BRAKE SMARTS & FREE FUEL, SORTA

July 1, 2009 Vol. 5, No. 13

Almost nothing on a truck or trailer causes more grief than its braking system, and almost nobody understands brakes as well as our own Allan C. Wright. Given that he lives in B.C., where trucks and cars and buses with lousy brakes can cause considerable mayhem when they become runaways, it’s not altogether surprising that he should care about the bits and pieces of mechanical ingenuity that stop us. Most of the time.

Al cares deeply about the way brakes work, and even more about how they’re understood by drivers and technicians, not to mention by the enforcement community. Having started working with brakes way back in 1951, in 1972 he originated a course to train air brake instructors in B.C. – and it’s still in use. It’s no coincidence that the province was the first jurisdiction in North America to require all new truck drivers to attend a 16-hour air brake course in order to get a licence.

He’s also the author of two definitive books on air brakes, ‘Air Brakes From the Driver’s Seat II’ and ‘The Air Brake Connection’ (both published by Wright himself, who’s pictured here).