New truck launches and fleet tech take center stage at ATA Management Conference & Exhibition
Key takeaways
- At ATA's MCE, Mack Trucks and Volvo Trucks highlighted what makes their vehicles efficient; Volvo also showcased its pet safety features.
- Clarios introduced Battery Management, a system utilizing AI and machine learning to monitor battery health, reduce jump starts, and improve fleet operational efficiency.
- Grote Industries unveiled roadside and rear-collision alert systems, including real-time vehicle location notifications and collision warnings, to enhance safety for parked and trailing vehicles.
- Transtex's Edge CabFlex cab extender fairing uses a patented flexible bracket system, reducing jackknife damage and repair costs while offering improved aerodynamics.
FleetOwner's coverage of ATA MCE 2025:
- Freight recession survival: How fleets can cut costs and optimize operations
- Innovative trucking tech unveiled at ATA MCE 2025: enhancing efficiency and connectivity
- ATA economist: Trucking must cut capacity to survive tariff-fueled downturn
- ATA urges fleets to stay the course as tariffs and weak demand pressure trucking
- Lawsuit crisis surges as economy continues to dominate trucking industry concerns; driver shortage worries fade away
- Podcast: Freight recession, nuclear verdicts, and the future of trucking
The American Trucking Associations' annual Management Conference & Exhibition took place in sunny San Diego last week. If you weren't there, you missed quite a bit. See FleetOwner coverage of the event to the right. Read below to hear what truck manufacturers and suppliers announced at the show:
Mack Trucks’ Anthem and Pioneer maximize what’s important
Mack Trucks is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, and it was only fitting that the company debut a new truck this year, the Pioneer, and redesign its regional hauler, the Anthem. Mack Trucks launched the Pioneer in New York back in April and launched the redesigned Anthem a few months later. At ATA’s MCE, Fernando Couceiro, Mack Trucks’ VP of highway product, told a group of trade media how the Pioneer and the Anthem differ, yet how they both meet the needs of Mack customers.
Because of the Pioneer’s longer nose, it’s slightly more aerodynamic, offering about a 1% increase in fuel efficiency, Couceiro said. It can also accommodate a more comfortable sleeper cab, with a 76-in. sleeper, high roof, and parking cooler. The Pioneer also offers easier access to engine components for serviceability.
But the Anthem, because of its shorter hood and cab position, will offer better visibility and “slightly better maneuverability from a wall-to-wall perspective,” Couceiro explained. The truck is also lighter, as it uses fewer materials, offering better payload compared to the Pioneer.
Overall, Couceiro said there’s really no compromise when choosing between the two trucks.
“If you choose the Anthem, you're not compromising your fuel efficiency; if you're choosing the Pioneer, you're not compromising your visibility,” he said. “It's not about compromising. It's about maximizing what's most important for your particular application for each particular customer.”
Clarios puts easy battery monitoring solution in fleets' hands
Clarios, manufacturer of battery solutions for the automotive industry, announced a new product at ATA’s MCE—Battery Management.
“With our electronic software system, we’re able to take on all the different insights of these batteries,” Junior Barret, global director of new business development at Clarios, said at a press conference. “We’re able to figure it out and work through our [machine learning and artificial intelligence] capabilities.”
Battery Management ingests this data and offers actionable insights, via a web portal or APIs, that fleet leaders can use to improve operations. Barrett discussed two primary improvements: 1) using battery technology to reduce fuel consumption, and 2) managing batteries to reduce vehicle jump starts. Battery Manager also monitors the health of the battery and notifies management when the battery is approaching the end of its life, said Christina Yarnold, Clarios head of product management.
Further, Battery Manager monitors more than just battery health. It also monitors the “whole global system” within the vehicle to determine if other components are impacting battery health.
“For example, if an alternator is either old or undersized or even putting out too much power, that can have detrimental effects on the life of that battery,” Yarland said.
Clarios piloted Battery Management with Ruan’s truck fleet, which Barrett said immediately saw a decrease in jump-start events.
Grote unveils roadside and rear-collision alerts
Grote Industries debuted two new products at MCE: the H.E.L.P. DeliverSAFE and the 4SEE Rear-Collision Warning System.
