inbound
Warm weather is finally sweeping across North America, and workers
in every profession are trying to shed a few extra pounds before pulling
on their shorts and T-shirts. One group that often has trouble making it
to the gym, however, is truck drivers—after all, it’s tough to get to that
afternoon Spin class when you’re stuck in traffic halfway across the state.
Now, the fitness chain Gold’s Gym has come up with a solution, offering on-the-road fitness programs for professional truck and bus drivers.
The chain recently unveiled a package of gym discounts for members of
the driver wellness group Rolling Strong and their families.
The partners hope this new program can improve the health of individual over-the-road drivers as well as overhaul the state of one of the
nation’s most sedentary professions, according to Jennifer Ryan, Gold’s
Gym’s director of corporate sales and wellness. Gold’s Gym has 101
locations throughout the U.S. with big rig-friendly parking lots, making
it easy for road warriors to add a “fit stop” to their daily route.
Truckers pump iron, not gas
Fuel costs account for a big chunk of the operating budgets of commercial motor carriers and private fleets alike, so the fuel-sipping
SuperTruck, a prototype tractor-trailer designed for heavy hauling, is
bound to generate some buzz.
The prototype was developed as part of the SuperTruck challenge,
a five-year $115 million partnership between the U.S. Department of
Energy and four truck makers. The goal was to improve
18-wheelers’ freight efficiency by at least 50 percent, and
the price of admission was
to match the government
funding.
Daimler Trucks North
America succeeded on both
counts by using extensive
computer modeling and
wind tunnel testing to craft a machine that boasts a 115-percent
improvement in freight efficiency (freight-ton-miles per gallon) over a
2009 baseline truck.
Unveiled at the 2015 Mid-America Trucking Show under Daimler’s
Freightliner brand, the SuperTruck has cruised at 12. 2 mpg—about
twice the typical mileage for big rigs—thanks to features such as low-roll-ing-resistance single tires, aerodynamic surfaces, and an Intelligent
Powertrain Management (IPM) system that controls shifting and coasting according to preloaded 3-D digital maps.
Combined with solar panels on the trailer’s roof and a hybrid drive-train with a 10.7-liter diesel engine linked to an electric motor, the design
slashes fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This concept
truck design won’t be in showrooms any time soon, but Daimler plans
to use several of the new technologies in future models.
SuperTruck delivers great gas mileage
Rising demand from the food industry is making cold storage a hot
growth area, with the global volume
of temperature-controlled warehousing space spiking nearly 8 percent
over the past year, a trade group
study shows.
The worldwide volume of cold
storage space operated by members
of the International Association of
Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW)
now totals 4.73 billion cubic feet—a
7.78-percent increase from May
2014—representing growth in both
the industry segment overall and
in the organization’s membership
ranks, the group said.
More than half ( 2.81 billion cubic
feet) of that space is managed by
members of the group’s North
American Top 25, as measured in
millions of cubic feet. The Top 25
includes such giants as Americold
Logistics (908), Lineage Logistics
(600), United States Cold Storage
Inc. (234), Preferred Freezer Services
(213), and VersaCold Logistics
Services (119).
Also appearing high on the list—
again ranked by millions of cubic
feet—were Interstate Warehousing
Inc. (82), Nordic Logistics and
Warehousing LLC (70), Cloverleaf
Cold Storage Co. (65), Burris
Logistics ( 62), and Henningsen Cold
Storage Co. ( 54).
Trailing far behind in square footage are the group’s European Top
25, which total 585.00 million cubic
feet, and Latin American Top 25,
which collectively operate 234.23
million cubic feet. In all, IARW
represents 1,184 temperature-controlled facilities across 60 countries.
For the complete lists, go to www.
gcca.org/resources/industry-topics/
cold-chain-market-research-trends/
iarw-top-25-list-of-largest-refrig-
erated-warehousing-and-logistics-companies.
Cold storage sees hot
growth
