In the early 1990s, the top three maintenance costs were lighting, tires and brakes, with lighting ranked No. 1 in frequency of repair, says Brad Van Riper, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Truck-Lite. The company has been producing truck lighting based on light-emitting diode (LED) technology since 1991. “The core benefits that attracted us to the idea of making them are still what attract buyers,” Van Riper says.
Early adopters of LEDs were those who reviewed their maintenance costs, he says. “Their usage of LEDs has meant that lighting dropped off the top 10 list of maintenance areas in frequency and cost. A small investment up front yields years of savings and dependability.”
Travis Hopkey, director of marketing at Phillips Industries, says there is one vocation where LEDs not only save maintenance, but also provide a critical improvement in performance: refrigerated food hauling. In recent years, many reefer fleets have switched to fluorescent lighting to reduce the power consumed in lighting the trailer.
“Fluorescents were not doing the job,” Hopkey says. “Our LED product was designed after listening to the fleets and the drivers’ unions.” The problem wasn’t just the cost of replacing the bulbs in dome lamps at $10 each, but poor lighting, including delivering the wrong package because the driver couldn’t read the label, Hopkey says. “Ballasts take time to fire up under cold conditions,” he says. “And a repair could take a half-hour by the time the technician found the right bulb.”
Page Large, national fleet sales manager at Grote Industries, cites three key advantages to LEDs: amperage draw, safety – instant on or off lighting – and extended life. As far as the last item goes, LEDs in all colors but white are rated at 100,000 hours. “Turn one on and leave it on, and it would be 11 years before it would fail,” Large says. “And flashing on and off does not shorten life the way the line surge that occurs with a filament does.” With no filament, vibration does not damage the light, Large says. “It’s a great product for any application where components are often subjected to vibration damage.”
Grote also is finding a market in reefer trailer dome lamps. “There are a lot of deliveries on many of the different routes,” Large says. “Because they give better light, they cut down on worker’s compensation claims.”
Reduced current draw is another advantage, Large says. For example, if a fleet is looking for an alternative idling solution other than adding APUs, it might accomplish its goals “without adding batteries or upgrading the alternator,” he says. “Bottom line, when you look at the actual return on investment, it opens eyes.”
