Opinion: Stranger in a Strange Land
B>By Howard S. Abramson
I>Editorial Director
ransport Topics Publishing Group
There is amazingly little interest in this show, sponsored by the International Automobile Association, by most of the North American trucking community. I can’t tell you how many people — including some of my journalist colleagues back home — who have told me “there’s nothing there” for them at this show. Rather, they concentrate their efforts on the major shows back home, from Louisville, Ky., to Las Vegas to Anaheim, Calif.
Yes, we are justifiably proud of our homegrown industry. No freight transportation network in the world operates more efficiently than does our trucking industry. But there were lots of things to be learned by walking around the spacious exhibit halls in this perpetually rainy city.
For those of you who didn’t see the show first-hand — and that presumably means almost all of you — let me say that you missed a chance to walk over and touch real trucks sporting selective catalytic reduction engines. That is the supposedly pie-in-the-sky technology North American engine makers may employ to meet U.S. pollution rules that are to go into effect in 2010.
This is the same technology the Environmental Protection Agency has shown much skepticism toward, even as Europe is developing the infrastructure needed to support the engines: namely, a distribution network for the urea-based compound that converts much of the tailpipe exhaust into harmless substances.
Fact is, Europe’s engine makers have adopted SCR to meet their next round of tightened pollution rules. I looked at SCR-equipped trucks at the DaimlerChrysler, Volvo and DAF booths in my first two days at the show, Sept. 20-21. Of course, DaimlerChrysler owns Freightliner, Sterling and Western Star in the United States; Volvo has a North American division and also owns Mack; and DAF is owned by Paccar Inc., which owns Peterbilt Motors and Kenworth.
You can order these engines now, for delivery sometime next year, depending on which manufacturer with whom you speak.
Want to talk about incentives designed to encourage fleets to buy the new engines now, more than a year before they have to buy them? The sales people at the booths were glad to explain the reduced tolls at least some of Europe’s governments are offering fleets that operate the new engines as a sweetener to get more of the cleaner-burning, and more fuel-efficient units on the road sooner.
Meanwhile, DaimlerChrysler was to display through the show’s end Sept. 30 a line of hybrid-fuel commercial vehicles, including vans that can run on batteries at least part of the time.
Want to see the latest in anti-rollover devices, crash-avoidance systems or devices that continually test a driver’s alertness? They were on display at various booths around the fairgrounds.
How about fuel efficiency? With diesel averaging more than $4 a gallon in the stations around the fairgrounds, European manufacturers have turned aerodynamics into an art form. Virtually all the continent’s Class 8 trucks are designed with fuel efficiency uppermost in mind. U.S. truck makers are beginning to show serious interest in this as well, but it’s an old art in the Old World.
There were lots of other examples of interesting things to see here. As pleased as we are with our successes, we need to keep our eyes and our minds open. There are lots of things to learn in this world, and this show was a great place to go to school.
And, boy, if you’re into kicking tires, this place is made for you.
This story appeared in the Sept. 27 edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
