News
Kenworth enhancing day cabs, ending T660
KIRKLAND, WA - Kenworth has unveiled several new and coming product enhancements, particularly to its lineup of day cabs, but has also announced that it will officially end production of the venerable T660. The company has sold 60,000 of that aerodynamic tractor since it was first introduced in 2007, essentially replacing the T600. A final 500 of the T660 cabs will be built this year until the last model rolls off the assembly line. Ongoing investments at Kenworth have included a new climactic wind tunnel.About 80% of the trucks that the company builds today are the T680 or its vocational sibling, the T880. The T680 itself accounts for about 60% of sales, with the T880 at just under 30%.
IN PRINT — ELDs Part 3: Inside the Black Boxes
If you're prone to anxiety when facing a wide variety of choice, such as when you're buying a pair of shoes or a candy bar, consider asking someone else in the fleet to spec' an Electronic Logging Device (ELD). There are more than 25 suppliers in the space now; by this time next year that number is expected to swell fourfold.
Made to Measure: Advances in telematics
TORONTO, ON -- There was a time that trucks essentially disappeared into a black hole between fleet gates and customer loading docks. Nobody really knew where equipment was at any given point in time. The only person who knew a fault light was shining on the dash was the driver. Telemetry and telematics changed this dramatically, capturing and streaming data for drivers, vehicles, and operations teams alike.
IN PRINT: Tick, Tock. Are you ready for ELDs?
TORONTO, ON -- The problem with implementing Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) is confronting the sins of your past. Electronic logs don't allow the flexibility of paper logs. That may mean some routes will have to be changed; some customers may receive freight a day later than they have become used to; and some salespeople, trip planners, and dispatchers will have to rethink what they promise. And some drivers may see three-day trips turn into four-day trips, or find themselves stranded by the clock just an hour from home.
IN PRINT — ELDs Part 2: The Learning Curve
TORONTO, ON -- When I replaced my typewriter with a laptop some years ago, everyone told me it would be an easy transition. It's the same thing, they told me. The keyboard, at least, was more or less the same. I soon discovered I'd have a few other things to deal with, like software and operating systems and crashes and batteries and floppy disks and updates and the dreaded Blue Screen of Death - moments before a deadline. The move to electronic logs from paper won't be any different.
