters is another challenge for system developers. As the strategic insights leader at Thermo King, Paul Kroes is responsible for finding solutions to these problems. In this episode of Leadership Insights, Paul discusses the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead in developing electric transportation refrigeration units.
💡 This episode is sponsored by and produced in partnership with Thermo King. Learn more about their all-electric solutions.
🎥 Watch an extended conversation with Paul as he discusses more on how far away battery-electric TRUs are, the challenges around battery technology, calculating the ROI of electric TRUs, and much more!
🚨 Visit HDT to stay up to date on the latest industry news.
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
Get updates and insights on the top trucking news from December 2021 with HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge and Managing Editor Vesna Brajkovic on this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
This episode is sponsored by Circle K. Learn more about the Circle K Fleet Card.
🎙 Today's topics include:
- Will a truck driver serve a 110-year sentence for a fatal crash?
- The latest on Nikola’s battery-electric and fuel-cell-electric trucks.
- What the Biden administration is doing about the truck driver shortage.
- And more!
🚨 Visit HDT to stay up to date on the latest industry news.
📰 Sign up for the HDT newsletter!
🤝 Follow and connect with HDT on social media!
- Connect with HDT on LinkedIn.
- Like HDT on Facebook.
- Follow HDT on Twitter.
⏱ Timestamps ⏱
0:00 Introduction
0:34 2021’s Top Story – Sentencing a Driver to 110 Years in Prison
5:08 Nikola’s Battery Electric and Fuel Cell Progress
7:44 Central Freight Lines Shuts Down
8:53 Biden’s Plan to Help Recruit and Retain Drivers
12:35 Rush Enterprises Gets Even Bigger
With the industry facing a shortage of qualified drivers, fleet managers are faced with the challenge of both retaining CDL drivers, as well as attracting new ones to their operations. Is one answer to the driver shortage introducing young people to trucking and prepping high schoolers to obtain their CDL early on? In this special report, hear from Dave Dein, the mastermind behind one of that nation’s first high school truck driver programs and a co-founder of the Next Generation Trucking Association. Learn why Dein is passionate about ushering in the next generation of truck drivers, and what he thinks fleet managers can do to make their operations more attractive to in-coming drivers.
Next Generation Trucking Association
Dave Dein’s LinkedIn
Follow HDT on social media:
There are currently, dozens of driverless trucks operating on interstate highways (with safety drivers) mixing and mingling with humanized cars and trucks. The technology obviously works. As they log more and more miles, we are hearing about few reported incidents of automation gone wrong. Does that mean they are ready for prime time? Christopher Hart doesn’t think so. He’s a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, and he as been studying and observing automation in transportation for years. He’s still uneasy about sharing the road with driverless vehicles. Find out why on this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
About Chris Hart
Chris Hart’s blog: Driverless Motor Vehicles: Not Yet Ready for Prime Time
Jim Park’s blog on the Las Vegas shuttle bus “crash”
Follow HDT on social media:
Ryder will soon be managing maintenance services for several fleets of autonomous vehicles. The company will be doing regular maintenance on the trucks as well as servicing the autonomous hardware and performing pre- and post-trip inspections. On this episode of HDT Talks Trucking, Ryder’s director of new product strategy, Mike Plasencia, explains what it takes to keep driverless trucks running.
Ryder System
Embark, Ryder Partner on Nationwide Autonomous Fleet Network
TuSimple to Use Ryder Facilities to Expand Autonomous Trucking Network
Waymo Partners with Ryder on Autonomous-Truck Uptime
Follow HDT on social media:
Remember the Y2K scare? At the time, many people worried airplanes would fall from the sky and every bit of digital data ever collected would simply vanish. As it happened, very little changed that winter night January 31, 1999. Come the spring of 2022, however, when some wireless service providers start turning off their 3G networks, some older technology will quit working. Our guest, Michael Bloom, vice president of product and marketing for video and telematics provider, SmartWitness, explains what will happen when they throw the switch, and how fleets can avoid getting left in the digital dark.
SmartWitness
AT&T Phasing Out 3G
Verizon: Get Your Fleet Ready for the 3G to 4G Transition
Follow HDT on social media:
The FA-4 category oils have been available for almost five years now, but market penetration remains light. Despite the fuel saving benefits inherent to these lighter viscosity oils, fleets are being cautions about using it – and for a number of good reasons. In some cases, FA-4 is only recommended for engines from 2017 and newer. Certain restrictions may be keeping fleets from embracing the newest API oil category. On this episode, Tom Gauerke, national fleet account manager at Chevron Global Lubricants-North America, helps sort out the restrictions and explains who can start using FA-4 now and who should hold off.
FA-4 at Chevron
HDT: Chevron Unveils New Delo 400 CK-4 and FA-4 Engine Oils
Follow HDT on social media:
It has been said that as of today, more than 5 million trucks in North America could be converted from fossil-fuel power to electric. The sweeping simplicity of that statement, however, belies the complexity of actually making it happen. Jim Castalez, the chief technology officer and founder of Motive Power Systems has been electrifying Class 4-6 delivery vehicle fleets for 12 years now. With more than a million miles under his belt, he has a few insights on how fleets can successfully make the switch from ICE to electric.
Motiv Power Systems
NACFE Electric Trucks
Follow HDT on social media:
How can fleets make informed decisions when buying fuel saving devices and technologies if they are looking at unreliable data? How often do we hear fleets say they automatically reduce vendor’s fuel-saving estimates by half? Our guest says he has the answer to that problem. Daryl Bear is the lead engineer & chief operating officer of Mesilla Valley Transportation Solutions. He’s a mechanical engineer with 20 years’ experience in motorsports and automotive research and development. From his background in race-car engineering and testing comes a more efficient and accurate method of quantifying fuel savings for heavy trucks.
