Almost 18 years after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed, U.S. and Mexican officials have found a way to begin allowing each country’s trucks to haul freight on the other’s highways. For motor carriers and suppliers of vehicles, parts and services, the border opening is the begin- ning of a new era that will lead to growth and success.

There is no doubt that NAFTA has increased trade volume between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and that trucking companies have been primary beneficiaries of that activity. Mexico is the third largest trading partner of the U.S. after Canada and China, and represents the second largest export market for U.S. goods. Trucks transport 80 percent of the value of U.S.-Mexico trade and 65 percent of the value of U.S.-Canada trade.

Arguments against cross-border trucking between the U.S. and Mexico are countered by facts. For example, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration indi- cates that Mexican trucks are as safe as U.S. trucks and that their drivers are gen- erally safer than U.S. drivers. Between 2004 and 2008, a 21 percent vehicle out- of-service rate for Mexican trucks was actually slightly lower than that for U.S. trucks (22 percent).

Mexican truck drivers performed even better, posting out-of-service rates of one percent in the same period compared to seven percent for U.S. drivers. Today, Mexican drivers involved in cross-border trucking operations have to pass safety reviews, drug tests and assessments of their English-language skills. Mexico has the authority to demand similar measures from U.S. truck drivers.

Cross border trucking is also expected to relieve congestion at crossings. Previously, a shipment traveling across the border required three drivers and three tractors

for a single freight movement— a U.S. motor carrier to transport freight in the U.S., trucks to move freight across the border to warehouses or yards, and a Mexican motor carrier to haul freight within Mexico. That activity was estimat- ed to add as much as five percent to the cost of goods.

Achieving NAFTA’s original intention of eliminating barriers to trade between the U.S., Canada and Mexico is dependent on the flow of freight between the three countries. Opening cross-border operations for motor carriers has already had a measurable and highly favorable effect on trucking companies serving shippers on both sides of the U.S.- Canadian border. Applying the same approach to cross-border trucking between the U.S. and Mexico will only further enhance the growth and success of trucking companies, and the suppliers that meet their needs.

In the Platinum Performance System Plus, offered by STEM- CO for new Great Dane trailers, customers now benefit from the high quality components that are part of the Platinum Performance Plus wheel end system. An extended warranty of five years on labor, six years on parts with the option to extend to nine years on parts is a new offering exclusive to Great Dane.

The STEMCO Platinum Performance System Plus is an integrated solution designed to ensure and extend wheel end performance and to lower maintenance costs for fleets. Combining components from the manufacturer’s line of wheel end products, the system offers fleets the flexibility to choose wheel end solutions that enhance sealing, lubricant integrity and bearing life. By addressing these critical performance areas, fleets can realize long life performance at a lower overall cost.

Components in the STEMCO Platinum Performance System Plus include:

• Guardian HP or Discover seals in hub or a spindle mount con- figurations. The Guardian HP axle-installed seal features a sealing lip for contamination exclusion and a self-lubricating thrust pad. The Discover hub-installed seal features a unitized design that uses a high temperature elastomeric, co-polymer sealing element combined with Teflon.

• Pro-Torq axle spindle nuts that control bearing end play and lead to longer tire life, extended wheel seal and bearing life and more accurate wheel end sensor monitoring on antilock braking systems.

• Sentinel or Integrated Sentinel tamper-proof hubcaps designed to eliminate contamination of the lubricant from grime, dirt, or water. The Integrated Sentinel Hub Cap design incorporates patented technology directly into the hubcap using fewer components.

The Platinum Performance System Plus also includes heavy-duty STEMCO bearings.

STEMCO Platinum Performance long-life wheel end systems offer fleets the simplicity of a proven design at a lower cost, durability from the use of high performance components, and ease of serviceability with standard hubs, axles, lubricants and bearings. Working as a system, the combination of components eliminates wheel end failure, assuring lower maintenance costs by reducing downtime.

The Model 715 TrailerBlade is approved for factory installation on Great Dane trailers. The aerodynamic trailer side skirts have undergone independent fuel efficiency testing at the General Motors Desert Proving Ground and have met CARB requirements and achieved SmartWay certification.

TrailerBlade Model 715, according to the manufacturer, achieved greater than seven percent fuel savings in independent testing compared to an identical trailer without the side skirts. By exceeding five percent fuel savings, TrailerBlade is SmartWay Certified as an Advanced Side Skirt.

