Your May 5 Pre-trip: Daimler to livestream vehicle concept unveiling tonight

Here are five things worth knowing today:

1. Daimler will unveil a groundbreaking vehicle concept by Freightliner Trucks tonight in Las Vegas. Watch the live technology premiere. Check back in with fleetowner.com tomorrow morning for additional coverage.

2. In the days following the end of a strike in California, where truckers picketed against port trucking companies that classify their drivers as independent contractors, a new firm has vowed to treat its drivers as employees, SCPR.org reports. The firm, Eco-Flow transportation, is calling itself ‘a new model for port trucking.’ SCPR has more.

3. “It may be boxy, boring, and at times, kind of creepy, but the humble van is in high demand these days, and that’s a bullish sign for the economy at large,” Bloomberg Business wrote. According to Bloomberg, vans are making a comeback, and Ford sold more vans last month than it has in any April in 30 years.

4. A Sonoma County waste and recycling company is trying to solve its high maintenance cost problems for its older trucks. According to the Washington Post, the company hopes that a garbage truck with a battery-powered electric motor and turbine generator that will extend the truck’s driving range will be the answer.

5.  Beginning in June, Watkins and Shepard Trucking will give raises to its owner-operators and drivers. TheTrucker.com has more.