Mesilla Valley Transportation Solutions
Daryl Bear on LinkedIn
Follow HDT on social media:
Meet the newest member of HDT’s editorial team, managing editor, Vesna Brajkovic. Managing editors are to magazines what operations managers are to truck fleets. They tend to the day-to-day details of running a magazine and a website and are responsible for keeping everything on the rails. On this episode of HDT Talks Trucking, Vesna talks about what she has learned about trucking since she started here in February, and shares a little of her personal side, discussing her love for soccer, golf, aviation and helping young women get a solid start in life.
Truckstops and trucking are very much dependent on one another, yet the relationship isn’t always mutually beneficial. Whether it’s fuel prices, restaurant prices or the debate over paid parking, trucking and truckstops don’t always see eye to eye.
In this episode of HDT Talks Trucking, truckstop business consultant, Don Baglien -- aka That Truckstop Guy -- pulls back the curtain and shares what it’s like on his side of the doors that never close. Don and host, Jim Park discuss the challenges of preparing fresh, healthy and reasonably priced menu options, the debate over commercializing rest areas, paid truckstop parking and marketing alternative fuels at commercial truckstops.
Don Baglien on LinkedIn
Follow HDT on social media:
With medium- and heavy-duty truck electrification, we’re seeing a unique alignment of traditional truck manufacturers, tier-1 suppliers and start-up companies simultaneously competing and collaborating. We have companies that started building electric trucks in their garages now developing trucks for the parcel delivery market. We have two tier 1 suppliers going from axle, brake and driveline suppliers to providers of full electric powertrains. And we have major truck manufacturers working alongside silicon-valley start-ups. We asked Meritor's vice president for Global Business Development, T.J. Reed, if all these diverse interests play together in the same sandbox.
Meritor Blue Horizon
HDT: Meritor to Begin Commercial Electric Powertrain Production
YouTube: Meritor Blue Horizon Manifesto
Follow HDT on social media:
While the basic principles of Ohm’s Law haven’t changed, the architecture of a truck’s electrical system certainly has. Are fleets doing enough to keep their technicians ahead of the rapidly steepening technology adoption curve? Our guest on this episode of HDT Talks Trucking is Larry Rambeaux, a sales application engineer at Purkeys Fleet Electric in Rogers, Arkansas. He worries truck fleets could face a skills deficit as truck electrical systems grow ever more complex. Larry discusses some of the weaknesses in basic electrical maintenance and provides a few tips to help fleets keep the lights on now and into the future.
Multimeter Training at Purkeys’ Support & Training Resources
HDT: What 24- or 48-Volt Electrical Systems Could Mean for Trucking
Follow HDT on social media:
Cruising down the highway at 900 rpm takes a bit of getting used to. Some drivers don’t like the way the truck feels, while others can’t get used to the way it sounds. And there are some drivers who don’t quite understand the relationship between engine torque and engine speed. There are proven fuel economy benefits to downsped engines, but drivers who drive those trucks the old-fashioned way are missing out. Jamie Hagen of Hell Bent Xpress in Aberdeen, South Dakota – an expert on the gear-fast, run-slow concept – explains how downspeeding works and shares his experience learning to love trucking at 900 rpm. For our fleet listeners, this is an episode you may want to pass along to your drivers.
Hell Bent Xpress
Hell Bent Xpress/Facebook
HDT: Downspeeding Backgrounder
Follow HDT on social media:
It’s going to take a lot more than better aerodynamics and low-rolling resistance tires to meet the EPA’s next round of emissions reductions for heavy trucks. Trucks from model-year 2021 are included in the rulemaking. All the OEMs met those requirements handily, and vehicle owners hardly noticed. That probably won’t be the case in 2024 and we will certainly notice the changes needed to meet the 2027 standards. Joining me in this episode of HDT Talks Trucking to explain what these advanced technologies are and how they work is Dr. Mihai Dorobantu, the Eaton Vehicle Group’s director of Technology Planning and Government Affairs.
Eaton Commercial vehicles: Planning for new CO2 and NOx emission regulations
HDT: How GHG Phase 2 Will Change the Way You Spec Trucks
HDT: Eaton Looks to Advanced Engine Technology to Combat Emissions
Dr. Mihai Dorobantu on LinkedIn
Follow HDT on social media:
Volvo Trucks has committed to decarbonizing its share of the road transport system by 2050 using hydrogen fuel cells alongside battery-electric vehicles and biofuel- or possibly hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines. The Volvo group sees battery-electric and fuel-cell-electric trucks as complementary rather than competitive, depending on the individual customer use case. Volvo believes battery-power will likely dominate the lower cargo weight classes in smaller trucks over shorter distances, while fuel-cell power will do the heavy lifting in long-haul applications. In this episode, Volvo Group's chief technology officer, Lars Stenqvist, explains how Volvo plans to achieve fossil-fuel-freedom by 2050.
cellcentric - A Daimler Truck & Volvo Group Company
HDT: Daimler, Volvo Form Fuel-Cell Truck Joint Venture
HDT: Europe's Zero Emissions Conundrum
Follow HDT on social media:
The market for battery- or fuel-cell-electric trucks is still in its infancy. It could be another 10-15 years before production and deployment numbers achieve a critical mass where scale begins to provide significant cost reductions. In the meantime, subsidies and incentives will keep the industry moving forward while the electrical infrastructure is built out and new efficiencies are realized in battery design and execution. Joining me on this episode to talk about the road to an electric future are Jeremy Frenznick, Dana's senior director of commercial vehicle engineering, and Beyza Sarioglu, Dana's senior director of strategy and business planning for commercial vehicles.
