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RALEIGH, N.C. — Maintenance directors meeting here shared techniques for combating rust and other forms of corrosion, which they said are a plague to trucks.

TAMPA — “If you’d have told me 20 years ago I’d be general chairman, I’d have told you you was crazy,” said Roy Gambrell, incoming general chairman of the Technology & Maintenance Council, who began his career repairing equipment on the family farm.

Many of the maintenance professionals who keep U.S. truck fleets running smoothly will focus their attention on wider dissemination of the motor freight industry’s recommended engineering practices at the Technology & Maintenance Council’s annual meeting in Tampa, Fla.

Let’s face it; nobody likes to make the same mistake twice. Maintenance professionals in particular always should be looking for procedures that have prevented downtime and failures in the past.

When the economy deteriorates, the use of preventive maintenance at trucking companies — including programs involving tires — sometimes follows suit, regardless of climate conditions such as the coming of winter.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Jeffrey Schlecht, a 27-year-old rookie from Nebraska, staked his claim here as the grand champion of truck maintenance, pushing aside 102 other competitors, including three former SuperTech winners.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Representatives of three major truck and engine makers candidly admitted to fleet maintenance directors meeting here that some performance results of diesel particulate filters have not worked out as well as originally anticipated.

Nearly 100 technicians will compete for national honors in truck maintenance next week in Raleigh, N.C., while fleet maintenance directors examine the details of the new federal CSA program, diesel particulate filters and the economic forecast for freight hauling.