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MAN Truck & Bus Press Release / February 14, 2018 In Sydney, 38 new double-decker buses have recently started operating on the MAN A95 low-floor chassis. In so doing, MAN Truck & Bus has successfully entered the double-decker city bus segment in Australia. In Sydney, double-deckers on the MAN A95 low-floor chassis are being used for the first time. They were sold through Penske Commercial Vehicles; the body was supplied by Gemilang. Thirty-eight bright yellow double-decker buses have been operating since the end of last year between Sydney’s business centre and the Northern Beaches – on the B line. This line currently connects the Wynyard Railway Station with Mona Vale, but is set to be expanded to Newport this year. Penske Commercial Vehicles, MAN Truck & Bus’ sales partner in Australia and New Zealand, supplied the MAN A95 double-decker buses to Transport for New South Wales. “After various successful projects with the MAN A95 chassis in Singapore and Hong Kong, this marks a further expansion of our presence on the market and we are delighted to have now made it into the double-decker city bus segment in Australia as well”, says Christian Schuf, Head of Sales & Product Bus MAN Truck & Bus Asia Pacific. “In order to continue to meet the wide range of market requirements, the A95 chassis has also been available with the Euro 6c exhaust version since the beginning of the year”, he adds. The MAN A95 low-floor bus chassis for Transport for New South Wales – the operator of the B line – will be powered by a 320 hp (235 kW) six-cylinder diesel engine in compliance with Euro 5. The ZF Ecolife automatic gearbox with integrated hydraulic retarder combines sustainable driving with high efficiency whilst ensuring impressive smooth running. The driver, passengers and nearby residents all benefit from the low exhaust gas emissions and the quiet engine. Passengers can easily board and alight thanks to the low entry height at both outward-swinging doors and the kneeling function, which allows the vehicle to be lowered at the side. Real-time information such as ETA and scheduled stops is clearly displayed on large screens. Various safety features such as the electronic brake system (EBS), electronic stability program (ESP) and rollover protection (ROP) safeguard passenger and driver safety. The body of the twelve metre long vehicles originates from Malaysian body manufacturer Gemilang. .

Volvo Group Press Release / February 12, 2018 .

Renauklt Trucks Press Release / February 15, 2018 On the occasion of German Design Council ceremony held yesterday where Renault Trucks T High Edition was awarded German Design Award winner, Hervé Bertrand Design Director talks to us about design fundamentals. . .

DAF Trucks Press Release / February 14, 2018 .

Now Paul, you know that "the people" have no right to know where their money is [actually] going.

Steve Brooks, trucktvaustralia / February 12, 2018 .

trucktvaustralia / February 8, 2018 After 60 years on the road, Maurie Stewart is about to hang up the keys for good. Just a couple of days after his 80th birthday, Maurie and I were homeward bound to Melbourne. Maurie shares his memories of earning 35 pounds per week, which he says was big money in those days, and talks about a time when fatigue management hadn't even been thought of. .

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Transport Topics / February 14, 2018 U.S. retail sales of medium-duty trucks in January surpassed 16,000 units, up 9.9% from a year earlier, WardsAuto.com reported. The report comes amid forecasts from engine maker Cummins Inc. that the 2018 market would improve compared with 2017. Wards said sales in Classes 4-7 vehicles were 16,246 compared with 14,782 a year earlier. “Medium-duty sales are continuing to build on the momentum in most, if not all, of 2017,” one analyst said. Sales climbed in all classes compared with the 2017 period. Class 7 improved the most, up 16.2%, to 4,578. Freightliner claimed a 51% market share, selling 2,333 trucks. Freightliner is a brand of Daimler Trucks North America. International, a unit of Navistar International Corp., sold 1,030, good for a 22% share. Peterbilt Motors Co. sold 614, up from 349 Class 7 trucks a year earlier. Peterbilt is a unit of Paccar Inc., whose total Class 7 sales reached 927, when including its other brand, Kenworth Truck Co. Ford Motor Co. with 173 sales, and Toyota Group’s Hino Trucks with 115, rounded out the Class 7 segment. Looking ahead to 2019, Hino plans to introduce a line of Class 7 trucks with its 9-liter engine built at its new assembly plant in West Virginia. Class 6 sales rose 10.7% to 5,518; Freightliner accounted for 2,279 of them. International and Ford battled for the second spot, with International selling 1,335 and Ford 1,199. Hino sold 457. Classes 4-5 sales climbed 5% to 6,150. Ford earned a 63% market share in the combined segment of lighter trucks, selling 3,872. Ford’s combined share included 3,556 Class 5 trucks. FCA’s Dodge Ram brand was next in Class 5 with 907. (FCA is a member of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V.) In the crowded Class 4 market, Isuzu Commercial Truck of America Inc. led with 501. Ford sold 316, Freightliner 222, General Motors Chevrolet LCF model sold 79, Hino sold 49 and DTNA’s Mitsubishi Fuso brand 19. In related news, engine maker Cummins Inc. forecast sales in the North American medium-duty markets it participates in, primarily Classes 6-7, will grow to 124,000 units, up 5% compared with 2017. The company projected its engine market share would be 72-75%. However, Cummins is expecting some share erosion from truck makers expanding their vertical integration of proprietary powertrains. Orders for Classes 5-7 in January were 31,700 units — the best month since July 2006 and the third-best month on record. .

