BIG MOVE AT CUMMINS

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May 10 Vol. 2, No. 10

It’s a mixed bag with this edition of the newsletter and its featured products, though one recent development stands out. In what looks like a good move to this observer, Cummins Inc. has launched a global branding strategy that unites all its businesses under the tried and true Cummins name. The company’s traditional logo also gets a bolder look and feel to provide a stronger, more recognizable brand identity.

That means, for instance, that Fleetguard will now be known as Cummins Filtration. And the company’s Holset subsidiary, which makes turbochargers, will be called Cummins Turbo Technologies. The irony in the latter is that both Detroit Diesel and Volvo are using Holset – now ‘Cummins’ — turbos in their 2007 engine offerings.

Effective immediately, other new business descriptors will be standardized this way: Cummins Emission Solutions; Cummins Fuel Systems; Cummins Generator Technologies (formerly Newage); and Cummins Power Generation.

“By creating clarity and consistency with the Cummins brand worldwide, our external audiences will better recognize who we are and what sets Cummins – and our customer experience – apart from every other brand,” said Tim Solso, Cummins
chairman and chief executive officer.

“The timing is right for this branding initiative,” he continued. “Over the last five years, the company has been reshaped into a company we are calling ‘The New Cummins’ –
a company that is less cyclical, more diversified, more results-oriented and continuously committed to turning a greater share of its sales into profits.”

All of this was announced at the company’s annual meeting in Columbus, In. yesterday, where some pretty decent results were announced — net income of $550 million on
sales of $9.9 billion in 2005.

On another part of the trucking planet, there’s a very interesting new safety product coming out of the academic community, namely Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa. That’s where Dr. Richard Grace teaches, and he’s also CEO and founder of Attention Technologies, Inc. Under that banner, he’s developed the Driver Fatigue Monitor.

It’s a dash-mounted portable device that can detect dangerous levels of fatigue up to an hour before drivers notice its onset. It monitors the driver’s eyes with infrared technology, detecting when he looks away from the road or closes his eyes. An audible alarm sounds when the unit decides that he’s getting drowsy.

“Research indicates that drowsy drivers have no idea that they close their eyes,” Grace says.

Drowsiness means impaired reaction time, judgment and vision; problems with information processing and short-term memory; decreased performance, vigilance and motivations; and increased moodiness and aggressive behavior.

You’ll be interested to know that Vancouver’s Coastal Pacific Xpress tested 10 of the devices on cross-continent runs. Drivers said they liked the product, Grace reports.

Apart from the safety issue, there’s an obvious financial burden attached to an accident, so beating driver fatigue can have a serious bottom-line impact. Especially when you consider that you’d need to generate an additional $1.25 million in revenue to pay the cost of a $25,000 accident, assuming an operating ratio of 98%. That’s a sobering equation.

This newsletter is published every two weeks. It’s a heads-up notice about what you can see at www.todaystrucking.com where you’ll find in-detail coverage of nearly everything that’s new. Plus interesting products that may not have had the ‘air play’ they deserved within the last few months. Subscribe today!

If you have comments of whatever sort, please contact me at rlockwood@newcom.ca.

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Rolf Lockwood is editor emeritus of Today's Trucking and a regular contributor to Trucknews.com.


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