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A Brighter Future // Where Curiosity & Innovation Will Take You

On Friday, September 24, Nussbaum received some special visitors. Caterpillar, a Nussbaum customer, sponsors First Lego League, a youth STEM exploration program. This year, the program’s theme is “Cargo Connect.” Along with designing and building a robot, teams must create an innovative transportation solution that addresses problems with cargo delivery. Sudha Anandam, a lead coach for Caterpillar’s team, connected with Brent Wagenbach to see if the students could visit and learn about Nussbaum’s operations.

Curiosity

To address issues with cargo delivery, the students came prepared with two problems areas to focus on: “eco-friendly transportation” and “transportation cost optimization.” Given these topics, they were especially curious about Nussbaum’s efforts toward energy-efficiency. Their intent in visiting Nussbaum was to narrow down which problem they wanted to focus on, but it ended up sparking a new idea: solving capacity issues created by COVID-19 and the current supply chain.

The visit was an exciting highlight in everyone’s day. The students and their tour guides (which included Bill Wettstein, Brent Wagenbach, Angie Green, Cory Adams, Kevin Funk, and James Grier) visited the various departments to learn from our staff. We were so impressed with the students’ thoughtful and insightful questions! “It was encouraging to see young people that were asking questions,” said Brent. “They were curious, enthusiastic – interested in the bigger picture.”

To begin, they visited Cory and Kevin in the Safety Department, where they were allowed to use Nussbaum’s driving simulator. It’s just one of the ways Nussbaum is working to be more cost-effective – virtual snowdrifts and deer accidents are much easier to recover from than real ones, which saves on training costs. The simulator allows drivers to get some experience before they get behind the wheel for the first time.

After a brief stop at the marketing studio, it was on to operations. Seth Jacowski, one of Nussbaum’s Load Planners, explained how each day of load planning is like a puzzle that you must fit together perfectly. Basically, it’s an adult version of Tetris. Bill Wettstein joined in to explain how Nussbaum minimizes costs and optimizes efficiency in load planning.

Innovation

Next, the students moved outside, where a sparkling new “Love, Above All” trailer and truck awaited them. Brent Wagenbach explained how Nussbaum’s equipment is built for fuel efficiency, including how trailer skirts, trailer tails, and smaller gaps between the truck and trailer minimize air resistance. The students also learned about the solar panels (an addition that has significantly cut down on battery replacement) and our specialized wheel wells. They greatly enjoyed seeing the inside of a truck and especially using the truck’s air horn.

The group finished their tour in the shop, where James fielded more questions and explained how Nussbaum strives to be innovative and environmentally friendly. The students asked many questions about electric trucks, hybrid motors, the types of engines we carry, and how much the trucks weigh. Again, we were very impressed with the student’s knowledge and thoughtful engagement!

On average, Nussbaum achieves 9-11 miles per gallon (MPG), and we are hoping to get even higher as we continue to research and implement new methods for efficiency. The students were very impressed with this figure, especially when James shared that the trucking industry average is 6-7 miles per gallon. They were also interested in Nussbaum’s involvement with hybrid and electric motors; James explained that at this point, the infrastructure to support these systems is nonexistent. Given the number of miles our trucks travel each week, transitioning to hybrid or electric motors is not feasible at this time. However, it is always a future possibility since those features continue to grow stronger and more sustainable.