We know it’s not easy to keep up with everything that happens in the world of trucking. So here are the biggest stories from February focused on the latest truck trends, all in one place.
5. Trucking data as currency: What is your data worth?
Consider this: You’re running a multitude of trucks that are generating massive amounts of data across multiple OEM nameplates, perhaps on a common third-party data platform. You have plenty of other data within your dispatching, driver training and office management software that probably isn’t integrated into a telematics platform. So what’s its value? Who would want it, and who already has it?
Editor Jason Morgan dives into the issues.
4. Combatting cold weather electrical issues
Proper preventive maintenance can go a long way toward eliminating battery and other electrical issues. Fleets should be equipped with tools that can diagnose battery and charging system issues, and address fundamental electrical system problems.
3. Brake pad development heading into the copper-reduced era
Next year, brake pads will need to reduce copper to less than 5% by weight, and then less than 0.5% by 2025. There’s no magic button that will make this happen; it takes planning and preparation. As the first deadline looms next year, brake manufacturers need to find a material that dissipates heat as well as or better than copper.
Find out how manufacturers are trying to stay ahead of the curve.
2. Electrifying the right trucking applications
When you think about how much braking (electric regen opportunity) and idling (reduced emissions opportunity) refuse trucks do, it’s easy to see where electrification would improve things. The New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) is about to get the chance to test this firsthand.
Click here to read how DSNY is putting Mack’s LR Electric to work.
1. Executive Interview: Cooper Tire is sticking to the plan for its truck tires
Before 2018, there was no Cooper-branded truck tire, and even with all that the company already knew about tires, starting a heavy-duty truck tire brand at the scale required to gain traction with fleets took a tremendous amount of work, imagination and vision. It could have been easy to be gripped by that paralysis that so often comes when there are too many choices. The easiest way to avoid that is to have a plan. Cooper had one, and it’s starting to pay off.
Read about Cooper’s plan for the commercial truck tire market here.
