Big changes coming for trucks and trailers
Feb 1, 2010 12:00 PM, By Bruce Sauer
New technologies, population patterns will transform transportation
Commercial trucks and trailers will be substantially more technical and more productive, according to the speakers at the Heavy Duty Dialogue session tasked with visualizing the changes that will occur over the next decade.
An array of new products and technologies will be implemented to better serve a nation whose cities and freight patterns will look substantially different than they do today.
The technologies generally are available now, with acceptance of those technologies expected to increase. According to Clem Driscoll, CJ Driscoll & Associates:
-
Trailer monitoring grew by 20% in 2008. This is down from a peak of 30% to 40% between 2005 and 2007. The installed base is approximately 580,000 units.
-
The reefer monitoring market is relatively strong and commands a higher price, Driscoll said, but the next big niche may be systems that monitor driver behavior.
“We believe that vehicle diagnostics and driver behavior management will become standard,” Driscoll said. “Driver behavior that can be monitored includes speeding, braking too hard, and accelerating too fast.”
Driscoll said that a big challenge is to convert engine diagnostics into information that can be used to prevent future problems — to detect flaws before they can create a breakdown.
Driscoll expects that over the next 10 years, all major fleets will monitor driver behavior to reduce accident risks. He also expects fleets to buy systems to detect accidents and to evaluate their severity, technology that identifies lane departures. He also sees increased popularity for that monitor containers and high-value assets. They will use GPS, RFID, and intrusion detection technologies.
“Increasingly, fleet operators will want to monitor everything that affects fuel consumption,” Driscoll said, “MPG, RPM, engine performance. Additionally, technology will drive increased productivity, and the truck will become a mobile office incorporating scanner, printer, and Internet.”
Harnessing information
Sandeep Kar, a consultant with Frost & Sullivan, also sees a big role for telematics — and an opportunity to make it bigger.
“The big problem with today's systems is that they produce too much data and too little information,” Kar said. “They need to focus on what the customer is seeking. When we ask fleet managers if they wanted to pay $6 a month for some back-office information or $12 for prognostic information, they were willing to pay twice the price for information that helps them reduce downtime. Prognostics is an industry that is not yet mature, but there is tremendous interest in it and willingness to pay for it.
“It is clear that any technology — whether it is powertrain, telematics, safety — it will be enthusiastically adopted if it can be shown that it will reduce operating expenses.”
Frost & Sullivan believes that telematics will become a $6.5 billion market by 2015.
The old, gray truck driver
Kar sees another factor emerging that fleets increasingly will value — ergonomics.
“We see a day coming in which health, wellness, and well being will also emerge as a product differentiator,” he said. “The average age of a truck driver is now in the upper 40s. This is an age milestone at which people begin to think about health, well being and wellness.
Next Page: Transformed cities, transportation
Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus
