WattsMack

Fleet vehicles, trailers, construction equipment and mobile workers account for about 3.6 million GPS and wireless devices used in the U.S., according to a study by C.J. Driscoll & Associates.View the full article

The Technology & Maintenance Council of American Trucking Associations has launched its scholarship program for the 2009-2010 academic year for students from WyoTech or the University of Northwestern Ohio.View the full article

The Arkansas Trucking Association named Toni Chandler as its 2008 Driver of the Year on May 15. View the full article

Truck-Lite has been named Navistar's 2008 Diamond Supplier. To achieve Diamond Supplier status, suppliers must meet Navistar's standards for performance, quality, delivery, customer service and business practices.View the full article

Carrier Logistics has promoted Kevin Linardic and Ben Wiesen to vice president positions, giving them equity standing in the company.View the full article

Truck enthusiasts this summer will re-enact a historic 1919 U.S. Army cross-country convoy that eventually led to establishment of the modern Interstate Highway system.View the full article

President Obama's choice to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Charles Hurley, has withdrawn his name.View the full article

The Port of Long Beach has announced a new round of funding for subsidized leases and loans for new liquefied natural gas or diesel-fueled trucks and retrofit devices that reduce soot and oxides of nitrogen emissions.View the full article

The Oregon Department of Transportation Motor Carrier Division weighed more than 26,000 commercial trucks during an intensive size and weight enforcement effort along the Interstate 84 corridor last week.View the full article

For the second year in a row, Con-way Freight has been named 2008 LTL Carrier of the Year by Wal-Mart Stores for its customer service, operational excellence and creative solutions.View the full article

Dover Industrial Products, the parent company of Rotary and Chief Automotive Technologies, has formed a Vehicle Service Group in an effort to enhance vehicle service and repair as well as leverage scale and technology.View the full article

B-67 Periodic Update:

This week I got the rear end disassembled (for the 2nd time) to fix

a nagging little leak between the carrier and the axle housing.

Next time I'll know better than to try and skip this step. There was no other

need to take the carrier out, so I didn't the first time around.

And I didn't know it leaked. Oh well.

And at the same time, I got to do a super cleaning out of the axle housing.

I'm really happy with the apparent condition of the rear end in general.

The gears are all perfect - no wear marks, no high spots, nothing! Just

shiny clean patterns with no sharp teeth. Looks like it always was cared for pretty well.

Got the rear end reassembled, and the front end completely reassembled and got

the frame flipped over to right side up. (That's easier said than done)

Putting together the clutch linkage now. That took a fair amount of machining and

fabrication. It was really all botched up. Works good now, though.

Gathered up all of the necessary hardware, bolts, brackets and assembly stuff to

start the air system plumbing this week.

It feels good to be moving along.

I'll get some new pictures on my gallery ASAP.

Bought my tickets to Huntsville this week.

The building business is actually doing quite well, at the moment.

We've got a lot of ground to make up, but at least we are actually making some up, finally!

Still I can't help but wonder about the long range economic picture. Automakers and other

large industries going BK, car dealers forced to close, big and little farmers going out,

continued heavy borrowing and increased government spending just don't paint a real nice rosy picture.

View the full blog entry

A bill to allow a uniform 65-mph speed limit on rural interstates in Illinois now rests in the hands of the governor.View the full article

Diesel fuel prices are up slightly from last week, to $2.231 national average, but that's less than half where they were a year ago.View the full article

The Motor Vehicle Owners' Right to Repair Act garnered further support in Congress this week with the addition of Reps. Shelley Berkley (D-NV), Corrine Brown (D-FL) and William Lacy Clay (D-MO) as co-sponsors.View the full article

Inspectors and law enforcement officials will be patrolling North America's highways as part of the annual "Roadcheck" starting June 2, an event sponsored by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.View the full article

Stoops Specialty Trucks has been awarded SmartWay certification status on its new Freightliner Cascadia Custom Sleeper Tractors, the only custom sleeper conversion units to achieve the honor. View the full article

The Petroleum Equipment Institute (PEI), the trade association for petroleum-marketing and liquid-handling, and NATSO, which represents travel plazas and truckstops, have added several industry experts to present at the Diesel Exhaust Fluid Conference on June 5.View the full article

Kenworth is the first truck manufacturer to earn the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Excellence award.View the full article

Pilot opened a new travel center today in Tyler, Texas, at the intersection of Interstate 20 and Farm-to-Market 14.View the full article

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association filed a lawsuit challenging a Minnesota State Patrol's arbitrary enforcement program used to declare truck drivers fatigued and place them out of service.View the full article

Increases in truck weight and length would have a direct beneficial effect on the challenges facing American businesses, according to a study conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute that was commissioned by the National Private Truck Council.View the full article

The federal Freight Transportation Services Index fell 3.3 percent in March from its February level, falling to its lowest level in more than six years, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported.View the full article

Congress should eliminate redundant rules and ensure uniformity across jurisdictions in the regulation of transportation of hazardous materials, Con-way Freight Vice President of Safety Robert Petrancosta told a House committee last week.View the full article

The Motor Vehicle Owners' Right to Repair Act (HR 2057) gained two more co-sponsors last week.View the full article