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Jim Park
Jim Park was a CDL driver and owner-operator from 1978 until 1998, when he began his second career as a trucking journalist. During that career transition, he hosted an overnight radio show on a Hamilton, Ontario radio station and later went on to anchor the trucking news in SiriusXM's Road Dog Trucking channel. Jim is a regular contributor to Today's Trucking and Trucknews.com, and produces Focus On and On the Spot test drive videos.
2018 New Cascadia: Tour the Cab
This five-video series looks closely at Freightliner's New Cascadia. It's not a rework or a remake of the popular Cascadia, but clean-page design. Fuel efficiency is said to be 8 percent better than the current Evolution model and a whopping 13 percent better than the base-model Cascadia. But engineers didn't stop there.
2018 New Cascadia: Exterior Walk Around
This five-video series looks closely at Freightliner's New Cascadia. It's not a rework or a remake of the popular Cascadia, but clean-page design. Fuel efficiency is said to be 8 percent better than the current Evolution model and a whopping 13 percent better than the base-model Cascadia. But engineers didn't stop there.
Yard Dogs: Equipment to keep trailers on the move
TORONTO, ON -- Yard dogs, hostlers, terminal tractors, shunt trucks ... they are known by a variety of names, but serve a single purpose. Moving trailers around. They are common at distribution centers, marine terminals, and rail heads, and they are often used by larger carriers with cross-docking facilities.
REVIEW: X12 fights above its weight class
JAMESTOWN, NY - Cummins' new X12 engine is slated to hit the street sometime early this year, probably shortly after its formal launch in February or March. The engine was introduced in August 2016 and I had a short drive with it then around the 11-kilometer track at the Transportation Research Center in East Liberty, Ohio. It wasn't much of an opportunity to get to know the engine, but it whet my appetite. Cummins invited me to drive the new X12 this past November on a longer real-world route, starting from the plant in Jamestown, New York, where the X12 is to be built. The X12's 11.8-liter displacement puts it smack dab in the middle of the medium-bore market, but its published ratings put it squarely in 13-liter territory for torque and horsepower. Tipping the scales at just 2,050 pounds, it has the highest power-to-weight ratio of any heavy-duty engine from 10 liters to 16 liters in size, but it's actually lighter than any of the 11-liter blocks on the market (subject to interpretation on how "dry weight" is determined).
REVIEW: International’s driver-centric LT
NEW CARLISLE, IN -- Looks can be deceiving. International's new LT highway tractor may look much like the 11-year-old ProStar it replaces, but the resemblance is barely skin deep. The LT retains the signature International grille -- though it's shaped differently if you look closely -- but almost everything behind the grille was touched in some way by the sweeping overhaul of the company's best-selling highway truck. The primary drivers in the reshaping exercise were increased fuel efficiency and driver appeal. "If drivers do not want to drive the trucks, fleets aren't going to buy them," noted Denny Mooney, International's senior vice president - global product development.
