With TMC 2024 having come and gone, it was a pleasure reconnecting with old friends and meeting up with new colleagues. Not to mention, enjoying all that beautiful New Orleans has to offer!
Early on I noticed quite a few companies offered TMPS equipment and the tools needed to service that equipment from mounting, hardware, to calibration. This coincides with more and more OEM’s installing TPMS equipment on their trucks from the factory, as well as an uptick in auto-inflation devices being installed.
The Uptake booth was located very close to the Cummins & Eaton stations, so I was able to get a look at the Cummins-Eaton-Meritor complete powertrain solution. It was great to see in person! Very impressive in and of itself, but the fuel agnostic X15 is what really caught my eye being alternative fuels are becoming more and more popular. International has introduced an interesting concept with their S13 engine which utilizes 2 DEF Dosers and does not rely on aftertreament fuel injection or a DOC to burn off soot deposits in its DPF.
With ever growing expansion of EV trucks in the transportation industry, I was able to get a check out the Orange Blossom EV Yard Truck. In my opinion, this is a perfect application for EV’s, considering the troubles that come with a diesel that routinely has low operating temperatures as well as high idle times. The concept of electrification in trucks is not new, but it really stood out to me that there are a lot of benefits that can be had in the electrictrication of trailers. Through regenerative braking and solar harvesting and not limited to self powered TRU and bi-directional charging, I think this can be another very useful application for EV’s in our space.
Reflecting on TMC 2024, the Uptake team and myself had a blast. If you weren’t able to stop by the booth, reach out to discover what Uptake can do to help your fleet!