Today's Trucking January 2018

Bridge to Someday

Top 10 of 2017

Waiting for a new U.S. crossing PG. 10

Products that topped our list PG. 36

The Business Magazine of Canada’s Trucking Industry

Canadian Mail Sales Product Agreement #40063170. Return postage guaranteed. Newcom Media Inc., 451 Attwell Dr., Toronto, ON M9W 5C4.

EVERYONE’S

TALKING TESLA Will it be the game changer?

January 2018

www.todaystrucking.com

plus Yard Dogs Tools to keep your trailers rolling

Sleep Well Researchers fascinated by fatigue

Contents

January 2018 | VOLUME 32, NO.1 5 7 9 31

Letters John G. Smith

10

16

32

36

Rolf Lockwood Mike McCarron

NEWS & NOTES

Dispatches 13 MacKinnon Sold Ontario fleet sold to Contrans

22 23 24 25 26 27 30

Heard on the Street Logbook Truck Sales Pulse Survey Stat Pack Trending Truck of the Month

In Gear 44 Yard Dogs Keep trailers moving in the yard with specialized equipment

48 Southern Stars Cabovers gaining ground in Mexico

51 Product Watch 52 Guess the location,

Features 10 Bridge to Someday Work on the Gordie Howe International Bridge continues, but at a slow pace

By Elizabeth Bate

16 Talking Tesla Elon Musk (partially) unveils his electric truck.

Will it be the game changer he promises?

By John G. Smith

win a hat

32 Sleep Well Good health begins with proper sleep. Researchers want to know if drivers are getting what they need.

By Elizabeth Bate

36 The Top 10 Here’s the tech that topped our editor’s list in 2017 Cover Image: Courtesy of Tesla

By John G. Smith

For more visit www.todaystrucking.com JANUARY 2018

3

BORN TO BE

BETTER. ™

Designed with decades of experience in quality and craftsmanship, Stoughton® introduces a new standard in refrigerated trailers— PureBlue™.

We developed PureBlue using proven components, customer input, thorough testing and the same durability and value you have come to expect from Stoughton. The lighter weight PureBlue will deliver more thermal efficiency and safety than competitive trailers on the road today. PureBlue— It’s just born to be better.

877-776-5505 • StoughtonTrailers.com/PureBlue

U.S.A. Owned & U.S.A. Made

Letters Is the computer my boss?

The Business Magazine of Canada’s Trucking Industry

PUBLISHER Joe Glionna joe@newcom.ca • 416/614-5805 VICE PRESIDENT, EDITORIAL Rolf Lockwood, MCILT rolf@newcom.ca • 416/614-5825 EDITOR John G. Smith johng@newcom.ca • 416/614-5812 ASSOCIATE EDITOR Elizabeth Bate elizabeth@newcom.ca • 416/614-5828 CONTRIBUTORS: Steve Bouchard, Mike McCarron, Jim Park, Nicolas Trépanier DESIGN / LAYOUT Tim Norton, Frank Scatozza production@todaystrucking.com • 416/614-5818 SALES AND MARKETING CONSULTANT Anthony Buttino anthonyb@newcom.ca • 416/458-0103 SALES AND MARKETING CONSULTANT Nickisha Rashid nickisha@newcom.ca • 416/614-5824 QUÉBEC ACCOUNTS MANAGER Denis Arsenault denis@newcom.ca • 514/947-7228 CIRCULATION MANAGER Pat Glionna 416/614-2200 • 416/614-8861 (fax) PRODUCTION MANAGER Lilianna Kantor lily@newcom.ca • 416/614-5815

Kenneth R. Wilson Award Winner

NEWCOM MEDIA INC. 451 Attwell Dr., Toronto, ON M9W 5C4 416/614-2200 • 416/614-8861 (fax) CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER Jim Glionna PRESIDENT Joe Glionna VICE PRESIDENT, OPERATIONS Melissa Summerfield CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Peter Fryters DIRECTOR OF CIRCULATION Pat Glionna

Today’s Trucking is published monthly by NEWCOM MEDIA INC., 451 Attwell Dr., Toronto, ON M9W 5C4. It is produced expressly for owners and/or operators of one or more straight trucks or tractor-trailers with gross weights of at least 19,500 pounds, and for truck/trailer dealers and heavy-duty parts distributors. Subscriptions are free to those who meet the criteria. For others: single-copy price: $5 plus applicable taxes; one-year subscription: $40 plus applicable taxes; one-year subscription in U.S.: $60 US; one-year subscription foreign: $90 US. Copyright 2018. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of the publisher. The advertiser agrees to protect the publisher against legal action based upon libelous or inaccurate statements, unauthorized use of photographs, or other material in connection with advertisements placed in Today’s Trucking. The publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising which in his opinion is misleading, scatological, or in poor taste. Postmaster: Address changes to Today’s Trucking, 451 Attwell Dr., Toronto, ON M9W 5C4.

Postage paid Canadian Publications Mail Sales Agreement No.40063170.

ISSN No. 0837-1512. Printed in Canada.

Member

Eventually we will need an Electronic Logging Device [in Canada], but who am I as a single truck owner and self-employed businessman reporting to? The computer in my office – since, as I have been told, my ELD will need to send the information somewhere.

Seems a little silly that I will need an internet connection and a program in my office to receive data from one truck, but I guess the regulators can’t differentiate.

— Peter LaRocque JPL Storage Haileybury, Ontario

The insurance ‘myth’ is a reality

Email: johng@newcom.ca

Re: Generation Next (November 2017) I need to point out a rare error in your latest magazine.

The above article states that it’s a “myth” that insurance SEND YOUR premiums are higher for younger/new drivers. I suppose, LETTERS TO: technically, it is a myth, since if you are a small trucking Newcom company you can’t hire them at all, at any cost. But even after Media Inc., some experience, premiums are considerably higher, at least 451 Attwell Dr., for a small company. Since the majority of trucks are operated Toronto, ON by smaller companies, this “myth” clearly is a real problem.

M9W 5C4 I’ve had to reject several good, qualified drivers, young and If we publish old, either because of lack of experience, or demerit points. your letter, we’ll When the company reaches a certain size, you are allowed even send you a one rookie for every six or seven experienced drivers, at an Today’s Trucking increased rate. When I question this logic, or the logic that hat as our thanks. every driver I’m not allowed to hire ends up immediately at a large company, I’m given the phrase: “risk management”.

Why don’t we call it what it really is – “profit management”? Once your insurance bill reaches a certain level, the insurance companies will allow a percentage of your drivers to be less-qualified. The driver hasn’t gotten any safer because they’re part of a larger fleet, just as they become no safer because the name on the door belongs to a larger fleet. This nonsense, along with all the other exceptional and true reasons in the article, leaves no mystery why few millennials stay in such a demanding, thankless, and underpaid industry – one that is increasingly and unnecessarily over-regulated.

One other point on the projected shortfall of 34,000 drivers? This is strictly counting empty seats, I assume. From what many of us seasoned “old-farts” see daily, if we include licensed drivers who should never have become employed in the first place, that number is deceivingly small.

— Bill Cameron Owen Sound, Ontario

Surviving one of those days Just wanted this day to end. Tell me if there is a the opening for a paperboy in your office.

Got hit in the windshield by a flying pie! (Lemon I think). In a way it was a good omen. While I pulled off to survey the mess, I of course was passed by a whack of trucks. Got back in behind these guys and, boom, [another truck was] hit eight trucks in front of me by a four-wheeler heading the wrong way on Highway 2 in Sussex, New Brunswick. Both vehicles burned to the ground.

If it wasn’t for that pie it might have been my plastic truck burning. We get through that. I switch out in Moncton, start heading to Prince Edward Island. Damn kids were burning giant tractor tires on Highway 15! Ugh! Tell me why I still do this job!

— Lance Nolan Cambridge, Ontario JANUARY 2018

5

Editorial

By John G. Smith

Musk Matters Tesla’s launch was light on details, but it’s sparking important conversations

T

he recent reveal of the Tesla Semi was like none other – and not simply because it offered the first look at a prototype of the company’s electric Class 8 truck. If anything, there were still plenty of unanswered questions once the lights dimmed and fog machines were stowed away.

Other than acknowledging the truck battery sits beneath the cab, offering a low center of gravity, Tesla has yet to offer any real insights into the underlying power supply. This all-important power-pack promises to store enough energy to offer an 800-kilometer range, but we’re still missing spec’s such as how much it weighs.

A pretty vital measure when trying to determine how much freight it can haul.

The cost per mile is also said to be at least 20% cheaper than diesel, but claims like these are defined in fine print, especially where the text reveals costs that are excluded. And as for the promise that the Tesla Semi and its unproven technology will run a million miles without ever breaking down? Please.

Setting aside the truck itself, we are even left to wonder about the rollout plans for charging stations, and where the trucks will be sold and repaired. Each is a factor that plays a role in everything from operating strategies to residual values.

Elon Musk, Tesla’s product architect and Chief Executive Officer, seemed more consumed by the truck’s potential speed when unveiling the prototypes during his stage presentation. The promise of an 80,000-pound tractor trailer launching from a stop to highway speeds in 20 seconds seems important to car devotees, but it’s meaningless in real-world trucking applications. Fleet managers are unlikely to encourage pedal-to-the-floor driving habits that sacrifice safety and tires alike.

Make no mistake about it, though. Musk still matters.

Look no further than the launch event itself. In some ways, Musk’s presence eclipsed the truck and Roadster in its trailer.

The 1,000-plus-strong crowd greeted him much like Apple devotees once hung on every word of tech visionary Steve Jobs.

Every product claim was greeted with cheers. The Tesla Semi is fast! It can be charged with sunlight! The windshield can survive a nuclear blast!

Tesla isn’t even the only manufacturer exploring electrification – as ongoing coverage in Today’s Trucking has shown – but this is the truck the general public is talking about. It’s certainly the only truck launch that friends outside the trucking industry ever asked me about. (“Were you really there to see the Tesla?

That’s so cool!”)

The star power matters because, pun intended, the Tesla Semi is sparking more conversations about electrification and the truck as a tech hub. Even a first glimpse leaves us imagining driver information displays the size of tablets rather than smart phones, and steering wheels the size of those in a family car.

In an era where we’re trying to engage a new generation of workers, actually getting them to see trucking as a tech-savvy career, the Tesla Semi certainly foots the bill. The value of the Tesla brand in getting shippers and the general public to think about the same thing is undoubtedly on the mind of those who place early orders before knowing exactly how well the truck will fit into their operations.

The market will decide if the Tesla Semi is viable. But in the meantime, Musk has ensured that people are talking about trucks in a new way, no matter how many orders are placed. TT

“In some ways, Musk’s presence eclipsed the truck and Roadster in its trailer.”

John G. Smith is editor of Today’s Trucking.

You can reach him at 416-614-5812 or johng@newcom.ca.

JANUARY 2018

7

Transportation Growth Summit

Get Advice You Can Grow With!

February 21, 2018

Register Today!

Introducing a summit designed to drive growth. If you are a President interested in making acquisitions, a Sales Manager interested in organic growth or a sales rep interested in increasing earnings, the Transportation Growth Summit will provide best practices, advice, and demonstrated techniques for growing your top and bottom lines.

Who Should attend: Companies: Trucking, Freight brokers, Freight forwarders, Customs brokers and industry suppliers.

Position: C Level, Sales, Marketing, Customer service

www.transportationgrowthsummit.com For more information call Mike McCarron – 416-931-7212 The International Centre, 6900 Airport Road, Mississauga, 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM

Produced in partnership with:

Lockwood

By Rolf Lockwood

Coaching, not Training Training to promote fuel efficiency and safety is only effective if it includes refresher courses

D

river training is a subject dear to my editorial heart, but I fear we don’t do it well enough. For one thing, the focus of training is almost always on making sure truck pilots don’t hit the weeds too often, or infinitely worse, whack the aged librarian’s Toyota.

Safety is obviously paramount, but there’s more to it.

Think fuel economy.

Most of you make the connection between training and lower fuel bills, and some of you have incentive programs that reward efficient drivers for low idling times and superior miles-pergallon figures. For those who don’t, there’s now some science to change your mind. And maybe convince everyone to think of the process as continuous “coaching”.

The PIT Group in Quebec recently released a driver-training effectiveness study exploring the true value of driver monitoring and coaching to address bad habits and reinforce efficient techniques. PIT is a research and engineering outfit focused on improving truck spec’ing, maintenance, and operations practices.

PIT’s study suggests that training to promote driver fuel efficiency and safety is only effective if it includes refresher courses to reinforce good practices and address weaknesses.

“While vehicle technology designed to improve fuel economy continues to advance, driver training is the element that has the largest impact on fuel consumption,” says Yves Provencher, director - market and business development at PIT Group. “Our studies show that various ways to train drivers, including classroom, in-cab, and simulator training, all have their advantages.

“However, the lessons and techniques they teach don’t last without monitoring behaviors,” he continues. “Providing refresher training and in-vehicle coaching technologies that address bad habits and reinforce effective skills is what’s needed to maintain and improve fuel-efficient and safe performance.”

In one study of longhaul operations, PIT compared 47 control drivers and 38 test drivers before and after simulator training that focused on things like road and engine speed, acceleration, and more. Baselines were established over two months before the 38 test drivers were trained. Afterward, evaluations were done at one, three, six, and nine months.

The largest impacts on fuel consumption? Cruise control,

proper acceleration, and maintaining the correct engine and road speed. The data showed that, with monitoring and communication, a driver operating a truck an average of 156,000 miles per year could save 2,640 U.S. gallons of fuel, says PIT. I’m not sure that many folks do all those miles, frankly, but the point is clear.

Another test illustrated the virtues of Automated Manual Transmissions (AMT). A group of 35 regional-haul drivers were monitored for nine months, including 22 operating a manual transmission, and 13 operating an AMT. Drivers with manual transmissions would shift in the most fuel-efficient range (1,000 to 1,400 rpm) 55% of the time, while AMT drivers were in the most efficient range 78% of the time. Average engine speed for manual drivers was 1,316 rpm versus 1,240 rpm for drivers with AMTs. The overall result was a 5% fuel savings in favor of automated manuals. We kinda knew that.

“What these and other studies tell us is that training is only effective if it is reinforced with new ideas and structured to include regular reminders,” says Provencher.

“Many companies make the mistake of providing the same training year after year without focusing on weaknesses or adding new ideas to make the lessons more interesting and effective.

“Regardless of the type of training and its initial effectiveness, it is human nature to revert to old habits unless we are constantly reminded what works best,” Provencher adds. “In the end, the type of training really doesn’t matter as much as the monitoring that takes place afterward.”

