Heavy Duty Trucking, December 2020

Hotline TRUCKINGS MOST RESPECTED BUSINESS REPORT SIGN UP FOR YOUR DAILY NEWS AT WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM HEADLINENEWS Trucking after Trump Politics as usual W hat will President Elect Joe Bidens campaign promises mean for trucking Prognostications on how they will play out in the real world are murky until we find out whether the Republican Party will keep control of the U S Senate Although Biden won the White House with the most popular votes ever the Democrats lost some seats in the House The party can only wrest the Senate from the GOP if both Democratic candidates win their Georgia runoff elections on Jan 5 Regardless of what happens in Georgia Joe Biden has the know how to horse trade and corral votes in Congress having served in various top Senate leadership posts in his 36 years there And through two terms as vice president he was charged with reaching compromises with current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel R KY As they have in the past the trucking industrys key lobbying groups will typically take a bipartisan approach to working with the officeholders who are key to making and enacting policies that affect truck operations The new administration can affect trucking both through pushing legislative initiatives and through the rulemaking process at federal agencies such as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Department of Labor Lane Kidd managing director of the Alliance for Driver Safety and Security says Democratic administrations tend to support more safety focused trucking initiatives For example the Obama administration supported the electronic logging device mandate creating the drug and alcohol clearinghouse and pushing major changes in hours ofservice rules Some measures require both legislative and regulatory action The ELD and drug clearinghouse required congressional approval Kidd says noting those were bipartisan efforts If the Democrats do gain control of the Senate Kidd says expect a major infrastructure program and more safety reforms to reduce highway crashes However he says the executive branch and the appointees that will be going to DOT and FMCSA will be the key to achieving pro industry and pro safety objectives The biggest item on truckings 2021 wish list is a highway bill and moving a massive infrastructure bill through Congress is viewed in many circles as one of the first tasks to Ben Nyland CEO Loop Energy Q Loop Energy has been developing hydrogen fuel cells for use in vehicles for 20 years Where do you see fuel cell trucks first rolling out A What were seeing around the world is that decision is being driven by the market more than anything China for example is the most aggressive market for fuel cells in the world and will remain so for the next decade In Europe regulators are requiring vehicle operators to reduce or eliminate their diesel use and were seeing the biggest moves coming from smaller commercial vehicles logistics vehicles in the 35 to 7 or 8 ton size such as the Daimler Sprinter van While those fleets have been quite aggressive over the last few years in evaluating battery electric solutions they are coming to the conclusion that in order to deploy across the entire fleet they actually need a hybrid fuel cell battery solution range extender In California which is really the only meaningful zero emission market in North America at this stage its too early to tell Q We are hearing about two different types of Class 8 fuel cell trucks the fuel cell dominant version and the range extender Can you define the difference A Fuel cells are an energy generation source You can think of it as a sort of battery When you have a fuel cell and a battery bank the primary purpose of the fuel cell system is to recharge the batteries Its the batteries that are really driving the vehicle and we call this configuration a range extender Read the full interview and get a link to the HDT Talks Trucking podcast episode about hydrogen fuel cells featuring Nyland at www truckinginfo com Nyland Under President Trump trucks were parked on the White House lawn But trucking groups say theyre ready to work with the Biden administration PHOTO ATA HDT DECEMBER 2020 8 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM