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.

It’s a matter of simple supply and demand economics— the historically low volume of new trailer sales in the past three years means that fewer late model used trailers will be available going forward. Likewise, the value of those trailers offered for sale to second owners is likely to rise.

Today, the modest but steady growth seen in the Class 8 truck market is extending to trailers as well. Several factors point to sales growth potential, which is also keeping used trailer values high:

• Chief among the drivers of this positive trend is fleet age, which has risen to historically high levels as a result of underinvestment in replacement trailers over the past three years. Currently, the average trailer is eight years old, a number that is slightly higher for dry freight vans. Increasing maintenance costs for this aging fleet will drive demand for new trailers for the next two to three years at least.

• Industry specific drivers will affect demand for certain trailer types. For example, flatbed demand is closely tied to commercial and residential construction activity, which is expected to rebound.

• Regulatory issues will also contribute to increased demand for trailers. For example, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has mandated features for new and used trailers covering refrigeration units as well as aerodynamics, which should lead to an increase in new orders.

• As truck tonnage grows, trailer utilization is rising, up from a low of 75 percent in early 2009 to nearly 98 percent earlier this year.

Due to higher raw material and energy prices, which raise manufacturing costs, new trailer buyers may also find that prices are rising. Still, despite ongoing concerns about the North American economy, trailer demand has not shown recent signs of decline. Current forecasts point to a strong surge in demand in 2011 and beyond.

Considering used trailer values and new trailer prices, as well as long-term costs and other market and regulatory considerations, there may not be a better time than the present to consider replacing equipment.

Working to make highways safer has always been a key goal of the trucking industry. Recently, two very prominent industry associations took a very public stance, calling for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to consider setting crashworthiness standards for commercial vehicles similar to those in place for cars and light-duty trucks.

Calling it a high priority, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) told NHTSA they “believe there may be opportunities to enhance the survivability of professional truck drivers if appropriate, research-based, uniform standards are developed.”

ATA and OOIDA highlighted the need to improve cab structure and occupant restraints such as safety belts and airbags, among other safety-related features. They also mentioned the need to strengthen windshields and doors to prevent occupant ejections, and to install more forgiving interior surfaces.

While the federal agency considers this request, a number of safety systems for trucks are already helping fleets and drivers avoid accidents, saving dollars, equipment and lives in the process.

Among them are anti-lock braking, automatic traction control and stability control systems that use electronic control units to transparently assist the driver. The systems continually monitor conditions that can lead to an accident. They reduce the risk of vehicle instability through selective application of tractor and trailer brakes, and the reduction of speed through engine control and application of the engine brake.

The growth in specs for stability solutions shows that fleets are continuing to recognize the benefits of these technologies. A study conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) uses postcrash data to show how stability controls can provide safety benefits.

Among its conclusions are the following:

• If all existing five-axle tractor-trailers operating on U.S. roads were fitted with roll stability control systems, 3,489 crashes, 106 fatalities and 4,384 injuries could potentially be prevented.

• Annual savings from rollovers prevented by roll stability control systems are estimated at $1.409 billion; savings from loss-of-control crashes prevented are estimated at $47 million.

Another type of technology that is gaining in acceptance is designed to actively intervene to help maintain safe following distances. Adaptive cruise control and forward-looking radar systems monitor the distance, speed and deceleration of a vehicle ahead. In some cases, when they detect a potential collision developing, the systems send audible and visual warnings to the driver. If the driver does not respond, these systems can automatically decelerate the vehicle by reducing engine torque and applying engine and foundation brakes.

While safety technologies do not replace the need for alert drivers practicing safe driving habits, today’s state-of-the-art safety systems are making highways safer than ever. Proactive efforts to improve the crashworthiness of commercial vehicles can only ultimately help even further.

Regardless of the business you’re in, whether it’s manufacturing trailers, trucks, systems and components or hauling freight, the objective is the same. The focus is always on the customers, on learning how to deliver the products they need along with highly valuable and expert support.

Regardless of the business you’re in as well, it takes open and effective communication with customers to succeed. Today, the trucking industry is quickly learning how new social media communications channels, such as blogs, and Facebook and Twitter to name just a few, can change the way they operate for the better.

Suppliers from all corners of the freight transportation marketplace are now using social media to have conversations that help develop improvements in the products they offer more rapidly. Through these channels, suppliers find that they and their customers can challenge each other to develop new solutions, and resolve problems more quickly and effectively.

Social media communications channels also give trucking companies the ability to more effectively meet their customers’ and their employees’ needs. Online social networking usage among motor carriers is growing because these channels help drive up sales and work more effectively with employees. For many, social media is fast becoming an essential tool for streamlining operations and managing supply chains.

Growth in social media use is not limited to trucking businesses. In the 2010 version of the annual study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research on the use of social media among the Inc. 500, the list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., there was a considerable drop in the number of companies that did not use social media. In addition, while in 2009 just 43 percent of respondents reported social media was “very important” to their business strategy, that number jumped to 56 percent last year.

Social media is transforming and shaping how business is conducted, how we communicate with our customers, partners and employees. A set of highly effective tools, it is able to ultimately bring about a competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive marketplace.