Western Star 5700XE on-highway, XD off-road trucks test drive

Jason Morgan is the content director of Fleet Equipment. He has covered the trucking industry for more than 10 years, has a CDL and geeks out far too much over the latest truck equipment and technology.

Published: Jun 1, 2017

From sun-baked asphalt to dirt-caked job sites, Western Star trucks seek out tough jobs and tackle them with gusto. On-highway that means producing a premium reward truck to retain drivers with the 5700XE. In vocational segments, it’s all about crafting a durable, dependable tool to take on the task with the XD off-road lineup.

After climbing out of the driver’s seat, I grabbed a chair next to Kelley Platt and Peter Arrigoni to talk about Western Star’s goal of working up to an 8% market share in North America by 2025.

How many LED lights can be out to consider a trailer light out-of-service?

Even one is too many for safety minded fleets who like to keep their trailers rolling productively.

By Jason Morgan

Published: Apr 24, 2024

peterson-trailer-lighting-telematics-TMC-1000

The headline is a question that's on a TMC taskforce docket, and one that Al Anderson, vice president of sales and marketing at Peterson Mfg. Co., has a keen interest in.

"We haven't finished the recommended practice yet, but we're trending towards some percentage of LEDs being out before it's not legal anymore, which therefore [means] it's not safe anymore," he said, standing inside the Peterson Mfg. Co. show trailer at this year's TMC show held in New Orleans. "Keeping trailer lights lit is vital to uptime because you're not going to get a violation, you're not going to get an infraction, you're not going to be put out of service by CVSA. It is just very critical to keep everything illuminated like it should."

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