Trump Supports 25-Cent Fuel Tax Increase to Fund Infrastructure Bloomberg / February 14, 2018 President Donald Trump told lawmakers he would support a 25-cent-per-gallon increase in federal gasoline and diesel taxes to help pay for upgrading American roads, bridges and other public works, Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware said Feb. 14. Carper, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said he was surprised that Trump raised the idea of the fuel tax increase several times during a meeting with a dozen Republican and Democratic lawmakers from key House and Senate committees. “While there are a number of issues on which President Trump and I disagree, today, we agreed that things worth having are worth paying for,” Carper said in a statement. “The president even offered to help provide the leadership necessary so that we could do something that has proven difficult in the past.” Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, the top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who also attended the meeting, said the president told lawmakers he also would be willing to increase the amount of federal spending beyond the $200 billion over 10 years that the administration is seeking for its infrastructure program. Trump previously has said he would consider raising the federal gasoline tax, which hasn’t been increased since 1993. Axios reported earlier that Trump endorsed a 25-cent increase during the meeting. White House officials declined to comment on Trump’s discussions in the closed-door meeting but said that all options were on the table to meet the main objectives of the president’s plan. "The president made a living building things, and he realizes that to build things takes money, takes investment,” DeFazio said. Pennsylvania Rep. Bill Shuster, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has encouraged his Republican colleagues to consider raising the gas tax as a way to keep the Highway Trust Fund — which finances road, bridge and transit projects — solvent after 2021. He said there was discussion during the meeting about funding. “He understands that we’ve got to figure out the funding levels and where the money’s coming from, make sure it’s not smoke and mirrors,” Shuster said of the president. Groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Trucking Associations support the idea of increasing the gas tax as the most efficient and easiest way to generate more money for projects, and the White House has been neutral. “We support the president’s big and bold vision for strengthening American infrastructure," said ATA President Chris Spear. "Because it is a user fee, the fuel tax is the most conservative, cost-effective and viable solution to making that vision a reality. Ninety-nine cents of every dollar goes directly to road and bridge maintenance, and it doesn’t add a penny to the deficit. There’s a reason why Ronald Reagan twice signed this idea into law.” But key Republican leaders have already rejected the idea and other entities, including the political network led by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, are also opposed. Some critics say the tax is regressive because lower-income people pay a larger share of their income on the levy. Revenue from the federal per-gallon taxes of 18.4 cents on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel has declined as the average fuel economy of a passenger vehicle increased. Trump’s infrastructure plan seeks to revamp how projects are approved and funded by reducing permitting time to two years and allocating $200 billion over 10 years — mostly as incentives to spur states, localities and the private sector to spend at least $1.3 trillion. The administration released its 53-page plan Feb. 12 as a blueprint for Congress to draft legislation.

The murderer, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, has been arrested. Cruz set off the fire alarm so students would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall. And then he began the carnage. Cruz was checked out at a hospital before being taken to a secure location in an unspecified public building. Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida says............lawmakers have offered their condolences. Matthew Walker, a 17-year-old student at the school, told WFOR-TV that all his classmates 'knew it was going to be him.' 'A lot of people were saying it was going to be him,' he said. 'A lot of kids threw jokes around saying that he was going to be the one to shoot up the school. It turns out that everyone predicted it. That's crazy.' 'He was going class to class just shooting at random kids,' he said. 'Everything he posts (on social media) is about weapons. It's sick.' .