And that’s a strong vote in favor of data analysis, a topic for another day. TT

“The largest impacts on fuel consumption?

Cruise control, proper acceleration, and maintaining the correct engine speed.”

Rolf Lockwood is vice-president, editorial, at Newcom Media Inc. You can reach him at 416-614-5825 or rolf@todaystrucking.com.

JANUARY 2018

9

Bridge to Someday Work on international Gordie Howe Bridge continues, but at a slow pace

By Elizabeth Bate The one thing that is certain about the plans for a new international bridge in Windsor, Ontario, is the name. Gordie Howe, Canada’s famed Mr. Hockey and a long-time Detroit Red Wing, will have his name added to the span when the time comes.

The question is exactly when the time will come.

Even as new details emerge, the project has been beset by delays. Owners of the nearby Ambassador Bridge are also among those who continue to ask courts to scuttle the project altogether.

But the earth is moving, albeit slowly. Highway approaches are taking shape, leading up to the spot that is to connect Herb Gray Parkway, the Windsor extension of Ontario Highway 401, and Michigan’s Interstate I-75.

10

TODAY’S TRUCKING

There is now the promise of massive toll plazas on each side of the border, including 18 commercial inspection booths, and staging areas for trucks between primary and secondary checkpoints.

About $350 million has already been spent to clear away existing roads and structures; add pumping, drain, and stormwater management to the area; relocate hydro lines underground; relocate some species of plants and animals; and add nearly 1 million tons of fill to the Canadian side of the river, raising the land about nine meters to meet the Herb Gray Parkway.

The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority has even narrowed a list of potential partners to design, build, and maintain the bridge to three firms, after a four-month extension to the all-import-

ant Request for Proposals (RFP). But that extension pushed back the financial closure of the project to September 2018. This means the authority can’t confirm a completed design, cost, projected tolls, or timeline for the work. All pretty vital details.

The bridge authority says conversations around tolls have included automated tolling and direct billing for fleets, among other strate-

gies, but nothing is certain.

The toll collection and bridge maintenance is also included in the yet-to-be-finalized RFP. But the tolls will be collected entirely on the Canadian side of the bridge because all the funding will be Canadian.

U.S. partners aren’t investing a penny in the project, says Andrew Doctoroff, special projects advisor to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. Even the mounting legal bills to acquire the needed land

MacKinnon Sold PG. 13

Mulroney on NAFTA PG. 15

Mack’s star power PG. 20

for the project are being funded by the government that sits on this side of the Detroit River.

“Every single penny that is being spent by [the Michigan Department of Transportation] is being promptly and fully reimbursed by the government of Canada, by the [bridge authority]. We invoice them and we pay in full, and we are deeply appreciative of what the government

of Canada is generously financing,” said Doctoroff.

“We’ve had nothing but great cooperation to make sure those bills are paid.”

Doctoroff and Michigan Department of Transportation representatives said during a recent briefing that they effectively control 93% of the land needed for their side of the bridge. More than 80% of it belongs to the state free and clear, while the remaining 13% has outstanding court orders for tenants to be evicted in a reasonable time.

▲ Andrew Doctoroff standing on a Gordie Howe International Bridge site in Detroit, Michigan. ▲

Hydro One workers move lines underground to make way for the Gordie Howe International Bridge in Ontario .

Delray resident Steve Toth is having a hard time finding a new place to live.

Doctoroff says tenants have been offered a good price for their homes or businesses, as well as relocation services and other help.

Tenants need only provide evidence of a lease for what Doctoroff calls safe, sanitary, and decent housing before Michigan will issue a check.

Resident Steve Toth of the Delray area of Detroit, where the bridge is expected to link to the American side, sees things a little differently.

Toth says the relocation services offered to him amount to websites and other information downloaded off the internet, while the promised payment for relocation won’t help him find a new place to live if he has no money to cover up-front moving costs.

“You can’t leave if you have no money,” he said, approaching a busload of journalists during a recent tour of the site. “I want to be treated fairly, and I don’t think I’m being treated fairly. And a lot of the people haven’t been treated fairly down here.”

Toth says instead of the help he’s asked for, he was served an eviction notice the day before a recent U.S. holiday. “The bailiff told me to have a nice

JANUARY 2018

11

Dispatches Thanksgiving,” he said. “I can’t find a lawyer to take the case. I have to do everything myself because the lawyers tell me it’s a losing proposition down here.”

Doctoroff says the state is aware of the situation, and has offered help but been refused. He said Toth is not a property owner, as far as he’s aware, and the

12

TODAY’S TRUCKING

offer of US $53,000 was made to him as a tenant in the neighborhood.

“I can’t tell you how many services have been offered to Mr. Toth to make sure he is treated well, treated effectively,” he said. “He’s a single example of a homeowner who has not being willing to cooperate with us. The fact of the matter is, he’s been offered a

sizable amount of money as a tenant to relocate.”

Doctoroff says the total amount given to residents to relocate is now in the tens of millions.

“The number is going to be increasing, if not … exponentially, then very quickly because we’re getting to the part of the project where we’re going to be paying people for their businesses. As you can imagine, those payments are normally significantly larger than payments made to residents or tenants.”

Toth isn’t the only Delray resident fighting the state’s appropriation of the land. While Doctoroff says 600 of the 636 required parcels have been acquired, the others are before Michigan courts.

Located across the street from Historic Fort Wayne, immediately in the path of future ramps onto the American plaza, for example, is Central Transport. That company is owned

by Manuel Moroun, who also owns Detroit International Bridge – the company which owns the current Ambassador Bridge.

The bridge owner has filed several suits opposing the new project, including one dismissed case that challenged the legality of the Gordie Howe Bridge altogether. Moroun’s suit challenging the expropriation of the 20 parcels of land, including those occupied by Central Transport, still has to be adjudicated, but Doctoroff isn’t worried about the outcome.

“We will not lose. We will not lose because we understand the law and we have been successful with great regularity,” he said. “We’re very confident in our legal position going forward.”

If the bridge plaza replaces Central Trucking and the other buildings in the Delray neighborhood, it will be one of the largest in North America – even larger than the plaza proposed for the Canadian side of the span – and occupy 148 acres of space. Attaching directly to northbound and southbound I-75, through three kilometers of interchange ramps, the bridge authority says the new crossing may be ideal for longhaul drivers looking to connect with a direct path to Florida or other areas. TT

Dispatches ▼

News Briefs Photo: Nathan Srigley/MacKinnon Transport

MacKinnon sells fleet In the end, Guelph, Ontario’s MacKinnon Transport just couldn’t find the drivers it needed. And that was the driving force behind the 88-year-old operation’s sale to Contrans Group – a deal which closed just 24 days after an initial handshake.

Evan MacKinnon, the former president and Chief Executive Officer, says the company was doing well, but perpetually found itself 35% short of the workers it needed. Every time someone new was hired, another driver retired. Almost 25% of the workforce was more than 65 years old.

When he looked for other fleets to buy, trying to build the critical mass to remain competitive, every potential acquisition had an aging driver pool of its own.

His son Alex is now Contrans’ director – sales and business development. But the elder MacKinnon is one of just five people who won’t transfer to the new Aberfoyle location.

He’s unemployed for the first time since he was 12.

“I’m only 60 years old, so I need to do something. There’s lots out there to do, so I’ll have fun,” he insists. “It’s not all a bad news story. There’s lots of opportunity in this industry, no one is going to be unemployed.”

Contrans is keeping the MacKinnon name and branding. How will it feel to watch MacKinnon trucks roll down the highway without having a hand in running the fleet?

“It’ll be different,” says Evan. “It’s what my dad [Bill] has done his entire life. It’s what I’ve done since I can walk.”

Stinger-Steer program unveiled in Ontario Ontario’s new Extended StingerSteer Auto Carrier Special Vehicle Configuration Permit Program has created what’s described as a “made-in-Canada” approach to harmonizing regulations for the vehicles.

Carriers and industry groups had been asking Ontario to update the rules for auto carriers since the 2015 passage of the U.S. Free and Secure Trade (FAST) Act, which changed allowable lengths and front and rear load overhang limits.

The Ontario Trucking Association worked with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to develop three new configurations, offering multiple options for carriers and automotive shippers that move finished vehicles within Ontario and across the border.

One of the configurations provides similar efficiencies to the U.S. designs, but incorporates a longer trailer wheelbase to help address excessive rear overhang concerns. This allows it to travel anywhere in Ontario, while also being fully compatible with the U.S. regulations.

The new permit program is expected to roll out slowly to allow carriers, suppliers, and shippers to adjust to the new options, the association reports.

CEDA purchases vacuum truck fleet Joe Loomis Trucking has been purchased by CEDA – a maintenance and turnaround company in Canada’s oil, gas, and petrochemical industry.

CEDA says the fleet of hydro vacuum and combination vacuum units

operating out of Dawson Creek, British Columbia, offers significant growth opportunities in the region.

Joe Loomis, who served as the purchased fleet’s Chief Executive Officer, becomes CEDA’s operational vice president for the region.

Manitoulin acquires Duckering’s LTL business Manitoulin Transport has acquired Less Than Truckload (LTL) provider Duckering’s Transport, building on several other recent investments in Western Canada.

Duckering’s International Freight Services was not included in the purchase.

Jeff King, president for Manitoulin Transport, said the new addition was important for the company because it includes more than 100 new direct service points, and primes the fleet for continued growth.

Duckering’s was founded by Clarence Duckering in 1971 and has remained a family-owned business for more than 40 years. Headquartered in Red Deer, it has terminal facilities in Brooks, Calgary, Camrose, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Lethbridge, and Medicine Hat.

Ontario invests autonomous cash Ontario is investing $80 million into autonomous vehicles – including those for commercial fleets – through a new Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN).

“There is a lot we can learn from conducting pilot tests at AVIN, but there is more to be done to usher in a new era for our roads and for improving mobility,” said Andy Manahan, executive director of the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario.

A report recently commissioned by the alliance concludes that self-driving vehicles will eventually replace entire fleets of taxis and buses, and impact other commercial fleets. It also recommended a governance system that would use digital tools to set subsidy and pricing systems.

JANUARY 2018

13

Dispatches

A Mexican trucker’s view of NAFTA

By John G. Smith Noe Montes has experienced the benefits of NAFTA first hand. He has grown his business from a single truck to a sophisticated fleet with 170 power units and 250 drivers – serving automotive shippers from Linamar to Pirelli.

He’s eying opportunities in Canada, too, particularly in a lane that would stretch between Mexico and Southern Ontario. Gone are the days when Mexican carriers would simply interline with their counterparts in Canada and the U.S., says the owner of Transmontes and its sister company, TM Transportation Services, in Laredo, Texas.

But even as the 40-year-old entrepreneur adds to his fleet’s capacity, he is keeping a close eye on NAFTA negotiations.

“I am very optimistic because the relations between those three countries are very strong for more than 20 years,” Montes said in a broad-ranging discussion with industry media. Besides that, NAFTA has introduced more than growing business volumes. He has seen it transform the way the trucking industry is perceived in Mexico.

“Twenty years ago it was considered a not-important industry, but since NAFTA started [the] transportation industry in Mexico is getting better,” Montes explained. “We are now trying to get good technology, trying to get good practice.”

Transmontes and TM Transportation Services are good examples of that. All of his power units, predominantly Volvos, are no more than four years old. The trailers are new as well. Telematics systems include geofencing capabilities, and he introduced Electronic Logging Devices three years ago, well ahead of the U.S. mandate that took hold December 18.

While aware of a growing driver shortage, particularly in the U.S., he says he hasn’t faced much of a struggle. “We know where to find Mexican drivers,”

14

TODAY’S TRUCKING

Montes says. The fleet has also had success reaching out to younger workers between 18 and 28, in part because of technologies like I-Shift Automated Manual Transmissions.

The fleet also invests in training for the younger workers – and not just to improve the skills to move a truck. Most of them have no more than a high school education when first hired, so Montes invests in English language training to prepare them for cross-border work.

the other side of the border. “When you get that opportunity [to work in the U.S.], you are going to be the best driver in the world,” he said.

Montes acknowledged reports of crime in Mexico, but insists the situation is improving. “As a Mexican company, obviously, we know how to be safe,” he said. The fleet’s security procedures include protocols requiring drivers to stop only in secure truck stops, while personnel monitor truck locations around the clock, and act on any unit that strays outside a geofenced route.

“Technology is like a friend,” he says.

“Like a good friend.”

Technology also offers drivers the tools to meet or exceed fuel economy targets of 7 miles per gallon (33.6 liters per 100 kilometers), as the fleet looks to address something that represents 40% of operating costs.

“If you pay incentives, extra incentives to driver, you can get more fuel efficiency,” he says. Newer equipment helps, too.

While the company runs new equipment, it still falls short of North America’s latest generation of Greenhouse Gaslimiting engines. Montes’ trucks have

Noe Montes

“If you go into the USA and you see some police, and the police start talking English, and the driver doesn’t answer, it’s going to be dangerous,” he said.

Indeed, it can be a culture shock.

Operations based solely in Mexico might flaunt regulations, he added. There is no choice but to follow the rules in the U.S. Montes pays 35 cents per mile in both operations, although those in the U.S. receive additional benefits. In contrast, some Mexican drivers can make 1/3 of the money earned by counterparts on

engines that meet the Euro 4 standard, in part because Mexico has limited access to Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel, expected to be readily available by 2019.

And Montes clearly has his eyes on the future.

“I’m not scared if something happens with NAFTA,” he said. “We can go to offer our services in the domestic market because we know how [to] work in a good manner, and also I am very positive because I know we can offer a good quality.” TT

Dispatches Global trade not tilted against Americans, Mulroney says.

Mulroney Talks Trade NAFTA talks ‘most important international negotiations in modern history,’ says former PM

By John G. Smith Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney brought a message about the importance of leadership and free trade to fleet executives in Toronto, at a time when the trade agreements he championed are being challenged and renegotiated.

In a speech during the Ontario Trucking Association’s annual meeting, Mulroney referred to NAFTA discussions as “the most important international negotiations in modern history” for Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. And he drew on a series of statistics to prove his point about the value of trade.

“The statistics alone speak to the success of the (Canada-U.S.) Free Trade Agreement,” he said, noting how trade between the countries has tripled since 1989. “With less than 7% of the world’s population, NAFTA produces 29% of the world’s wealth.”

While U.S. President Donald Trump has referred to NAFTA as a terrible deal, Mulroney stressed that our southern

neighbors have “done extremely well”, referring to the U.S. unemployment rate of 4.1% as an example.

