Blog Archives




 

  • It's Not About Trucking
    By Mark O'Connell - Thursday April 3, 2008
    It really happened. Countless truck drivers across the county shut down their rigs on Tuesday, April 1st, to protest against high diesel fuel prices. Many more slowed to 20 miles per hour on Interstate highways. This event, unorganized as it was, has managed to make headlines around the country and get at least a few people talking about the difficulties faced by truck owners and drivers who lose money every time they start up their rigs.   I've been Googling to find some comments on the shut-down from politicians, and so far I can't find a thing. Not one word from the Presidential candidates, not one word from the Congress, not a thing anywhere. Oh, a few days ago Congress did call the oil company CEOs to explain why they are making...

  • Louisville, Here We Come...?
    By Mark O'Connell - Thursday March 20, 2008
    A week from, now, the staff of Fleet Maintenance Magazine will be in Louisville, KY, for the Greatest Show on Earth, otherwise known as the Mid-America Truck Show, or MATS. It's a great chance to meet with professionals in the industry, and find out what the OEMs are up to as far as new product development. There are more new trucks and products introduced to the press and the publis in three days at MATS than there are at pretty much any other event of the year. This really is The Big Show. All the big names will be there: Bendix, Kenworth, Caterpillar, ArvinMeritor, Freightliner, Mack, Roadranger and many more, all of them introducing new or enhanced products. But while the big OEMs and component suppliers are working overtime to...

  • Our Very Own 'Top Ten' List
    By Mark O'Connell - Tuesday March 11, 2008
    More news from the front: today I’m writing from Charlotte, NC, where I’ve just attended a Transportation Technology Summit hosted by Panasonic, makers of Toughbook computers. Panasonic brought together a diverse group of experts to talk about advances in wireless service information, a type of technology that can, of course, be easily exploited with Toughbook computers.   The keynote speaker of the Summit was Mary-Beth Kellenberger, senior automotive & transportation consultant for Frost & Sullivan, who talked about the current state of the heavy-duty maintenance industry. Among many nuggets of wisdom she shared with the audience, once stood out: Kellenberger’s research has found that ten technologies will be affecting the heavy...

  • Tech Talk
    By Mark O'Connell - Monday March 3, 2008
    Once a week or so I like to browse through the latest comments on our online forums (http://forums.fleetmag.com/) and see what people are talking about. There's a saying in the trade publication industry that editors need to always be writing about the topics that "keep our readers up at night," and reading the forums is a good way to keep up on what you, our readers, and losing sleep over.   I've noticed recently that the forum posts are taking on a more technical edge: more and more readers, it seems, are using the forums to post specific technical questions about vehicles and components.   Take, for example, this recent post about a wiring problem one reader has been experiencing with a certain make of truck: "This yellow insulation is...

  • Is There a Heavy-Duty Hybrid in Your Future?
    By Mark O'Connell - Monday February 25, 2008
    More travels... This week I'm in Atlanta, at the National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA) Work Truck Show. I just got out of a session called "Hybrid and Alternative Fuels Commercial Vehicle Initiatives," and I was surprised to learn how far medium-duty and heavy-duty hybrid trucks have come along. International is already producing Class-6 and Class-7 hybrid utility trucks, and several other manufacturers are following right behind. But just wait until 2009: that's when Mack, Volvo and Peterbilt plan to introduce hybrid Class-8 tractors, and that will be a very interesting development. Just think about it: a Class-8 tractor that derives its torque from a combination of a diesel engine and an electric motor, so that your fuel economy...

  • What Does 'Clean' Mean?
    By Mark O'Connell - Tuesday February 19, 2008
    It's been two weeks now since the Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) Annual Meeting & Expo in Orlando, and I'm still processing the information I gathered from technical sessions, fleet forums and private conversations.   There was one topic in particular that came up several times during the week, but, while a lot of people wanted to talk about it, just as many people did not want to talk about it, and probably will not want to talk about it for a long time.   The topic? Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF). When will they need to be removed from trucks for cleaning, and who will be responsible for cleaning them? Can they really go 250,000 miles before cleaning, as the engine OEMs claim? If you overshoot the mark, what can go wrong...

  • The ULSD Blues
    By Mark O'Connell - Tuesday February 12, 2008
    It's been a week since I was at the Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) Meeting & Expo in Orlando, and my ears are still ringing from the Fleet Talk session. For those of you who've never been to a TMC meeting, Fleet Talk is a special session at which fleet maintenance managers get to gripe freely about the problems they're having with products, regulations, TMC, DOT, OSHA, you name it.   As an editor, I love these meetings, because it gives me a chance to hear the unedited, unguarded opinions of a roomful of very outspoken fleet professionals. I hear things at this meeting that I never hear anywhere else, and I love it.   Last week's meeting started right out with a lot of complaints about ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel (ULSD): fuel...

  • A Warning From the Future
    By Mark O'Connell - Tuesday February 5, 2008
    No, it isn't a science fiction story... I'm writing from Orlando, FL, site of the Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) Annual Meeting and Expo, and the warning from the future came in the form of a technical session entitled "EPA's 2010 Heavy-Duty Diesel On-Board Diagnostic (OBD) Requirements Present Challenges to Manufacturers and Fleets." As you know, a new round of heavy-duty diesel emissions standards will hit again in 2010, and the new emissions systems will be accompanied by an on-board diagnostic system, to make sure that those engines are running clean day in and day out. Because OBD and OBD-II have been around in the light-duty market for so long, the heavy-duty market can learn from the LD experience... The problem is, a lot of...

  • Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth
    By Mark O'Connell - Monday January 28, 2008
    Last week at the Heavy-Duty Aftermarket Week event in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of dining with Michael Kinney, director of fleet sales for maintenance software provider Noregon Systems. Mike had just written a guest editorial for our December issue in which he talked about the rewards of sponsoring the technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) SuperTech2007 national technician competition, but over dinner he mentioned an odd fact that got me thinking...   As part of their sponsorhip, Noregon gave software packages to the winners of the 12 individual SuperTech skill stations--these were expensive, valuable prize packages, consisting of Noregon's JPRO (R) Datalink Adaptor, JPRO (R) 6- and 9-pin Y-Cables, JPRO (R) Fleet Portal Software...

  • Up in the Air
    By Mark O'Connell - Monday January 21, 2008
    I was just watching MSNBC's coverage of the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and heard some disturbing words from an auto industry analyst. The segment was looking at the health of the Big 3, and while the analysts were very optimistic about General Motors, and hopeful about Ford (most notably the new F-150), they were downright dreary about Chrysler.   Dodge is showing off the new Ram at the Detroit show, and while the truck looks every bit as good as the F-150, one of the industry analysts said that it offered "worst-in-class" interior fit-and-finish and materials quality (and it must be remembered that this truck was developed under Daimler's guidance). These same analysts went on to predicted that Chrysler...

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