Dana e-Mobility
Dana/TM4
NACFE Electric Truck Guidance Report
Follow HDT on social media:
The most recent update to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Hours of Service regulations went live September 29, 2020. They were two years in the making, and the changes came only after years of drivers asking for a bit more flexibility in how they manage their time. Did FMCSA get it right this time? To answer that question, we have Jerad Childress of Childress Law PLLC and Truck Safe Consulting along with Chris Woody, the safety manager at M&W Logistics of Nashville. Jerad explains the legal nuances of the changes while Chris shares his real-world perspective.
Trucksafe Consulting
Childress Law PLLC
M&W Logistics
HDT: Safety Advocates, Teamsters Challenge Hours of Service Changes
Follow HDT on social media:
Trucking's response to a crisis often tends to be reactive and defensive. That can leave a carrier on its back-foot when trying to defend a claim in court. It's not that we're not good at defending ourselves, it's that plaintiff's attorneys are better; they are often better organized and prepared, and they are better funded. Can trucking level that playing field and start fighting back? Brendan Dawson thinks we can. In fact, he thinks we must. He's an entrepreneur, a risk manager and a former fleet manager. He's also the founder and CEO of Accident Plan and he's the organizer of the Trucking Defense Network. Brendan describe the challenge ahead for trucking and proposes some first steps toward resolving the insurance crisis.
Accident plan
Trucking Defense Network
Follow HDT on social media:
Autonomous truck teaching and testing is in full swing now, with close to a dozen companies in the game right now. One company, Locomation, says it can commercialize the technology faster by letting human drivers do some of the heavy lifting, while smoothing out the learning curve for the AI system. This, according to Locomation's co-founder and CEO, Dr. Çetin Meriçli, will more quickly transition the company from a research entity to a profitable business. Dr. Meriçli explains why his company is taking a different approach to AI development and how he sees the technology eventually coming to market.
Locomation
HDT Story about Locomation
Locomation & Wilson Logistics
Follow HDT on social media:
Aftertreatment systems remain the source of much confusion and frustration for fleets and drivers alike. In this episode we discuss some of the problems that arise from lack of maintenance and a general lack of understanding of how the systems function. Our guests bring nearly three decades of combined experience cleaning and servicing aftertreatment systems. Steve Hoke, president, of Diesel Emissions Service in Redding, California and DES's warranty and training manager, Steve "Junior" Stratton, help us make sense of the systems, explain what can go wrong with them, and reveal how to look after them.
Diesel Emissions Service
FilterTherm
HDT: A New Approach to DPF Maintenance
HDT: What You Should Know About Aftertreatment System Maintenance
Follow HDT on social media:
Season 6 of HDT Talks Trucking digs into bunch of hot-button issues, from aftertreatment system maintenance -- a perennial headache for fleets, to managing litigation costs resulting from accidents. We also have a fresh look at the burgeoning electric truck market. How soon will battery-powered trucks hit the mainstream? Automated trucks and Hours of Service are on deck too. We talk with an AI developer with double vision, and we ask the age-old question, are the new HOS rules working for carriers and drivers? And HDT Talks Trucking gets political with a look ahead at what the Biden administration means for trucking.
Follow HDT on social media:
HDT Talks Trucking Special Report: Self-driving trucks will obviously displace some drivers. The question everyone is asking is how many and when. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's new deputy administrator and current acting administrator, Meera Joshi, said in mid-March, "If it’s your livelihood that seems like it’s being threatened, it is an immediate problem." But realistically, given the development timelines for autonomous trucks, and near-term market penetration, if you are a truck driver today, it's unlikely you will lose your job to a robotic truck. Finch Fulton, vice president of policy and strategy for Locomation and former DOT deputy assistant secretary of transportation policy, explains why.
HDT: FMCSA Chief: Autonomous Trucks Mean 'Real and Broad Impacts on People's Livelihoods'
Federal Register: Automated Vehicles Comprehensive Plan; Request for Comments
Locomation: Human-guided Autonomy
Follow HDT on social media:
From the latest in data intelligence to effectively using data to improve safety and operations, Dr. Ashim Bose, Omnitracs' chief data and AI officer, discusses how fleets can overcome the challenge of managing vast amounts of data and begin putting that data to work. This is part 1 of our three-episode conversation with Omnitracs. This episode was produced in partnership with Omnitracs – discover how Omnitracs can improve your customer service, efficiency, and revenue by making better business decisions at Omnitracs.com/platform.
Follow HDT on social media:
Data is the key to profitability. Omnitracs' chief data and AI officer, Dr. Ashim Bose, focuses on how operational data can improve efficiency and productivity. He also explains how smaller fleets can use data and advanced analytics to improve their efficiency and productivity, too. This is part 3 of our three-episode conversation with Omnitracs. This episode was produced in partnership with Omnitracs – discover how Omnitracs can improve your customer service, efficiency, and revenue by making better business decisions at Omnitracs.com/platform.
Follow HDT on social media:
Data flows by the gigabyte from trucks today. Much of that data can help make your drivers safer and keep your drivers safe. From fatigue warnings and traffic alerts to weather and even Covid-19 hot-spot alerts, Omnitracs' chief data and AI officer, Ashim Bose, discusses how fleets can benefit from this treasure trove of data. This is part 2 of our three-episode conversation with Omnitracs. This episode was produced in partnership with Omnitracs – discover how Omnitracs can improve your customer service, efficiency, and revenue by making better business decisions at Omnitracs.com/platform.
Follow HDT on social media:
We assembled the editorial team for a look back at 2020 and a look ahead at 2021. Deborah Lockridge, David Cullen, Jack Roberts, and I offer our reflections on the year just passed and the year ahead through a trucking lens -- what will this industry see from the Biden administration? How much of our long wish list will be fulfilled this year or over the next four years? Will we see more emissions regulations? Will Electric trucks become mainstream? The HDT Editorial team tackle those questions and more.
