Here we were – in 1978

Ever wonder how the Rockwell Tripmaster and this industry was started?  Check out the National Academy of Sciences summary here.  

An academic paper was presented at the SAE Toronto meeting in 1978.   The US Department of Energy and Department of Transportation initiated the Joint Truck and Bus Fuel Efficiency study. The Tripmaster system was developed for 8 test trucks.

Rockwell commenced the “commercialization” of this project when the commercial application of this highly complex, costly system became apparent.  The first customer was JB Hunt, who installed the first test Tripmaster commercial system in 1981.