Heavy Duty Trucking, September 2019
HDT SEPTEMBER 2019 62 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COMcritical to getting this done And we needed their input and knowledge to make it happen Despite some initial skepticism the technicians agreed We adopted a sort of burn the ships philosophy like some of the early Spanish explorers Sheehy says We were committed So there was a team philosophy of Lets figure this out and get it done One advantage early alt fuel adopters have Sheehy says is that they tend to get a lot more OEM support for their efforts because the manufacturers have a vested interest in proving that a new technology is viable We reached out and really pushed the OEMs for the training and materials we could get Lucky for us Cummins has an excellent training center just up the road in Green Bay that we used extensively And Agility Fuel Systems was great about coming to us and giving us extensive training in our own facilities New techs new technology As new fuel and propulsion systems come on line the certifications technicians will need to maintain and repair them will change and training will still be crucial There is going to have to be training on some new vehicle systems in the future says Mark Russell president of Nikola Motors which is on a fast track to develop the industrys first long haul tractor powered by hydrogen fuel cell technology Obviously hydrogen fuel cells will require training And were already working with Ryder System which will be our national service provider when the trucks begin real world operations on training technicians to work on them Training to service these new vehicles electric trucks in particular is critical for which is keen to make the same transition Like Rush Enterprises Sheehy had already focused on its own home grown crop of technicians So when the time came to make the jump to CNG as a manager Sheehy felt his primary mission was to get them to buy in from the beginning We made them a part of the process he says They were going to be of converting a new merged fleet over from diesel to natural gas and getting his technicians to buy in to the change Luckily its a road Sheehy has been down before The fleet founded by his father Sheehy Mail Contractors was an early adopter of CNG Class 8 tractors Recently it was acquired by EVO Transportation Battery electric trucks like this Freightliner eCascadia and hydrogen fuel cell trucks like Nikola will need new technician skills ALTERNATIVE FUELS TRAINING PHOTO DEBORAH LOCKRIDGE turbo borgwarner comAs good as new BorgWarners professionally remanufactured we call them REMAN turbochargers meet or exceed the same high quality performance standards as our new turbochargers at a lower cost to you Choose BorgWarner and its road tested reliable REMAN turbochargers One place youll feel a difference is in your wallet
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