Senior Reporter
TMC: Five Decades Have Produced 1,400 ‘RP’ Pages
img src="/sites/default/files/images/articles/printeditiontag_new.gif" width=120 align=right>The result of the Technology and Maintenance Council’s nearly five decades of developing recommended practices covers more than 1,400 pages bound in two volumes.
As TMC officials like to say, the texts cover everything about the truck and trailer and how to fix them that a technician or manufacturer needs to know.
RPs describe the technological evolution of the trucking industry. “They are the most important thing we do,” said TMC Technical Director Robert Braswell. “Creating voluntary standards, or RPs, is why the council was formed.”
The maintenance manual for fleet managers, which is 2.5 inches thick, covers recommended practices on the shop floor — from engines and electrical systems to cab components and aftermarket bodies, from shop management to cost-control methods.
The engineering manual is 1.25 inches thick. It describes, for example, the required performance characteristics of a certain lighting fixture and how it is mounted on a truck.
It is the faster growing of the two manuals, according to TMC, with nearly four engineering RPs added for every one RP covering maintenance.
The engineering specifications tell manufacturers “what we need at fleets,” Newby said.
This article appears in the March 10 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
