New Year -- New Problems

By Jack Roberts, executive editor

??????????? Welcome to the February 2025 installment of the HDT Monthly Newsletter.

??????????? Again – this is a fast-and-easy round up of the top trucking news stories from the month that just ended.

??????????? And lemme tell you – If January was any indication of what the rest of 2025 is going to be like, maybe we should all just crawl back under the covers and wait for 2026 to get here…

??????????? But that’s not an option, is it?

??????????? So, without further ado, let’s take a quick look at the top stories at Heavy Duty Trucking right now.

New Truck Recalls

Let’s get the ball rolling with a couple of real-world equipment issues that need to be front and center on your fleet radar screen.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued two new recall alerts for heavy-duty trucks.

The first one is focused on both Kenworth and Peterbilt truck models. There’s an in-cab electrical issue with the trucks that can result in instrument panel illumination and emergency hazard lights not functioning properly.

Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks are also dealing with a throttle pedal issue recall that bubbled up at the end of last month.

The second new recall is for Freightliner eCascadia and eM2 electric trucks. An electric vehicle power distribution module on the trucks may not be installed properly. This can result in a sudden loss of power, increasing the risk of a crash.

Trump’s Tariffs

President Donald Trump loves tariffs.

Economists? Not so much.

Whether you like Trump and tariffs or not, there is a big problem with them: The North American trucking industry could be acutely affected by them if they become law.

Diversity Does Matter

And while we’re on the topic of Donald Trump, I’m sure you’ve noticed that his administration has declared an all-out war on Diversity, Inclusion and Equality (DEI) policies nationwide.

But, as HDT editor Deborah Lockridge points out, trucking is one of the most culturally, gender and racially diverse industries in the country.

Which means that -- like it or not -- diversity still matters in trucking.

Trucking’s War on Human Trafficking Wages On

January was Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

And, of course, the trucking industry has been on the front lines of this fight for years now. And the industry continues to step up to combat human traffickers in major ways that usually don’t get recognized by the mainstream media.

Here's how one trucking non-profit group is fighting back.

Werner is one of the largest fleets in North America. And the company is using both the size and scope of its operations to raise awareness of, identify and prevent these terrible crimes.

We usually think of human traffickers as targeting women. But they go after young men and boys, too. And we have to give a shout-out to the state of Texas as well. The state has launched a new campaign aimed at the trucking to raise awareness about this often-overlooked aspect of the problem.

Drivers bear the brunt of combating human trafficking. But back-office fleet employees can also help. Which is why TAT (formerly Truckers Against Trafficking) has produced a new video to help your office employees look for red flags that indicate human trafficking is taking place.

2025 Best Fleets to Drive For Finalists

Every year CarriersEdge queries drivers all across the country and determine which fleets are The Best to Drive For.

This year’s list of finalists has a lot of past honorees on it. But there are some new fleets as well.

America’s Top Truck Stop

For decades, truck stops have been a welcome and sorely needed harbor for tried truckers.

And truckers definitely have strong opinions about which ones they like and don’t like.

Every year, Trucker Path asks drivers in its network which Truck Stops they think are the best. Then they boil that data down and name the nation’s Top Truck Stop based on that feedback.

And this year, the Tiffin River Service Plaza, outside of West Unity, Ohio, at mile marker 20.8 on the Ohio Turnpike takes the top slot as the Nation’s Top Truck Stop.

New Leadership at Peterbilt

Jake Montero has replaced Jason Skoog as Peterbilt general manager and Paccar vice president.

A Record Year for Cargo Theft

CargoNet has run its 2024 numbers. And the news ain’t good. The fleet security company reports that cargo theft numbers went through the stratosphere last year.

Yokohama’s AI-Powered Tire Thumper

And finally… In perhaps the most surreal story of the month: Yokohama Rubber is – no shit – developing an AI-enabled tire thumping tool

We all know that a lot of drivers check their tires by simply whacking them with a wooden stick. The claim is that they can tell by the sound the tire makes when whacked whether or not the air pressure is OK.

This is a practice that drives tire OE experts absolutely freaking crazy. They insist it is complete and utter nonsense. And that only reliable way to determine tire pressure is by putting a pressure gauge on it and taking a reading.

“Why don’t you just whack the engine block with tuning fork while you’re at it to see if it’s running right?” a tire engineer once told Jim Park. “That’s just as reliable as hitting a tire with a stick to check air pressure.”

Enter Yokohama Rubber into this long-running debate. The company announced that is using artificial intelligence to develop a tire-thumbing tool that will actually be able to listen to the sound make after whacking a tire to determine air pressure.

Yokohama is still working on this one. But it will be interesting to see if AI can live up to all the hype and pull it off. There will be a lot of happy – and smug – truck drivers out there if they can.

And that’s it for January 2025 – quite possible the single longest life in my 58 years on the planet.

Until March – Hold ‘em in the road.