Domino's Pizza Takes High-Tech Demo Trailer For A Spin

Getting pizza ingredients to stores where they can be prepared for a hungry public isn’t exactly as easy as pie.

Drivers for Domino’s Pizza must maneuver their tractor-trailers in and out of tight, traffic-clogged places. But some of the company’s drivers had an easier go of it during a 18-month test of a “technology demonstrator.”

A 48-foot-long, 102-inch-high Utility refrigerated trailer attached to a Volvo VN tractor was equipped with backup lights, a video camera and proximity sensors that enhanced awareness to the sides and rear. The vehicle operated out of the pizza purveyor’s distribution center in Nashville, Tenn.

Domino’s liked the trailer so much the company ended up buying it, though without most of the high-tech equipment.

The trailer and its cutting-edge devices were “a hit with drivers,” according to a report delivered to The Maintenance Council, an affiliate of American Trucking Associations. But not everything on the vehicle — and another that was used to haul dry freight over the road — worked as well as hoped. Sorting out the good from the not-so-good was the point of the joint government-industry project to test the advanced electronic components.

Corrosion was the greatest obstacle to reliability of electrical systems, said Alan Lesesky, president of Vehicle Enhancement Systems, whose North Carolina facility monitored and maintained the special rigs. Corrosion attacked a number of extra electrical connectors on the rigs, just as it does with standard wiring.

For the full story, see the July 5 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.