“If the U.S. is to maintain its role in world leadership … it must ensure its great economy does not falter or fail, because such failure would soon jeopardize and ultimately eviscerate the American capacity to persuade other nations to share its prescriptions for peace and prosperity around the world,” he said.

The presentation was laden with jokes, political war stories, and quotes about leadership, but there was also a general theme of leaders focusing on the best decisions rather than short-term gains.

“I am persuaded that the highly talented and capable team, put together by Prime Minister [Justin] Trudeau, will do a top-flight job for our country. This will result in a modernized NAFTA that will continue to produce tremendous results for all three countries including the millions and millions of new jobs that our

children and grandchildren require,” he said. “Only very foolish people would seek to upset this majestic reality.”

The former Progressive Conservative prime minister is also serving as an advisor to the current Liberal government during the negotiations.

“Political capital is required to be spent in great causes for one’s nation. This is precisely such a time. Presidents and prime ministers are not chosen to seek popularity. They are chosen to provide leadership. There are times when the voters must be told not what they want to hear, but what they’ve got to know,” he added.

“Much of what we are witnessing these days in the U.S. reflects similar emotions of fear and anger, stimulated in large part by the sense that government is dysfunctional or detached from public sentiments, that the global system of trade and investment is tilted against American interests. That happens to be false, but that’s what Americans have been told,” Mulroney said.

In contrast, he noted that the best antidote to a spirit of protectionism is more liberalized trade that stimulates economic growth and stronger employment.

“Canada has the privilege of having the United States as a neighbor and friend.

And the United States should get down on its knees every bloody morning and thank the stars that they’ve got Canada on their northern border,” he said to applause.

“This is the most successful and peaceful bilateral relationship in history and one that must be cherished and enhanced by our leadership in a manner that is thoughtful, understanding, and wise.”

Quoting former English Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he said: “That long frontier from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, guarded only by neighboring respect and honorable obligations, is an example to every country.

“That is the leadership challenge confronting the NAFTA negotiators today – to conduct themselves in such a way, in an atmosphere of robust discussions, leavened by a spirit of reasonable compromise, that the product of their successful efforts will be viewed by history as a wise and powerful enhancement of Churchill’s words.” TT JANUARY 2018

15

Dispatches Elon Musk stresses the Tesla Semi’s acceleration as compared to diesel counterparts. Photo: Tesla

Talking Tesla Elon Musk (partially) unveils his electric truck.

Will it be the game changer that he promises?

By John G. Smith Elon Musk was not the first to unveil an electric truck. Not by a long shot.

Established manufacturers have unveiled a series of electrified plans, prototypes, and production models in recent months, particularly in the form of medium-duty vans and drayage tractors. New nameplates such as Nikola Motors and Chanje have emerged in the process.

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus, the majority of which is owned by Daimler, even beat Tesla Motors to the punch with a Class 8 prototype, unveiled during the recent Tokyo Auto Show.

But the Tesla Semi is the electric truck that everyone was talking about in late November, especially in circles outside

16

TODAY’S TRUCKING

the trucking industry itself. A related launch event in California attracted media from around the world, including the likes of Rolling Stone, the New York Times, television networks, and others.

Today’s Trucking, too.

Now the question is whether Tesla will become the industry disruptor it wants to be.

Brief looks at the Semi were highly choreographed in the hours before Musk, Tesla’s Chief Executive Officer and product architect, stepped out of the truck in front of about 1,000 cheering enthusiasts and employees. Select media had been shepherded into a secure hanger by the handful, each given 15 minutes to climb

in and around one of a pair of prototype day cabs. Questions were limited to what could physically be seen. Most answers were limited to suggestions that details would be revealed later.

Just a day before, Musk went so far as to tweet this truck “can transform into a robot, fight aliens, and make one hell of a latte”. Hyperbole, to be sure. There was no cappuccino machine anywhere. But it certainly has more in common with futuristic prototypes than production trucks on the road today.

The truck With no internal combustion engine under the hood, the Tesla Semi takes on a streamlined, wedge-shaped appearance. The small hood that does exist reveals a small storage space. Drivers enter the cab from behind the driver’s seat, climbing up a set of stairs revealed when the door opens. The driver’s seat itself even sits in the center of the cab, behind a car-sized steering wheel flanked by a pair of massive information displays.

Dispatches Pop-open windows are located at the A pillars, to the left and right, presumably to pass documents in and out of the truck. And a jump seat for a passenger was mounted just to the right, against the back wall.

One important spec’ that was released noted Tesla Semis will have a range of up to 800 kilometers. High-speed DC charging stations are, in 30 minutes, expected to add enough energy to drive another 650 kilometers. Other energy is to be supplied through regenerative braking.

There was no mention about the size or weight of the battery, other than recognizing that it offers a low center of gravity. The design of the high-speed charging stations, or where they would be located, is still under wraps as well.

“You can go out to the middle of nowhere and come back,” Musk insisted, referring to the maximum range as six to seven hours of driving. “By the time you’re done your break, the truck will be ready to go.”

Above all, Musk claimed the new trucks will be 20% cheaper than their diesel counterparts, once factors such as lease payments, insurance, and maintenance are combined – promising an operating cost of US $1.26 per mile compared to $1.51. (All figures in this article are in U.S. dollars.)

Those who generate energy supplies through solar-powered mega chargers would see greater savings yet. “Your truck is money on sunlight,” Musk said.

“Reliability is incredibly important,” he added. “We’re guaranteeing this truck will not break down for a million miles [1.6 million kilometers].” Even if some of the all-important electric motors break down, the Semi will still reportedly beat the speed of a diesel-powered truck.

That promised speed was a cornerstone of Musk’s presentation, as he poked fun at the comparable acceleration of diesel counterparts. A bobtailing Tesla Semi is to reach 97 kilometers per hour in five seconds, while one laden to 80,000 pound Gross Vehicle Weights will reach the speeds in 20 seconds. Perhaps more relevant, the truck will climb a 5% grade at 105 kilometers per hour. With no shifts or clutch actuations, the truck is

expected to accelerate or slow smoothly, while regenerative braking recovers available kinetic energy.

This is hardly a Model 3 car, but the truck does draw several components and design cues from its four-wheeled brethren, ranging from the door handles to touch screens. Both vehicles also use common electric motors. But unlike the car that draws power from a single motor, the truck has four of them –

ise to offer access to a navigation system, blind spot monitors, and an Electronic Logging Device, although only one screen was working in a displayed prototype. It showed electronic controls for a tractor protection valve and trailer supply valve.

Telematics capabilities will integrate with existing fleet management systems to cover everything from routing to remote monitoring, Tesla says.

One prototype didn’t have any mirrors,

The driver’s seat is positioned at the center of the cab, flanked by a pair of information screens.

Photos: Tesla

using a pair on each drive axle to ensure independent controls. This can help to prevent jackknifes by reacting with positive or negative torque on each wheel end, along with independently applied brakes, Tesla says.

“It’s unlike any truck you’ve ever driven,” Musk said, referring to the driving experience. “Jackknifing is impossible.

Your worst nightmare is gone from this truck.”

The driver information displays prom-

suggesting that the views around the truck would be entirely electronic in nature. Not mentioned was the fact that such a setup would run afoul of current federal regulations.

Cameras have been mounted around the vehicle, above and below the windshield, and on small wings mounted behind each door. In addition to the enhanced view they offer, the cameras are to support enhanced “Autopilot” features such as Automatic Emergency JANUARY 2018

17

Canada’s Largest Inventory of New and Used Trucks and Trailers Visit us on the web at truckandtrailer.ca • 1-877-682-7469

Canada’s #1 Source for Heavy Trucks and Trailers

Dispatches Braking, Automatic Lane Keeping, Lane Departure Warnings, and event recording. The Autopilot is a standard offering.

“I can drive this thing and I have no idea how to drive a semi,” Musk said, referring to the semi-autonomous controls.

The Tesla Semi even promises a form of platooning – what Tesla refers to as a “convoy” – where several of the trucks follow one in the lead. “You’re more like a train driver,” Musk said, suggesting that it

among the first to announce purchases.

Fortigo Freight Service, Fuel Transport, Titanium Transport Group, and Speedy Transport followed. More buyers lined up in the U.S. Base prices for the trucks were later revealed to be around $150,000 for models with a 500-kilometer range, and $180,000 for those that run 800 kilometers between charges. A so-called Founders Series model will cost $200,000 to be paid up front. Loblaw reported it

Prices are to range from $150,000 to $200,000.

Photo: Tesla

can be done 10 times safer than a human driver. “Now, [in a convoy], a diesel truck is twice as expensive as a Tesla Semi.”

“This beats rail.”

As an electric vehicle, there are several maintenance savings to be realized in the form of fewer parts. There is no internal combustion engine, aftertreatment system, transmission or differentials, for example. But some familiar components could be seen during the controlled reviews, ranging from a Jost fifth wheel to what looks like a traditional suspension.

Tractor-trailer gaps were closed with extenders, making a side view of the daycab look almost like a sleeper, and the bottom of the truck is covered with a panel to further enhance aerodynamics.

“This has got a better drag coefficient than a super car,” Musk said.

Early adopters The market will decide just how smooth the manufacturer’s ride will be, but Tesla has already attracted downpayments from a handful of Canadian fleets. Loblaw, Walmart, and Bison were

“We had two to three of our customers basically say, ‘When you get this, can we be one of the first to have it on our run?’” says Peter Calluori, Fortigo’s senior vice president – sales and marketing. There is no questioning the cache of the Tesla brand, he says. One of the fleet’s trucks will be tested on a pedal run around Toronto, while a second is to be tested in a Toronto-Montreal lane.

Admittedly, the purchase is a leap of faith, with so many factors still unknown.

Tesla hasn’t even announced where the trucks could be serviced.

“Have we put a certain amount of trust in him? Yeah, we have,” Calluori says of Musk and Tesla. He’s also confident that questions about the battery are being answered behind the scenes.

“We also want our customers to know we’re investing in technology,” he adds.

In fact, it’s one of the factors that Fortigo finds most intriguing. It has invested extensively in fleet management systems.

The Tesla Semi promises to be a truck that becomes an extension of such tech.

Still, Tesla has other challenges to overcome before any trucks are shipped.

Analysts have noted the manufacturer could run out of money by August 2018 if it continues to spend at the current rate of $8,000 per minute, Bloomberg reports.

In the midst of it all, the company has struggled to manufacture its Model 3 car. The rollout of that product line has been pushed back to March 2018, when 5,000 units per week are to roll off the line.

The company is reportedly using its revolving credit resources at a high rate, with 70% of its debts outstanding in September – more than double that of the same month in 2016 – while bonds sold a few months ago to cover $1.8 billion in debts are still not worth what investors paid for them.

Revenue from any sales will clearly be key to the company’s future.

Production of the Tesla Semi is to begin in 2019. TT

The market will decide just how smooth the manufacturer’s ride will be, but Tesla has already attracted downpayments from a handful of Canadian fleets. paid $5,000 deposits, but Tesla now says the deposits are set at $20,000.

Nikola Motors, which previously announced a truck that will combine hydrogen fuel and electric power, was unimpressed. Based on current costs and the Semi’s promised range, the company tweeted that the truck’s battery cells would cost $140,000 and weigh 15,000 pounds when enclosures and cooling systems are included.

“Fun battery estimate @tesla #teslasemi,” Nikola said when tweeting the related math.

Those linked to earlier purchases were decidedly more upbeat.

JANUARY 2018

19

Dispatches Mack Trucks is now an official sponsor of Petty’s Garage, building on an existing relationship with NASCAR.

Star Power Mack Trucks looks to celebrity endorsements in push for market share

By John G. Smith Mack Trucks is once again turning to the power of celebrity partnerships as it looks to expand its share of a growing North American truck market.

The truck maker is now an official sponsor of Petty’s Garage, the high-performance speed shop established by NASCAR’s Richard Petty. Under the deal, the Garage receives a 2018 Mack Pinnacle Axle Back model with an MP8445C engine to move cars to public events as part of the Performance Tour.

This build’s on Mack’s established relationship with the NASCAR race series, which has it providing 10 Pinnacles to haul gear, equipment, and other technologies. And for Mack customers, the NASCAR relationship means opportunities to ride in pace cars or see drivers load in equipment at track level. Now appearances by Petty – one of the biggest names in auto racing – will be included as well.

“There’s nothing like ‘The King’ walking into your hospitality suite to say hi,” says John Walsh, Mack’s vice president – marketing and global brand.

20

TODAY’S TRUCKING

This is not the only time Mack has leveraged the power of celebrity endorsements. Earlier this year, for example, it established a relationship with Khalil Mack of the Oakland Raiders, the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Walsh remembers reading a profile in Sports Illustrated about the player, who was not highly recruited in high school but proved himself at the

Mack NASCAR with 10 Pinnacles to haul gear and more.

University of Buffalo and eventually became a dominant force in football.

The Mack executive thought the man who shared the same name and values as the truck maker would be a great fit for the company, but put the idea on the back burner. Such a relationship would probably be too expensive anyway.

Then the phone rang a week later, and a caller identified himself as the player’s agent.

“I’m thinking this is a prank,” Walsh admits. But the agent also said it wasn’t about the money. A short time later, the defensive end was featured in a video released along with Mack Trucks’ new Anthem highway tractor.

The Anthem also received its own, well, anthem through Born Ready – a

Dispatches song written and performed by country music’s Steve Moakler.

“It all comes back to this genuine connection at the level of shared values,” Walsh says, referring to what is needed for deals like these to work. He even had a chance to discuss the foundation of such partnerships during a presentation for music industry insiders at the Country Music Association.

Of course, it’s also about engaging potential customers, and this is a good time to find them.

It currently looks like 235,000 Class 8 trucks will be sold in North America this year, and there is even “upward pressure” on that projection, says Jonathan Randall, Mack’s senior vice president – North American sales. This compares to projections at the beginning of the year that called for 215,000 sales.

“The market is strong and continues to perform,” he says. The com▲ Khalil Mack of the pany now holds Oakland Raiders about 8.2% of year-to-date retail sales in the U.S. and Canada, although the market share on our side of the border has dropped slightly in part because ▲ Country musician of lower sales to and songwriter regional haulers.

Steve Moakler “The response [to the Mack Anthem] has been outstanding, the order intake has been robust, and we are extremely happy with the volumes since we launched the truck,” Randall adds, noting the tractor is also attracting the attention of fleet buyers that have not traditionally been seen as Mack customers.

