Tablet-controlled tractor-trailer, automated-manual transmission test drive

Jul 29, 2014

Overdrive Equipment Editor Jack Roberts was in Germany earlier this month hanging out with the folks from ZF, where the transmission maker introduced a new automated-transmission and a tractor-trailer equipped with a system that allows remote controlled operation of the vehicle via a tablet computer.

Roberts shot the two videos above — one a test drive with the new transmission and the other of him and others toying around with the tablet-controlled truck.

Click here to read more on ZF’s unveilings from Germany.

Ammex won an 'Operational Excellence' award recently for its regional service to one of its primary customers, Amazon. Its fleet is made up principally of Volvos and Freightliners but also some other owner-operated units, like this Kenworth.

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Four in 10 owner-operators continue to go without health insurance, yet for small fleets, low-cost health benefits are increasingly attractive as a competitive feature. So-called health-share alternatives to traditional insurance are an option.

More trucks competing with fewer spot market loads in the near term will put downward pressure on rates. That could continue through the year as shifting consumer habits and natural market cycles contribute to a bearish environment for spot rates.

As a spot rates sag might loom, truckers would be wise to seek alternatives

Then-trucker Mike Draper behind the wheel of Evel Knievel's Mack haul rig in the 1970s.

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The 1978 Peterbilt 352 was a model who in earlier years had been driven by Bowerman's father, who passed several years earlier. This one, purchased from a prior owner in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, has origins in Illinois, Bowerman said, and is powered by a Cat 3406A run through a 15-speed transmission, 190-inch wheelbase.

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