Completed annually, Beverage Industry’s medium- and heavy-duty truck roundup, which consists of Classes 4 through 8, is a compilation of vehicle offerings suited to beverage industry applications. Highlighted as follows is an overview of model year 2012 trucks and selected vehicle specifications.
For most of the United States, daylight saving time will end at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, Nov. 6, which is when clocks are turned back an hour, making it 1 a.m. Arizona and Hawaii are the only two states that don’t observe daylight saving time.
For the record, it is daylight saving time and not daylight savings time.
The modern beverage warehouse is a world of contradictions. Due in part to SKU proliferation, beverage distributors are constantly adapting their warehouses to fit more product in a given amount of space.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Some guidelines in reference to beverages include reducing intake of sugar-sweetened beverages, monitoring intake of 100 percent juice for children and adolescents, and consuming soy-fortified beverages.
The critical element in optimizing fleet lifecycle costs is determining vehicle ownership economics and replacement intervals and methods. The process begins with vehicle selection and acquisition, the foundation of which is identifying transportation and operational requirements, then evaluating the best ways of meeting those essentials.
With annual sales of more than $1.9 billion, Wirtz Beverage Group is making strides toward its vision of becoming the leading premium total beverage alcohol wholesaler in the United States by Dec. 31, 2012. Beverage Industry’s Wholesaler of the Year is now in its third and fourth generations of leadership and has gone through a rebranding process in order to unify its divisions in Illinois, Wisconsin, Nevada, Minnesota and Iowa.
As beverage companies look at ways to automate warehouse facilities, equipment manufacturers say that more beverage-makers are looking to automated guided vehicles (AGVs). The Automatic Guided Vehicle Systems Industry Group of the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) stated in its fall 2010 quarterly report titled “New Paths for Guided Vehicles” that automation today is more flexible and more accommodating to changing operational requirements.
Maintaining engine lubricating oil is a very important element in stretching the productive life of vehicle engines. Often referred to as the life blood of the engine, the oil circulates through the engine, performing critical functions necessary to maintain engine performance and maximize useful service life.
Beverage companies are taking on new strategies in regard to the goals of their recycling initiatives. One would be hard pressed to find a beverage company not involved in recycling, but the industry continues to expand existing recycling programs. Craft brewer Boulevard Brewing Co., Kansas City, Mo., had to expand its recycling efforts in order to become a zero-landfill facility in January. In 2009, Boulevard’s Founder and President John McDonald, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Krum and Technical Director Mike Utz became co-founders and principals of Ripple Glass, a glass recycling company, to help close the loop in the brewer’s glass bottle consumption.
Vehicle repair and maintenance is only as good as the knowledge and skills of the technicians that perform the work. Consequently, the more successful fleets and maintenance operations invest in continuous training for their technicians to help them keep up with new vehicle technology and diagnostic and repair equipment. Fleet’s technicians can take part in TMCSuperTech, a national technician skills competition dedicated to both honoring technician professionalism and acknowledging the best of the best.