Another One Bites the Dust

By Mark O'Connell - Wednesday June 10, 2009

This is getting depressing. The "New GM" is not going to include the Chevy Kodiak or GMC Topkick Class-5 through -7 medium-duty trucks. The General announced this week that it would halt production of its venerable work trucks on July 31, after efforts to sell off the line to both Navistar and Isuzu over the past few years failed to come to fruition. To make matters worse, I received an e-mail today from GM, announcing the company's 2010 model line-up, and... it's a pretty short list. No Saturn, of course, as well as no Saab and no Hummer, and only the 2010 Vibe listed under Pontiac (although they say the G6 will still be available to fleets). I clicked on "GM Fleet and Commercial" and sure enough, all that's listed under "Commercial...

Gas Prices Going Up--Is Anyone Surprised?

By Mark O'Connell - Wednesday June 3, 2009

You knew it was coming, didn't you? Summer is here, and gas prices are going up, close to $3 a gallon in many areas. I pretty much knew it was going to happen, which is one reason I bought a flex-fuel Ford this spring, and have been running it on E-85 ethanol. Not only is E-85 selling at the pump in my town for $1.99 a gallon, it got me an unexpected perq over the weekend. My fiancee and I went shopping at a new grocery store in her neighborhood in Chicago, and were thrilled to pull into the parking ramp and see an open spot--right in front of the elevator--reserved for alternative fuel vehicles. I pulled in and parked, only to be stopped by the security guard the second we got out of the car. "You can't park there," he said. "It's for...

Championship Season

By Mark O'Connell - Wednesday May 27, 2009

I'm dealing with a strange dilemma here this week. We're preparing our July issue, which for the past three years has been dedicated to the Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) SuperTech technician competition. Lee Long, George Arrants and the many volunteers who make SuperTech happen every year are true heroes; I can't say enough good things about these folks who contribute so much time and effort to providing this opportunity for fleet technicians to learn and grow. On the other hand, the powers that be at TMC have decided, for reasons unknown, not to support our July SuperTech issue this year. It just seems strange to me that they don't want to reach out to our 65,000 readers to tell them about this great event. My worry is that...

The Hour Approaches

By Amanda Schuier - Wednesday May 27, 2009

The registration process for Nebraska SuperTech is now complete. For the past eight months, we’ve merely been thinking about getting to this point. Now that we’re finally here, I’m pleased to announce we have 28 technicians signed up to be involved with the first-ever Nebraska SuperTech competition. We had some last minute additions from several fleets in the area, which makes it feel more and more like a well-balanced, state-wide competition. We have technicians from the fleet level, and the dealership level. And the techs represent many different cities and towns in the state. The next step in the process will be for the technicians to take a written exam, proctored at five of the state’s community colleges, Central...

High Stakes for High Mileage

By Mark O'Connell - Wednesday May 20, 2009

I was happy to see the news from President Obama this week about raining fuel economy standards and lowering greenhouse gas emissions levels on cars and light trucks sold in America. You may not agree with the particulars of the new standards, but at this point I think most Americans would agree that drastic measures need to be taken to revitalize our auto industry and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The real question is whether the American public will ever value fuel economy as much as we do power and speed. Last week I was reading new car preview feature in a consumer automobile magazine, and every time a hybrid, flex-fuel or electric car was reviewed, the journalist slipped in a sly comment to the effect that "of course now...

Getting Noticed

By Amanda Schuier - Wednesday May 20, 2009

A few weeks ago, I stood before a room of 75 people and asked, “How many of you have heard about SuperTech?” Imagine my dismay when only one person raised her hand. Imagine my further dismay when I realized the person who raised her hand worked for the Nebraska Trucking Association. What can a committee do when the hard work it did publicity-wise hasn’t been working? Keep on keeping on. Even though no one had heard of SuperTech, I still stood up there and gave an impassioned speech about the competition. I convinced several people to sign up. I recently drove four hours to North Platte, Neb., to get some interest from the western part of the state. I walked into a shop, along with their service manager, and we had a “question...

Making Your Job Easier

By Mark O'Connell - Wednesday May 6, 2009

Today we're introducing a new feature on our website: a new, vastly improved Fleet Maintenance Product Guide to help you make more informed purchases for your fleet. Now you can find information on hundreds of companies that cater to the needs of fleet maintenance managers, as well as thousands of products and services that will make your life a lot easier. We've organized the new Product Guide in a way that we think will make it a breeze to use; you can search for products by specific category, brand name or manufacturer, browse products from all categories alphabetically, or take a peek at the latest products added to the database (we're adding new ones all the time). We hope that you'll be a regular visitor to the new Product Guide. To...

Sorry for Not Blogging!

By Amanda Schuier - Wednesday May 6, 2009

I apologize for not blogging sooner. I’ve been busy with Omaha Truck Center, Inc.’s inaugural UltimateTech competition. I am pleased to report the event took place on April 21 at our Technical Advancement Center. We are the first Freightliner group in the country to successfully hold a competition modeled after the national SuperTech competition. We started out with a field of 111 of our professional diesel technicians. After some initial tests, we invited the top two from each of our locations, for a total of 16, to Omaha to compete in a hands-on skills contest. Our first place winner was Ray Wordekemper from Omaha. Second place went to David Holliman from Salina. Third place went to John Ecis from Omaha. Jeff Schlecht from...

Interested in Biodiesel?

By Mark O'Connell - Wednesday April 29, 2009

A few months ago I blogged about a conversation I had had with a fleet manager about his experiences with biodiesel in a cold climate. He had never had a bad experience with biodiesel, even though he operated his vehicles in the harsh winters of the Grand Teton Mountain range, at an elevation of over 6,000 feet. His advice: You have to be smart about, and vary your biodiesel blend season by season. Interestingly, readers continue to comment on that blog entry over two months after I wrote it, and I wonder why people keep asking questions about biodiesel. Could it be that there's more interest out there than anyone suspects? Is it possible that there are many, many fleets out there that are ready and willing to switch to a biodiesel...

Technician Competitions

By Mark O'Connell - Thursday April 23, 2009

It's getting to be that time of year again--the time when many state fleet maintenance councils and individual companies host their technician competitions. If you follow Fleet Maintenance at all, then you know that we do a lot of reporting on state and company technician skills competitions, not to mention the national TMC SuperTech competition. A few years ago, this kind of event rarely made headlines; today it's all the rage, and we'd like to think we've played a small role in raising awareness of these efforts to recognize and reward the best and brightest in our industry. But we know we aren't covering every event. Some of you may have company contests that no one outside your company has ever heard of. If so, we'd like to hear...