Follow HDT on social media:
Chuck Blake and Bob Wessels hardly need an introduction, but for the record, Chuck was Detroit Diesel's senior technical support manager when he retired in 2018, and Bob was the assistant chief engineer and a project manager at Caterpillar when he retired in 2006. Together, they charted new territory in fuel economy testing and validation. Under the auspices of the ATA's Technology and Maintenance Council, Bob and Chuck, along with several other partners in crime, basically wrote the book on fuel testing, producing the TMC/SAE Type II (RP 1102) "In-Service Fuel Consumption Test Procedure.” As TMC's Robert Braswell writes, they recognized the need for "real world" testing supported by real science that fleets could believe, use, and understand. In this episode, Bob and Chuck share some of the lessons they learned and few tales from the fuel-economy testing trenches.
Follow HDT on social media:
The world is electronic now, which means there are doorways into our lives and our business that we'd prefer stayed closed. But as the recent Russian hack of the U.S. government shows, we can't always keep the bad guys out. Big fleets have the resources to protect themselves and can hire the expertise they need. Small fleets may not even see themselves as targets, and that leads to a denial of the problem, compounded perhaps by not knowing how to begin building a defense. Kevin Linardic is the chief technology officer at Carrier Logistics, Inc. He provides his assessment of the scope of the problem, and some starting points for building your defense against cyber-intruders.
Carrier Logistics Inc.
HDT: Why Trucking Companies Need to Plan Now for a Cyber Attack
HDT: Don’t Let Your Trucking Data Be Held Hostage
Follow HDT on Social Media
We're facing what some have called a crisis with insurance costs right now. Premiums continue to escalate in lock step claims costs, from medical expenses to vehicle repair costs. The so-called nuclear verdicts are a factor too. Many insurance companies have exited the market, so those that remain can be very selective about the risk they take on. For a better understanding of the state of the insurance market today, we speak with Reliance Partners' founder and CEO, Andrew Ladebauche and the company's director of safety, Brian Runnels. The pair explain how we got here and offer advice on how fleets can lessen the impact of rising insurance premiums.
Reliance Partners
HDT: How to Rein in Rising Insurance Costs
HDT: ‘Hard Market’ for Insurance Leads to Search for Creative Solutions
Follow HDT on Social Media
Running a fleet's Human Resources and Safety & Compliance departments would be challenging at any point in time, but more so through a pandemic. Adam Lang, chief risk officer for Halvor Lines of Superior, Wisconsin, came to trucking just eight years ago, but he has made quite an impression in that short time, including being named HDT's Safety & Compliance Award winner for 2020. We spoke with Adam about the state of the industry and the pressing issues that trucking will face in the New Year as well as his thoughts on the year just past.
Halvor Lines
Adam Lang's 2020 Fleet Safety Conference presentation
HDT Story about Adam Lang
Follow HDT on Social Media
Season 5 of HDT Talks Trucking delves into a couple of current industry concerns, insurance costs and cybersecurity. Andrew Ladebauche and Brian Runnels of Reliance Partners shed some light on why truck insurance is so pricey. Kevin Linardic, the Chief Technology Officer at Carrier Logistics Incorporated talks about the need to lock down your data. HDT's editorial team, Deb Lockridge, David Cullen and Jack Roberts, looks back at the year we'd all like to forget, and forward to what we can expect from 2021. We meet Adam Lang, chief risk officer of Halvor Lines. He's Heavy Duty Trucking Magazine's Safety & Compliance Award winner for 2020. We also introduce you to HDT's 2020 Emerging Leaders. And to top off Season 5, two former competitors who became close friends, Detroit Diesel's Chuck Blake and Caterpillar's Bob Wessels, share a few tall tales from the pioneering days of fuel economy testing with the ATA's Technology & Maintenance Council
Follow HDT on social media:
HDT Talks Trucking Special Report: Smart Trailers Smart Trailers are upending how truck fleets do business. These formerly brainless boxes are now providing insights and intelligence to fleets that help improve efficiency and productivity while making fleets proactive rather than reactive. Paul Menig of Business Accelerants discusses where this technology can take us, and what we'll need to do to get there.
Business Accelerants
Great Dane Fleet Pulse
Phillips Connect Technologies
Peterson Pulse
Road Ready System
Follow HDT on social media:
HDT Talks Trucking Special Report: Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Hydrogen fuel cells' place in the heavy-duty trucking market is not well understood. Many see fuel cells and batteries as competitors. Loop Energy's Ben Nyland sees them as complimentary rather than competitive. Loop Energy is a new name to North American ears, but the company has been developing its fuel cell technology for the past two decades. It's currently a significant player in the European and Chinese markets, and it now has wheels on the ground here. Ben Nyland provides a detailed look behind the fuel cell curtain: how they work, where they'll work, and what they do best.
Loop Energy
Hydrogen fuel cell basics
CHFCA - Hydrogen and fuel cells for heavy-duty transport Interviews
Follow HDT on social media:
Truck drivers' lifestyles and work environments don't always compliment their need for restful and restorative sleep. In an industry where much of the focus on sleep and fatigue is related to compliance, sometimes the need for proper sleep takes a back seat to the rules. This episode is about the importance of sleep. Sleep specialist and best-selling author, Dr. Chris Winter, explains why we need sleep, and what happens when you don't get enough. Dr. Winter offers some tips you can use to ensure you get the sleep you need.
Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine
Free Summary of The Sleep Solution audiobook by W. Chris Winter
Good Books Radio: The Sleep Solution
Follow HDT on social media:
Decades will pass before diesel disappears from our vocabulary. Despite what you may have read on the internet, no single alternative energy source will dominate the way diesel fuel has for generations. As we move closer to wide-scale adoption of alternative fuels, it's becoming clear that trucks will need a little bit of everything to keep all its wheels turning as greenly as possible. Join Deborah Lockridge and Jim Park as they explore the pros and cons associated with three of today's most promising alternatives to diesel: battery electric, fuel-cell electric and renewable natural gas.
Links to HDT October 2020 Alternative Fuels features
Powering the Future
What Will it Take to Charge all Those Electric Vehicles?
RNG: The Energy Source No One’s Talking About
Hydrogen: Truly Green Power
Follow HDT on social media:
We know there will be challenges integrating electric trucks into traditional fleets, but until recently we haven't had many real-world examples from which to learn. Penske Truck Leasing has had a trial and evaluation project underway in southern California since 2017. They are trying to understand everything that would go right and everything that could go wrong. From dealing with the utility companies, to planning the layout of the yard and coaxing drivers to get the best battery performance, they are learning more every day. Penske's head of fleet procurement and planning, Paul Rosa, shares his experience with integrating all classes of electric trucks into a traditional fleet environment.
Penske Truck Leasing
What Penske Learned About Charging Electric Trucks (HDT)
Follow HDT on social media:
Rumors surrounding the death of diesel are, as Mark Twain once said, greatly exaggerated. While some people can't wait for the last puff of smoke from an internal combustion engine, Allen Schaeffer isn't among them. He's the head of the Diesel Technology Forum, and one of diesel's greatest proponents. If you're worried about the sustained attacks on trucking's fuel of choice, Allen Schaeffer explains why diesel engines aren't going anywhere anytime soon. And if you think diesel is dead, or even on its last legs, after listing to this episode you may come away with a completely different point of view.
Diesel Technology Forum
Diesel Technology Forum Puts Clean Diesel Technologies on Display (video)
DTF on Facebook
Follow HDT on social media:
The search for cleaner energy sources for transportation is taking trucking in some interesting directions, but one source is often overlooked or even dismissed: renewable natural gas. RNG is methane gas produced by decomposing organic matter from sources such as landfills, dairy farms, and wastewater treatment plants. It can be economically collected and used to power trucks. It's already a source of fuel for many refuse collection fleets. Hugh Donnell of Cummins Westport, maker of the engines that turn this harmful waste gas into motive power, describes the challenges and benefits of wider adoption of RNG as a truck fuel.
Cummins Westport
Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas
Waste Management & Renewable Energy
Follow HDT on social media:
Truck accidents usually bring tragic results, but some good can come from the follow up investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board doesn't investigate every truck crash, but digs deep into some for insight that could help prevent future crashes of a similar nature. Robert Molloy, a transportation research analyst and the director of the Office of Highway Safety at NTSB explains why it investigates certain crashes, and shares some of the conclusions drawn from two specific truck accidents -- a rear-end collision with stopped traffic in Miami, Oklahoma, and a collision with an autonomous shuttle bus in Las Vegas.
National Transportation Safety Board
Miami OK accident report
Las Vegas Autonomous Shuttle accident report
Follow HDT on social media:
Season 4 rounds out our first year of podcasts, and what an interesting year it's been. This season we look at the future of fuel, including battery electric and renewable natural gas, and our tried-and-true diesel engines. We also have one special episode that's bound to put you to sleep. Our guest list includes Alan Schaeffer of the Diesel Technology Forum, Hugh Donnell of Cummins Westport, Paul Rosa of Penske Truck Leasing, and Rob Molloy of the National Transportation Safety Board. And HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge joins host Jim Park for a discussion on alternative fuels, the cover story from our October issue.
Follow HDT on social media:
AUTONOMOUS TRUCKS SPECIAL REPORT: There are only a few dozen autonomous trucks on America's highways today, but the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is already thinking about how to police them. They aren't above the law. It's up to people like our guest, Will Schaefer, the Director of Safety Programs at CVSA, to figure out how trucking's safety rules can be applied to trucks that have no drivers. How will police officers pull over trucks that they can't communicate with directly? Can you charge a computer with causing, or not avoiding, a crash? Will Schaefer muses on how enforcement could proceed in the years to come.
links
CVSA on Facebook
CVSA.org
Follow HDT on social media:
AUTONOMOUS TRUCKS SPECIAL REPORT: Mary “Missy” Cummings calls herself a techno-realist. By day, she's a professor at Duke University and the director of Duke's Humans and Autonomy lab. Her day-to-day work is in artificial intelligence and robotics, and she’s quite skeptical about some of claims of autonomous driving’s current practitioners. Although she says she's 100% behind robotic trucks in the long term, she says the hype surrounding autonomous cars and trucks has pushed far beyond what the technology is actually capable of today. Find out why Dr. Cummings is concerned about how fast autonomous trucks appear to be approaching commercialization.
Duke Faculty: Mary "Missy" Cummings
Humans & Autonomy Overview - Mary "Missy" Cummings
GeekWire Summit: Mary "Missy" Cummings, Director, Humans and Autonomy Lab at Duke University
From Piloting Fighter Jets to Developing AI | Missy Cummings | Inclusion in Tech | Cognizant
Read more about autonomous technology:
Follow HDT on social media:
AUTONOMOUS TRUCKS SPECIAL REPORT: Vijaysai (Vijay) Patnaik helped start and is now the Product Lead for Waymo’s self-driving trucks program. He says he’s confident the company will be able to safely and responsibly deploy this technology on public roads. Since Waymo began work on autonomous cars more than a decade ago, the company’s cars and trucks have logged more than 20 million real-world miles plus 15 billion more miles in computer simulations. Vijay explains some of the intricacies of the autonomy that controls the trucks and how it interacts with other road users. He talks about how the autonomy handles some unique situations, and how public perceptions of the technology are changing for the better.
