John G Smith
John G. Smith is Newcom Media's vice-president - content and design, and previously served as the editorial director of Today's Trucking, trucknews.com, and Transport Routier. The award-winning journalist began covering the trucking industry in 1995.
Printed to Go: 3D printing will transform your access to truck parts
Distribution centers and jobbers couldn't possibly afford to stock every single part that a truck owner might need at a given point in time. The massive inventory would tie up far too much space and capital. The best they can do is play a numbers game, focusing on parts used in the widest volume of vehicles, and trying to limit investments in the components that are likely to gather dust on a storage rack.
Class D renewal requirements to tighten
TORONTO, ON -- Ontario is preparing to tighten the requirements to renew Class D licences, bringing medicals and knowledge and vision tests in line with other commercial classes, the Ontario Trucking Association reports. The changes would be effective July 1, 2018.
Navistar ending medium-duty engine production
LISLE, IL - Navistar will stop producing medium-duty engines at its plant in Melrose Park, Illinois, beginning in the second quarter of its 2018 fiscal year. Most of the proprietary engines made in Melrose Park are nine- and 10-liter models for Class 6 and 7 trucks. Navistar reintroduced the option of a 6.7-liter Cummins engine in 2013, followed last year with the option of a nine-liter Cummins. Cummins engines for Class 6 and 7 trucks are produced in Indiana and North Carolina, while Navistar makes big-bore engines for Class 8 trucks in Alabama.
Daimler “prints” first metal truck part
STUTTGART, GERMANY - Engineers working for Daimler's European truck brand, Mercedes-Benz Trucks, have successfully used a 3D printer to create a metal thermostat cover - proving a process that could reshape the way spare metal parts are produced and distributed. With the potential of decentralizing production, 3D printing could improve parts availability, shorten delivery times, and reduce warehousing and distribution costs, the company notes. Daimler's brands in North America include Freightliner and Western Star. "With the introduction of 3D metal printing technology, Mercedes-Benz Trucks is reasserting its pioneering role among global commercial vehicle manufacturers," said Andreas Deuschle, head of marketing and operations - customer services and parts with Mercedes-Benz Trucks. "We ensure the same functionality, reliability, durability and cost-effectiveness with 3D metal parts as we do with conventionally produced parts."
Tech is your co-pilot. What’s changed?
SCHAUMBURG, IL - Advanced driver assistance systems like the ones that sound an alarm if you're tailgating -- or even apply vehicle brakes automatically -- are proving themselves to be more than a novelty. Schneider has already equipped 12,000 of its trucks with autonomous emergency braking systems that will act if a crash seems imminent. Related collisions have now dropped by 69% and their severity has plunged 95%, says Thomas DiSalvi, the fleet's vice president - safety and loss prevention. "This is ready for prime time." The underlying technologies have clearly come a long way, according to participants in a roundtable hosted this week by the U.S. National Safety Council.
