LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Wabash National announced today that it is set to introduce its first line of high-performance dry and refrigerated truck bodies.

The unveiling of its new truck body line will be taking place at the International Foodservice Distributors Association (IFDA) Distribution Solutions Conference in Phoenix. According to the company, the bodies are designed to reduce fleets’ maintenance costs, enhance productivity and maximize the life of equipment.

 “We’re very conscious of a shift happening in the trucking industry fueled by re-urbanization and e-commerce trends. Our mission is to help our customers be successful, and with our truck body line we can support them as they work to meet final-mile delivery needs,” said Brent Yeagy, group president, Commercial Trailer Products at Wabash.

The refrigerated truck bodies are built using state-of-the-art bonding assembly technology combined with a patent-pending composite panel, providing up to 25% improvement in thermal efficiency when compared to conventional designs, the company claims. In addition, the dry truck bodies are constructed with Wabash National’s DuraPlate composite panels, fleet-proven for heavy-duty freight applications for nearly 20 years.

“Responding to specific requests from select customers in recent years, we developed a dry truck body design utilizing our industry-leading DuraPlate trailer technology,” Yeagy explained. “Earlier this year we opened a dedicated facility in Lafayette, Indiana, for the production of truck bodies and other final mile equipment. Although we’re in a limited production phase currently, we will continue to ramp up production for both dry and refrigerated truck bodies over the next 18 months.”

“Our engineering and production teams have worked hard to design and build truck body models that provide greater levels of performance,” he added, “and we think customers will see immediate benefit in their operations.”

The IFDA Distribution Solutions Conference is running October 27–28.