Next year the market is expected to be even stronger, reaching 260,000 trucks or more, he says.

Factors driving those positive numbers include a strong start for holiday

spending, a stable construction segment, increased manufacturing activity, and improving freight volumes and rates which suggest growth in the longhaul segment. The latter truck market traditionally accounts for 48% of Class 8 sales, but has dropped to 41%. In 2018, the longhaul share is expected to expand to about 44%, Randall says.

Mack Trucks plans to focus particular attention on the western region of the U.S., where its market share sits at around 5%.

“We are going to focus on this region as an opportunity for growth because we believe we have the right trucks,” Randall adds. “Everything seems to be lining up for the very good year.” TT

JANUARY 2018

21

Dispatches

Heard Street on the

Celadon continues to refinance, replace personnel Embattled Celadon Group is changing more personnel as part of its efforts to refocus amid an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The group recently appointed Vincent Donargo as its new vice president and Chief Accounting Officer. Celadon said Donargo brings more than 30 years of accounting and financial leadership experience to the new role.

Bandag announces new director

Crisan named one of Canada’s most powerful women

Bridgestone Americas is welcoming LaTres Jarrett as the

Andreea Crisan is being called an exceptional young woman who has distinguished herself early in her career. The Chief Operating Officer and executive vice president of Andy Transport has been named by the Women’s Executive Network as a 2017 Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award winner.

Crisan is receiving the Telus Future Leaders Award, given to young women expected to make their mark for years to come.

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck names new president

Earle named BCTA president

Justin Palmer has been named president and Chief Executive Officer of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck of America, replacing Jecka Glasman who is returning to Israel for personal reasons. Palmer has served Fuso for two years as director – business operations, and been responsible for business planning and managing improvement processes.

Palmer will operate from Fuso headquarters in Logan Township, New Jersey.

The British Columbia Trucking Association (BCTA) has named Dave Earle its new president and Chief Executive Officer. Earle assumes the role on January 8.

Familiar with the industry and its issues, he was most recently vice president - government relations and HR services for the Construction Labor Relations Association of B.C. Earle is also the past president of the Employers’ Forum, employer caucus chairman for WorkSafeBC’s policy and practice consultation committee, and secretary of the Canadian Hoisting and Rigging Safety Council.

Cervus announces CFO retirement Randy Muth is leaving Cervus Equipment. The Chief Financial Officer for the authorized service centers and dealerships will retire at the end of the year. With the announcement of Muth’s retirement after 13 years with Cervus, the company also appointed Adam Lowther to be his replacement. Lowther had been the director of finance.

22

TODAY’S TRUCKING

new director of marketing at Bandag, its line dedicated to researching, developing, and manufacturing retreads. Jarrett will be responsible for strategic marketing efforts to revitalize and grow the brand, Bridgestone says. Eric Higgs, vice president – marketing for the commercial tire group at Bridgestone Americas, says the company is excited to be working with Jarrett, who has more than 16 years of experience in brand building and customer strategies.

Dispatches

L gbook2018 THE MEETING PLACE FOR CANADA’S TRUCKING INDUSTRY

APRIL 19, 20, 21 2018 INTERNATIONAL CENTRE, TORONTO, ON

NEW FOR 2018

www.truckworld.ca

JANUARY 22-26 WORLD OF CONCRETE Las Vegas Convention Center Las Vegas, Nevada www.worldofconcrete.com

23-26 HEAVY DUTY AFTERMARKET WEEK The Mirage Las Vegas, Nevada www.hdaw.org

MARCH 1 WOMEN WITH DRIVE LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Toronto Airport Marriott Hotel Toronto, Ontario www.truckinghr.com

Additional exhibit hall added More international exhibits

5-8 TECHNOLOGY AND MAINTENANCE COUNCIL (TMC) ANNUAL MEETING AND EXHIBITION Georgia World Congress Center Atlanta, Georgia www.trucking.org

APRIL 18 Canadian Fleet Maintenance Summit

International Centre Mississauga, Ontario www.trucksummit.ca

MAY 11-12 TRUXPO 2018 Tradex Abbotsford, British Columbia www.truxpo.com

26 ROAD TODAY TRUCK SHOW Brampton Soccer Centre Brampton, Ontario www.roadtodaytruckshow.com

6-9

26-27

THE WORK TRUCK SHOW Indiana Convention Center Indianapolis, Indiana www.worktruckshow.com

WOODSTOCK TRUCK SHOW Woodstock, Ontario www.woodstocktruckshow.ca

22-24 MID AMERICA TRUCKING SHOW Kentucky Exposition Center Louisville, Kentucky www.truckingshow.com

25 CANADIAN TRUCKING ALLIANCE SPRING BOARD MEETING The Scottsdale Plaza Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona www.cantruck.ca

JUNE 9-10 TRUCKING FOR KIDS Ilderton, Ontario www.truckingforkids.ca

29-30 CLIFFORD TRUCK SHOW Clifford, Ontario www.greatlakestruckclub.com JANUARY 2018

23

Dispatches

Canadian market ‘red hot’ North America’s Class 8 truck sales exploded in October – reaching a 35-month high, according to ACT Research.

More than 36,000 units were ordered as U.S. fleets increased demand. The analysts also called the Canadian market “red hot”.

The strong market in both September and October, coupled with a modestly slower October build rate, pushed the backlog-to-build ratio to 91 days. Nearly 11,000 units were added to the backlog in October, bringing that total to 105,200 units.

ACT president and senior analyst Kenny Vieth predicted that production would slow down as the year closed, dropping to 1,114 units per day, compared to 1,172 in the third quarter.

Freightliner was the top-selling Class 8 brand in Canada this October, with International Trucks leading Class 7, Hino leading in Class 6, and Ford at the top of the charts for Class 5.

Canada – October 2017 SALES CLASS 8 Freightliner Kenworth International Peterbilt Volvo Truck Western Star Mack Other Total

24

U.S. – October 2017

MARKET SHARES

Oct.

YTD

Oct. %

YTD %

753 450 637 254 261 229 135 0 2,719

6,137 3,441 3,388 2,443 2,299 1,982 1,456 0 21,146

27.7 16.6 23.4 9.3 9.6 8.4 5.0 0.0 100.0

29.0 16.3 16.0 11.6 10.9 9.4 6.9 0.0 100.0

CLASS 7

Oct.

YTD

Oct. %

YTD %

International Hino Freightliner Kenworth Peterbilt Ford Total

260 60 53 49 39 8 469

1,619 860 634 417 362 95 3,987

55.4 12.8 11.3 10.4 8.3 1.7 100.0

40.6 21.6 15.9 10.5 9.1 2.4 100.0

CLASS 6

Oct.

YTD

Oct. %

YTD %

Hino International Freightliner Ford Peterbilt Kenworth Isuzu Total

57 49 14 5 1 1 2 129

517 278 208 48 46 11 4 1,112

44.2 38.0 10.9 3.9 0.8 0.8 1.6 100.0

46.5 25.0 18.7 4.3 4.1 1.0 0.4 100.0

CLASS 5

Oct.

YTD

Oct. %

YTD %

Ford Hino Dodge/Ram Isuzu International Mitsubishi Fuso Freightliner GM Kenworth Peterbilt Total

348 89 70 62 3 1 0 0 1 0 574

3,208 1,254 1,040 747 23 11 6 0 3 0 6,292

60.6 15.5 12.2 10.8 0.5 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0

51.0 19.9 16.5 11.9 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0

TODAY’S TRUCKING

www.total-canada.ca

SALES CLASS 8 Freightliner Peterbilt Kenworth International Volvo Truck Mack Western Star Other Total CLASS 7 Freightliner International Peterbilt Kenworth Ford Hino Total CLASS 6 Freightliner Ford International Hino Kenworth Peterbilt Isuzu Total CLASS 5 Ford Dodge/Ram Isuzu Freightliner Hino GM International Mitsubishi Fuso Kenworth Peterbilt Total

MARKET SHARES

Oct.

YTD

Oct. %

YTD %

6,334 3,076 2,769 2,801 1,500 1,063 373 12 17,928

57,108 24,418 22,215 17,973 13,752 12,722 4,098 123 152,409

35.3 17.2 15.4 15.6 8.4 5.9 2.1 0.0 100.0

37.5 16.0 14.6 11.8 9.0 8.3 2.7 0.0 100.0

Oct.

YTD

Oct. %

YTD %

2,425 1,618 662 388 246 228 5,567

23,969 15,409 4,755 3,667 1,703 1,537 51,040

43.6 29.1 11.9 7.0 4.4 4.1 100.0

47.0 30.2 9.3 7.2 3.3 3.0 100.0

Oct.

YTD

Oct. %

YTD %

1,645 1,326 1,223 488 225 3 57 4,967

16,734 16,183 11,987 5,547 2,027 226 124 52,828

33.1 26.7 24.6 9.8 4.5 0.1 1.1 100.0

31.7 30.6 22.7 10.5 3.8 0.4 0.2 100.0

Oct.

YTD

Oct. %

YTD %

4,220 1,382 366 363 216 18 8 8 0 0 6,581

41,007 14,125 4,287 2,885 2,048 275 149 135 28 14 64,953

64.1 21.0 5.6 5.5 3.3 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 100.0

63.1 21.7 6.6 4.4 3.2 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.0 100.0

Source: WardsAuto

Dispatches

Pu se Reader Survey Tell us your thoughts on ... Health and Wellness A lot of people make New Year’s resolutions to hit the gym and eat more vegetables, but it takes effort throughout the year to remain healthy – especially when it comes to life on the road. This month we wanted to know your thoughts on health and wellness.

Do you take the time to be physically active every day?

Do you smoke?

Do you take specific steps to prevent any of the following?

(Check all that apply)

YES

YES

16 %

65 %

NO

84 % NO

35 %

If you answer yes, are you planning to quit this year?

YES

67 %

What steps have you taken, or do you plan to take, to improve or maintain your health? (Pick up to five) 81% 78% 53% 48% 47% 29% 14% 11% 7%

Get enough sleep Eat healthy meals Walk or stretch during breaks Follow proper lifting techniques Use Personal Protective Apparel where available Exercise at home Exercise on the road Exercise at a gym Other

“Six hours of aerobic activity every week, and yoga every day.”

NO

33 %

51% 47% 47% 46% 37% 36% 34% 31% 25% 20%

Obesity Fatigue High blood pressure Heart disease Stress Sleep apnea High cholesterol Type 2 diabetes Muscle strain Depression

Which of the following would you use if they were available through your workplace? (Check all that apply) 71% Healthy snacks or meals 41% In-house exercise equipment 27% Paramedical services (ie chiropractor, massage therapist) 26% Health club membership 26% Health-related apps or monitors 23% Scheduled physical activities during the workday 19% Workplace teams/tournaments 17% In-cab exercise equipment 16% Health-related seminars and information (ie from dietitian) Results are rounded to the nearest 1/10th percent.

3% Other

Today’s Trucking Pulse surveys are conducted once per month, covering a variety of industry issues. To share your voice in future surveys, email johng@newcom.ca.

Next month: HR Challenges JANUARY 2018

25

Dispatches

StatPack

5

PAY HIKES

Titanium Transportation Services will

7,698 BRAKE INSPECTIONS Enforcement teams completed 7,698 inspections during the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Brake Safety Day on September 7, placing 14% of vehicles out of service for brake-related violations. Of those inspections, 1,337 were completed in Canada, with the rest in the U.S. Twenty-two percent of inspected vehicles were placed out of service when all vehicle violations were considered. More than 3.4 million brakes have been inspected since the program’s inception in 1998.

increase rates for owner-operators by 5% on January 1, in some cases increasing rates by six cents per mile. “We recognize that our drivers are the backbone of our company and 2018 will be about who can attract and retain the best drivers,” said Marilyn Daniel, vice president.

Bonuses are also offered for safety and maintenance objectives, in addition to a share purchase plan.

$500 million IN CONGESTION A recent report from the Toronto Region Board of Trade says traffic delays in and around the Greater Toronto Area cost consumers an extra $500 million to $650 million a year because of wasted fuel and added shipping times. Losses are also affecting productivity in a broader sense because raw materials aren’t arriving in time for manufacturers. Goods are not making it to ports, airports, and rail terminals reliably, causing delays with exports, the group adds.

86

12 TROPHIES BELTED UP

The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has found that 86% of truck drivers were using seatbelts in 2016, up from 65% in 2007. The record results were recorded in the 6th Safety Belt Usage by Commercial Motor Vehicle Drivers Survey. Eighty-nine percent of truck drivers and passengers operating on highways were buckled in, compared to 83% of those running down city streets. Male drivers were 2% more likely than their female counterparts to use the all-important safety device.

26

TODAY’S TRUCKING

Canada’s Bison Transport has secured first place at the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) National Fleet Safety Awards in the large fleet division. This is the 12th time the company has received the honor. Bison boasts the lowest recordable accident rate per million miles, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The fleet won its 7th American Trucking Associations National Truck Safety Contest for the same reason.

Dispatches

Trendingg on Can fun and games better driver behavior?

Gabe Zichermann doesn’t believe distracted driving can be solved through higher fines, or even by shaming people who reach for electronic devices when eyes should be on the road.

The expert on gamification even questions whether the apps themselves can change habits by incorporating warnings and asking if the user is a passenger.

“People get desensitized to the override,” he says of the passenger-identifying option, now used in apps such as the Waze navigation tool. Drivers simply hit the button themselves, like the snooze on an alarm clock.

Instead, Zichermann told the annual meeting of the Ontario Trucking Association that the answer is found in the data that illustrates how often people are tapping their screens.

“Do you think you’re a distracted driver? Probably not,” he told a crowd of fleet managers. “Expose people to how often they do it.”

Once statistics can show the trends, it’s a matter of helping people to curb their desire.

“This can be as simple as mindful meditation before you

@todaystrucking Your go-to social media source

.com

set out on a drive,” he suggested, referring to a simple minute of breathing exercises before hitting the road, or cognitive behavioral therapy such as coping strategies that work to change unhelpful thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes.

Successful tools will help to predict when bad behavior is going to occur, and offer positive reinforcement, he said. Think of a driver who travels more than 300 kilometers without using the phone. A message of encouragement could convince them to drive 400 kilometers without it, rather than threatening anyone who reaches for the screen.

There is no small irony that he is behind a software startup known as Onward, helping people to break such addictions to tech.

Zichermann once worked on making many smartphones as addictive as they are today.

Gabe Zichermann The addictive nature of games could also be used to address other industry challenges, he said. Dominos uses a game to recruit employees. Delta Airlines used games to get call center members to embrace training in geography. Millions of people download games in which they pretend to be drivers. Why couldn’t that be a recruiting tool?

