Heavy Duty Trucking, December 2020
TRENDS IN t the end of a year filled with disruption it seemed fit to reach out to Class 8 leaders to see how they see current and future evolution of the industrys haulers HDT A Touching on everything from COVID 19 s effect on how they do business to the acceleration of electrification and autonomous technology development the OEMs took time from their busy and disrupted schedules to give HDT a look at current and future trends affecting Class 8 models It wasnt the best year to unveil a new truck with live events cancelled around the country and bugs in some of the virtual alternatives But that didnt stop OEMs from introducing us to a few new faces in the Class 8 crowd even with the scheduling problems created by COVID related lockdowns at all of the factories The most pronounced effect was in midto late spring when our manufacturing operations experienced temporary closures says Pete Hobbs vice president of market development for the on highway market segment at Daimler Trucks North America But we used that time to design engineer the safety protocols to enable our employees to return to manufacturing the best trucks on the road and all of our facilities were open again by mid May After suspending operations at its Lehigh Valley Operations plant on March 19 and before resuming production at a reduced rate on May 11 Mack Trucks reconfigured its manufacturing processes to allow its workforce to increase social distancing and take Kenworths electric T680E is now available to order and will go into production in 2021 PHOTO KENWORTH a number of other precautions including daily temperature screenings required face coverings modified arrangements in hightraffic locations and continual cleaning and disinfecting of work areas The pandemic also changed its product announcements Typically when we have major product announcements we would conduct an inperson event but since the pandemic weve decided to conduct virtual events allowing customers dealers and the press to remain in their homes offices while learning more about our product and services in a safe socially distanced way says John Walsh Mack Trucks vice president of marketing Magnus Koeck vice president of strategy marketing and brand management at Volvo Trucks North America said the company discovered it could have highly successful and exciting virtual events in lieu of in person events We deliver the same in depth technical information enable candid access to our key executives and product experts and hold question and answer sessions just like we would at a private or public in person event Koeck says One big change of course has been the absence of ride and drive and handson product experience events but safety is the number one value of Volvo Trucks and we continue to keep that in the forefront of our minds as the pandemic continues to remain active in North America Safety first Safety was the topic almost all OEMs point DECEMBER 2020 38 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM
You must have JavaScript enabled to view digital editions.