Washington DC - The National Transportation Safety Board has called upon the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require heavy vehicles be installed with technology to prevent unintended acceleration when starting from a parked position.
Pedal misapplication occurs when a driver depresses the accelerator instead of, or in addition to, the brake pedal.
Several big players in the global car and truck market are rekindling an interest in dimethyl ether or “DME” as an alternative fuel, largely because it’s relatively cheap, requires very low injection pressures, and produces little pollution from combustion.
“Although DME’s energy density is lower than diesel, the overall engine thermal efficiency is the same or higher,” explained Jim McCandless, CEO of Alternative Fuel Technologies, which designs and manufactures common rail and injection systems to handle DME in diesel engines.
The heavy-duty aftermarket industry, which had passed through the previous two recessions relatively unscathed, has been hit hard this time, with one analyst saying revenue will be down 8 percent to 10 percent this year compared to 2008, which itself suffered a 4 percent drop from 2007.
“The aftermarket started to decline when the financial crisis hit last October and continued to fall through all of this year, though it has now stabilized,” Jeff Wallace, general manager of parts, sales and marketing for Daimler Trucks North America, told Transport Topics.
Net orders for new commercial trailers in July increased 16 percent from a year ago and were up 4 percent from the previous month, according to ACT Research Co. The company’s chief analyst said trailer demand appears to be improving, although it is still weak. “The current order levels are less than half of the usual industry replacement rate, but with seven of nine trailer types tracked posting increases in new orders from June to July, it appears demand is beginning to move in the right direction, if incrementally,” Kenny Vieth, a partner of ACT, told Transport Topics.
Industry executives cautioned that the July increase did not signal a turnaround, and even the most optimistic saw only lukewarm good news in the figures. New trailer orders totaled 6,777 in July, up from a net of 5,842 in July last year, Vieth said, and up from 6,516 orders in June.
FTR Associates today, Sept. 4, released preliminary data showing Class 8 net orders for all major North American OEMs totaling 10,758 units in August, the strongest showing since November 2008. The figure includes orders for the United States, Canada, Mexico and exports. Order activity for August was 19.9 percent better than the previous month and represents an annualized rate of 129,096 units.
“FTR is cautiously optimistic about the increased August preliminary Class 8 net orders," says Eric Starks, president of FTR, based in Nashville, Ind. "However, we believe some of the orders being placed are in response to 2010 EPA emissions requirements. We still expect any recovery in the transportation industry to be slow and bumpy through next year.”