Said Zichermann: “These screen-based experiences are only becoming better, and more vibrant, and more addictive.”

22.9K FOLLOWERS

If you’re not following us on Twitter, you’re missing out on some interesting discussions in the world of trucking. From regulations to product news, we have you covered.

HERE ARE A FEW EXAMPLES OF TWEETS FROM AROUND THE INDUSTRY THIS MONTH

KEEP IN TOUCH facebook.com/ TodaysTrucking

Elon Musk @ElonMusk It can transform into a robot, fight aliens and make one hell of a latte

Today’s Trucking @TodaysTrucking We do like lattes.

SafetyDriven™ @SafetyDrivenBC Today’s Trucking @Today’s Trucking @MackTrucks is clearly bulldoggish about the #Mexico market. #Anthem launch tonight at #ExpoTransporte17 #trucking

How to put tire chains on commercial vehicles (video). http://ow.ly/ Pxs030gov2m #roadsafety #shiftintowinter

@todaystrucking

TodaysTrucking1 JANUARY 2018

27

$15,000 IN

CASH+PRIZES

+

We’re looking for one driver who embodies the term “professional”.

A driver with that certain outlook on life and the industry that sets them

apart from the rest. A driver who gives to the community, operates with

YEAR • 2018

OF THE

the highest regard for other road users, and who generally sits tall in

the saddle. In short, we’re looking for a driver with STAR quality to be the 2018 Highway Star of the Year.

The Highway Star of the Year award is open to ALL drivers – company drivers and owner-operators alike.

If you know someone worthy of such an honor, please submit your nomination as soon as you can. We’ll be presenting the award during Truck World 2018 in Toronto, ON., on Saturday April 21, 2018.

WINNER WILL RECEIVE... $10,000 IN CASH

+ Road-ready, trucker-friendly laptop from OBAC + Special-edition leather jacket with winner’s name and Highway Star of the Year logo

www.truckworld.ca

+ Travel and accommodations for two to Toronto for Truck World 2018

FORMS ARE AVAILABLE ON-LINE + 2018 HlGHWAY STAR OF THE YEAR + BEFORE YOU

+ START! Save Nomination Form To Your Desktop.

Open PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader.

PLATINUM SPONSOR:

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY:

$15,000 in Cash and Prizes! Plus a trip for two to Truck World in Toronto.

NOMlNATlON FORM Nominate yourself or a driver you know. It’s easy and free. Candidates can be owner-operators or company drivers. Simply fill out this form and submit it to our judges.

STEP 1: Who are you nominating?

Name: Company Driver?

T

Current employer/contracted to: Candidate’s day-to-day supervisor: Or Owner-Operator?

T

todaystrucking.com/hsoy

Having a winning driver on your team pays huge dividends. There’s

free publicity. It’s a morale boost, a proud flag to fly, and just entering somebody’s name shows you care. The winning driver and his or her

carrier are often used as expert sources in subsequent magazine stories.

Nominate as many drivers as you want.

AND A CHANCE FOR YOUR FLEET TO SHINE

+

HIGHWAY STAR OF THE YEAR

2011

2012

2013

Brian Bertsch

Stephen McGibbon

Reg Delahunt

Rosenau Transport, Calgary, AB

Hi-Way 9 Express Ltd., Drumheller, AB

Milltown Trucking, Oak Bay, NB

lndependence Transportation Lanark, ON

2006

2008

2004

Michael T. Rosenau

APPS Transport, Brampton, ON

2009

Highland Transport, Markham, ON

Guy Broderick

2007

Joanne MillenMackenzie

2010

2014

2015

2016

HALL of FAME

Cliff Lammeren

Bud Rush

Dale Hadland

Jean-François Foy

Terry Smith

René Robert

Praxair Edmonton, AB

Armstrong Moving/ United Van Lines Oakbank, MB

lnternational Freight Systems (IFS) Beachville, ON

Transport J.C. Germain Neuville, QC

Highland Transport Miramichi, NB

Classy Transport lnc.

Libau, MB

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY: PLATINUM SPONSOR:

+

Dispatches

Truck of the Month

The Mighty Mack This 1988 R Model Mack was destined to be returned to its former glory, but the path to restorations are not always straight as an arrow.

Ontario’s Evan Kitchen owned it first, but he passed away before the truck – at that point missing its camshaft – was repaired. The unit was sold to Wayne King of Owen Sound, Ontario, but the work wasn’t completed by him, either. Alex Griffin met King at the famed Clifford Truck Show, and struck a deal to buy the truck. And that’s where the work began.

“It was getting rough from being parked so long, but I spent about a year on it and had it on the road,” Griffin recalls. “I had a lot of help from a good friend of mine, Hugh Donaldson, who is retired but had 50 years experience working on Macks.”

Griffin uses the truck to pull a 5,000 US gallon tanker filled with potable water, or water to control dust on road products. It even floats equipment for the family business – Griffin Landscape Maintenance Solutions.

THE SPEC’S TRUCK: 1988 R Model Mack ENGINE: Mack E7 350 REAR END: 4.17:1 SUSPENSION: Neway air ride

Do you have an unusual, antique, or long-service truck to be profiled?

Send your Truck of the Month ideas or photos to johng@newcom.ca, or mail Today’s Trucking Magazine, 451 Attwell Drive, Toronto, ON, M9W 5C4

30

TODAY’S TRUCKING

Open Mike

Prepare to go green in 2018

By Mike McCarron

T

he only thing to like about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is that he’s proving to be a man of his word and keeping his campaign promises.

Like most, I wasn’t surprised (or disappointed) when he announced that recreational pot will be legal here as of Canada Day. By most estimates, recreational marijuana is a $4 billion business, and within a decade the market is expected to explode and exceed $22 billion. The country stands to make millions in taxes.

But legalizing weed is going to a big headache for carriers. What does “going green” mean for our industry and your fleet? Here are some things worth considering:

What’s your policy?

Your best driver, Rocky, smokes a daily fatty to deal with chronic back pain. It’s prescribed by his family doctor and legal – that is, until he gets behind the wheel. Then what?

The limit at which truck drivers will be declared impaired under criminal law is still up for debate.

Canadian trucking associations are calling for zero tolerance. Many human resources professionals are suggesting marijuana needs to be treated like other legal substances, like Lipitor to manage your cholesterol.

What if Rocky worked on your dock or in customer

service? The only thing stopping him from lighting up is a company policy that many view as discriminatory and is possibly unenforceable if the dope is prescribed by a doc.

It’s critical that every fleet clearly articulate and communicate its policy on impairment, and train people to identify it.

Most trucking companies I have spoken with have done little or nothing to deal with this issue. That’s a mistake, because the problem of legal drug use will only grow as the appetite to indulge soars.

The price of dirt Finding a parcel of suitably zoned real estate to base a trucking business is a challenge in a lot of Canadian cities. It seems like no one wants us as neighbors.

Pot’s going to make it

harder. The marijuana industry requires vast amounts of space to grow, store, and distribute its products. One consequence the legalization of pot is having on trucking in Colorado is the rising price of real estate because there was a sudden shortage of available space. Safe to assume this pattern will continue in Canada.

Smoke or drive?

With so many people getting high, you have to expect huge spikes in positive drug tests, which is certain to exacerbate the driver shortage.

Since traces of pot can be detected for up to seven days with a blood test, and over three months using a hair follicle test, how many drivers will choose to get high and take a job outside trucking? How many border

crossers are going to migrate to domestic fleets so they can get high on the weekends without worrying about losing their driving job on Monday?

Since random drug testing is still illegal in Canada, figuring out who’s puffing at work is hit and miss. My suggestion is that you try using the MAT (Munchie Assessment Test). Install a vending machine full of free pizza. Pretty sure it won’t take long to figure out who is smoking fatties at lunch. TT Mike McCarron is the president of Left Lane Associates, a firm that specializes in growth strategies, both organic and through mergers and acquisitions.

A 33-year industry veteran, Mike founded MSM Transportation, which he sold in 2012. He can be reached at mike@leftlaneassociates.ca, 1-844-311-7335, or @AceMcC on Twitter.

JANUARY 2018

31

Sleep

Well

Good health begins with proper sleep. Researchers want to know if drivers are getting what they need.

By Elizabeth Bate

Have your say WANT TO HAVE A SAY ON TRUCK PARKING THROUGHOUT SOUTHERN ONTARIO? VISIT

www.spr.ca/trucking/survey BEFORE MID-FEBRUARY.

... and get paid You can even make $50 by participating in the University Health Network’s study on sleep apnea. It involves a complete one-night sleep study at home, and will confirm if you have sleep apnea. To participate in that research, email Laura Gibson at laura.gibson@uhn.ca.

32

TODAY’S TRUCKING

F

or most people, the time-honored New Year’s resolution to get healthier will be toast by mid-February. But if you’re determined to focus on health and wellness in 2018, experts say you should sleep on it.

Sitting all day, a lack of regular exercise, eating unhealthy food, and working in a stressful environment, all tend to put drivers in a highrisk category for some major and possibly life-shortening complications. Canadian researchers, however, are paying particular attention to the sleeping habits of those who work behind the wheel.

Geoff Fernie, senior scientist and director of the Research Institute at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, is heading up a study at the University Health Network’s (UHN) DriverLab to identify the prevalence of sleep apnea among Canadian truck drivers.

The first-of-its-kind research in Canada will look at 1,000 drivers, and compare identified cases of sleep apnea to records on the road. Fernie says currently no hard evidence exists to support the widely discussed theory that sleep apnea causes drivers to be less functional behind the wheel, though it’s not difficult to see why a correlation likely exists.

“Sleep apena is not the only cause of drowsiness, but it means that you don’t get a good sleep, so you’re sleepy throughout the day,” said Fernie, referring to the condition that involves irregular breathing patterns, waking people sometimes hundreds

Sleep Well of times a night. “Driving is hard work when you’re tired. You’re not happy, you get stressed out.”

That stress and lack of restful sleep also puts drivers at a higher risk for developing other habits that cause health-related issues. Suffering from fatigue means you’re more likely to crave snacks full of sugar and carbohydrates as a means to boost energy, which may lead to conditions like high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity, says University of Waterloo Public Health and Health Systems associate professor Philip Bigelow. Those not getting regular sleep are also three to four times more likely to suffer a stroke or heart disease.

For commercial drivers, fatigue and drowsiness can be the result of increased body pains, too. Sitting all day is often enough to give any worker lower back pain, but a study of Manitoba drivers is looking into the effects of low-level vibration drivers experience as they sit in a moving vehicle. Preliminary results are pointing to drowsiness during the day, and aches that last throughout the night, interrupting sleep over the longer term.

Bigelow hopes the evidence will help fleets make better choices when it comes to adopting new technologies, such as low-vibration seats.

Steve Kane, a former driver who is now the president of Rolling Strong, is also helping fleets develop the health-related programs that support proper sleep patterns, among other benefits.

Rolling Strong recently launch a mobile app that connects drivers to an overall plan to be healthier, with access to features that suggest healthy food, provide ideas for short workouts in and around a truck, and track the all-important sleep.

The program helps with workouts in the tight confines of a truck, something that’s important not just for managing weight but for eliminating those aches that can keep you awake at night.

“When you’re sitting there sedentary for 11-14 hours a day, your joints become restricted, making them susceptible to injuries,” says Kane.

He says workouts don’t have to be long or punishing. “A little really goes a long way. We’re just getting them [drivers] to get moving.”

While Rolling Strong provides a small medicine ball, bands, and other exercise equipment that can be used in combination with a truck, it also identifies brief exercise regimes – each lasting under 30 minutes – that can be done with no equipment at all.

Rolling Strong’s app isn’t the only piece of technology affecting driver sleep and health. Bigelow believes Electronic Logging Devices could pave the way for people to get more sleep. He says researchers often hear about drivers being pushed to drive further or longer, either because schedules are tight, relationships with dispatchers are testy, or parking isn’t available — all issues costing drivers rest and affecting their health.

“Some of this stuff is beyond their control. It’s a very challenging environment,” he said. “Drivers are really now going to have to stop these trucks. And if you ignore that, you’re going to have all these drivers violating these rules.”

Hours of Service regulations never included “wiggle room” to find food or parking, but the shift to electronic logs has brought the lack of appropriate rest stops to the attention of researchers and government alike.

SPR Associates and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, for example, are currently running a survey on truck parking in Southern Ontario – something survey author Ted Harvey says is severely lacking.

Bigelow says the survey is important because it will allow infrastructure planning to help create safe, available places for drivers to stop and take a break, or stop for the night. Something that impacts their ability to get enough sleep and their safety on the road.

And the link between sleep, health, and safety is undeniable. TT

ZZZ

A few tips to sleep on University of Chicago researchers found that high blood pressure, stress hormones, insulin resistance, and inattention all increased with just six nights of less-than-recommended sleep. While those suffering from a chronic sleep deficit may find it hard to recoup their losses, experts say temporary sleep deficits can be addressed with just an extra hour of sleep a night.

Here are some tips to keep you well rested on the road: ■ The United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) says where you sleep matters. Keep the cab as cool as possible, and block out noise and light by using earplugs, curtains, or even a white noise machine.

■ Plan the time to rest. Seven to nine hours of sleep is recommended each night. Remember to add an extra hour if you’re making up for lost time.

■ Put down the phone. Texting or watching TV before bed will keep you awake. Instead, read a book the old-fashioned way, or do some other quiet activity if you need help winding down.

■ Don’t drink coffee, exercise, or smoke before bed. Caffeine, nicotine, and the adrenaline produced by exercise are all stimulants and will keep you wide-eyed for longer.

■ What you eat before hitting the bunk matters, too. Don’t consume too many liquids, alcohol, or spicy foods before lying down, or you could find yourself having to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, or dealing with indigestion.

JANUARY 2018

33

Everyth

EQUIPMENT. INNOVA

L

• 500+ exhibitors –

• More to see! Now

• New trucks and g

• Over 75+ compan

www.

Wi-Fi Sponsor:

App Sponsor:

Endorsed by:

hing Trucking

ATIONS. CONNECTIONS. SOLUTIONS.

everage it.

APRIL 19-21 2018 INTERNATIONAL CENTRE MISSISSAUGA, ON

including new and international exhibitors

w even bigger and better! ear in the New Product Showcase

nies hiring now

.truckworld.ca For the first time produced in partnership by:

Official Media:

Over-the-air programming will promote and ease engine software updates.

