USA – Manufacturers have always cared about what the customer thinks about their products. In the commercial vehicle industry, this is often expressed in terms of economics: how does this or that component improve uptime, or boost performance, or reduce the total cost of ownership, and so on. Perhaps it needs an industry outsider to make the question of customer satisfaction about empathy instead of, or in addition to, materialism. Recently, I spoke with somebody who is prepared to bring feelings into a conversation that normally deals with facts only – although he certainly knows how to drive a truck and understands the economic pressures which fleets work under.

Ali Javidan is the founder and CEO of Range Energy Inc, a startup firm based in Mountain View in California’s Silicon Valley. Though his company was known to me before the show, I first met him at Range’s stand at the last ACT Expo, held in the Las Vegas Convention Center between 20-23 May. On the stand was a semi-trailer, which is hardly an unusual sight at a commercial vehicle show; but inside the trailer box, there two sofas, soft furnishings, and mood lighting, as if it were the set for a podcast. I had two conversations with Javidan, one at the show and another over a conference call, in which I learned about the company’s background and its electrified trailer technology.