The future that trailer-maker Donald “Jerry” Ehrlich sees for his industry involves trailers that are smarter, provide a smoother ride and carry more payload.
Ehrlich should know what is possible. He is chairman of Wabash National Corp., the biggest trailer manufacturer in the United States, which shipped more than 60,000 units in 1999.
The first two visions may be easy to realize, since they are dreams that can be fulfilled by technology, such as “smart” trailers capable of telling an owner about their maintenance needs from a remote location. The last part — about bigger trailers — is an entirely different matter.
Erlich’s crystal ball holds the vision of three-axle semitrailers and twin 53-foot trailers traveling on most major highways in this country. That is a vision a lot of people do not want, or expect to see, fulfilled. The strong opposition registered in the 1990s to bigger tractor trailers — from the public, politicians, trucking safety critics and from sectors of the industry itself — has not abated.
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