The TOP 1O New products that topped our editor’s list in 2017 — By John G. Smith — An acquaintance of mine once quipped that he hates picking winners for different contests. Sure, you’ll make a friend, he said, but you’re still annoying plenty of people who didn’t make the cut.

So it is when picking the Top 10 products of the year.

Today’s Trucking’s annual look at the top in tech involves looking at hundreds of launches from throughout North America. Trucks themselves have been excluded, but everything else was fair game in my review of components and other offerings that have been improved, reinvented, and reimagined.

36

TODAY’S TRUCKING

The Top 10 Paccar’s 12-speed automated transmission

Accuride ROLLiant Hub System

Over the Air engine programming My first choice for the year comes in the form of technology that supports streaming data – specifically in the way engine software can now be updated without physically connecting a service tool or laptop.

OK, it’s not a single new product, per se. (Is that cheating?)

International, Detroit, Mack, Volvo, and Cummins are all rolling out the capabilities in some form or other. But they will all make a difference.

Volvo Trucks North America estimates that three out of four new trucks on the road are missing the latest software updates, which can be issued two to four times a year. The updates, however, tackle pesky fault codes, improve performance, and more.

It’s easy to understand why vehicle owners have put off such updates in the past, though. They can involve about two days in a service bay. Now there’s no need to wait.

Paccar’s 12-speed automated transmission Paccar updated its MX-11 and MX-13 engines this year, shedding weight and extending oil drains in the process. But it was the company’s automated transmission – developed through the new Eaton-Cummins Automated Transmission Technologies – that garnered the most attention during recent product launches.

The 12-speed, twin-countershaft design is unlike other

Automated Manual Transmissions (AMTs) because it was conceived as an automated model out of the gate. It isn’t a manual box fitted with add-on shift actuators. One of the benefits here is that it weighs 658 pounds, which is about 200 pounds lighter than an Eaton Advantage AMT, the company says.

The model supports linehaul applications with Gross Vehicle Weights of up to 110,000 pounds, and engines delivering up to 510 horsepower and 1,850 lb-ft of torque. The first units to roll off the assembly line are options with MX-13 engines.

The stalk-mounted controller is pretty elegant in its own right.

A simple twist of the DNR selector makes it easy to shift between Drive and Reverse, while the Neutral position includes an interlock with the parking brake – so the transmission automatically shifts to neutral if the parking brakes are set when the shifter is in D or R. A button on the end of the controller transforms the unit into a paddle shifter for manual shifts.

Current buying habits suggest there will be a high take rate.

More than 70% of today’s Kenworth T680 trucks, for example, already come with AMTs.

Accuride ROLLiant Hub System Bearing adjustment can present one of the biggest barriers to extending the life of a wheel end components. Overtightened bearings will fail prematurely, overheating and contaminating JANUARY 2018

37

The Top 10 Bendix greener air dryer cartridge

SAF-Holland CBX23 AeroBeam

the lube. When bearings are too loose, seals dislodge and begin leaking oil or grease, contributing to tire wear. And preloads can’t be off by more than the width of a human hair.

Accuride answers this challenge with the new ROLLiant hub system that comes with a 10-year warranty for trailers and seven years for trucks.

An extended inner race ensures perfect endplay at the factory, while extended bearing cones, cups, and seals come installed. Just put on a spindle nut and the system is ready to go. Accuride even inspects each hub’s endplay, and attaches a unique serial number to ensure traceability should anything go wrong.

ROLLiant can be used with straight and tapered spindle hub designs.

Lighter AeroBeam suspension There’s always a delicate balance between strength and weight, which can make it tough to shed unwanted pounds from load-carrying components.

Still, SAF-Holland has managed to shed 45 pounds from the previous generation of its CBX23 AeroBeam fixed-frame air suspension for weight-sensitive flatdeck and tanker applications.

Weighing in at 465 pounds, it’s about 25 pounds lighter per axle than the nearest competitor, the company notes.

The suspension beams are made with a heat-treated cast alloy, 80-ksi frame brackets, and a 5.75-inch friction-welded axle that’s said to be 12% thicker than competing axles. And the trailing arms are made of treated cast alloy steel.

With multiple styles of frame brackets, the CBX23 AeroBeam can be adapted to fit an array of trailers, too.

38

TODAY’S TRUCKING

Truck-Lite Road Ready telematics system

Truck-Lite’s smart trailer system Truck-Lite’s new Road Ready telematics system can create smarter trailers. Its Master Control Unit monitors and transmits data from a series of customizable sensors, and is powered by a solar panel rather than power from the tractor.

Those sensors can relay data about such things as tire pressure, malfunctioning LEDs, Antilock Brake Systems, unauthorized door openings, cargo fill and movement, cargo temperature, trailer arrival and departure, and GPS locations. Event-based data is reported in real time to a desktop dashboard, and key data can even be conveyed when a trailer is still sitting in the yard.

All told, Truck-Lite says it has more sensors than any other trailer option on the market.

There’s no need to drill holes or run wires, either. The sensors peel and stick in place.

Meritor’s high-efficiency linehaul tandem drive axle Keeping in the spirit of saving weight, Meritor’s new 14XE HE high-efficiency linehaul drive axle is 30 pounds lighter than the 14X models that came before it, but it has also improved efficiency by 1.5%.

This product announcement was not just about shedding pounds. The axle features high-efficiency bearings, the Meritor Lube Management system, precision-finished gearing, and ratios as low as 2.15 for aggressive downspeeding.

Many of the gains were realized through laser welding. This made it possible to connect the ring gear to the differential housing, creating a joint that eliminates fasteners and reduces oil-churning losses.

The Top 10 Meritor high-efficiency linehaul tandem drive axle

FlowBelow Tractor AeroKit system

Thermo King Electric Pallet Jack (EPJ) charger

Thermo King power management tools

PeopleNet’s wireless backup camera

Battery life can be a challenge in trailers that use the power for far more than lights alone. Ask anyone who runs liftgates if you need proof.

This year, Thermo King unveiled a family of power management tools in the form of a boost charger, auto-start module, and electric pallet jack charger.

The boost charger ensures liftgate batteries remain powered, and comes in the form of 20- and 30-amp models. Backing up that component is a new auto-start module. If batteries run low, it activates a Precedent Series alternator on the reefer unit. This also features low-voltage protection for the auxiliary battery to keep liftgates lifting and lights, uh, lighting.

Rounding out the system is an electric power jack charger that offers 120-volt power inside trailers for power jacks. It draws power from the liftgate battery pack, but also offers low-voltage protection for the liftgate itself.

PeopleNet has unveiled a wireless trailer backup camera that automatically pairs with any PeopleNet Video Intelligence receiver in the cab. Since it’s powered by the Antilock Braking System, there’s no battery to charge.

Like some of the other choices this year, the camera should be seen as part of a broader system. Combined with forward and side-facing cameras, it offers 360 degrees of video data, and recordings are automatically triggered by an onboard event. So if a collision occurs, you know what happened to the rear.

The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has found that nearly 17% of fatal truck-car collisions in 2015 were caused by passenger vehicles rear-ending large trucks. Another 25 fatal truck-related collisions were caused by improperly starting or backing.

By improving the view, fleets should be able to better the results.

Bendix’s greener air dryer cartridge

FlowBelow’s removeable fairing

The new GC spin-on air dryer cartridge from Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems is more than just green in color. The GC stands for Green Cartridge because it uses recycled desiccant. The GC can be used on any North American air dryer that calls for a standard 39-millimeter spin-on dryer cartridge with a right-hand thread, although not in applications requiring an oil-coalescing filter.

Recycling this material is no small task. Desiccant attracts moisture during the charging cycle, and is exposed to pressure, high temperatures, road vibrations, and air that’s saturated with moisture and oil aerosols. But Bendix reprocesses the material, mixes it with new content, and creates a filter that it says matches the performance of an OEM-grade cartridge.

Little tweaks can mean a lot, and so it is with the latest update to FlowBelow’s Tractor AeroKit system.

Based on SAE fuel economy tests, the fairings have demonstrated fuel savings of 2.23% when combined with the company’s wheel covers, controlling the air flow between and behind wheels. But that was little help to those who needed to chain up their tires in winter months.

The answer comes in the form of an updated option with quick-release fasteners that can be turned and released in three to four seconds. No tools are required. Pull them off, chain up, push them on, and you’re back on your way. TT

JANUARY 2018

39

40

TODAY’S TRUCKING

Trucks are more vulnerable to cyber threats than you might believe

By Jim Park

CyberjackeD! t’s Tuesday afternoon, a little after 2 pm. You’re the operations manager of a major truckload carrier.

The morning rush is over, all the drivers and customers are happy, and now you’re gearing up for the onslaught of late-afternoon messages from customers wondering where their trucks are, and drivers alerting you that they can’t load ‘til tomorrow.

Typical day. Then a driver calls on his mobile phone.

“My engine has just shut down and I’m sitting deader than a doornail in the center lane of Highway 401 between Dufferin and Keele Street,” he says. “No warnings, no red or yellow lights. It just quit. Traffic was too heavy for me to get over to the shoulder. I’m blocking traffic. What a mess.”

Then your phone chirps with a text message: “Send 20,000 in Bitcoin and you can have your truck back.”

Most of you are now chuckling, saying, “That could never happen.” Well, it has happened on a test rig, and it’s likely to happen someday in real life if manufacturers, regulators, and fleets do not take appropriate action to protect certain vulnerabilities in the basic electronic architecture of nearly every truck built in the past 20 years or so.

What began as a class project at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) in the spring of 2016 made it to the pages of Wired magazine as a sort of follow up to the widely reported controlled hacking of Jeep Cherokee as it drove around public highways in St. Louis, Missouri. The exercise was also controlled, conducted on a closed test track, and the

hacker was sitting in the sleeper with a laptop plugged into the OBD port of a 2006-vintage Class 8 tractor.

Last year, the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma began research on a truck-in-a-box. It was a typical Class 8, electronically speaking, but just the wiring and electronics. Researchers there were able to dig pretty deep into that system as well, with very little difficulty.

The two projects were just demonstrations, accomplished with hard-wired connections to the truck. But nobody can guarantee that today’s connected truck is completely and absolutely safe from some kind of deliberate intervention.

“What concerns me, as a fleet equipment manager, is increased opportunity for cyber attacks because of the inter-connectivity of our vehicles and all of the components now,” said Gary Hunt, vice president - equipment and maintenance at ABF Freight System.

“When you talk about how these different components are going to talk to the truck, across the J-1939, through our telematics system, to us, those are all opportunities that somebody else can talk to those components and get into the truck. That’s a real concern for me.”

Hunt was speaking at the at the inaugural meeting of a new task force on cyber security at the American Trucking Associations’ Technology and Maintenance Council’s annual meeting. He was part of a panel that was trying to raise awareness among member fleets and suppliers about the cyber security challenges.

Last fall, a similar meeting took place at the Society of JANUARY 2018

41

Cyber-jacked! hard time imagining why someone would bother. Well, a truck could become a pretty effective weapon in some sort of terrorist attack. There have already been examples of terrorists using trucks as a weapon. Or it could be used by someone with an axe to grind, maybe even a kid who wants to prove something to his girlfriend. Doorenbos told those at the task force session that the threat could come from several quarters.

“You’ve got the tuners, the age-old nemesis of OEMs, the people to go in and find ways to modify trucks to get more power, better fuel efficiency, and bypass emission systems without the approval of the OEMs,” he says. “Then you’ve got your prankster category – people who are just out to demonstrate that maybe they’re smarter than somebody else. And you’ve got your hacktivists, people who are either socially or politically driven with specific agendas. Hacktivists have an enormous amount of dedication to put into making their particular political or Automotive Engineer’s Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress in Rosemont, Illinois. A panel discussion there laid bare the threat faced by industry. It’s real. Very real.

A large part of the potential threat comes from the J-1939 data bus. It’s an open standard and provides the trucking industry a great amount of efficiency, but the open design also makes it vulnerable.

“We worked, as an industry, to develop that open architecture, so that we could have this great flexibility, as fleets, as OEMs, to work collaboratively. Is J-1939 now going to be our Achilles’ heel?” asked Hunt.

The open-architecture CANBUS is just one of the challenges. To really look at the whole attack surface, we need to look all the way up and down the supply chain, noted Keith Doorenbos, a system engineer with Paccar who attended the task force session.

“So the OEs buy major systems and components from a lot of large suppliers who, in turn, buy from other suppliers.

And when we complete our part of a truck, we hand it off to bodybuilders, to telematics providers, and to the fleets.

Even drivers are installing or connecting

42

TODAY’S TRUCKING

“Even if somebody can compromise your telematics system, that does not automatically give them immediately the ability to send commands directly to an engine or a brake.”

— Keith Doorenbos, system engineer with Paccar their own electronics to the truck. So every piece that gets connected provides another path into the system and another risk to the system,” he said.

Theoretical models have been developed that suggest even diagnostic tools could be used to move a virus-like attack from one truck to the next, but so far, Doorenbos says that’s entirely theoretical.

“I don’t believe it’s even been demonstrated by any of our white hats [hackers working for good], but there’s a lot of exposures in different elements. Basically everything that’s ‘smart’ out there creates another opening.”

Directed threats By now you might be prepared to concede that the potential for a cyber attack on a truck is real, but you’re having a

social point at anybody’s expense.”

He says trucking hasn’t yet had a lot of exposure to what he called the classic cyber criminals who are after access to traditional servers for data-mining, identity theft, and financial gain.

“At the top end of the system, you’ve got your nation states or pseudo-nation states, the types of organizations that have very large resources and are willing to mount large-scale, very sophisticated attacks in order to support political goals,” he warns. “They can be very difficult, if not impossible, to completely block if they come after a system.”

More likely, Doorenbos believes, the biggest threat is in the for-profit sector, in the form of cargo theft. “Right now, that’s pretty much done using old-school methods,” he says. “What we’re trying to do is

Cyber-jacked! prevent giving them new techniques that might make that simpler, more efficient, or more accessible.”

Ongoing efforts There’s a huge amount of work in the background to better understand the scale of the problem, and a few solutions are emerging to help slow the black hats, even if we can’t shut them out completely.

A key pillar of cyber security efforts is encrypting data and software so it can’t easily be reverse-engineered or accessed by outsiders. Another strategy is partitioning truck electronic architectures so that, rather than having a single-vehicle network on J-1939, there are a number of sub-networks separating the most critical systems from the less critical systems.

Engineers are also inserting firewalls or gateways between the different networks so they can control the data and commands that can move from one network to another.