The Sterol TrailerBlade side skirt consists of an upper panel made of a steel composite (polyethylene core). The composition is formulated to achieve a precise combination of aerodynamic efficiency, flexibility and durability. The upper panel can be color matched to a fleet’s design.

The single piece, flexible lower skirt on the Model 715 TrailerBlade is made of TPV rubber (a thermoplastic vulcanite compound), which will maintain its aerodynamic profile in triple digit temperatures and yet remain flexible enough to pass over objects in temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees. The proprietary lower skirt, the company notes, gives TrailerBlade ground clearance as high as 25 inches. The skirt’s design also allows it to flex outward to release potentially damaging objects.

TrailerBlade features a patent pending, spring-loaded mounting pillar that flexes to avoid damage by absorbing side impacts and is pre-loaded to eliminate vibration. The pillar is also self-enclosed so it will not collect snow, ice, mud or other road debris. The four- way adjustable skirt enables both forward angle and side-pitch to be adjusted to achieve an optimal balance between fuel efficiency, aesthetics and durability.

TrailerBlade’s design also enables easy, bolt-on installation and its modular components lower the cost of repair.

TrailerBlade Model 715 measures 22 feet in length and 32 inches in height, and weighs 220 lbs.

“We have not had a single problem with any of the Great Dane Classic reefers we’ve purchased in the past eight years,” says Paul Spencer, fleet maintenance manager at Byrne Dairy. “These trailers are proving to be a very worthwhile long-term investment.”
Headquartered in Syracuse, New York, Byrne Dairy now fields 50 Great Dane Classic reefers. Since 2004, the company has been replacing other trailers in its fleet exclusively with Great Dane 35 ft and 48 ft models.

“We turned to Great Dane to address a number of structural issues we were having with our refrigerated trailers,” Spencer states. “We needed an OEM that would build equipment to our specifications, and that offered a trailer that would meet our needs for durability and reliability. We found those attributes in Great Dane.”

Byrne Dairy’s latest order of 48 ft by 96-inch Great Dane Classic reefers calls for several specifications that are now standards for the fleet. Included are extra crossmembers over the landing gear and a unique specification for a reinforced bottom rail under the two curbside 40-inch doors on each trailer.

This spec, Spencer explains, provides the protection needed when trucks are backed up to the trailer side doors so pallets, carts and crates can be transferred between vehicles. “During this transfer operation,” he adds, “it was too easy to accidentally damage the trailer with the truck’s rear bumper. Great Dane was willing to provide this reinforcement for protection, along with side door steps and grab handles.”

Bryne Dairy’s Great Dane Classic reefers also feature stainless steel rear door frames and Whiting Coldsaver III roll-up doors with stainless steel interior and exterior hardware. All lights on the trailers are LED lamps and have the Grote Long Life Light System, plus three interior dome lights. Inside its trailers, the fleet specs a heavy-duty textured aluminum floor and a 16-inch high extruded aluminum scuffband. The latest trailers are equipped with Carrier refrigeration units.

Byrne Dairy trailers are specified with SAF Holland Mark V landing gear and an air operated Premier pintle hook for doubles operations. The trailers ride on Hendrickson 40,000-lb capacity sliding tandem axles with air suspensions.

Standard specs on the trailers also call for Conmet aluminum hubs and TruTurn outboard cast drums, Meritor PSI automatic tire monitoring and inflation systems, and Accuride aluminum disc wheels.

Byrne Dairy invests as heavily in its trailers as it does in its business. The company’s state-of-the-art 40,000sq ft Ultra Dairy manufacturing facility in Dewitt, New York, which can hold 50,000 gallons of raw milk, is one of the country’s most advanced ultra pasteurized plants. In 2008, the company invested $28 million to expand its Ultra Dairy production as well as its technological capabilities.

A third-generation, family-owned business, Byrne Dairy was founded in 1933. Its first milk products were delivered to homes and stores by horse-drawn wagons. In 1941, it began using motorized vehicles. Today, its fleet hauls tens of millions of gallons of milk, cream and ice cream annually, distributing its perishable products along the entire eastern seaboard and delivering longer-life dairy and non-dairy products to all states east of the Mississippi River.

Byrne Dairy products are carried by one of the industry’s most capable and safest teams of drivers. At the New York State Truck Driving Championships, which includes a written knowledge test, a pre-trip inspection competition and a skills road course, three Byrne Dairy drivers placed in the top three spots in their respective vehicle classes. In addition, for a sixth year in a row, Byrne Dairy was recognized by the New York State Motor Truck Association as one of the safest fleets in the state. Its most recent first place award in the Large Metro Class for outstanding highway safety was the result of traveling more than 6.7 million miles without a recordable accident.

