SOFTWARE AND SUSPENSIONS

July 14, 2010 Vol. 6, No. 14

Things have been rather quiet lately on the hardware front, but then again it’s summer so I shouldn’t be surprised.

It’s not as if there’s no action at all out there, and in fact I had a message this morning from a friend who runs a pretty substantial municipal fleet south of the border. Seems he managed to get a grant that will allow him to retrofit a Bosch-Rexroth hybrid diesel/hydraulic drive system to one of his many trash trucks. That company is playing catch-up to Eaton in the hybrid power game but they have about a zillion years of hydraulic experience, so it’s going to be interesting to see how this one goes. I’ll keep you posted.

Much of what’s new is in the digital world, as you’ll see in the product items attached here. If you do business from the office as opposed to the shop, you’ll be pleased.

For instance, TransCore’s Canadian-based Link Logistics has integrated Google Maps into its Loadlink freight-matching service. This means customers can map the origin and destination of all freight and equipment postings and matching leads pretty easily. Subscribers can view their leads in satellite and street views, providing a complete overview of available freight and equipment. Cool.

And Shaw Tracking now has a strategic alliance and patent licence with SpeedGauge that allows users to rate and rank drivers and identify speed-limit violations. It uses street-level speed-limit analysis by GPS to identify what could be high-risk driving behaviour and helps isolate drivers that habitually drive at excessive speeds on different types of roads. Like through residential neighbourhoods. I think the most important function is its ability to observe and measure changes in driver behaviour over time. Speedgauge isn’t exclusive to Shaw, by the way.

Then there’s the new PC*Miler 24 from ALK Technologies. The venerable routing software now has an interesting ‘Least Cost’ tool to generate optimal routes based on custom fuel-efficiency and operating-cost settings, for instance. Also included is a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions estimator to factor in carbon-footprint calculations, an increasingly necessary function with some shippers. As if carriers weren’t already jumping through enough hoops.

Moving to those of you who are more concerned with what goes on in the shop, you’ll also see an item below on a new pair of products from Ridewell Suspensions. There’s the Model 209 46,000-lb suspension for tag-axle applications on in-city waste-hauling trucks and the 20,000-lb version of the Model 232 parallelogram self-steer suspension for trucks. It’s SPIF-approved for trucks — as Ridewell presently understands the coming Ontario legislation. ‘SPIF’ stands for ‘Safe, Productive, Infrastructure-Friendly’ size-and-weight standards. First launched for tractor-trailers in 2006, some time soon, possibly at the start of next year, Phase 4 will address straight trucks.

And Ridewell has another trick up its SPIF sleeve. Probably coming in January is a new self-steer version of the 22,500-lb Model 215 auxiliary lift-axle system designed for the aftermarket installer, but it won’t be sold directly by Ridewell, rather through IMT. It’s SPIF-approved, will likely be named ‘215SSA’, and will be a modified version of the current non-steer Model 215.

NAVISTAR’S ALL-ELECTRIC estar TRUCK is in the news again with a report that the company has delivered a few more of them to one of its first customers, California’s Pacific Gas and Electric Company.