Equipment

Bryan Berg drives a semi with a 13-speed transmission, and he’s been double-clutching and shifting gears in his rig for 30 years. He’s not about to start driving a truck that shifts automatically.

Orders for Class 8 trucks in August shattered the previous record for the month, surpassing 53,000 for the highest tally of the year and for the second consecutive month setting a record in a surprisingly active summer.

Navistar International Corp. reported a surge in net income and an 18% increase in revenue for its fiscal year third quarter, citing the market’s enthusiasm for its latest truck and engine products, and expressed confidence that current market conditions would continue into the first half of 2019 — and possibly beyond.

Florida posted the biggest surge among states in the use of heavy-duty trucks with clean diesel engines in 2017, notching an 81% jump compared with a year earlier, according to data from IHS Markit. This increase came as fleet confidence in the technology took hold and more freight-hauling opportunities opened up in the nation’s fourth-largest state economy, other experts said.

While asset-tracking devices are finding increased adoption with intermodal container fleets, uptake for that venerable old workhorse of the intermodal supply chain — the chassis — faces different challenges.

While intermodal may be playing catch-up in the real-time freight visibility race, the consensus among industry watchers is that the gap is closing — fast. You can thank the Internet of Things revolution and the emergence of “in the cloud” software and database platforms.

Google’s Waymo, Uber and carmakers GM and Mercedes-Benz are among the companies working to put driverless vehicles in showrooms. That competition also should help lower prices that can reach $75,000 apiece for the sensors that scan a car’s surrounding environment so it knows how to drive itself.

The average fuel economy of trucking companies participating in an annual study conducted by the North American Council for Freight Efficiency improved 2% on a year-over-year basis, the group announced.

Daimler AG is equipping its flagship Mercedes-Benz truck with technology that can take the wheel in situations ranging from stop-and-go city driving to highway cruising.

Citing a persistent increase in the number of vehicle-train collisions at highway-rail grade crossings in recent years, the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General has informed the Federal Railroad Administration that it is conducting an audit of the agency’s incident data.