“Even if somebody can compromise your telematics system, that does not automatically give them immediately the ability to send commands directly to an engine or a brake,” says Doorenbos.

On a sobering note, the U.S. National Motor Freight Traffic Association recently completed a survey to gather registration data for all vehicles launched since Model Year 2000. The results suggest that four out of every five trucks built in the last 15 years are still registered. That’s a lot of systems to reverse-engineer, partition, encrypt, and protect.

It’s a fairly new problem, but there are several U.S. universities now actively engaged in research on the subject, such as UMTRI and the University of Tulsa, among others. The U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and other U.S, government agencies are looking at it. And there are several industry groups very actively engaged in discussion and research on the subject, including the Society of Automotive Engineers, Technology and Maintenance Council, National Motor Freight Traffic Association, and the Automotive Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Auto-ISAC).

Auto-ISAC is an industry-operated

environment created to enhance cybersecurity awareness and collaborate across the global automotive industry.

Participants include light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicle OEMs and their suppliers.

Still largely absent from the table are carriers. Much of the message ABF’s Gary Hunt delivered at the Technology and

Maintenance Council session was on the need for fleets to become involved.

“I, as a fleet, have a definite dog in this fight and so does every [fleet] in here,” he said. Look at what’s at stake: safety of employees, safety of customers, safety of the industry, and the safety of the general public. What can happen to my trucks can also happen to yours.” TT

HEAT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A LUXURY. You should be able to afford a good night’s sleep on the road without breaking the bank. Our air and coolant heaters cost up to 40% less than the competitors while offering the same level of quality and support.

Call us today!

BF2000A

BF5000C Exclusive distributors of Belief and TuiTé parking heaters

GENERALCOMPONENTS.CA

1-800-517-7740 JANUARY 2018

43

In Gear

47 New oil categories 48 Mexican marketplace 51 Product Watch

EQUIPMENT NEWS, REVIEWS, AND MAINTENANCE TIPS

Adding a yard truck to the fleet can improve productivity and lower the risk of inadvertent Electronic Logging Device violations.

Yard Dogs Moving trailers around the yard?

Consider specialized tools for the job.

By Jim Park Yard dogs, hostlers, terminal tractors, shunt trucks ... they are known by a variety of names, but serve a single purpose. Moving trailers around. They are common at distribution centers, marine terminals, and rail heads, and they are often used by larger carriers with cross-docking facilities and Less Than Truckload operations. They are not so common at smaller carriers, but mandated Electronic Logging Devices could change that.

If your fleet is running close to capacity, pulling a driver off a dispatch to move a few trailers around the yard could cause problems later in the week.

44

TODAY’S TRUCKING

If you’re using a road tractor to spot trailers, failing to log in as an unassigned yard move, or failing to log out after the move, could cause problems for that truck’s driver somewhere downstream.

Electronic Logging Devices will force fleets to account for every move by a tractor and driver. Having a means to move trailers around without having to worry about the consequences might be enough reason to consider a shunt truck.

According to Jeff Larson, vice president and general manager of Vancouverbased Masonlift, if you’re making 10 or more trailer moves per day around your facility, it might be time to think about a

yard truck. Masonlift supplies all manner of material handling equipment including Ottawa yard trucks.

“Two things to think about are employee safety and productivity,” he says. “If you use a road truck, you’re asking the driver to possibly get out and hook up the air lines and crank the landing dollies. There’s some risk in that activity, and when it comes to productivity, you can do the move much faster with a purpose-built truck.”

Shunt trucks can be spec’d to suit the operation, from heavy-lift 24/7 operation to a lighter-duty model to suit smaller operations. Larsen says each customer request is vetted, and the correct spec’ is then established.

“We consider factors like the yard surface, grades the truck might encounter, how heavy the trailers are, and what type of duty cycle is required,” he says. “Most truck terminals and distribution centers are fairly flat, but in Vancouver, for example, we have to consider the tidal drop for our marine units that are operating on and off marine vessels.”

Suppliers can add options like galvanized frame rails for seaside operations, heaters for colder climates, deeper drive ratios for heavy or hilly applications, and more.

Electric yard trucks are said to cost about the same as a diesel truck, but with a fraction of the energy costs.

In Gear Used yard trucks are an option, too.

The trucks will last 20 years or more, but the older the truck, the higher the maintenance costs. And trucks built to earlier emissions standards are in short supply.

Current off-road diesel engines, such as those those found in newer trucks, must be built to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (and Environment Canada’s) Tier 4 emissions standards.

“Some fleets are very concerned about their environmental profile and are doing all they can to green up their operations, like buying the Tier 4 trucks,” says Larsen. “Other fleets concerned about operating cost and reliability will go new as well. Small light-duty operations will get by just fine with a used truck.”

Gasoline, diesel, or electric Your choice of power will likely be diesel, but in 2017 there are alternatives and good reasons to look at alternatives.

Tier 4 is less rigorous than EPA’s GHG 17 rules for on-road trucks, but the offroad emissions rules do add cost and complexity to what used to be a relatively simple and reliable engine.

“Early Tier 4 engines had their share of problems, and regens were one of the worst,” says Larsen. “Usually, when you had a warning light, you’d just flick the switch and go for lunch. But if the operator ignored the light, the system plugged up, and off it went for an expensive repair.”

Smaller engines under Tier 4 do not require Diesel Particulate Filters, but they do have Diesel Oxidation Catalysts and Selective Catalytic Reduction, which requires Diesel Exhaust Fluid. To get around the hassles and expense associated with Tier 4 engines, some yard tractor manufacturers went to gasoline engines, but those lacked the torque to get the job done. So, the operator’s choices were limited to an old diesel yard tractor with its associated maintenance and repair headaches, or a new tractor, with the emissions-related challenges.

Enter the electric yard tractor. In what would seem to be a perfect application for an electric powertrain, several manufacturers are now producing electric yard trucks, including BYD Heavy Industries of Los Angeles, California, and Orange

If you only need to move a handful of trailers each day, an electric walk-behind Trailer Caddy might be the answer.

TAKE YOUR TRAILER FOR A WALK

J

ustifying the upfront cost and the ongoing maintenance costs of a full yard tractor can be daunting if the volume of trailer moves just isn’t there, but relying on drivers to spot a trailer can be awkward, too. Qualified people might not be around when you need them. Enter the Trailer Caddy Terminal Tractor from DJ Products of Little Falls, Minnesota. It’s a walk-behind electric trailer mover that comes at a fraction of the cost of yard truck and can be operated by anyone on staff with a little training.

Repair and maintenance shops, expanding truck fleets, and even small distribution businesses will run into situations where they need a trailer spotted or moved into or out of a bay. Traditionally, such operations rely on old, decommissioned road tractors, but those require maintenance and aren’t always reliable. When you consider the carrying costs of such equipment, a low-maintenance and easy-to-operate yard spotter can be a pretty appealing alternative.

“It really comes down the number of trailers you have to move in a day,” says DJ Products sales engineer Dawn Felker. “If you’re moving 10 or more trailers, you probably have your own truck or you contract with a shunting service. But smallvolume operations can have a Trailer Caddy on standby all day long for about a quarter of the cost of a yard truck, and anyone can operate it.”

Trailer Caddys are electric and they plug into a 120-volt source, so no special electrical connections are required. They are rated up to 100,000 pounds, so even a loaded quad-axle trailer isn’t too much to move.

Felker says the units are built in Minnesota, so they were designed with snow and cold in mind. “As long as you keep it plugged in, the batteries won’t be left short in the cold,” she says. “And they can handle a little snow. Not two-foot drifts, mind you, but a couple of inches aren’t a problem.”

Required maintenance on the unit is minimal, and no special training is required.

Anyone in the shop can probably take care of it. And best of all, anyone can operate a Trailer Caddy. When you need a trailer pulled away from a door, the forklift operator can do it. No more waiting, no more tied up doors.

EV of Riverside, Missouri. Such trucks certainly do not require emissions equipment, and in many cases could qualify for government incentives for environmentally friendly vehicles. But do they work?

These trucks are almost exactly the same as a diesel yard truck except for the

powertrain. They are apparently as capable as any diesel-powered hostler, but produce zero on-site emissions. Mike Saxton, Orange EV’s Chief Commercial Officer, says electric yard trucks are the future.

“Battery technology is such that we can build a cost-effective electric truck JANUARY 2018

45

In Gear at cost parity with diesel, but without the high energy and maintenance costs,” he says. “Instead of doing a regen during a lunch break, you plug the truck in.”

Orange EV trucks are configured for customer requirements, loads, and duty cycles, and the electrical systems are tailored for the use they will see.

“When our T-series truck is configured as an extended-duty truck, we use a 160 kW-hour battery pack,” he said. “We try to match the charging rates to the customers’ duty cycles and usage patterns, and we can configure a charging schedule based on shift schedules, etc., so we can spec’ and quote the truck that works best for them.”

They are available with a four-hour or two-hour fast-charge as well, which shortens the time between charges and gets the unit back into service sooner.

It also can be charged during lunch and coffee breaks to extend operating times.

Cold weather is a factor when designing the battery system, but Saxton says

Operator controls on an electric truck are the same as a diesel, except in place of a fuel gauge you have a state-of-charge indicator.

they build in some extra battery capacity for cold conditions.

“We have several customers in Chicago and New York where cold is a factor, and the trucks are proving to be more reliable than their old diesels,” says Saxton. “They never gel up. They always start.”

Whether it’s the inconvenience of

waiting for your shunt service to arrive and move a few trailers around the yard, or concern of the value of your road drivers’ time, having a shunt truck on the property can make sense. And with the various incentive programs in place or coming soon, going electric could become more affordable. TT

WELCOME TO THE NEW INDUSTRY STANDARD The All-New Endurant™ Automated Transmission Intelligently engineered from the ground up with features that protect your investment and make it easy to maintain. It is the lightest heavyduty transmission and includes breakthrough innovations such as a transmission fluid pressure sensor and clutch life prognostics. Designed specifically for today’s linehaul trucks, Endurant delivers industry-leading downspeeding and maintenance intervals, all while hauling up to 110,000 pounds Gross Vehicle Weight.

Learn more at eatoncumminsjv.com/endurant

©2018 Eaton Cummins Automated Transmission Technologies. All rights reserved.

46

TODAY’S TRUCKING

12

1,850 LB.-FT.

750,000 MILES

SPEEDS

TORQUE CAPACITY

LUBE CHANGE INTERVAL

In Gear

Protecting and Promoting New oils ‘brand new ballgame’, says Petro-Canada

By John G. Smith New oil categories are delivering longer drain intervals and added protection for engine components, but few fleets appear to be embracing the most fuelefficient formulas of all, Petro-Canada Lubricants reports.

FA-4 oils are “not flying off the shelves,” admitted Brian Humphrey, OEM technical liaison, during a briefing for industry media. There’s a general resistance to change among those who oversee expensive equipment, and engine manufacturers have been “pretty cautious” when announcing what models can use the oil, he said.

“Especially if you have a mixed fleet … you’re going to stick with CK-4 because it covers everything.”

Those CK-4 oils are backwards compatible, for use in existing and new engines alike, and they are proving they are up to the job.

Citing real-world tests, Petro-Canada Lubricants says benefits including better engine protection, cold-cranking capabilities, and pumpability have all been realized through a reformulated product line-up.

A waste hauler using Cummins engines in the Toronto area is reporting longer service intervals and lower levels of iron and lead in the used oil, the company says. An open pit mine in Western Canada has seen the overall protection for Caterpillar 3516 engines increase by 33%. And six Peterbilt 579 trucks with Cummins and Paccar engines have reported better cold-flowing properties and improved fuel economy when comparing a new 10W40 to a previously used 10W30 – even though the demanding applications involve 140,000-pound Gross Vehicle Weights.

“Protection of the oil is all about flowing through the engine,” said

product specialist John Pettingill.

Cold-cranking capabilities of the company’s 15W40 oils have reportedly improved 33% at -20 Celsius, while 10W30 oils have seen the measure improve 26% at -25 Celsius. “That’s easier on your starter. It’s easier on your battery,” Pettingill said. Once the engine starts, the new oils are flowing more effectively as well, Petro-Canada Lubricants reports. The 15W40’s pumpability is 23% better at -25 Celsius, while the 10W30’s pumpability has improved 16%. “If your engine starts,” he said, “your oil has to flow.”

Shifting from CJ-4 oils to the split category of a backward-compatible CK-4 and fuel-efficient FA-4 was no small matter.

“This has been or was the largest overhaul in recent memory,” said Barnaby Ngai, Petro-Canada’s category portfolio manager – heavy duty engine and driveline oils, calling it a “whole brand new ballgame.”

At Petro-Canada Lubricants alone it meant 20 products had to be reformulated and requalified, with 70 unique labels and changes to more than 250 pieces of marketing collateral required to describe it all. Ongoing tests continue to subject the formulas to applications with Gross Vehicle Weights up to 140,000 pounds, and the cold conditions that are a reality in northern locales.

“A lot of energy and talk in the industry is all about fuel economy,” Ngai said. But there was no overlooking one key requirement: “It was all about engine protection, it was about protecting that asset.” TT

JANUARY 2018

47

In Gear

The biennial Expo Transporte trade show in Guadalajara, Mexico, showcased a broad array of truck brands from around the world – and for a good reason. Buyers in the country can choose from no fewer than 13 different nameplates.

(Photos by John G. Smith)

Southern Stars Cabovers gaining ground in diverse Mexican marketplace Mexico is now the eight-largest producer of trucks in the world, and the fourth-largest exporter of the vehicles.

But as much as Mexico’s manufacturing activities play a role in the trucks seen in Canada and the U.S., the country is clearly a unique market in its own right.

Buyers there can choose from no fewer than 13 different nameplates.

“They are Asian, they are European, they are of course North American,” observed Flavio Rivera, president and

48

TODAY’S TRUCKING

Chief Executive Officer of Daimler Trucks Mexico, during a media briefing in Puerto Vallarta.

Daimler accounts for 39% of the country’s sales, based on October’s yearto-date figures. But one in every five trucks sold in Mexico is also a cabover, as buyers look for options that will work on congested and narrow roads, particularly when supporting “last mile” deliveries.

Daimler has responded to the growing interest in cabovers by unveiling the

Class 8 Freightliner 2528 and Class 6 1217, during the recent Expo Transporte trade show in Guadalajara. In the Class 6 segment alone, Freightliner already accounts for 36.9% of sales, compared to Isuzu’s 31% and Hino’s 23%, even though the latter two already had cabover trucks available. The new Freightliner 1217 will “compete aggressively” against those brands, he said.

