News
Daimler rolls out electric trucks for North America
PORTLAND, Ore. – Daimler Trucks North America has unveiled electric Class 8 and medium-duty trucks today, with plans to have a 30-truck “innovation fleet” working in selected applications before the end of the year. “It is our target at Daimler to have the broadest – the absolute broadest – e-truck fleet in North America by 2021,” said president and CEO Roger Nielsen, as an electrified version of the Class 8 Cascadia rolled by.
Daimler to open automated truck research center
PORTLAND, Ore. – Daimler Trucks will create an Automated Truck Research and Development Center at its North American headquarters in Portland, Ore. – focusing on automated driving technology and its effect on society and customers alike. The new center builds on the company’s established research and development presence, and will be at Swan Island, where a full-scale truck wind tunnel can already be found.
Shell truck touches down
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The starship has landed and the results are in. The Starship Initiative truck sponsored by Shell lubricants and AirFlow Truck Company finished its cross-country test drive of more than 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) on May 24, concluding the first journey a Class 8 truck of this kind has driven coast-to-coast across the U.S.
Danger Zones
It can happen without warning – a previously unseen hazard makes itself known with tragic results. For one Woodstock, Ont. Driver, that happened when a routine unloading turned deadly April 30. The 47-year-old was moving granite countertops out of his truck at a Kitchener supply store when disaster struck and he was crushed. Details of how the incident came to pass are being closely guarded by authorities until an Ontario Ministry of Labour investigation can be completed, but the incident is hardly an isolated one. For all the advertising governments do to promote safe practices in the workplace, statistics on workplace safety can be difficult to interpret. No national statistics exist, and those kept and curated by provincial organizations vary.
