TMC Preps for Fall Meeting in Raleigh

Truck maintenance executives will wrestle with corrosion, tire issues and other critical topics in Raleigh, N.C., later this month, while technicians compete for honors at an event sponsored by the Technology & Maintenance Council of American Trucking Associations.

TMC’s fall meeting and the seventh annual SuperTech competition are scheduled for Sept. 19-22.

“These are the best of the best technicians, including state champions. They compete in-depth and have to study constantly to stay current,” said TMC Chairman Roy Gambrell, maintenance director of Truck It, Cottontown, Tenn.

Last year, Jeffrey Schlecht, a rookie competitor from a Nebraska Freightliner dealership, beat 102 opponents in the written examination and multi-station skills test.

Also at the fall meeting, TMC is hosting educational sessions on current topics and task force meetings to address on-going research and the development of recommended practices for engineering and maintenance.

ATA Chairman Barbara Windsor, CEO of Hahn Transportation, New Market, Md., will address the event on Sept. 20.

TMC Executive Director Carl Kirk said the group emphasizes the immediately practical but also looks at futuristic concerns.

“This is probably the most practical meeting in the trucking industry that’s offered. Every time there’s even a minute change in equipment, there are effects from that,” he said.

As an example, Kirk said, the adoption of wide-based tires has changed the pattern of forces generated by driving and then exerted on the equipment. A study group will present findings.

Gambrell said several types of corrosion on vehicle components appear to be more problematic now than years ago, and study groups also will offer observations and advice on that issue.

In addition, engineers from manufacturers Freightliner Trucks, Navistar Inc., Meritor Inc. and Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co. will talk to fleet executives and respond to a February TMC presentation, when fleet managers told manufacturers they want to use TMC’s recommended practices in specifying options on tractors and trailers.

Electronic sensors can be used to perform condition-based maintenance. Kirk said that longtime standards for maintenance intervals are based on averages or medians for miles driven or hours of operation, but to the extent a carrier’s operations are atypical, the miles-hours standards are of less value.

“By using sensors, you can get information on a part or system’s actual condition and when it is likely to fail,” Kirk said of the session on condition-based maintenance.