Mexico’s truck market saw 26,028 new Class 4-8 trucks sold as of October. But it is also characterized by aging equipment, with the average truck now 18 years old.

“That is a very bad number,” Rivera said, referring to the need for government incentives to adopt newer technology.

The country’s buyers tend to be sensitive about purchase price, too, so

In Gear

Mexico’s Anthem unveiled by Mack Mexico had its first taste of Mack’s Anthem highway tractor in November, completing the truck’s North American rollout with an unveiling at the Expo Transporte trade show.

Buyers in the country will also have access to more places to find the trucks and service alike. The Trasca dealership group has officially added 18 new locations to Mack’s network. And in the first quarter of 2018, the Original Equipment Manufacturer will begin sending trucks into markets further to the south, including Central America, the Caribbean, Columbia, and Argentina.

“Mack is in Mexico and is here to stay,” said Eduardo Herrera, vice president – Latin America, when revealing the truck he referred to as the best Mack has ever launched in the on-road marketplace. The model replaces the axle-back version of the Pinnacle tractor.

Mexico’s Anthems will include one significant difference when compared to their counterparts in Canada and the U.S., however. Because of different emissions rules in the jurisdiction, the standard power offering will be a Euro 4-rated Mack MP engine.

The fuel-saving GHG17 MP8 engine will be an option, but approved only where Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel and Diesel Exhaust Fluid are available.

The Anthem was first revealed to North American buyers in September, and comes in the form of a day cab, 48-inch flat roof, and 70-inch high-rise sleeper.

“Somos Mack. Este es nuestro Anthem,” the company proclaimed in Guadalajara.

“We are Mack. This is our Anthem.”

Volvo broadens lineup in Mexico

Daimler dealers have an important role to play in teaching people about the true cost of operating trucks he said.

“Our dealer network is stronger, it is larger, and it is well prepared to attend customer necessities. Some other brands, they don’t have a presence in many, many cities,” he added, suggesting Freightliner has effectively covered the country. In the last year alone, it has invested about US $5.4 million in new facilities or expanded capacity.

Mexico is also preparing to introduce Euro 5 emission standards in January 2018, and that will require a stable supply of Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel – a fuel that’s commonplace in Canada, but rare in most areas of Mexico.

“That is going to be a very challenging time,” Rivera said. TT

Volvo’s “shape of trucks to come” has Magnus Koeck come to Mexico, with the official unveiling of the VNL long-haul tractor, VNR regional hauler, and an expanded VAH auto hauler lineup.

It’s a significant expansion of Volvo offerings available in the country, which had previously been limited to the VNL long-haul trucks.

“Mexico is a very important market for us globally,” said Magnus Koeck, vice president – marketing and brand management, comparing the market’s size to that of Canada, with 25,000 to 27,000 in annual sales placing Mexico among the largest truck markets in the world.

Volvo now has a presence in 140 countries overall, with manufacturing capabilities on every continent. The North American models will be built in Dublin, Virginia.

Buyers around Mexico City will also have easier access to the trucks, through Grupo Alden’s addition to the dealership network following a US $6 million investment. Volvo now has 43 dealer locations in the country overall.

One key distinction between these trucks and those available in Canada and the U.S. will be the power under the hood. The trucks will be powered by U.S. EPA04/Euro 4 Volvo engines. The fuel-saving GHG17 designs will only be an option in areas where Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel and Diesel Exhaust Fluid are available.

Volvo launched the VNL in Dublin, Virginia, this July, following a reveal of the VNR at the Expocam trade show in Montreal.

— Reports by John G. Smith JANUARY 2018

49

You have options You receive Today’s Trucking in print (obviously). Well, we like giving you options and now you can read the Magazine wherever you want. Check it out on any device, even subscribe to receive a monthly email, letting you know that your next issue has been delivered. Canada Post can’t do that!

todaystrucking.com/magazine.cfm

PRODUCTWATCH WHAT’S NEW AND NEWS FROM SUPPLIERS

For more new product items, visit PRODUCT WATCH on the web at todaystrucking.com It also features a conspicuity array at the center of the lens.

These LEDs actually face backward, pointing toward metallic parabolic reflectors, as a way to improve photometrics. The geometry also generates a tightly controlled blue-white light beam that is said to better match the color temperature of natural light, making it easier to see the road.

The headlamps accommodate everything from a nine-volt to 33-volt electrical system, with an expected 30,000hour service life. That’s about 15 to 30 times longer than the lives of halogen and HID headlamps, the company says. www.optronicsinc.com

Integrated ELD

MULTI-PURPOSE CLEANERS

Penske Driver app offers ELD and more

PRODUCT FAMILY INCLUDES WIPES, CLEANER, CONCENTRATE

Penske Truck Leasing has unveiled an integrated Penske Driver app that meets the U.S. mandate for Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) and provides other productivity tools for those with Penske rental trucks.

On top of logging it can be used to locate Penske Truck Leasing service, rental, and fuel locations, as well as truck stops, Compressed Natural Gas stations, and public scales. Vehicle information includes views of recent service history, while fuel receipts can be submitted using a related form and picture of a receipt.

It was customized in-house and is available for free to commercial customers, although Penske will still allow drivers and fleets to use their own

Penray’s Tough Max multi-service cleaning products have been formulated to attack more than grease, oil, and grime.

The solvent-free Multi-Purpose Degreasing Wipes are said to clean grease, tar, and ink from tools, but also be gentle enough for leather, vinyl, or even dirty hands. No water is required.

The Tough Max Purple Multi-Purpose

portable ELD systems as well.

This is a companion to the Penske Fleet app for fleet managers.

The app can be downloaded for Android and iOS/Apple operating systems, and connects using Bluetooth signals. www.pensketruckleasing.com

COMBINATION LED HEADLAMP 5X7� LAMP BY OPTRONICS

Optronics International has expanded its Opti-Brite family of LED headlamps by adding a new five-by-seven-inch combination high- and low-beam unit known as the HLL70HLB. The series includes an optimized retroflective LED beam, the company says.

JANUARY 2018

51

Product Watch Cleaner offers extra cleaning power for grease, oil, and other stubborn stains, and can be used on almost any nonporous or semi-porous surface, from machinery to floors and walls.

Rounding out the formulas, Tough Max liquid concentrate comes in 32-ounce trigger spray bottles as well as five-gallon and 10-gallon pails, or a 55-gallon drum. It can be diluted to mixtures that include as much as 95% water. www.penray.com

PARKING PREDICTING APP TECH TO OFFER PATH TO OPEN SPACES

Trucker Path is helping to more easily identify the path to available parking spots.

A new parking prediction feature added to the company’s trip planning app compiles four years of data and more than 1 million monthly communitypowered parking updates. This generates a percentage of parking spots available during a given period of time. Colored

codes are used as well.

Users of the crowdsourced app have made over 25 million truck parking updates, which offer real-time information about spots available at more than 11,000 locations, including over 6,000 truck stops. The Trucker Path app has more than 270,000 truck parking spots in its database. www. truckerpath.com

ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE APP GEOTAB ROADSIDE CONNECTS TO SERVICE

Geotab Roadside combines GPS data and a network of service vehicles, offering insights that range from estimated arrival times to service vehicle locations.

The system leverages the Rapitow app and allows users to ask for help through the MyGeotab or Geotab Drive app.

Available services include battery boost, fuel delivery, up to 40 kilometers of towing, and more, and is free for lightduty vehicles on Geotab’s ProPlus Plan.

Payments by those with medium- or heavy-duty vehicles are collected within the MyGeotab or Geotab Drive App. www.goetab.com

ELD FOR OBDII VEHICLES CUMMINS PLUG-AND-PLAY ELD FOR SMALLER TRUCKS

Cummins’ ZED Connect has developed an Electronic Logging Device for OBDII commercial vehicles.

The plug-and-play device debuts with an OBDII 16-pin adaptor for smaller commercial vehicles and vocational work trucks.

It incorporates the same functions found in Zed Connect’s heavy duty trucking application, and includes a one-time fee for the Bluetooth-enabled hardware that connects with a driver’s smartphone.

There are no contracts or recurring fees.

It’s compatible with most domestic vehicles built since 2008. www.zed-eld.com

YOU CAN’T GET THERE FROM HERE We like cows here

DO YOU KNOW WHERE THIS IS?

Moove over Markham – our second cow in several months was not as easy to find, but some sharp-eyed readers knew you couldn’t cow-moo-flage this giant heifer spotted off Highway 11 in New Liskeard, Ontario. This month’s picture comes to us courtesy of Marcia Redschlag. If you can be one of the first 10 readers to correctly identify where Marcia was when she snapped this, we’ll send you a Today’s Trucking cap. Send your guesses to elizabeth@newcom.ca.

December Answer:

YOU CAN’T GET THERE FROM HERE

Spotted off Highway 11 in New Liskeard, Ontario

c/o Today’s Trucking Magazine 451 Attwell Drive, Toronto, ON M9W 5C4 Phone: 416-614-5812 • Fax: 416-614-8861 Or email: elizabeth@newcom.ca P.S. If you call your answer in, don’t forget to leave your contact details!

52

TODAY’S TRUCKING

National Advertisers Eaton 46 www.eatoncumminsjv.com/endurant Eberspaecher 12 www.eberspaecher-na.com General Components 43 www.generalcomponents.ca HighwayStar of the Year 28-29 www.todaystrucking.com/hsoy Hino 6 www.hinocanada.com Isaac Instruments 21 www.isaac.ca

Meritor 2 www.machtruckparts.com Peterbilt back cover www.peterbilt.com Stoughton Trailers 4 www.stoughtontrailers.com Today’s Trucking 50 www.todaystrucking.com Total Canada 24 www.total-canada.ca Transportation Growth Summit 8 www.transportationgrowthsummit.com

Truck World Show 34-35 www.truckworld.ca Truck & Trailer 18 www.truckandtrailer.ca Watson & Chalin 55 www.watsonsuspensions.com Yeti 47 www.goyeti.ca

Order reprints from Today’s Trucking Call Lilianna Kantor • (416) 614-5815

COMPANIES IN THE NEWS A Accuride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 ACT Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Andy Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Apple. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 B Bandag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Bendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Bison Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Bridgestone Americas . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 BYD Heavy Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 C CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Celadon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Central Trucking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Cervus Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Chanje. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Cummins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 51 D Daimler Trucks Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 Detroit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Detroit International Bridge . . . . . . . .10 DJ Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Duckering’s International Freight . .13 Duckering’s Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 E Eaton-Cummins Automated Transmission Technologies. . . . . . . . .38

F FlowBelow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Freightliner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 G Geotab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 H Hino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 I International Trucks. . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 38 J Joe Loomis Trucking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 K Kriska Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 M Mack Trucks . . . . . . . . . . . . 20, 30, 38, 49 MacKinnon Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Manitoulin Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Masonlift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Meritor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Minimizer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Mitsubishi Fuso Truck . . . . . . . . . . 16, 22 N Nikola Motors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 O Optronics International . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Orange EV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Ottawa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

P Paccar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 42 Penray. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Penske Truck Leasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 PeopleNet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Petro Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Petty’s Garage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 PIT Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 R Rolling Strong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 S SAF-Holland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 T Tesla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 16 Thermo King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Titanium Transportation Services . .26 TM Transportation Services . . . . . . . .14 Transmontes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Trucker Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Truck-Lite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 V Volvo Trucks North America .14, 38, 49 W Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority . .10

JANUARY 2018

53

Faces Mangat doesn’t call himself a hero, but others do.

Highway Hero Ickroop Mangat saves a life, and becomes an instant owner-operator

By Elizabeth Bate Thick smoke quickly poured into the truck after 23-year-old Ickroop Mangat and his trainer were involved in a multi-vehicle collision during a blinding snowstorm outside Montreal. There wasn’t any time to lose.

The rookie driver for Kriska Transportation acted in a heartbeat, kicking in the driver’s side window and crawling out of the cab before pulling his instructor out behind him. Panicked and on fire, the instructor ran from the truck, but Mangat tackled him to the ground, practicing the “stop, drop, and roll” method to extinguish the flames, and saved the man’s life.

The actions earned him this year’s Bridgestone-Ontario Trucking Association Truck Hero Award, but Mangat says he’s no hero.

“I was thinking ‘I don’t want to die in a truck, and [he] doesn’t either,’” he said.

“Never leave a man behind.”

What for one man was a natural reaction, Ontario Trucking Association

54

TODAY’S TRUCKING

president Stephen Laskowski calls extraordinary courage. “His actions shine a light on all the professional drivers who put their own lives on the line to help those in need,” Laskowski said.

Mangat didn’t originally train to be a driver. He took mechanical engineering in university. But that career wasn’t what he expected. “I really like machines,” he said.

“Once you go into the [mechanical engineering] industry, it’s totally different.”

He found himself attracted by the sense of independence and freedom offered through trucking – an industry he’s been around his whole life. And now he says he is proud to drive for the same company that employs his father.

Then again, he’s not technically an employee anymore. Mangat always dreamed of being an owner-operator since the days he spent in the shop with his dad and brother, but couldn’t afford a truck with the financial pressures of a new marriage and school debt.

Mark Seymour, president and Chief

Executive Officer of Kriska, helped make the dream a reality – actually giving Mangat a gently used truck to call his own. With work done by Tallman Truck Group, the 2013 International with a new MaxxForce D14 engine was renewed and made shiny again before the keys were handed over.

The 13-liter, 475-horsepower engine had just 40 miles on it, but that wasn’t the only upgrade the truck received. With a new coat of paint, upgrades to the interior, and an all-new chrome package, the unit only needed a big bow before it was ready for the company’s presentation.

There are no strings attached, but Seymour hopes Mangat will continue to be part of the Kriska team for years to come.

“He could be anything, but he just wants to drive a truck like his dad,” Seymour said. “We need more people like Ickroop.”

“I feel so blessed we could do it,” he added. “It’s the first time doing it, and I feel safe to say I’ll never do it again.

It feels really good to make someone happy.”

Speechless when Seymour handed over the keys, Mangat said he couldn’t be more grateful.

“I’ve got my father here, and a good company behind me,” he said. “What more could I want?” TT

DURABILITY

• Capacity: 44,000 lbs. thru 80,000 lbs.

• Designed for On- and Off-Highway applications • Ideal for end, side and belly dumps and logging applications

• Custom application cation engineering • Available for straddle or trunnion mounting • 5-year limited warranty* * Contact your local Watson & Chalin representative for complete warranty terms, conditions and limitations.

Contact your local W&C representative today for more information.

1-800-445-0736 • www.watsonsuspensions.com

Watson & Chalin is a brand of Hendrickson