HDT Talks Trucking Special Report: Smart Trailers Smart Trailers are upending how truck fleets do business. These formerly brainless boxes are now providing insights and intelligence to fleets that help improve efficiency and productivity while making fleets proactive rather than reactive. Paul Menig of Business Accelerants discusses where this technology can take us, and what we'll need to do to get there.

Business Accelerants 

Great Dane Fleet Pulse 

Phillips Connect Technologies 

Peterson Pulse 

Road Ready System 

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HDT Talks Trucking Special Report: Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Hydrogen fuel cells' place in the heavy-duty trucking market is not well understood. Many see fuel cells and batteries as competitors. Loop Energy's Ben Nyland sees them as complimentary rather than competitive. Loop Energy is a new name to North American ears, but the company has been developing its fuel cell technology for the past two decades. It's currently a significant player in the European and Chinese markets, and it now has wheels on the ground here. Ben Nyland provides a detailed look behind the fuel cell curtain: how they work, where they'll work, and what they do best.

Loop Energy 

Hydrogen fuel cell basics  

CHFCA - Hydrogen and fuel cells for heavy-duty transport Interviews 

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Truck drivers' lifestyles and work environments don't always compliment their need for restful and restorative sleep. In an industry where much of the focus on sleep and fatigue is related to compliance, sometimes the need for proper sleep takes a back seat to the rules. This episode is about the importance of sleep. Sleep specialist and best-selling author, Dr. Chris Winter, explains why we need sleep, and what happens when you don't get enough. Dr. Winter offers some tips you can use to ensure you get the sleep you need.

Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine

Free Summary of The Sleep Solution audiobook by W. Chris Winter

Good Books Radio: The Sleep Solution

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Decades will pass before diesel disappears from our vocabulary. Despite what you may have read on the internet, no single alternative energy source will dominate the way diesel fuel has for generations. As we move closer to wide-scale adoption of alternative fuels, it's becoming clear that trucks will need a little bit of everything to keep all its wheels turning as greenly as possible. Join Deborah Lockridge and Jim Park as they explore the pros and cons associated with three of today's most promising alternatives to diesel: battery electric, fuel-cell electric and renewable natural gas.

Links to HDT October 2020 Alternative Fuels features

Powering the Future  

What Will it Take to Charge all Those Electric Vehicles? 

RNG: The Energy Source No One’s Talking About  

Hydrogen: Truly Green Power 

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We know there will be challenges integrating electric trucks into traditional fleets, but until recently we haven't had many real-world examples from which to learn. Penske Truck Leasing has had a trial and evaluation project underway in southern California since 2017. They are trying to understand everything that would go right and everything that could go wrong. From dealing with the utility companies, to planning the layout of the yard and coaxing drivers to get the best battery performance, they are learning more every day. Penske's head of fleet procurement and planning, Paul Rosa, shares his experience with integrating all classes of electric trucks into a traditional fleet environment.

Penske Truck Leasing  

What Penske Learned About Charging Electric Trucks (HDT) 

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Rumors surrounding the death of diesel are, as Mark Twain once said, greatly exaggerated. While some people can't wait for the last puff of smoke from an internal combustion engine, Allen Schaeffer isn't among them. He's the head of the Diesel Technology Forum, and one of diesel's greatest proponents. If you're worried about the sustained attacks on trucking's fuel of choice, Allen Schaeffer explains why diesel engines aren't going anywhere anytime soon. And if you think diesel is dead, or even on its last legs, after listing to this episode you may come away with a completely different point of view. 

Diesel Technology Forum 

Diesel Technology Forum Puts Clean Diesel Technologies on Display (video)

DTF on Facebook 

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The search for cleaner energy sources for transportation is taking trucking in some interesting directions, but one source is often overlooked or even dismissed: renewable natural gas. RNG is methane gas produced by decomposing organic matter from sources such as landfills, dairy farms, and wastewater treatment plants. It can be economically collected and used to power trucks. It's already a source of fuel for many refuse collection fleets. Hugh Donnell of Cummins Westport, maker of the engines that turn this harmful waste gas into motive power, describes the challenges and benefits of wider adoption of RNG as a truck fuel.

Cummins Westport 

Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas 

Waste Management & Renewable Energy 

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Truck accidents usually bring tragic results, but some good can come from the follow up investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board doesn't investigate every truck crash, but digs deep into some for insight that could help prevent future crashes of a similar nature. Robert Molloy, a transportation research analyst and the director of the Office of Highway Safety at NTSB explains why it investigates certain crashes, and shares some of the conclusions drawn from two specific truck accidents -- a rear-end collision with stopped traffic in Miami, Oklahoma, and a collision with an autonomous shuttle bus in Las Vegas.

National Transportation Safety Board  

Miami OK accident report

Las Vegas Autonomous Shuttle accident report

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Season 4 rounds out our first year of podcasts, and what an interesting year it's been. This season we look at the future of fuel, including battery electric and renewable natural gas, and our tried-and-true diesel engines. We also have one special episode  that's bound to put you to sleep. Our guest list includes Alan Schaeffer of the Diesel Technology Forum, Hugh Donnell of Cummins Westport, Paul Rosa of Penske Truck Leasing, and Rob Molloy of the National Transportation Safety Board. And HDT Editor in Chief  Deborah Lockridge joins host Jim Park for a discussion on alternative fuels, the cover story from our October issue. 

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AUTONOMOUS TRUCKS SPECIAL REPORT: There are only a few dozen autonomous trucks on America's highways today, but the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is already thinking about how to police them. They aren't above the law. It's up to people like our guest, Will Schaefer, the Director of Safety  Programs at CVSA, to figure out how trucking's safety rules can be applied to trucks that have no drivers. How will police officers pull over trucks that they can't communicate with directly? Can you charge a computer with causing, or not avoiding, a crash?  Will Schaefer muses on how enforcement could proceed in the years to come.

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CVSA on Facebook