Welcome to the gun show

Finding unique products at the Mid-America Trucking Show is never a tough challenge. There are products that range from the "isn't that cool" to the "what were you thinking?"

This year during media day on Wednesday, Daimler Trucks North America and Freightliner introduced a new product that really impressed me.

There's a real movement in the trucking industry toward healthy lifestyles. The pressure on truckers to improve their health is being fueled by a lot of inaccurate and presumptive actions by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. 

Regardless, no one can argue that living a healthy lifestyle is beneficial. One aspect of that is increasing physical activity.

Bob Perry works out with the FIT System. Photo courtesy

  Freightliner Trucks.

For truckers whose jobs are sedentary by nature and transient by purpose, finding a place to work out is routinely challenging.

Freightliner, in conjunction with Bob Perry and Rolling Strong, developed the Freightliner In-Cab Training System, or FIT System. It provides drivers with full body strength and conditioning workouts in their own cabs.

The FIT system features a triple-grip handle, which enables users to interchange three bands to change resistance levels. The system uses existing seat tether and bunk restraint mounting points for installing a custom bracket.

You can get it factory installed on the Coronado and Cascadia models, and it can be retrofitted into the Century Class and the Columbia models.

Imagine working out with that for a year. We'd see a bunch of buff truckers next year at MATS.

Navistar: The swagger wasn't entirely gone

Navistar International held its annual press conference this morning as part of MATS Press Day. The company showcased its portfolio of trucks with SCR technology – a very different mantra from yesteryear’s annual EGRfest. 

The news conference was a stark contrast in content and style to the company’s traditional MATS Press Day event. This year it was a quick, half-hour presentation held in a large but modest, almost spartan, display booth in the Expo Center’s South Wing.

With little fanfare, Navistar stressed the truck maker’s confidence in its ability to “move business forward.” There was no customary open question period from the trucking press at the conclusion of the press conference.

I have to admit, I missed the colorful comments the trucking press corps is used to hearing at this event from James Hebe, former senior VP of North American Sales. Hebe retired last year.

But the swagger was not entirely gone. Still claiming to be the fuel economy leader, the company announced this morning that Navistar would again hire a third-party tester to see who is the best in the fuel economy battle. In Navistar’s corner will be the International ProStar with an ISX 15 engine. The ProStar will duke it out against competitors like Freightliner’s Cascadia and others.