In all respects, Byrne Dairy is a forward-think- ing company. From its manufacturing technology to the trailers that deliver its products, only the best long term investments are adopted. “That’s why we’re phasing Great Dane reefers into our operation,” Paul Spencer says, “and plan to do so until our entire fleet of trailers is built by Great Dane.”

Everest CL Reefer
Great Dane’s all-new line of reefer trailers includes the Everest CL which provides the flexibility to configure as many as three precisely controlled temperature zones and an ambient section. With the latest industry-best innovations as standard, Everest reefers include Great Dane’s exclusive PunctureGuard lining for increased protection from daily wear and tear and an enhanced floor package featuring an anti-corrosion system.

Also featured is the Long-Life Light System with all LED lamps and dual intensity lighting; and Stemco’s Platinum Performance Plus wheel end system. Everest CL models are avail- able with white aluminum or corrugated stainless steel exterior panels and a comb-style rear frame constructed of rustproof satin-finish stainless steel. To learn more, go to www.greatdanetrailers.com.

“When we decided to replace our entire fleet of 175 trailers there was really only one choice,” says Carla Luig, president and CEO of First Choice Transport. “Great Dane’s reputation for building quality products, and its stability— especially in tough economic times— told us they’ll be in business and able to sup- port us for a long time. We’re very happy with this choice.”

Founded in September 2001 by Luig in her own home, First Choice Transport has experienced steady growth and ongoing success. The veteran of trucking and Fortune 500 companies now heads an interstate and intrastate trucking and transportation operation that services customers in Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri with 85 company- owned tractors. Based in Fort Worth, the company also provides brokerage service to 42 additional states, as well cross-dock, partial load, consolidation, warehousing, and multi-stop services.

“When we opened for business we did not have the financial backing to buy new equipment so we began by leasing trailers,” Luig relates. “Then we bought some used trailers. Now that we are able to fund our equipment needs, we looked at our options and quickly realized that Great Dane offered the most reliable and durable trailers at a competitive cost.”

In 2011, First Choice replaced 95 of its trailers with 53-foot Great Dane P-101 Series dry freight vans built at the Jonesboro, Arkansas manufacturing facility. The trailers are fitted with slid- ing air ride suspensions and TIREMAAX PRO automatic tire monitoring and inflation solutions from Hendrickson Trailer Suspension Systems.

The high-cube P-101 dry freight van is a lightweight model with a nominal inside width of 101-inches. Offering more capacity than traditional sheet and post trailers, the P-101 also features a snag-free interior plastic lining that runs full height and is secured to the logistic posts using Great Dane’s unique “hook” design.

“We are planning to replace our other 80 trailers with P-101s in 2012,” Luig states. “Phasing them in makes sense because it gives us time to sell our existing units. Of course, there is a shortage of used five year old or newer trailers so we could be ready for our new Great Danes sooner.”

First Choice Transport’s decision to replace its entire trailer fleet coincided with a move to upgrade all of its dry vans with a new tracking, monitoring and fleet management system. The R:COM Dot trailer solution from Blue Tree Systems is being installed in the fleet’s new P-101 vans at the Jonesboro plant.

“Great Dane’s willingness to include the installation of our new trailer tracking system hardware in the production of our P-101 dry freight vans cemented our belief that we were doing business with the right company,” Luig says. “We were not offered that level of service by other manufacturers.”

“For us, Great Dane also stands out against its competitors because it has a network of branches and dealers throughout our entire operating area,” Luig continues. “With Great Dane we have set rates for services and access online to our trailer maintenance records so we are sure everything is up-to-date. We also have people within the Great Dane organization who are always ready to meet our needs, day and night.”

Luig firmly believes that Great Dane’s exceptional support is simply not available anywhere else. “We also did not find any other make that is as solid as a Great Dane,”she says. “In our opinion no other trailer stands up to the big dog.”

Champion SE Dry Freight
Great Dane’s all-new line of dry freight van trailers includes the Champion SE, designed for owner-operators, small fleets, LTL and truckload carriers alike. The Champion Series features many components aimed at eliminating corrosion and reducing overall maintenance.

