October 2015 Volume 35, Issue 10
TRUCK NEWS Riding for a cause
Training newbies
Assistant editor Sonia Straface reports on her first experience behind the wheel of a big rig.
Delivering daily news at trucknews.com
Going Hollywood
Mack Trucks played a starring role at the Hollywood debut of a new documentary about Evel Knievel.
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Canada may technically be in recession, but Lou Smyrlis explains why fleets should stay the course.
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Don’t panic
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Canada’s Trucking Newspaper Since 1981
Raising the bar
Volvo Trucks raises not only the axle, but also the bar, with its new take on the 6x2 concept.
An SLH employee is biking across the country to raise much-needed funds for childhood cancers
By Sonia Straface KINGSTON, ONTARIO Getting a phone call at 11 p.m. from your family doctor is a scary thing. But when it’s a phone call with the message to get your four-year-old to a hospital immediately – it’s earthshattering. It’s life-changing. On April 24, 2008, Ken Cross and his wife Colleen received this exact phone call about their four-year-old daughter Megan, who would be diagnosed with AML leukemia the very next day. Cross is the senior manager, human resources business partner at SLH Transport and Sears Canada, and this year, for the fifth year in a row, he will be cycling across Canada with 32 others volunteers – from Vancouver to Halifax – to honour his daughter Megan and support children with cancer across the country. The bike ride, which is 17 days long and goes from Sept. 10-26, is called the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride. The event, and foundation that runs it, donates 100% of its proceeds to the 17 pediatric oncology units across the country to assist in treating children with cancer.
A 30% scale model tractortrailer was used for testing in an Ottawa wind tunnel as part of the aero study.
Canadian study sheds new light on tractor-trailer aerodynamics Some of the findings from the National Research Council study may challenge perceptions about fuel economy
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By Carroll McCormick OTTAWA, ONTARIO
B
y now most of us should be minor experts in spotting rigs with fuel-saving aerodynamic enhancements, like side skirts, boat tails and tractor fairings. But a collaborative research study published this summer by Transport Canada and the National Research Council Canada (NRC) refines and expands the understanding of these enhancements and how much fuel they save. It’s free, it’s not secret and it is loaded with results. Just Google: Improving the Aerodynamic Efficiency of HeavyDuty Vehicles: Wind Tunnel Test Results of Trailer-Based Drag-Reduction Technologies. You will be led to a Transport Canada Web page with an executive summary, easy-to-read tables with 21 drag reduction techniques, their associated annual fuel savings and CO2 reduction, and a link to the full, meaty study.
Using its 9.1x9.1x22.9-metre wind tunnel, the NRC tested 30% scale models of tractors, dry vans and flatbeds to learn more about what works and how well. Transport Canada, through its ecoTechnology for Vehicles program, commissioned the research to help guide it in the implementation and regulation of drag reduction technologies in Canada. Some findings: For every foot the gap between tractor and trailer is reduced, drag drops by 2.6% (a 1% decrease in drag roughly equals a 0.5% decrease in fuel burn). A onefoot gap reduction can save 1,600 litres of fuel, plus or minus 400 litres, a year. (Annual figures refer to a typical longhaul operation). “This is one of the first thorough studies of incremental gap width. This has not been quantified to this extent in the past. The results will help fleets choose which gap widths to use,” says Brian McAuliffe, the study author and thrust lead Continued on page 22
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