Heavy Duty Trucking

MAY 2014

The Fleet Business Authority

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54 HDT • MAY 2014 www.truckinginfo.com is about half that of previ- ous truck generations. "I think it's about 25 pounds now," he says. "And our clutch pedal now needs about 30 pounds of force to depress, where it used to be closer to 50 pounds." Overall, Peterbilt has increased seat adjustment by 20% and increased steer- ing column adjustment by 77% in the new product line, and it seems to have satisfied the objective. "We had a woman who was 4 feet, 11 inches visit- ing the Paccar Technical Center in Renton, Wash., say the truck fit her," Weiblen says. "She was very surprised because she had had trouble getting a car or van to fit her small frame." When Paccar was developing its new cab dimensions, shared between the Kenworth T689 and Peterbilt's Model 579, it invited 850 drivers to try the cab on for size. In fact, the drivers decided the dimensions of the cab using an ad- justable mock-up of the cab that could be lengthened or shortened in all direc- tions. The mock-up also allowed them to adjust the space between the driver and passenger seats for access to the sleeper, optimize the steering column position and how foot pedals should be aligned and distanced, and more. "That exercise provided us with the right size for the cab and entryway to the sleeper," says Jim Bechtold, Ken- worth's director of product planning. "From the pressure required to flip a switch to the effort required to open the hood, driver size and weight play a role," says T.J. Reed, director of product marketing at Freightliner Trucks. "We have come up with six or seven body types, and we create digital mock-ups first. And then we build physical mock ups and get real people that fit the type and get them to try the design." Reed notes that in working with the Women In Trucking association, the company has refined things like the seat travel and the steering column in the Cascadia. "Now, pretty much anyone can reach the pedals and drive a Casca- dia," Reed says. Next gen drivers A number of years ago, the Interna- tional Brotherhood of Teamsters tried to write into its National Freight Agreement a "belly-room clause" that set minimum dimensions for the space be- tween the steering wheel and the seatback. That effort didn't move forward, but what came of the discussion between the Society of Automotive Engi- neers Cab and Occupant Envi- ronment steering group, the union, truck makers and other interested parties was a better understanding of the fact that the typical truck driver was not representative of the male population in general. Jerry Hubble, chairman of the SAE Cab and Occupant Environment steering group, says it led to a more exhaustive study of truck driver body types and brought us closer to today's design parameters. "That exercise brought us the Sand- ers Study [also known as U.S. Truck Driver Anthropometric Study and Mul- tivariate Anthropometric Models for Cab Designs], which gave us parameters for headroom, belly room, shin-to-dash- board clearance, etc., based on truck drivers' dimensional parameters," he says. "Compared to the general popula- tion, the truck driver is bigger in many ways than the 95-percentile male." "The other end of that spectrum," notes Hubble, "are women, Asians, Latinos and others who are typically slighter in build than what we once defined as the typical truck driver. SAE's goal now is to accommodate 95% of the truck driver population." More recently, the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie, Wis., partnered with Women In Trucking to identify opportunities for improve- ment in the designs for seats, dashes, steering and in-cab ergonomics for female drivers. Ryder System got in- volved with the research and identified custom vehicle designs that better meet the needs of female drivers. To put it succinctly, truck cabs and all their amenities and service points have to comfortably accommodate body types ranging from something like a 5-foot, 2-inch, 110-pound female to a 6-foot, 5-inch, 300-pound male. Various eye-points are examined to ensure optimum visibility from the driver's seat. There can be no compromises in here. e r g o n o m i c s _ m a y . i n d d 5 4 ergonomics_may.indd 54 4 / 2 9 / 1 4 3 : 5 2 P M 4/29/14 3:52 PM

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