Incorporating the latest industry-best innovations as standard, the Champion Series features the newly-designed EnduroGuard rear frame, a combination of galvanneal and stainless steel components structured to offer greater strength and durability while providing long-term corrosion protection. Standard 1⁄2-inch composite swing-type rear doors with galvanized steel exterior and interior skins and a polymer core also help eliminate corrosion. Also featured is the Long- Life Light System with all LED lamps and dual-intensity lighting; and Stemco’s Platinum Performance Plus wheel end system. Interior lining options include steel-lined SSL and plastic-lined panels for increased strength and reduced maintenance. To learn more, go to www.greatdanetrailers.com.

Great Dane has standardized its LongLife Light System and Grote MicroNova DOT lamps for all future orders. Combined, the technologies offer customers enhanced value, safety and protection against corrosion.

LED (Light Emitting Diode) lamps have a number of advantages over incandescent lighting, including an expected service life that is six times longer than traditional incandescent trailer light bulbs. The longer life is the result of producing less heat and being less susceptible to shock and vibration. Fewer replacements with LEDs also lower maintenance expenses and eliminate the potential for injury when replacing bulbs in top rails and rear frames.

Some of the latest LED lamps, including Dual Intensity Clearance/Marker LEDs, are designed in small sizes to fit in narrow applications. The recessed mounting and smaller size of these lamps significantly reduce the potential for damage. The LEDs on Great Dane trailers also feature a hermetic lens-to- housing seal and total circuit-board protection against vibration and corrosion.

Dual intensity and standard LED lamps also provide a safety advantage over incandescent lamps because they generate brighter light and take only a fraction of a second to reach full illumination, making a trailer more visible when used in signal and brake lamp assemblies.

Great Dane’s LongLife Light System is a completely sealed system designed to help prevent damaging moisture intrusion. The premium offering is a modular and maintenance-free system that combines the flexibility of a custom wiring solution with the durability, reliability and simplicity of a fully sealed harness.

Features of the LongLife Light System include gaskets on all connection points and the use of dielectric grease to prevent moisture and contaminant intrusion. Additionally, a full ground return ensures system integrity. Sealed from the lamp connectors to the nose box, the ground return replaces pigtails that left a connection exposed to the atmosphere.

LEDs have been the lighting choice for a growing number of Great Dane customers because of their longer life and overall cost savings. Today, the initial cost difference between LED and incandescent lamps continues to decline.

Now standard on all Great Dane models, these premium lights coupled with a premium wiring harness are a perfect fit for the industry’s highest quality trailers.

Great Dane dry freight vans have a newly designed rear frame for swing and roll-up doors that has replaced the previous carbon steel design. The new EnduroGuard rear frame features a combination of galvanneal and stainless steel components and offers strength while providing greater durability and long-term corrosion protection.

Subjected to road debris and exposed to potential damage from loading docks, as states and municipalities are increasingly using more caustic winter road chemicals – untreated carbon steel rear frames were prone to the corrosive nature of these chemicals. Great Dane has now addressed that concern for customers with a unique and proven, highly effective combination of materials.

The new EnduroGuard rear frames for dry vans incorporate galvanneal, a hot-dipped zinc alloy coating that is chemically-bonded over carbon steel, and stainless steel components. In particular, all frame members that are 7-gauge or thinner in thickness are made of galvanneal. Thicker components, typically those around high impact zones such as upper corners and tail lights, are constructed of stainless steel.

Research and development of the new Great Dane EnduroGuard rear frame indicates a high degree of confidence in the construction of the design and the ability of both materials to be painted with an epoxy primer/urethane topcoat system. A review of existing trailers, built ten years ago with these specifications, was also very favorable.

The new rear frame, EnduroGuard is used on all stock, high- spec and composite dry freight vans with roll-up or swing doors, providing lasting quality for customers for many years to come.

The results speak for themselves. While competitive OEMs have presented unfounded assertions to customers rebutting the efficiency claims of ThermoGuard, Great Dane has the data that shows conclusively how the exclusive glass-reinforced thermoplastic interior liner’s advanced thermal properties lead to long-term efficiency and costs savings for users of refrigerated trailers.

Available to Great Dane customers for more than six years, ThermoGuard samples were submitted by Great Dane to an independent third party laboratory that specializes in permeability testing. In these tests, ThermoGuard was evaluated against several competitive lining materials for permeability of water vapor and HFC 245fa, the blowing agent used in trailer urethane foams. These results agree with inservice test data confirming that ThermoGuard lining has the lowest permeability, protecting trailer insulation better and helping maintain performance and save fuel over the life of the vehicle.

