Category: Blog

When it comes to regular automobiles, Volvo cars have reputations of being built like tanks when it comes to their overall safety.

“Take anything you can throw at them” kind of thing.

But do Volvo heavy trucks follow suit? In a word, absolutely! It all starts with a goal, and Volvo’s goal was to help truckers avoid accidents. In part to accomplish this, Volvo has developed several special technologies that help improve driver and general safety with things such as their Volvo Enhanced Stability Technology (VEST), I-Shift technology, Volvo Active Driver Assist (VADA) as well as others. But the unfortunate reality is no vehicle on the [...]

Would you like to try something unbelievably difficult?

Hop in an eighteen wheel rig and try to shoehorn it into all the places that a heavy truck driver has to fit his or her rig on any given day! Whether truckers are trying to maneuver a fully loaded heavy rig in highway traffic, city traffic, through parking lots, near loading zones or any of the other places truckers have to drive these beasts, it is at best a difficult thing to accomplish. The fact of the matter is that as any truck driver will tell you, on any given day, truckers can find themselves needing to navigate in or around places many people wouldn’t even try [...]

Savvy, money smart truck drivers know the value of regular rig maintenance.

Sure regular maintenance costs a few bucks in the short term, but in the long term there are countless benefits.

Here are a few…

  1. Lower long term rig maintenance costs (if you think regular maintenance is expensive, wait till you experience the long term costs of not doing regular rig maintenance!).
  2. Better rig value at resale time.
  3. Lower fuel costs (yes, regular maintenance can directly impact your fuel costs).

Thanks to a truck load of various factors (see what we did there ;-), fuel costs have gone through the roof!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are painfully aware of the realities of fuel inflation and the devastating implications it has on your bank account. So with fuel prices through the roof, are truckers helpless to the financial ravages of exorbitant fuel prices?

Not at all.

It’s true that truck drivers can’t do much about the wars, taxes and corporate profits that have only served to increase fuel prices, but there are steps they can take [...]

We’re going to go out on a limb here, but here at Gerrys Truck Centre, in our humble opinion, we think it’s safe to say that this whole electric vehicle/ heavy truck thing is not only here to stay, but will also only continue to growing with each upcoming year ;-).

While this is obvious to pretty much anyone today, Volvo recognized this seismic shift in the trucking and transportation industry early and took it upon themselves to invest a fortune in time, research and development with the goal of being the undisputed leader when it comes to zero-emission electric heavy trucks. By most any analysis, it was mission accomplished for Volvo.

Few if anyone with a solid head on their shoulders would argue the value of education.

 

By getting the right education, you not only learn a new skill set, more importantly you set yourself up for a career, which is a key element of having a successful and fulfilling life. Unfortunately however, sometimes the education individuals acquire, with the hopes of getting a job and career fall well short of delivering. So the question that should always be asked before embarking on a given education path, is how much opportunity is there in the field I am preparing myself for?

Apparently anyone asking that question [...]

Volvo’s VADA system.

VADA stands for,

  • Volvo
  • Active
  • Driver
  • Assist

It is a comprehensive collision mitigation system that has been reported to help reduce the risk of collisions by eighty two percent.

VADA is the latest iteration of several security and stability related enhancements that Volvo has made over the last over decades that started with the use of anti lock brakes way back in the [...]

What is different about the Volvo D13 TC engine?

Before we can explain what the difference is, we first have to identify what those two letters, T and C, on the end stand for.  The T stands for turbo charged, and the C stands for compound.  Now you may be thinking to yourself that turbo compound engines are not new, and you’d be correct (the concept has existed for about eighty years give or take, since 1954) , but what makes the D13TC engine different is how Volvo utilize this technology.

They used the turbo to enhance fuel economy.

Game [...]

Imagine you’re driving down the highway in your heavy truck, fully loaded and all of the sudden you get a warning notification on your rig. Great. Now your delivery will be delayed… your workday just became longer and your headache just became bigger. Unfortunately, most truckers don’t have to imagine this scenario since they have undoubtedly lived it at least once, if not many times in their career.

If you think back to that moment, wouldn’t it have been nice to have a heavy truck expert in the cab next to you that could help you know exactly what the problem is, the next steps you should take and so on? Well if [...]

Basically a truckers rig is their home away from home. And who doesn’t want creature comforts in their home? Not many people. So if you’re a truck driver who enjoys things like air conditioning in the summer, heat in the winter, wifi at any time, a fridge, stove and most other power related things in your truck cab then you should get yourself an APU.

 

What is an A P U?

The term A P U stands for auxiliary power unit. An APU is basically a power generator for your heavy rig that can operate certain vehicle systems without having the vehicle’s engine running.

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