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Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Parkland..........I’m really getting fed up with these school shootings. Clearly, though our government won’t discuss it, American society has serious issues today. Such actions never crossed our minds in our youth. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/14/florida-shooting-school-latest-news-stoneman-douglas

Matt Cole, Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) / February 13, 2018 U.S. Xpress (No. 16 on the CCJ Top 250) announced this week it will offer $50,000 bonuses — paid in $2,000 increments and in vacation time over a four-year period — to current and future team drivers. For every 60,000 miles a team runs, they will receive $2,000 — $1,000 to each driver — along with $500 in paid vacation per driver, according to Danna Bailey, U.S. Xpress vice president of corporate communications. Bailey says teams can earn up to $8,000 each year in bonuses and $4,000 in vacation time by running 60,000 miles four times over the course of a year. If the drivers choose not to take vacation time, they will be paid $500 per driver for each week of unused vacation at the end of each year. After the team has earned a total of $48,000 in bonuses, which would take four years of driving at least 240,000 miles per year, each driver will receive a final payout of $1,000. Additionally, drivers in this program will have first priority on new trucks, will have top priority at service centers to minimize downtime, and can earn up to 82 cents-per-mile. .

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Sergio couldn’t possibly ignore the Class 6 opportunity.

Tesla can produce 100,000 electric Class 8 trucks a year: CEO Trailer-Body Builders / February 12, 2018 Tesla will produce at least 100,000 of its new Class 8 electric Semis a year within four years, company founder and CEO Elon Musk predicted. Speaking on the company’s quarterly earnings conference call with analysts a day after his dramatic SpaceX rocket launch, Musk also said Tesla “might be able to exceed the specs that we unveiled last year,” though he did not expand on those comments. He did, however, stress that “100,000 units a year is a reasonable expectation. Maybe more, but that's the right – roughly the right number, I think.” In November, Tesla unveiled the electric Class 8 truck, and said prices will start at $150,000 for a model with a 300-mile range, and $180,000 for a 500-mile range. During the conference call, Philippe Jean Houchois of Jefferies International Ltd. inquired whether a surge of energy in slowing down or braking the truck would be too much for a battery to absorb, and whether Tesla was considering using a super capacitor. Musk responded that “lithium-ion chemistry is so good at this point that capacitors will not be needed.” Jeffrey B. Straubel, Tesla’s chief technical officer, chimed in that “the power to energy demand on the battery in the heavy truck is actually generally less than in our performance vehicles.” Musk also said a self-driving Tesla car will attempt a trip to New York from Los Angeles within the next six months. Previously, he said Tesla would complete that test trip in 2017. Musk reiterated his belief that Lidar is not required to autonomous driving. Lidar, the technology used by numerous firm involved in autonomous driving, is short for light detection and ranging. Instead, Tesla will rely on cameras, radar, and ultrasonic sensors. “Now perhaps I am wrong,” Musk said. “In which case, I'll look like a fool. But I am quite certain that I am not.”

