Ride along in a DME powered Volvo VNL day cab

Jun 08, 2013

Take a quick drive with CCJ Equipment Editor Jack Roberts as he pilots a Volvo VNL day cab powered with dimethyl ether (DME).

Roberts’ 425 horsepower unit was fitted with an I-Shift transmission and charged with pulling more than 30,000 pounds of construction equipment around a decommissioned Air Force base in Sacramento, Calif.

Last Thursday, Volvo became the first manufacturer to announce plans to commercialize DME-powered heavy-duty commercial vehicles in North America.

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Bee-Line Transport operates a 60-truck regional fleet out of Houston, Texas. When we caught up with safety director James Jeter this week to recap the past year, the fleet was fresh off dealing with last week's torrential weather across Texas and other parts of the Southeast. 'It was almost a total shutdown,' he said. 'We got people home or to a place where they could ride it out. Everybody's safe -- no accidents, no problems. We were pretty worn, though. We spent hours on the phone and through messaging systems keeping up with everybody.'

12 months in, two fleets recall the ups and downs of trucking in a pandemic

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New technology developments are helping fleet managers reduce safety busywork to have more time to focus on training activities that have the biggest impact.

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With serial production of its electric eCascadia and eM2 set for next year, DTNA earlier this month unveiled Detroit electric ePowertrain.

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Get all the info on the top 250 trucking companies in America

View, sort and download the trucking industry’s most comprehensive ranking of for-hire carriers in North America, based on a blend of metrics including fleet size, annual revenue and number of drivers.

Take Control of Toll: How Violations Work and How to Minimize Fleet Impact

With the rapid adoption of cashless tolling across the country and the associated benefit in transponder deployment for operations and the company’s bottom line, it is now more important than ever for fleets to develop an informed toll management strategy