Archive for September, 2008

Three kids with a big toy haul no-touch freight. That’s a perfect description of the Beavercreek (Ohio) High School Marching Band’s big rig and its band of merry drivers. Earl Ake, Norm Beebe and Donn Johnson are anything but your average truck drivers. For one, they don’t do it every day, so when they climb into the cab of their 1990 Peterbilt 372 cabover they’re all smiles, and a little giggly. After all, the trio isn’t earning a living, they’re just &ldquo…

I love truck shows like the Mid America Trucking Show and the National Truck Equipment Association’s Work Truck Show. Besides meeting my friends, I get to see some of the most innovative new devices made for our industry. I walk the entire show looking for the fruits of supplier ingenuity. Here are a few of the best new products I found recently. Cleaning upIf you don’t have time to take a shower, but you need one before your next delivery or pick up, do what they do in hospitals. …

Early engines used slippery vegetable oils and whale oil. Castor oil was a favorite in race cars and World War I aircraft for high temperature stability. In order to prevent those highly stressed engines from seizing from lack of lubrication, drivers and pilots put up with the side effects from several hours of inhaling castor oil fumes. But clearly, a better alternative was needed. Petroleum provided that alternative. Chemists developed additives that let refined petroleum stand u…

IT TAKES A LOT OF ENERGY to deliver a whole lot of energy. For the better part of the spring and summer, Kruger Energy Inc. shipped in the parts of 44 wind turbines for its $200 million (CDN) wind farm in Port Alma, Ontario, located near the shore of Lake Erie. To handle the logistics the Quebec-based company hired Dutch transportation giant Mammoet — the massive operation commencing with the arrival of the first shipment of rolled steel turbines at the Morterm Windsor Dock on April 9. Tw…