Custom-engineered and built trucks are rare in the trucking industry, but that is the only kind of truck Indiana-based Autocar manufactures.
Autocar’s severe service, Class 8 trucks are custom built-to-order from start to finish based on unique customer specifications and are ready-made to fully integrate with their bodies.
“When you start to cut things up and move things around, you build in quality problems,” says Ed Steyn, VP of Engineering at Autocar. “Our engineers design chassis so they fit each customer’s custom order, as well as integrate with bodies seamlessly as soon as they arrive. We figured out what we need to do on the production line to make this happen. When you take trucks on and off the line, you invite errors and inefficiency.”
Traditional manufacturers start to build their refuse trucks on a traditional truck production line, then take them off the line to be individually modified for refuse in a massive in-house “mod shop.” This production process often involves a new set of processes, systems, engineering, people and documentation, which can result in production errors and inefficiencies.
Autocar, however custom-engineers its refuse truck, the Xpeditor ACX, for each customer order before production begins, and the truck is then built on a single line from start to finish. When Autocar receives an order for a modification or a custom option, the order is filled following the same production process.