Waymo Via
Waymo Via blog
Waymo to Headline Fleet Forward Virtual Conference
Waymo Outlines Plans to Integrate Autonomous Trucking in Fleets
Read more about autonomous technology
Follow HDT on social media:
Staying healthy while living in a truck is a tough thing to do at the best of times. Staying healthy and positive becomes doubly difficult living under the stress of a pandemic. In this COVID-19 Special Report, trainer, nutritionist and holistic health coach Sergio Rojas shares some great ideas on how to up your wellness game. He has worked with celebrities and professional sports teams like the Chicago Bulls. Today, he is HDT's Health and Wellness columnist and was previously the Director of Wellness at Hirschbach Motor Lines. He now runs a wellness consultancy called Vitality by Sergio. On this episode, Sergio talks about his work with Hirschbach's drivers and how diet, fitness, proper sleep and even meditation can improve health and wellness and reduce stress.
Vitality by Sergio
Sergio's Linkedin profile
Sergio in HDT
Follow HDT on social media:
Driver turnover is a costly problem, but it's doubly hard to swallow when you already have good drivers, but you can hang onto them. Jim Park's guests in this episode, Jane Jazrawy of CarriersEdge along with Brad Fulton and Allyson Smith both of Stay Metrics, offer some tips that can help solve your retention problems.
Driver Satisfaction Survey
Best Fleets to Drive For
Follow HDT on social media:
Stefan Seltz-Axmacher created and ran Starsky Robotics, billed as the first venture to operate a truly driverless truck on a public highway. The company started in 2015 but closed its doors five years later, when, as he put it, the downpour of investor interest became a drizzle. He says investors were not prepared to fund the “last mile” of the project – honing and perfecting the artificial intelligence so that it performed flawlessly 100% of the time, a task that may have taken years. Will other AI-driven autonomous truck ventures run into similar problems perfecting their technology?
Starsky Robotics
The End of Starsky Robotics
HDT Talks Trucking Self-driving Trucks: Savior or Scourge for Trucking?
Follow HDT on social media:
Sometime later this year the first of the GHG 2021 trucks will hit dealer lots. To meet the first round of GHG reduction targets, these trucks will be fitted mostly with existing fuel-saving technology; aero devices, low-rolling resistance tires, etc. To meet the 2024 and 2027 targets, truck makers may need to get a bit more aggressive in their use of advanced technologies. HDT's Jim Park and Mike Roeth of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency discuss how truck and engine makers will achieve those goals. As well, Robb Janak of Jacobs Engine Brakes and Joel Morrow, moderator of the 9+ MPG Facebook page share their thoughts on engine cylinder deactivation and advanced engine downspeeding.
EPA's GHG Phase 2
HDT How GHG Phase 2 Changes the Way You Spec Trucks
Follow HDT on social media:
What are the most important truck safety improvements in the eyes of the folks who investigate transportation accidents? The National Transportation Safety Board's 2019-2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements offers 268 recommendations for improving transportation safety. The list includes identifying and treating truck drivers who may be at high risk for obstructive sleep apnea, and requiring forward collision warning and/or avoidance systems on all highway vehicles – including heavy trucks. NTSB board members Thomas Chapman and Michael Graham tell HDT Talks Trucking why the agency wants to see these changes implemented, and how the number of crash fatalities could be reduced substantially if the recommendations were followed by various regulatory agencies.
Follow HDT on social media:Twitter
What do maintenance data, safety technology, and more efficient pup trailers have in common? They’re all tactics taken by HDT’s 2020 Truck Fleet Innovators. Heavy Duty Trucking has presented its Innovator awards annually since 2006. They recognize fleet executives for their leadership role in fostering innovation in their companies and the industry. The hunt for the winners of this year's award, sponsored by ConMet, led us to Doug Lloyd, director of maintenance, Averitt Express of Cookeville, Tennessee; Chris Woody, safety manager, M&W Logistics of Nashville, Tennessee; and Mike Palmer, vice president of fleet services, Estes Express Lines in Richmond, Virginia. Meet the remaining three recipients of HDT's 2020 Truck Fleet Innovator awards in this episode.
Read about all of the HDT 2020 Fleet Innovators
Follow HDT on social media:
Innovation comes in all shapes and sizes, from listening to your employees for the little tweaks that make their workdays more productive, to be a test fleet for new logistics systems and autonomous platoons, to leading a digital transformation at one of the country’s biggest truckload carriers. Heavy Duty Trucking's Truck Fleet Innovator awards, presented annually since 2006 and sponsored this year by ConMet, recognize fleet executives for their leadership role in fostering innovation in their companies and the industry. This episode features a conversation with Darrel Wilson, CEO of Wilson Logistics of Springfield, Missouri. Deborah Lockridge did the original Innovator interviews and joins Jim Park to discuss Danny Lilley, vice president of fleet systems and technology at Werner Enterprises of Omaha, Nebraska and Roy Markham, vice president of operations and transportation at Ben E. Keith Foods of Fort Worth, Texas. The other three Innovators are featured in episode 3.
Read about all of the HDT 2020 Fleet Innovators
Follow HDT on social media:
HDT Talks Trucking's third season casts an eye toward the future. We talk with Stefan Seltz-Axmacher, the CEO and co-founder of now-defunct driverless truck startup, Starsky Robotics, about the possible future of autonomous trucks. We'll also dig into some of the advanced fuel-saving technology we might need to meet the strict fuel economy standards imposed by Phase 2 of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction regulations. And we'll find out why The National Transportation Safety Board wants to see drivers tested for obstructive sleep apnea.
As well, we'll meet HDT's 2020 Fleet Innovators; six people who are never satisfied with the status quo and are always looking for ways to do things better.