Grote developed the H.E.L.P. (Hazard Enhanced Location Protocol) DeliverSAFE solution with Emergency Safety Solutions, a company that builds solutions to help avoid collisions between motorists and vehicles parked or broken down on the roadside. If a vehicle is stranded, the H.E.L.P. DeliverSAFE solution provides real-time notifications of the vehicle’s exact location in other motorists’ navigation apps and in-cab displays.
"One thing to really note about this is if you think about being stopped on the side of the road [is that] for every minute that you're there, the chance of an accident goes up by 2.8%," said Andrew Grose, VP and GM of Grote Industries, while presenting the product at ATA MCE. "So obviously, that's a major issue that we want to be able to address."
The system is available both as part of Grote’s smart-trailer system, 4SEE, or on its own.
The second product, 4SEE Rear-Collision Warning System, uses data processing, a rear radar unit, and an auxiliary strobe lamp to increase safety and warn trailing drivers of a potential collision. Developed by a partnership between Grote Industries and Einstein AI, the system calculates the “time to collision” whenever a car approaches the back of a truck, factoring in its speed and the space between the two vehicles. If that “time to collision” metric is less than four seconds, the strobe lamp flashes, warning the trailing driver, according to CJ Biank, global marketing manager, Grote Industries.
Built on Grote’s 4SEE Digital Harness, this warning solution leverages all of 4SEE data, including the speed of the trailer and tractor, the steering wheel angle, and more.
Fleets can order both the H.E.L.P. and Rear-Collision Warning Systems on new trailers and retrofit the systems on older ones.
Transtex makes damaged cab extender fairings a thing of the past
A new Transtex product, the Edge CabFlex, is a multi-solution cab extender fairing that easily retrofits onto the back of tractors to improve aerodynamics, improve safety, reduce operating costs, and improve sustainability for fleets.
The Edge CabFlex solution is different from other extender fairings because it uses the patented Transtex duplex bracket system, designed to “bend but never break,” thanks to Transtex’s engineered nylon resin T-Flex brackets, Todd McGuire, Transtex SVP of sales and marketing, told a group of trade media. This means that “in tight loading docks or sharp turns, the Edge CabFlex flexes with the trailer's movement and returns to shape, eliminating the need or the risk of costly repairs.”
In essence, the CabFlex’s lightweight and hinge-free features reduce damage caused by jackknifing, which McGuire said results in at least one cab fairing replacement among Transtex customers during the lifetime of a truck.
Speaking of customers, McGuire said there are 7 million T-flex brackets on trucks today, and “zero have been damaged, zero have been replaced for warranty—it’s virtually indestructible.”
The Edge CabFlex is available to retrofit onto existing tractors today.
Volvo Trucks leans into fuel savings amid downturn; highlights in-cab pet safety
Volvo Trucks North America is promoting more efficient new diesel trucks to help fleets address profitability woes during the protracted freight recession expected to continue into 2026.
The OEM launched its new versions of its U.S.-built flagship VNL long-haul tractor and regional-focused VNR over the past 20 months, a period in which fleets are buying less equipment as they wait for the end of what VTNA President Peter Voorhoeve called “the longest freight recession that we have known.”
But during ATA’s management conference, Voorhoeve told FleetOwner that the new VNL’s more efficient diesel platform is saving early adopters 1,300 to 1,400 gallons for every 120,000 miles driven—about $5,500 in annual savings.
Volvo also used the conference to tout its Load Finder digital solution, launched earlier this fall, to help fleet customers reduce empty miles and increase revenue by aggregating data from more than 40 load boards.
And for drivers who prefer their copilots to have paws, Voorhoeve announced that VTNA is partnering with the Center for Pet Safety to give drivers who travel with their pets extra peace of mind. VTNA said that 60% of all truck drivers are pet owners—and 40% of those pet owners bring their pets on the road. The Volvo Parking Cooler feature, which allows drivers to remotely monitor and adjust truck cab temperatures, ensures traveling pets are safe inside the truck when the driver needs to leave the cab for breaks or work.
About the Author
Jade Brasher
Senior Editor Jade Brasher has covered vocational trucking and fleets since 2018. A graduate of The University of Alabama with a degree in journalism, Jade enjoys telling stories about the people behind the wheel and the intricate processes of the ever-evolving trucking industry.