Top Medium-Duty News from 2022

It was a busy year for the medium-duty sector in the work truck industry. 

Work Truck provided a variety of ways to present the medium-duty news that fleet managers needed to know. 

From survey results to speaking with fleet leaders, these are the top medium-duty stories from 2022:

• Work Truck Survey Reveals Most Concerning Upfitting Practices, Concerns: Readers of Work Truck and its sister publications, Automotive Fleet and Heavy Duty Trucking, were asked to participate in an online survey that took a deep dive into fleet upfitting practices and challenges.
• Mack Reaches Milestone with 5,000th MD Series Truck: Mack Trucks produced the 5,000th Mack MD Series vehicle at its Roanoke Valley Operations (RVO) facility, where the MD6 and MD7 are assembled.
• Cummins Developing Engine Platforms to Run on Alternative Fuels: Cummins’ B, L, and X-Series engine portfolios for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles will see the addition of versions that operate on fuels such as gasoline, natural gas, hydrogen, and propane.
• Fleets Select Ford 650, F750 As Top Medium-Duty Truck: Work Truck readers selected the truck because of its application effectiveness, durability, quality, servicing, maintenance, and lifecycle costs.
• Q&A: What’s New with Isuzu Commercial Truck of America: Work Truck sat down with Shaun Skinner to learn more about his new role, what’s been going on since the last time we chatted, and hear a few thoughts on the future.
• Blue Bird Goes Commercial: Over the past 95 years, Blue Bird has perfected its core capabilities of designing, engineering, and manufacturing school buses from the ground up. The company applied its chassis-building expertise to expand its electric-powered product range to the commercial vehicle space.
• Kenworth Educates Drivers on Medium-Duty Lineup: Kenworth released a Driver Academy video series for customers operating Kenworth’s line of new medium-duty trucks.
• Understanding Today’s Truck Ordering Trends: Don Emerson, president of FMI Truck Sales & Service, sat down to chat with Work Truck's Executive Editor, Lauren Fletcher, about current truck ordering trends, challenges, how to keep trucks on hand, and whether there is any end in sight. 
• Q&A: Via Delivers: CEO of VIA Motors, Bob Purcell, recalled the shift from plugin hybrid conversions to fully electric commercial vehicles. 
• Work Truck Safety Study: Rising Costs & Safety Focus: The second annual fleet safety study, conducted in partnership with sister publication Heavy Duty Trucking, collected some of the top findings for your planning and reference.
• People are Quitting Transportation Construction — Here’s Why: In 2022, we’ve had difficult hurdles to overcome in almost every industry. Many companies have had to lay off employees as an unfortunate result.
• How the Trucking Industry Can Retain Drivers During the Holiday Season: With the holiday season in full swing, there are several things vocational fleet managers and transportation companies can do to help retain and recruit drivers for the busy season.