We'll wrap up season three with some innovative ideas on how you can reduce driver turnover and make your company a more satisfying place to work. We'll speak with Jane Jazrawy of CarriersEdge along with Brad Fulton and Allyson Smith of Stay Metrics.
Stay tuned, Season Three drops July 1!
Follow HDT on social media:
Kansas City-based team lease-operators Chanté and Chris Drew contracted COVID-19 in late March while on the road. For the next nine days, the trucking team made their way home, searching for decent-paying loads and places along the way to get tested. The pair made it back to Kansas City and got their tests. He tested positive, she did not – but healthcare professionals said she surely had the disease too. After a month at home in self-isolation with no income, the couple is back on the road. Doctors gave them a clean bill of health, but many of the symptoms linger.
PBS Hews Hour, Brief but Spectacular
St. Christopher's Truckers Relief Fund
Follow HDT on social media:
Meet seven drivers who live on the front line of the battle with COVID-19. They mix and mingle with shippers and receivers, other drivers at truck stops, and restaurant workers. They can't be certain they won't contract COVID-19, so stress and anxiety become part of everyday life. Many of them haven't seen a friend or family member since February. While we're cooped up at home wishing we could get out, going home isn't an option for many drivers. They are making the best out of living in 8-foot by 8-foot boxes, eating take-out food, and searching for clean washrooms.
Follow HDT on social media:
Part II continues the discussion with seven truck drivers who are out in the wild working during the pandemic. In this episode, they discuss the steps they take to stay COVID-free and talk about how their companies are supporting them through the crisis. They share their fears about bringing the virus home, and how they deal with the isolation and loneliness brought on by social distancing. While the threat of contracting COVID-19 weighs heavy, they also worry about the health of the economy and their own financial well-being. They say it's a fine line between a healthy economy and a healthy population.
Follow HDT on social media:
Some fleets manage to do a very good job with certain maintenance tasks. That begs the question: if some fleets are so good at maintenance, why can't everyone else be that good too? In this episode, Jim Buell, the executive vice president of sales and marketing at FleetNet America shares some of the findings from the TMC FleetNet vertical benchmarking survey that shows how much better some fleets are than others. And Tony Morthland, the director of equipment and facilities at Nussbaum Transportation, shares his strategies for making the best of the time he has with his trucks in order to keep them off the hook between PMs.
FleetNet America
Nussbaum Transportation
Follow HDT on social media: Twitter
HDT editor-in-chief, Deborah Lockridge speaks with veteran trucking industry analyst and HDT columnist, Jeff Kauffman, who is also the managing director for Loop Capital Markets and the head of Tahoe Ventures, a transportation consulting company. Deborah and Jeff won't be trying to sort out where the economy is today, because everything is going to change. Instead, they'll be discussing aspects of the economy that affect trucking directly and helping you make some sense of some of the terms and numbers you hear in economic forecasts.
Jeff Kauffman on LinkedIn
Follow HDT on social media: Twitter
Vehicle electrification is probably the most profound change ever to hit transportation -- and the trucking industry in particular -- but getting those trucks into widespread service will be challenging. Jim Park talks with Rick Mihelic, the director of future technologies at the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE), about where we'll get all the energy to power those electric trucks, and how those trucks will change just about everything we currently know about buying, selling, operating, and maintaining trucks.
NACFE truck electrification report
Follow HDT on social media: Twitter
Driverless trucks are still a few years off when you talk about the long-haul sector, but they are already in play on other markets, such as drayage and terminal tractors. We are making real progress toward a time when self-driving trucks become commonplace, but there are still lots of questions: Which applications does early adoption make the most sense? How will the regulators make rules regarding such complex technology? Are they really a solution to the driver shortage? Richard Bishop of Bishop Consulting is an automated vehicle industry analyst, and he has been a watcher and player in this space since the early 1990s. He joins Jim Park in this episode to shine the light on this mysterious technology.
Richard Bishop on LinkedIn
Richard Bishop on Facebook
Read Richard's article on auto-follower platooning on Forbes
Follow HDT on social media: Twitter
Where is the next generation of trucking leaders coming from? HDT editor-in-chief, Deborah Lockridge, discusses HDT’s annual Emerging Leaders awards and talks to three of our past honorees about their views of trends and issues facing trucking, including what fleets and the industry can do to recruit and encourage young leaders like themselves. This episode features discussions with Olivia Young, director of marketing and national sales manager for Colorado-based Navajo Express, Kyle Kottke, general manager of Minnesota-based Kottke Trucking, and Zach Meiborg, president of Illinois-based Meiborg Bros. Read about HDT's Emerging Leaders awards program.
2019 HDT Emerging Leaders
Follow HDT on social media: Twitter
There have long been allegations of employee misclassification in the trucking industry, especially among companies that abuse the lease-purchase contractor model. But aside from those examples, there is ample case law around the country suggesting any subcontractor performing work that is ostensibly the same as the contracting entity must be declared an employee. That calls into question this industry's relationships with its owner-operators. In this episode, Jim Park talks about the potential impact of AB-5 and other efforts to end employee misclassification with HDT editor-in-chief, Deborah Lockridge. They are joined by Julie Gutman Dickinson, California local counsel to the Teamsters Union Port Division, Fred Potter, President of Teamsters Union Local No. 469 in Hazlet, New Jersey, and an International Vice-President At-Large for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and Joe Rajkovacz, director of government affairs and communications for the Western States Trucking Association.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Teamsters Union Port Division
Western States Trucking Association
Follow HDT on social media: Twitter
Are truck owner-operators trucking entrepreneurs, or poorly disguised employees? HDT’s editors dig into the issue of employee misclassification, California’s effort to crack down on it, and what that could mean for trucking. We’ll explore autonomous trucks: What will they mean for drivers? Is the technology ready? Our editors will share maintenance lessons learned at this year’s Technology & Maintenance Council annual meeting, where we also learned some more surprising facts about electric trucks – are you ready to rethink the way you buy trucks? And we’ll introduce you to some of HDT’s Emerging Leaders, part of the next generation of trucking leadership.
