Drivers of trucking innovation are many times drivers of the equipment itself.
Speaking at a Technology Showcase held Thursday at Peterbilt’s Denton, Texas truck plant, Peterbilt executives say they most often solicit the opinions of drivers as they look to push the technological envelope with the company’s trucks.
Andy Weiblen, Peterbilt’s director of product planning, says the company’s design process goes through several steps including a market needs analysis, ideation, concept, validation and final design process.
Customer councils help drive the market needs analysis.
“Also, we conduct field analysis at truck stops,” Weiblen says. “And we used this method to help design cab size of model 579 and 567.”
Ideation takes the process of listening to the driver to the next level.
“We not only look at what they say,” Weiblen says, “but we watch what they do.”
