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TMC to Tackle Electrification in First Annual Meeting Since 2020
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American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council plans to focus its annual meeting on electrifying performance in maintenance management.
The TMC 2022 Annual Meeting & Transportation Technology Exhibition is due to convene March 7-10 in Orlando, Fla.
Electrifying performance in maintenance management means moving beyond the surface-level understanding of electric vehicles.
“It’s more than just electric vehicles although there is certainly a key component to electric vehicles in our agenda for this meeting,” Robert Braswell, executive director of TMC, told Transport Topics. “We are expecting our first full blown annual meeting in person since the pandemic in February of 2020.”
Braswell said the upcoming annual meeting is planned the way they were before the coronavirus pandemic curtailed events and converted meetings to virtual presentations.
“This is truly the first full annual meeting experience that we’re going to have in more than two years,” Braswell said. “So, we’re really excited about that. There’s just a ton of activity. We’re expecting 4,000 or 5,000 people to be at this event. And of course, the registrations and the exhibits are just doing really well. So, we’re just pleased with all of that.”
The TMC 2022 annual meeting is scheduled to have more than 110 task force meetings on the first day alone. They will cover 17 disciplines, including electrical, tires, wheels and engines.
The Wheel End Thermal Events Task Force meeting will discuss a new recommended practice it developed related to wheels overheating.
“They’re going to be going over balloting results from that, which we did this winter, and talking about the root causes of these vehicle fires and what fleets can do about it in terms of inspection, in terms of maintenance and in terms of specifications,” Braswell said. “That’s going to be a really good task force that’s meeting Monday.”
The meeting will also host numerous sessions covering electric vehicle issues. That includes developing recommended practices on electric vehicles coolant, lubricants and tires and a meeting on leak detection for visible vapor that emanates from electric vehicles.
“We’ve got some that deal with technician training issues for electric vehicles,” Braswell said. “We have one that’s going to be dealing with electric vehicle efficiency performance, and all the metrics that go around that. So, there’s a lot of technical activity that’s starting to focus in on different aspects of the electric vehicle. That’s going to be evident in the task forces that we present on Monday.”
Braswell
The annual meeting will also include several educational sessions. The U.S. Department of Energy SuperTruck program will be the subject of one of them. The initiative was formed to support the development of electrified truck technologies. SuperTruck 3 was launched Nov. 1 with $128 million in funding to five manufacturers.
“We’re going to be talking about findings from what DOE learned from its SuperTruck phase two and also teasing a little bit of what they’re going to be doing in phase three,” Braswell said. “We also have this ride and drive demonstrations where we’re showcasing automated vehicle technology. People will be able to actually get into an autonomous vehicle at level four and level five and go through a closed loop and experience what it’s like to be in an automated vehicle.”
Braswell added that the conference will also host a special technical session on how fleets can manage automated driving-equipped vehicles along with the rest of their fleet.
Also, the meeting will have a mock trial covering how fleets can defend themselves from tire- and wheel-related litigation.
“We’re going to have a mock trial and we’re going to be walking attendees through what could you experience as a fleet if you are called in to be questioned on your maintenance practices,” Braswell said.
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