COUNTERFEITING: A REAL ENEMY

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October 25, 2006 Vol. 2, No. 22

Counterfeit or knock-off parts are a bigger problem than a lot of folks seem to realize, and the issue doesn’t get a lot of press, so I’m going to spend a little time on the subject here. It’s not just a North American matter but a global one — including Africa, believe it or not — and truckers aren’t the only victims. The Uganda Manufacturer’s Association, for example, complains of counterfeit bicycle parts posing risks for citizens of that country.

You might grin a little at that one, but consider this. Many years ago I was sitting in the office of John Mosier, who was then manager of the Freightliner plant in Burnaby, B.C., later to become president of the company’s Canadian operation. He took a phone call while I was there and I
watched as his face turned ashen. The call finished, he put the phone down and just stared ahead for a moment before turning back to me and explaining the call in a very weary voice.

Turns out a Freightliner tractor made at his plant, under his watch, had been the cause of an accident in which a woman and her child had been killed in their car. That was bad news on its own, but the reason for the crash was counterfeit wheel fasteners. Identified as the right metal grade but in fact an inferior one, they’d been bought en masse and installed at the factory in good faith. But they were dangerous. Deadly.

Counterfeiting is also mighty expensive, and it drives up the price of the parts and indeed the trucks that you buy. In testimony by the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition before the U.S. Senate a couple of years ago, a tale was told about a U.S. manufacturer’s plight. Its certification mark is relied upon as a sign of safety and reliability, but border enforcement authorities seized 91 shipments of counterfeits bearing that mark in 2003. They included a seizure of US$1.5 million in air compressors that had counterfeit ground-fault circuit interrupters.

So what can you actually do to avoid buying counterfeit parts?

First off, beware of big price cuts. If that brake bit that’s usually $48 is available for $17.99 at a parts counter you don’t normally use, face it, it’s probably too good to be true. Stick with trusted suppliers.

It’s easy to be fooled because some counterfeits are pretty good – and they may come in packaging that looks exactly like the real deal – but look closely at parts when they come in. You may get a clue in the size or the texture of the metal, and if installation is more difficult than usual, there’s another clue. Poorly manufactured parts, which is almost always the case with knock-offs, won’t have the same tolerances and it could actually be pretty obvious.

Contact your supplier or the manufacturer if you think you’ve been duped.

Changing the subject rather a lot, Trailcon Leasing in Mississauga, Ont. has made a big move. It’s a major player in the trailer and intermodal equipment leasing business, and it recently announced that it will equip its 5000-trailer fleet with GPS-based tracking devices from WebTech
Wireless of Vancouver. The in-vehicle GPS/GPRS device transmits all field data via GPS or GPRS networks to a web-based user interface, and every trailer location is provided on a screen map accessible to the dispatcher. As well, the geo-fencing feature raises an automatic alarm when a trailer that’s not scheduled to move leaves its location.

Trailcon notes, incidentally, that only 10% of the continent’s 5 million trailers have been outfitted with tracking devices. Which leads me to suggest that you look at the SteelSafe Truck Immobilizer detailed below.

One final note… I came across an interesting tidbit of information in a recent press release from Cummins. The engine maker hosted U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen L. Johnson at its Indiana headquarters to formally mark the switch to ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel, which took effect on Oct. 15.

During the proceedings Cummins engine business president Jim Kelly made a telling observation in describing the benefits of lower sulfur levels in diesel fuel – he said it would take about 60 2007-compliant trucks to emit the same amount of soot produced by a single truck made in 1988.

Man, that’s progress. But I really don’t want to compute its cost.

This newsletter is published every two weeks. It’s a heads-up notice about what’s going on with trucking technology as well as 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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