A week from, now, the staff of Fleet Maintenance Magazine will be in Louisville, KY, for the Greatest Show on Earth, otherwise known as the Mid-America Truck Show, or MATS. It’s a great chance to meet with professionals in the industry, and find out what the OEMs are up to as far as new product development. There are more new trucks and products introduced to the press and the publis in three days at MATS than there are at pretty much any other event of the year. This really is The Big Show.

All the big names will be there: Bendix, Kenworth, Caterpillar, ArvinMeritor, Freightliner, Mack, Roadranger and many more, all of them introducing new or enhanced products. But while the big OEMs and component suppliers are working overtime to create excitement around their new and improved products, I can’t help but wonder if the mood of the show will be one of excitement or one of gloom…

Why gloom? Well, this week’s headline on Transport Topics reads “DIESEL JUMPS TO $3.819–Average Tops $4 in Some States as Crude Soars.” Now, MATS is heavily attended by owner/operators who drive in from all points to the Kentucky Fairgrounds to take part in the festivities, but with diesel prices so high, I wonder if that parking lot will be empty this year…

Will you be going to Louisville, or staying home? We’d like to know.

More news from the front: today I’m writing from Charlotte, NC, where I’ve just attended a Transportation Technology Summit hosted by Panasonic, makers of Toughbook computers. Panasonic brought together a diverse group of experts to talk about advances in wireless service information, a type of technology that can, of course, be easily exploited with Toughbook computers.

The keynote speaker of the Summit was Mary-Beth Kellenberger, senior automotive & transportation consultant for Frost & Sullivan, who talked about the current state of the heavy-duty maintenance industry. Among many nuggets of wisdom she shared with the audience, once stood out: Kellenberger’s research has found that ten technologies will be affecting the heavy duty market more than any others in the coming years. They are, in no particular order: Auxiliary Power Units (APUs); Automatic and Automated Transmissions; Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR); Collision Warning Systems; Telematics; Air Ride Suspensions; Anti-lock Brakes (ABS); Electronic Stability Control; Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS); and HVAC Systems. These technologies will have the greatest impact on your future maintenance planning in terms of technicians, facilities and parts, according to Kellenberger.

Coincidentally, these are all topics that have been covered in the pages of Fleet Maintenance recently, or will be in the very near future, so I feel that we’re right on the nose with our editorial content. Would you agree? Are these the ten top technology drivers that are changing your world? Are there others that you think will have a greater effect? I’m all ears.

Once a week or so I like to browse through the latest comments on our online forums (http://forums.fleetmag.com/) and see what people are talking about. There’s a saying in the trade publication industry that editors need to always be writing about the topics that “keep our readers up at night,” and reading the forums is a good way to keep up on what you, our readers, and losing sleep over.

I’ve noticed recently that the forum posts are taking on a more technical edge: more and more readers, it seems, are using the forums to post specific technical questions about vehicles and components.

Take, for example, this recent post about a wiring problem one reader has been experiencing with a certain make of truck: “This yellow insulation is being worn by the split loom that it is installed in. The insulation will have many wear marks from the ribs of the loom, eventually wearing through to the copper, add a little salt water and the wire breaks. I am not talking about one spot, I’m talking about dozens of wear marks along the entire length of the wire, from the headlight pods to the point that it disappears into the frame rail…” A response from another reader appeared today, saying, in part, “The most common thing I can conclude is that the split loom chosen is too large of a diameter for the amount of wiring. And by going to a smaller diameter split loom, plus securely wrapping with tape every so often prevents the wiring from moving in the loom and wearing out…” There’s more to this exchange, and you can read it at http://forums.fleetmag.com/showthread.php?p=160#post160.

Maybe you’ll have response of your own to this particular problem. Maybe you have your own troubles to write about. Either way, you’ll find a supportive community in our growing body of forum users, and you might just get some answers to your problems, that will help you sleep more soundly tonight.