FleetOwner editors spent 2023 traveling all over the globe in search of the latest news and trends for North American fleet leaders. The trucking industry is in its most transformational stage in generations—if not ever—as fleets are grappling with stricter emissions regulations, emerging artificial intelligence technology, electrification challenges, more alternative fuel options, and continued supply chain kinks.
Here is a look at the 10 most popular FleetOwner staff Perspectives in 2023, based on reader web traffic.
1. Trucking's hydrogen future nears reality overseas
HOFOLDING, Germany—The potential future of clean transportation was on display under the hot Bavarian sun as I joined a dozen other North American trucking and automotive journalists at the grand opening of the region's largest hydrogen commercial vehicle fueling station in this suburb about 15 miles south of Munich.
In a solution developed by Hynergy engineers here, green hydrogen produced at an electrolysis plant about 75 miles away is hauled to the filling station at this municipal bus depot a few times per month. The 1,250-kilogram (2,755-lb.) tanker trailer will be swapped out as the station provides enough daily fuel for at least 25 hydrogen fuel-cell buses and trucks. Fuel-cell buses, the primary early users of the H2 to start, will have about a 215-mile range. And it takes just about 10 minutes to refuel the vehicles. Read more…
2. Musk's electric truck challenges highlighted in one photo
It was apparently without irony that the California Highway Patrol Buttonwillow Area’s Facebook page featured several photos of new Tesla Cybertrucks being hauled down I-5 north of Los Angeles, with the majority of social media comments showing much enthusiasm for the new electric pickup truck. Its futuristic design and stainless steel “exoskeleton” garnered an Elon Musk-worthy amount of attention when the prototype was unveiled in late 2019.
But, as with many of us in the trucking world, I imagine, the first thing I looked at in the highway patrol photos was the car-hauler rig—specifically, what tractor was pulling the load? For the record, it was a classic long-hood Pete. Why does that matter? Read more…
3. Roadcheck 2023: Inspecting trucks on I-40 Memphis
WEST MEMPHIS, Arkansas—International Roadcheck often is described as a safety “blitz,” a word I always considered to be mere marketing buzz until I visited the Riverside weigh station outside of Memphis, where I saw a solid stream of tractor-trailers rolling through the scales, brakes hissing, the sound bouncing off pavement like waves of summer heat.
The section of Interstate 40 cutting through Memphis and its suburbs is among the busiest freight corridors in the country, notorious among truckers and other motorists. Every day, 50,000 vehicles cross the Hernando de Soto bridge connecting Tennessee and Arkansas across the Mississippi River. A 2021 shutdown of the bridge cost the freight industry $2 million per day, per an Arkansas Trucking Association estimate. With construction on I-55 near Memphis projected to continue until 2026, congestion has heightened as yet more traffic is diverted to I-40, according to Arkansas Highway Police Lt. F. Caballero. Read more…
4. The humanless difference: Autonomous efficiency goes beyond fuel savings
LAS VEGAS—Early autonomous trucking is more fuel-efficient than traditional long-haul operations. However, the actual fleet savings could come from taking the trucker out of trucking. Like so many Americans, the trucking industry is learning more about artificial intelligence's potential benefits and pitfalls.
One AV company recently published details on an AI trucking benefit: Its self-driving Class 8 tractors are getting 11% better fuel economy on open roads—and even better results on some specific routes when compared to human-driven tractor-trailers. Other trucking AV companies told FleetOwner this week they are also finding similar gains thanks to the smoother, slower, more predictable robotic driving on divided highways. Read more…
5. Will EV enthusiasm spark FET repeal?
INDIANAPOLIS—Three things are certain in this world: death, taxes, and the urge to avoid both. That’s nothing new. Neither, essentially, is the Modern, Clean, and Safe Trucks Act of 2023, a bill filed this week that is the latest attempt to do something about the federal excise tax (FET) on heavy-duty trucks and trailers.
In addition to FET’s making equipment more costly (at 12%, that’s the highest such fee on the books), the tax long has been the source of confusion and, behind the scenes, the source of dubious interpretations of its applicability—i.e., cheatin’. (Ask your local reputable equipment dealer for some stories.) Read more…
6. EV transition: Fleets 'very worried' about coming decade
SACRAMENTO—Key players in the commercial vehicle industry laid out the near-term risks and long-term rewards of the transition to zero-emissions trucks, and detailed why fleets will face a decade of challenges as operators are caught between increasingly aggressive regulatory mandates and the ability of equipment suppliers and infrastructure providers to deliver newly required solutions.
Indeed, representatives of the nation’s largest truck manufacturer, the largest truck dealership group, and the largest charging equipment provider say they’re prepared to lead the charge, but electric trucks aren’t going anywhere without charging infrastructure. Read more…
7. Trucking must resist 'mad dash to zero': ATA's Spear
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas—While highway safety, nuclear verdicts, the workforce, and infrastructure all are critical matters for trucking, the “most front-burner” issues over the next decade will be energy and the environment, American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear emphasized here May 17.
“It's reached a boiling point,” Spear said in an address at the 2023 Arkansas Trucking Association Conference & Vendor Showcase. “In the next three to five years, with the proposals that we’ve seen by EPA, and mostly CARB, it will boil over—there's no question.” Read more…
8. California’s AB 316 pushes cleaner, safer highways into next decade
Much of the autonomous trucking technology to move freight without humans behind the wheel is being developed in California's Silicon Valley. Despite pushback from the governor, Golden State politicians want to keep those robotic tractor-trailers outside their borders, which hampers the state's decarbonization push and puts union jobs above highway safety.
With pressure from unions worried that self-driving trucks would cost drivers their jobs, the legislation known as AB 316 has a good chance of becoming a law of limitation in a state that used to be more known for innovation. The legislation overwhelmingly passed in the lower house in Sacramento, which could make the legislation veto-proof—even if Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration is opposed. Read more…
9. Trucking's story is America's story, so tell it, says ATA's Spear
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas—Trucking has a compelling story to tell, but it's critical that industry voices tell that story using "truth and data" rather than "rhetoric and emotion" to win policy battles at the federal and state levels, American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear explained here Wednesday.
"Common sense matters and I think that resonates with both sides of the aisle," Spear said in an address at the 2023 Arkansas Trucking Association Conference & Vendor Showcase. "Why does trucking matter? There are so many issues that this industry touches that are just as important to everyday Americans as they are for trucking. So telling our story from that perspective really disarms our opponents." Read more…
10. A bittersweet goodbye as FleetOwner's editor-in-chief
In trucking, many people you talk to have grown up in the industry. Their parents or grandparents may have been truckers or worked for trucking companies. Others fell into trucking by chance—possibly prompted by a career change, a new outlook on life, or a desire to help others and contribute to our nation’s economic stability.
When I started my career as a journalist 15 years ago, I never imagined it would lead to trucking. I thought I’d end up at some mainstream newspaper like The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times as some big-shot syndicated columnist. That was at least the dream when I went to journalism school. Read more…
