It seems every year the transportation industry faces new perils during the winter months and this year is no different. Currently the weather forecasters are predicting a frigid winter with less than normal snow fall. Among the challenges above and beyond the weather, fuel prices are inching higher again and most states and many municipalities have mandated idling restrictions. Here are a few simple tips to help maintain your equipment and fuel tanks.... Read More

My favorite productivity analogy is this - Managing Driver Productivity is like Maintaining a Truck - and the following discussion explains why this analogy is so appropriate.

Truck manufacturers publish, and fleet operating companies establish, preventative maintenance (PM) programs that assure optimal equipment performance. Each component of a truck (engine, drivetrain, fuel system, etc...) has specific maintenance activities and schedules required to keep it running at peak efficiency. ... Read More

I want to talk again about the towing season that is squarely upon us. These winter events will be a prominent and costly occurrence over the next several months for all fleets. To be quite clear, there are other items that I can elaborate on, but this one has risen to the top of my list again in recent weeks and deserves the additional attention. ... Read More

SCR or EGR is the question that is facing organizations in both the transportation and service sectors. Historians say that history repeats itself and it did just that last month when equipment orders doubled the previous month mirroring the purchases October and November of 2007 just prior to the last significant change in emission regulations. Sources in the industry believe this spike is caused not by freight or service demands but in effort to capture the last remaining build slots prior to the new wave of technology and the imminent price increases. The current situation is also reflective of 2007 on the technology side when manufactures were scrambling to develop, test and tout their respective technologies. At the time, in theory, Caterpillar had the most notable system, which would actually overcome some of the additional fuel used during the regeneration* process. However they were unable to make that system function consistently in practice, which precipitated their exit from the highway use, heavy-duty engine market. Currently, the remaining players in the industry are at odds, in the courts, with the EPA, and the media. One is gambling on what they call the in-cylinder solution (EGR) whereas the other players are going with the SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) solution, which incorporates the use of a DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) to meet the 2010 regulations. Another correlation to the situation is that one group is predicting an increase in fuel economy while the other is gambling on unconfirmed technology. The following is a brief overview of the two (2) opposing approaches to the technological challenge of reducing oxides of nitrogen (NOx) to meet the 2010 requirement. ... Read More

I don't think that it is premature to talk about "Winter Preparation Techniques for Fleets"; in fact as I write this, Denver, Co. is having its first snowstorm.

There are many check-points that more "maintenance-sophisticated" fleets have built into their winter preparedness programs; but on the other hand, there are an abundance of smaller and independent fleets that have to revisit theirs from a new perspective each and every year.... Read More

Let's quickly breakdown the 3 Social Media Platforms you should be actively engaged in right now, and then I will teach you how to integrate them and spend as little time possible creating large hoards of friends, so you can tend to the party and reap the benefits of being "the host with the most".... Read More