Component Makers Eye Systems to Comply With Looming Truck-Rollover Rule
Two of the biggest truck component makers, Bendix Corp. and Meritor WABCO, are maneuvering over which will benefit more when the Department of Transportation acts to reduce heavy-duty truck rollovers, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is part of DOT, has made truck rollovers its highest short-term priority for heavy-duty trucks, Bloomberg said.
The National Transportation Safety Board — a separate, independent agency — is scheduled to hear a report at a July 26 hearing on a 2009 tank-truck rollover in Indianapolis that caused an explosion of liquefied petroleum gas. The accident caused damage to the overpass but did not result in any fatalities.
Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said last year that the NTSB has been concerned about truck rollovers as NHTSA develops its standard.
NHTSA officials have said they expect to propose a crash-prevention standard by the end of the year. NHTSA research indicates electronic stability control will be as effective in large trucks as passenger cars, Bloomberg reported.
How the mandate is structured will determine the direction of a marketplace divided into differing technologies offered by Bendix, the Elyria, Ohio-based unit of Munich, Germany-based Knorr-Bremse AG, and Meritor WABCO, a joint venture between Troy, Mich.-based Meritor Inc. and New Jersey-based WABCO Holdings.
Bendix was the first to bring electronic stability control to the market in 2005, Fred Andersky, its director of government affairs, told Bloomberg in an interview.
He said Bendix has sold 130,000 of the systems since then, which sell for $1,800 to $2,400 per truck, Bloomberg reported, while it has sold fewer than 10,000 rollover stability systems.
It’s making a big bet that the NHTSA mandate will spur demand for the systems, which it markets as “full stability,” Andersky said.
Rollover stability control has been more popular with fleet customers as it’s more cost-effective, Meritor WABCO President Jon Morrison told Bloomberg in an interview.
It has sold about 100,000 RSC systems and “far fewer” ESC systems, he said, adding that costs are likely to come down with a NHTSA mandate, Bloomberg reported.