The entry-level driver training requirements were a long time coming – and now they’re going to be even longer, as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced a two-year delay just days before the new regulation was to go into effect Feb. 7. On this episode of HDT Talks Trucking, we have three people with a stake in the ELDT program, and they aren't happy that it's been pushed back. Some say the delay will allow CDL mills more time to crank out under-qualified drivers. Our guests are:
- Don Lefeve, president and CEO of the Commercial Vehicle Training Association. The group has about 200 members located in 43 states that combined, graduate 50,000 truck drivers every year.
- Tim Kordula, CDL instructor, and administrator at Karl's Transport Commercial Driver CDL Training School in Antigo, Wisconsin.
- Laura McMillan, VP of training program development at Instructional Technologies Inc. She has served on the curriculum certification committee of the Professional Truck Driver Institute and served on the curriculum subcommittee as part of the ELDT proposed rule.
Entry-Level Driver Training Rule in Federal Register
Commercial Vehicle Training Association
Karl's Transport Commercial Driver CDL Training School
Instructional Technologies Inc.
Follow HDT on social media:
Once the final deadline for mandatory electronic logging devices came and went on Dec. 18, 2019, you might have thought that was the end of the story. Everyone’s now on ELDs, fleets are compliant, everything’s good, right? But plenty of issues remain unresolved and plenty of questions remain unanswered.
In this episode of HDT Talks Trucking, Mike Ahart, VP of regulatory affairs at Omnitracs, says there are still a good number of things fleets have yet to get their heads around – including the diagnostic and malfunction provisions of the rule.
John Seidl, a former commercial vehicle enforcement official-turned transportation-consultant and VP of risk services at insurance provider Reliance Partners, says fleets still need to keep a very close eye on the performance of their ELDs because there's a lot that can still go wrong – and hours of service violations are not going away anytime soon.
11 Things to Know to Stay Out of Trouble with Final ELD Deadline
Follow HDT on social media:
We’ve written a lot about electric trucks over the past five years or so. Yet there’s still a lot we don’t know about how they’re going to work in real-world fleet operations. How will we integrate them into our fleets? How much will they cost? How much will we pay for electricity compared to diesel? Will we be able to maintain our productivity and still run at a profit? Every subject we bring up leads mostly to more questions. We're still looking for answers, but there are few certainties at this stage of the game.
In November 2019, HDT Talks Trucking host and HDT Equipment Editor Jim Park moderated a panel discussion at the Bobit Fleet Forward conference in San Jose, California, on electrifying medium- and heavy-duty trucks. They don't have all the answers yet either, but they are further along than most of us. For this edition of HDT Talks Trucking, we’ll share highlights from that panel:
• Bill Combs, director of Connected Fleets at Penske Transportation Solutions
• Chris Nordh, senior director of Advanced Vehicle Technologies & Energy Products at Ryder
• Will Quinn, a manager on Pacific Gas and Electric's newly created Clean Energy Transportation Team serving northern California.
Fleet Forward Conference
Read about electric trucks on our website.
Follow HDT on social media:
Twitter @HDTrucking
There’s been a lot of recent activity on the drug-testing front in trucking: The debut of FMCSA’s long-awaited Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, a doubling of the percentage of drivers who must be randomly tested, and increased interest in alternatives to traditional urine testing. How is the legalization of marijuana in many states affecting the drug-testing of trucking’s safety-sensitive workers? What will the Clearinghouse mean for motor carriers? Why do some in the industry advocate for hair testing? We spoke with Dave Osiecki, the president and CEO of Scopelitis Transportation Consulting, to get some insight into these questions and others.
HDT’s Trucking Under the Influence Series
FMCSA Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse
Scopelitis Transportation Consulting
Follow HDT on social media:
Twitter @HDTrucking
It seems that hardly a week goes by here at Heavy Duty Trucking that we aren’t reporting on something related to electric trucks, so we’re digging into the electric future in this episode of HDT Talks Trucking.
Podcast host and Equipment Editor Jim Park and HDT Senior Editor Jack Roberts share their experiences driving and reporting on various electric trucks over the last several years. You’ll also hear briefly from Bill Combs, the director of Connected Fleet at Penske Transportation Solutions, and Chris Nordh, the senior director of advanced vehicle technology at Ryder Systems, with some thought-provoking comments from presentations they gave at the Fleet Forward Conference.
Fleet Forward Conference
Read about electric trucks on our website
Follow HDT on social media:
What can trucking companies do to improve their safety records? Under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, fleets live and die by their CSA BASICs in the Safety Measurement System. CSA considers nearly everything a fleet does, from roadside violations and crashes to compliance audit results. It doesn't take much to slip down into the risky category, and it's a long, hard climb back to respectability.
The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute looked at a diverse group of failing fleets that turned themselves around. Virginia Tech senior researcher Matt Camden shared the results of those case studies at the Fleet Safety Conference, and he's our guest on this episode of HDT Talks Trucking. Listen to get insights into how changing driver hiring policies, building a better safety culture, and adopting some advanced safety technology can contribute to improved safety performance and better CSA scores.
Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
Fleet Safety Conference
Improving Safety Culture to Reduce Large Truck Crashes
Follow Heavy Duty Trucking on social media:
Listen to a preview of what's to come on the HDT Talks Trucking podcast! HDT Equipment Editor, Jim Park, gives an overview of what topics the podcast covers, as well as a sneak peek with clips from season one.