As was reported on vehicleservicepros.com, I was among a select group of five veteran truck journalists invited to serve as a judge for the 2013 American Truck Dealers (ATD) Commercial Truck of the Year program.
This is a national award that recognizes the top truck entries in the heavy and medium duty categories.
Judging involved evaluating the nine truck nominees using an especially-created scoring system that encompassed three main judging categories: innovation and design, safety and driver satisfaction.
One of nominees in the medium duty truck category was a Class 5 Hino 195h Diesel-Electric Hybrid. It had a 210-hp Hino J05E Series diesel mated to an Aisin 6-speed fully automatic transmission.
As part of the judging, each judge had to drive every truck over a specified course that included city and highway driving.
Spencer Nico, Hino Motors Sales U.S.A.’s senior manager for strategic product applications, who managed the Hino 195h at the judging event, conducted a spur-of-the-movement fuel economy challenge. Using the dash cluster display, he tracked the miles per gallon each judge achieved over the course.
I am proud to say I got the most miles from a gallon of fuel: 14 mpg. While I will not divulge the names, the editor with the next best mpg got 12.1. The last place mpg was 10.1.
If I was only as easy on the throttle in my own vehicles.
