Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/107618
product reviews, OEM & supplier news and equipment management trends by Jack Roberts Want more equipment news? Sign up for the CCJ Equipment Weekly e-mail newsletter at www.goo.gl/Ph9JK. Diesel works best and always will. And besides, all that Star Trek stuff is years away from ever being practical." And guess what? You're not wrong, if you tell yourself those things. At the moment, anyway. I'll spare you the usual rigamarole about how the world is going to change and how you need to be ahead of the curve when it does. Your reality today is you've got a bunch of trucks that are down because their fuel filters suddenly are clogging up, you can't find technicians or drivers for the ones that are running, and your CEO wants you to figure out how to shave another 500 pounds off the GVW. Again. But sooner or later, you'll have to deal with issues like moving to medium-duty trucks for some routes, perhaps transitioning to gasoline or natural gas engines and – for some specific applications – all-electric vehicles. At the same time, it's likely the role of diesel will change in our industry: It's reasonable to assume that it may become so valuable a commodity that the case for using it to move loads that are as large as possible will be indisputable. Who knows: You may be spec'ing diesel engines in a decade's time – only you'll be using them to pull tandem-trailers or even Australian-style roadtrains down the highway. The single 53-foot trailer may fall into the realm of the natural gas engine working in a regional-haul application. It's too soon to tell how all of this will shake out, of course. But the fact that the industry will change is a given and the reason CCJ pays so much attention to those alternate fuel vehicles and advanced technologies. Odds are you'll be using them a lot sooner than you realize. JACK ROBERTS is Executive Editor of Commercial Carrier Journal. E-mail jroberts@ccjmagazine.com or call (205) 248-1358. Volvo to add QR codes to new trucks A t a dealer event last month in Nashville, Tenn., Volvo Trucks announced an initiative The goal of Volvo to place Quick Response codes Trucks' QR Code on all new vehicles beginning in initiative is to limit April. The codes are uniquely tied the amount of time technicians spend to a vehicle's VIN number and inputting basic will provide technicians access to vehicle information detailed service records through and to shorten cusVolvo's MVASIST system. tomers' downtime. Technicians can scan the code with a QR reader, which can be downloaded to various mobile devices and tablets. QR code stickers will be located in the driver's side doorframe of new vehicles. Codes also can be created for older model vehicles in the MVASIST platform. Technicians can update the vehicle's information and make the repair or assign it to other technicians. That information then is synched into MVASIST and tied back to the specific customer, updating their service history. NHTSA: Hybrid, electric vehicles should be louder C iting the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2010, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed efforts to make hybrid and electric vehicles louder in order to meet PSEA's mandated minimum sound requirements. At lower speeds, electric and hybrid vehicles do not rely on gasoline or diesel power, making them quieter and more difficult for pedestrians to hear, NHTSA says. While vehicle manufacturers would have a wide range of sound choices, the actual sounds also would be subject to federal requirements. The agency says the measure, if implemented, would prevent 2,800 pedestrian and pedalcyclist injuries "over the life of each model year At lower speeds, electric and hybrid of hybrid cars, vehicles do not rely on gasoline or trucks and vans diesel power, making them quieter and low-speed and more difficult for pedestrians to hear, NHTSA says. vehicles." commercial carrier journal | february 2013 0213_Equipdept_Jack.indd 23 23 1/23/13 8:33 AM