Electric trucks are coming, with companies like Tesla, Thor and Nikola planning to go to market with their Class 8 electric vehicles in the coming few years.
With that comes plenty of uncertainty in the trucking industry, and there will be a number of experts to speak on the “Dawn of Electrics” in trucking at the CCJ Symposium later this month. The event is scheduled for May 21-23 at the Westin Hilton Head Island Resort in South Carolina.
The portion of Symposium focusing on electric trucks will include a presentation, called “Hype vs. Hope,” by Bill Brentar, senior director of maintenance and engineering at UPS, and Mike Roeth, executive director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency.
Following the presentation, a panel discussion will be held on the “Rise of Electric Trucks.” This panel will feature Julie Furber, director of electrification business for Cummins; Giordano Sordoni, COO and founder of Thor Trucks; Chris Nordh, senior director of advanced vehicle technologies and global fuel products at Ryder; and Brentar. The goal of the panel is to separate fact from fiction as traditional truck OEMs and new players enter the marketplace to challenge diesel.
Symposium attendees will also have the opportunity to attend one of three breakout sessions focusing on electric trucks. One session, hosted by Roeth, will focus on evaluating alternative powertrain performance. This session will dive into different alternative power options, including compressed and liquefied natural gas and all-electric, and how to pick the right one based on application.
Another breakout session will be hosted by Nordh and will look at maintenance challenges for mixed fleets. Having a consistent maintenance cycle for multiple units is challenging enough as it is, but adding in different powertrains and alternative fuels can make things even more complex. This breakout will look to help solve those issues.
Finally, Brentar will host a breakout session on the benefits of being a green carrier. He will talk about UPS’ fleet of more than 7,500 alternative fuel vehicles, which operate of seven different types of fuel. He will talk about which fuels, in which applications and in which lanes, are working best for the nation’s largest carrier.
Registration for Symposium is $495 and includes all sessions, all event-included meals and the golf activity. The event is open to fleet management only. A full agenda for the event can be found here.
During the registration process, attendees will be asked if they would like to book a room for a discounted rate of $219 per night, not including taxes and fees.
