If You Are Having Trouble Keeping Up With It All, You Are Not Alone

Technology today appears to change so quickly that even tech-savvy professionals are struggling to understand it all. If it was JUST computers, our odds of “staying current” would be higher. But today there is so much more that affects the work truck industry than just the latest smartphone features or truck camera options.

Electric Vehicle Technology (EV)

There is EV technology, which is reaching a state of maturity among passenger vehicles but trails significantly within commercial work truck development. In those states which have passed CARB/Omnibus target EV goals on new truck sales (California) or are thinking about taking that plunge (10 other states right now), the gap between “mandated behavior” and “ready-for-prime-time technology” is large. Attempts to adapt traditional body styles to EV-readiness have been met with application challenges, such as dimensional and weight distribution, for example. For the highest quality truck body builders like Scelzi Enterprises, maintaining product quality becomes more difficult as well. Those robust Scelzi designs produced for the past 45 years need forward-thinking updates to translate well to EV application requirements. Lighter weight designs break down faster under the day to day strains and stresses of regular duties on the job site if they lack new design details to reflect the task at hand. The tradeoff to achieve lower carbon emissions is huge for a fully functional work truck. “I thought the COVID-related supply chain issues made building and selling premium truck bodies much more difficult,” recalls owner Mike Scelzi, “but all this mandated EV stuff bypasses supply and demand completely. The menu of things we can sell has been altered and artificially trimmed with the current EV chassis available.”

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)

One set of new developments moving faster ahead than others is driver-assisted technology, which consists of an assortment of separate technologies that one day may completely automate the driving process. These include:

1. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) that maintains safe driving distance from other vehicles
2. Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and Lane Keeping Assist (LKA), which seek to prevent unsafe lane departures
3. Automatic Emergency Brake (AEB)
4. And a dozen more, each with its own acronym. FCW, ISA, TSR, etc. Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR) has reached near 95% accuracy in clear weather conditions, and is now mandatory in the European Union (EU) for new vehicles sold after July 2024.

Some of these technologies are ready for prime time, while others are in the development stages. Overall integration of ADAS technology into the work truck industry presents challenges for seamless body + chassis integrated systems. We appear to be years away from having the option of driverless work trucks, but in the meantime these same tools are improving driver safety and fleet efficiency.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

And finally, the promise and fear of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now upon us. Just as was the case when the world wide web became dominant in the 1990s and social media took control in the early 2000s, AI is filled with exciting possibilities – and a fairly large “downside”. Optimists will mention the benefits of improved fleet maintenance, more efficient route optimization, leaner inventories leading to lower production costs, and much more. But realists and those who study history are a bit more wary. And it still requires some smart people to use these tools.

“We have not replaced anyone with AI tools yet, and don’t see that happening any time soon,” states Scelzi. “To the contrary, we are looking for more smart people who understand it all and can help us apply it to the Marketing, Sales, and Production parts of our business. Sure, ask an AI tool for a little research and it can spew out some general suggestions, with more focused questions yielding more focused results. But implementing any meaningful ideas requires more skills and training and communication skills than a chatbot can provide – at least for right now.”

After 45 years, the team at Scelzi has seen technologies come and go, yet somehow managed to stay focused on the core ideas that have led them to 15 consecutive years of double-digit growth.

Scelzi Enterprises