By John Blodgett, MacKay & Company
You can’t open a trade journal website, newsletter, magazine or attend a conference in the commercial trucking market without seeing articles about new technologies now or coming down the pike.
Autonomous vehicles, telematics, the Internet of Everything (IoE), alternative-powered vehicles, blockchain, 3D printing, solar-powered flying monkeys (just seeing if you are still paying attention), drones and many more are making this (from my perspective) a very exciting time. Especially when you consider the pace of change, this is not the pace of your grandfather’s industrial revolution.
I recently attended the ACT Expo in Long Beach, Calif. This was the seventh annual conference focused on Advanced Clean Transportation, with primary focus on commercial on-highway vehicles.
What did I learn? A lot. What can I remember? Less than a lot, but I did take notes.
I attended this conference five years ago and at that time the primary discussions revolved around natural gas (CNG and LNG) powered vehicles. This time, electric powered vehicles took center stage, although natural gas, hydrogen and different types of hybrids also were discussed. Within the natural gas powered market, LNG does not seem to be the solution it once was for the long-haul market. The new Class 8 manufacturers, Thor, Nikola, Tesla and others, have alternative ideas.
Whereas natural gas was once seen as the best alternative-power solution several years ago, I think the market now has decided there will be several solutions based primarily on the vehicle applications. There are a vast number of truck and bus applications with different distance requirements, weight hauling requirements, operating characteristics (stop and go vs. long haul), regulatory mandates by region and fuel/charging accessibility needs that will have an impact.
