Runnin' smart, lookin' sharp

Land Line staff attended the Freightliner press conference yesterday afternoon. A group of special people were introduced, and I have to point out that it was pretty cool that a portion of the press event was to acknowledge six professional truckers who make up the Team Run Smart Pros.

It’s also cool that all of them are OOIDA members.

Linda Caffee, Jimmy Nevarez, Bob Caffee, Joey Slaughter,
Henry Albert and Jeff Clark.

Henry Albert is from Statesville, NC. Bob and Linda Caffee are from Silex, MO. Jeff Clark hails from Kewaunee, WI. Jimmy Nevarez is from Yorba Linda, CA. Joey Slaughter is from Ringgold, VA. They all drive Freightliners, have years of experience in trucking, have wonderfully diverse professional backgrounds, and do weekly blogs at Teamrunsmart.com.

What is Team Run Smart? Well, it's an open community of people who are really serious about running a super professional trucking business. And it's not just run smart; it's a lot more -- like fuel smart and even health smart. Check out the wealth of resources at their website.

All the Freightliner execs were looking their best yesterday, but truthfully nobody was any sharper than those drivers in their white starched shirts and black pants.

Not your daddy's suspension

Mack Trucks rolled out a new Twin Y suspension. The suspension system boasts a 403 pound weight savings, a smoother ride and extends tire life by 25 percent according to Mack.

It's amazing to see this suspension system in action. Here check out the video Mack showed us at the press conference.

When they talk weight savings, they mean it too. The Twin Y was light enough that I conned Associate Editor Dave Tanner into picking up the part. No big deal.

The other cool thing about this suspension system. There is no additional cost associated with spec'ing that system.

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.

I don't have time for germs

I woke up yesterday morning feeling a little bit off. Scratchy throat, dry cough, too warm by a bunch, followed by chills. Just like when I was driving truck - I don't have time for this. But this week, especially. Because this is MATS week. And I'm not gonna miss Looavull. No how, no way. So I hunkered down, took a couple of ibuprofen, swigged down a can of Coca Cola and hit the couch wrapped in two blankets. It's as close to a surefire cure as I get. Spent the afternoon sleeping. Followed by the evening sleeping. Fever broke and I knew I'd be fine today.

Until I turned over at 3 a.m. writing this blog in my head with Dr. Seuss in mind:

I would go with a broken leg
I would be there with a bump on my head
I wouldn't miss a trip to MATS
Not for this and not for that
I wouldn't miss it this I know
Cause there are trucks and so I go
Chrome and stainless
Paint and shiny
There's no way I'd let a germ sideline me
So suck it up and hit the road
Cause it's time for MATS and off to MATS I go.

Wow - I must have been delirious.

But this morning I felt better. I packed my suitcase and headed for my first stop - the clean-up lot where the trucks are prepping for their close ups. And that's the cure for whatever ailed me. I'm at MATS and everything is good.

Road trip moment

Don’t you love those great moments that inexplicably reinforces how much you like the pure and simple joy of rolling down interstate America?

It was March 2001 and we were coming back from Louisville. I don’t know where the heck it was. Indiana, Illinois, maybe Missouri. Todd Spencer was driving and we had followed Jim Johnston (who was driving his pickup truck and big horse trailer full of booth stuff) and the others all the way from Louisville. Jim had been talking all night to truckers on the CB. In our car, we listened to Truckin’ Bozo and Todd tried to call a couple of times but it was busy. We pulled into a small convenience store somewhere off the highway to get coffee and stretch our legs. It was pitch black, cold and windy and the harsh light of the little white concrete block store hurt our eyes. We pulled back on the highway and past a big yellow lighted sign with black letters that said, “Good luck Hornettes.” Yep, spelled just like that.

I thought to myself, “This is pretty good.”