Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/93367
What do your I drivers know? They won't use safety systems if you don't teach them 've been driving for 30 years now, and in those three decades, I've seen a lot of technological changes in both automobiles and commercial vehicles. For me, the two greatest innovations during that time have been keyless entry and intermittent windshield wipers. But today's pace of technological evolution in the au- tomotive industry goes far beyond those relatively simple innovations and is accelerating rapidly. Vehicles today are smarter, safer and more productive than ever – provided that drivers are aware of new technology and understand how to get the most out of it. This thought occurred to me not long ago when I flew to Greensboro, N.C., to spend a day test-driving Volvo's VNL 670 tractor. Frank Bio, Volvo's North American product manager, was on hand to guide me through the test drive and make sure I understood every facet of the truck and its operating systems. Frank's the perfect guy for the job. He's got more than 40 years of experience at both Mack and Volvo. Point to any nut on the tractor, and he knows why they opted to make it a 10 mm instead of a 15 mm; his knowledge of Volvo's trucks is that intimate. One thing Frank reinforced for me as we conducted a ve- Who really reads owner's manuals? hicle walkaround and then a test drive was the great lengths Volvo engineers go to in order to make drivers safer and more productive. Volvo isn't alone in this effort, of course; all the truck OEMs take driver comfort and safety seriously. There are multitudes of crash avoidance, communication and produc- tivity systems on the market, 30 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2012 and many of them are standard features designed into the vehicle regardless of the trim level being spec'd. This jumped out at me as Frank ran through the list of driver-specific features in the VNL's cab, from hands-free Bluetooth communications to the I-Drive automatic trans- mission and XE13 optimized powertrain. One cool feature harkens back to the intermittent wipers I mentioned ear- lier. Frank showed me Volvo's system, which instead of preset wiper speeds allows the driver to move the wiper stalk to the "set" position, hold it for the exact wiper interval he or she wants, then return it to the "on" position for use. HIGH-TECH TRUCKS: Modern safety systems help fleets be safer and more productive. TRAINING TRICK: Many driv- ers aren't aware their trucks are equipped with systems that can help them. WORTH THE EFFORT: These systems are proven to help fleets save time and money.