The innovative ThermoGuard lining’s barrier layer reduces “out gassing” of the polyurethane foam used in reefer trailers for insulation. This key component seals the trailer’s insulation, significantly reducing the insulation degradation caused by normal aging in trailers with traditional interior linings.

With ThermoGuard, cooling units do not have to work as hard to make up for degrading insulation performance, reducing cooling unit run-time, saving fuel and refueling time, extending refrigeration unit life and lowering maintenance costs.

Great Dane’s testing of in-service Classic reefers with ThermoGuard has indicated a loss of thermal efficiency comparable to just one year after more than seven years of service. In this customer operation, identically specified units without ThermoGuard exhibited rapid loss of thermal efficiency in the first two years of service and then continued to degrade over the life of the trailer. Earlier evaluations of the same
ThermoGuard equipped trailers after 6, 8 and 20 months of service indicated an almost insignificant loss.

ThermoGuard addresses the need for stiffness in a trailer’s interior liner, helping to prevent the force from pallets, cargo or forklifts during loading and unloading from damaging the foam insulation in the trailer walls, causing it to lose mechanical and ultimately, thermal integrity. The inherent stiffness comes from the high-glass content in ThermoGuard and its placement in the glass-reinforced, thermoplastic liners. With more glass than any other product on the market, and a design that orients the glass close to but not too near the surface, this unique liner combines significantly better strength and increased stiffness as compared to similar thickness or thinner liners. In addition, the liner remains resilient, so impacts from loading equipment are less likely to puncture or tear the material leading to trailer maintenance or insulation degradation.

Adhesion characteristics are also addressed in the design of ThermoGuard. The proprietary and unique adhesion system creates a specialized layer that serves as a highly effective anchor into the foam insulation. This very strong mechanical bond helps protect against de-lamination caused by gouging, rubbing or denting that can damage the foam attached to the liner and cause the liner to separate from the insulation inside the trailer’s walls.

As tests indicate, ThermoGuard extends a refrigerated trailer’s useful life by performing extraordinarily well for Great Dane customers over longer periods of time. In all areas, this revolutionary liner is proving to be superior to all other options currently available on the market.

Great Dane’s all-new line of reefer trailers, the Everest Series, come standard with floor systems utilizing anti-corrosion features consisting of composite floor sills, organic-coated floor and sill screws, and an improved sub-pan. These three distinct technologies combine to form a comprehensive solution for protecting trailers from moisture and corrosion.

Corrosion in reefer floors with wood sills results when water enters the floor insulation cavity and is soaked up by the cellular, natural wood Apitong sills. Great Dane’s Everest Series reefers utilize composite floor sills, which do not act like a sponge and do not absorb water.

Moisture can also corrode traditional floor and sill screws allowing for further water penetration into the floor cavity. At Great Dane, the use of organic coatings helps reduce the possibility of these screws corroding. Composite sills are secured to the cross-members using sill screws that employ a special three-layer coating system to prevent corrosion. The system includes two-layer inorganic zinc and polymer base-coats as well as aluminum and polymer organic topcoats. Combined, the characteristics of these materials provide both an excellent barrier to corrosion and a sacrificial layer, effectively doubling the protection of conventional treatments.

The same or similar organic coatings are proving highly successful as barriers against corrosion in several carefully selected and extensively tested fastener applications on Great Dane trailers, such as nuts, bolts, screws and other types of hardware. In addition to attaching reefer floors to composite sills and sills to cross-members, other areas where these screws are now in standard use on Great Dane reefers is for attaching cargo track and scuff-bands to walls.

A third and equally important component in addressing corrosion in reefer floors is an improved subfloor pan. The insulated floor cavity of a refrigerated trailer is an especially critical area because it is continuously exposed to the environment, including exposure to road de-icing chemicals and cleaning agents.

Great Dane’s reefer subfloor pan, in use since 2008, is stronger and less porous, not to mention lighter weight. In terms of puncture resistance, testing has revealed that the glass-reinforced polypropylene sub pan has exhibited more than twice the strength of competitive offerings, making it less likely to be punctured or cut and provide an entry path for moisture. In addition, permeability tests have shown an exceptional ability to prevent moisture intrusion, all with a weight savings of 40 lbs per 53-foot trailer.

By employing several proven technologies as a system, Great Dane is effectively and proactively addressing corrosion in reefer floors.

The Women In Trucking Association will host its third annual “Salute to the Women Behind the Wheel” at the Mid-America Trucking Show on Sat., March 24. Any woman with a commercial driver’s license is encouraged to attend, including WIT members and non-members.
Continue Reading