Transport Topics / February 12, 2018 The Trump White House’s highly anticipated infrastructure funding plan released Feb. 12 calls for states to be given flexibility from federal tolling restrictions and to be able to reinvest toll revenues in infrastructure. The trucking industry, for the most part, has rejected efforts that would lead to new tolls on existing interstates. Lifting or relaxing the federal ban on tolling interstate highways falls under Congress’ jurisdiction. “Tolling restrictions foreclose what might otherwise serve as a major source of revenue for infrastructure investment,” according to the White House’s 55-page document titled, “Legislative Outline for Rebuilding Infrastructure in America.” “Providing states flexibility to toll existing interstates would generate additional revenues for states to invest in surface transportation infrastructure. Current requirements that states must reinvest toll revenues in infrastructure would continue to apply,” the plan continued. Tolling is among the strategies proposed for realizing $1.5 trillion in infrastructure investments over 10 years. The plan also calls for states to have flexibility to commercialize interstate rest areas, as well as eliminating constraints on public, private partnerships for transit projects. “To be clear, new tolling on existing interstates is a non-starter for our industry. Tolls are ineffective and wasteful, with as much as 33% of revenue being wasted on administrative and overhead costs,” said American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear. Overall, $200 billion in direct federal funds would be sought to achieve the plan’s desired top line. From that, $100 billion would be made available for an incentives program for states and local agencies, $50 billion would be allocated for rural projects through block grants, $20 billion would be dedicated for a “transformative projects program,” $20 billion would be used to enhance existing federal credit programs and broadening the use of private activity bonds, and $10 billion would back the creation of a Capital Financing Fund. “The United States has fallen further and further behind other countries,” President Donald Trump said in a statement accompanying the plan. “It is time to give Americans the working, modern infrastructure they deserve.” Streamlining the permitting process for infrastructure projects is another key piece of the proposal. A “one agency, one decision” environmental review structure would be established. Also, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) would issue regulations meant to streamline the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process. “Requiring CEQ to revise its regulations to streamline NEPA would reduce the time and costs associated with the NEPA process and would increase efficiency, predictability and transparency in environmental reviews,” according to the plan. The plan is meant as guidance for Congress. It is unclear when the Republican-led chambers will legislate on infrastructure. Trump is expected to meet with congressional leaders Feb. 14. The leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee agreed infrastructure funding merits quick attention. “Through this guidance and letting Congress have the opportunity to write bipartisan legislation, President Trump has offered us direction to meet infrastructure needs in our nation’s states, cities and rural communities,” said committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.). The panel oversees trucking policy. “Aligning federal infrastructure funding with local priorities and looking at other impediments to building would increase accountability and help us meet our most critical infrastructure needs faster.” “Modernizing our transportation and communication networks is something we all agree the U.S. desperately needs in order to create more jobs and maintain our leadership in the global economy,” added panel ranking Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida. Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), chairman of the Transportation panel in the House, stressed the need for having presidential leadership and bipartisan cooperation to finalize a long-term infrastructure funding measure. Reaction from key stakeholders, meanwhile, has been less than enthusiastic. NATSO, the national association representing America’s truckstops and travel plazas, expressed concern about certain ideas in the plan. “Interstate tolls cost the government significantly more to administer and enforce than the existing motor fuels tax. Why would anyone fail to support an increase in the fuel tax and, at the same time, work to create another type of tax (such as toll roads) that costs more to collect than the fuel tax?” said NATSO President and CEO Lisa Mullings. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao defended the rationale behind tolling. “We are not forcing toll roads on anyone. But we should also not discriminate against those entities that would like to have the private sector enter and participate and be a partner in their rebuilding of their infrastructure, as well,” she told reporters shortly after the plan was unveiled. “So, again, we are not pushing for toll roads. We’re also not forbidding toll roads.” Asked if the administration had ruled out a fuel tax increase to boost infrastructure funding, Chao added, “Nothing is off the table.”

Ford, Mazda expand 'do not drive' warning to additional pickups Reuters / February 12, 2018 WASHINGTON -- Ford Motor Co said Monday it is expanding an urgent warning to another 33,000 owners of older pickups in North America not to drive them until they get repairs because of a potentially defective Takata Corp. airbag inflator. Ford in January had urged 2,900 owners of 2006 Ford Ranger pickups to stop driving immediately until they can get replacement parts after a second death was linked to inflators built on the same day. The expansion of the warning was prompted by additional testing, the company said in a statement, and now covers a broader timeframe of production. Mazda Motor Corp. said it was issuing a similar expansion for about 1,800 2006 Mazda B-series trucks that were built by Ford after it had issued a warning for 160 trucks in January. NHTSA said the vehicles pose “an immediate risk to safety” and asked owners to immediately schedule a free repair. Ford and Mazda have replacement airbag inflators available now and will tow vehicles to a dealership for repair, and provide loaner vehicles free of charge, the companies and agency said. About 90 percent of the vehicles subject to the "do not drive" warning are in the United States. Two U.S. senators in January questioned why Ford’s warning applied only to a small number of the 391,000 2004-06 Ranger trucks recalled for Takata airbags in 2016 in the United States. Ford said last month a July 2017 crash death in West Virginia in a 2006 Ford Ranger was caused by a defective Takata inflator after a similar 2015 death in South Carolina. At least 22 deaths worldwide are linked to the Takata inflators that can rupture and send deadly metal fragments into the driver’s body. The faulty inflators have led to the largest automotive recall in history. The other 20 deaths have occurred in Honda Motor Co. vehicles, most of which were in the United States. About a quarter of the 2,900 vehicles have been repaired since Ford issued the warning last month, the company said Monday. Takata in June said that it has recalled, or expected to recall, about 125 million vehicles worldwide by 2019, including more than 60 million in the United States. About 19 automakers worldwide are affected. Takata inflators can explode with excessive force, unleashing metal shrapnel inside cars and trucks and have injured more than 200 people. The defect led Takata to file for bankruptcy protection in June.

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