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 June focused on the latest truck trends, all in one place.
5. How you can start truck service benchmarking
Benchmarking brings together all of your service data, highlights best practices where they’re working and notes the areas that your shop needs to improve upon. It’s important to be sure, but where do you start?
Fleet Equipment’s Data Center has some thoughts on that. Watch the video below for tips from Lee Lackey, Noregon product manager.
4. FE gets up-close with Ford’s full-hybrid 2022 Maverick pickup truck
Ford recently invited us out to see them in Detroit to take a look at their brand-new light-duty pickup truck offering: The 2022 Ford Maverick. Watch the video below to see all the details on Ford’s new hybrid pickup truck.
3. The truck market is still feeling pandemic effects, but for how long?
It has been, to put it mildly, an absolutely wild year for the U.S. economy, and by extension, the trucking industry. We had a sharp drop last spring, nearly just as sharp of a rise in the summer and fall, and a strong opening to 2021, but the most recent months’ numbers show a drop-off fueled by issues like the ongoing microchip shortage as well as the rising cost of materials such as steel.
So what can fleets expect from the market the rest of this year, and what’s on the horizon for 2022? I spoke Don Ake, vice president of commercial vehicles for FTR, to find out how they’re seeing the market; you can hear his insight below.
2. Electric trucks and technology are having an impact on service
Electric trucks might grab all the attention, but the question of how the truck service process is evolving reaches beyond battery electric equipment. There will be changes as electric trucks enter the market, to be sure, but change has already taken hold of the truck service process—from increasingly advanced remote diagnostics to complex logistics systems that aim to get (as the aftermarket often likes to repeat) the “right part, to the right place, at the right time.”
We put the question of technology’s impact on truck service to a panel of Navistar aftersales executives in the second part of our two-part conversation with Joe Kory, senior vice president of aftersales; Chintan Sopariwala, group vice president of parts; and Mark Reiter, vice president of service, all with Navistar, parent company of International Trucks.
Watch the video below:
1. Today’s vans are built for last mile delivery and driver comfort
Makers of light- and medium-duty vehicles such as cargo vans are making sure to design their vehicles and their various features with last mile in mind. After all, with such demand out there, the vehicles need to rise to the occasion—and that means the ability to navigate city streets, park and unload easily, and provide comfort and ease of use to drivers who may be new or inexperienced in the world of professional driving.
For more on this topic, read our story here.
