kscarbel2

Owner-Driver / July 6, 2017 Robby Votino beat the transport industry syndrome of 'no experience, no job' by obtaining his roadtrain licence in the Moomba gas fields. Robby Votino reckons he has two vital assets in his owner-driver operation. The first is his wife Claudia, who not only looks after the books but helps clean the truck as well. The second his Kenworth T359 which Robby bought brand new and brand new. It’s more than just a truck; he reckons the Kenny will see him out to retirement. Subcontracting to Boral, Robby carts asphalt and quarry products with a couple of Hamelex White tippers. Robby returned to the tipper game after six years as a diesel mechanic in Karratha. But the urge to get behind the wheel was there, despite the usual obstacles that came part and parcel with the transport industry. "When I finished my trade I went for my semi licence but was unable to get a driving job because of having no experience. So I got a job with Halliburton doing fly in/ fly out in the Moomba gas fields." That was in 1996, when he drove his first Kenworth, a C500. During his time at Moomba, Halliburton bought a fleet of Kenworth T950s. "I got my road train ticket with Halliburton as an operator on hydraulic fracking and we would need to move up to 15 trailers each setup and operation. The road trains cut down the trips. "They put us through our road train tickets – that was great. It was good experience." Robby left Halliburton in 2003 when his wife Claudia fell pregnant. He bought a truck, an old Ford LTS 4000, which he used to work on as an apprentice mechanic. He found work with the Ford in a sand and metal yard. "That’s how I got into the business," he explains. "I had a lot of breakdowns with the old Ford so I decided to go new. "I’d seen the T350s on agitators so I went down to Kenworth and looked at the brochure. I just thought ‘wow’!" The result was a T350 tandem tipper. Robby later bought himself a little 2-axle pig trailer from Adelaide-based specialised transport equipment manufacturer Barry Stoodley. "It was only a 300hp C10 and was underpowered with the trailer, so I sold that and bought another one with a Cat C12 with a bit more horsepower," he says. Robby kept that Kenworth for six years until he decided to get back into mining. Up in Karratha, Robby was working two weeks on, one week off; one week day shift, one week night shift, and then home for a week. "It was a good experience," he recalls. "At the end of the day, because you are putting in the hours, it’s very fatiguing and you need the week home to recover." Robby never thought he’d get back into the tipper industry, always believing he’d retire after his career in mining. "With the family, I was after job security so you go back to what you know," he says. "I knew I was going to buy another Kenworth. I know they work, their reliability, they are cheap to maintain, but I priced up three other trucks as well." The T359 ticked all the right boxes. "It had a light tare weight of 9.6-tonne, excellent visibility, and it was an extremely comfortable and easy truck to drive." Robby’s three Kenworths have been bought through CMV in Adelaide, each time dealing with salesman Bob Malusa. "Bob and I have actually become good friends; I have a lot of respect for him and his family." The T359 has a 440hp Cummins ISMe5 coupled to a Fuller 18-speed UltraShift Plus on Kenworth Air-ride 460 rear suspension. "All of my trucks have been autos; for around town you just can’t beat them," Robby says. "The technology is so good. This one doesn’t have a clutch and I tell you it is amazing." Another factor that impresses Robby is that the T359 comes with engine brake and cruise control on the steering wheel. "They have come a long way since the T350," he continues. "The finish inside the cab is beautiful; there’s gold trimming around the gauges and I custom built this with black interior. "The grab handles in the cab are great and there is no effort required to get into the cab. The steps are wide and easy to negotiate." Robby worked as a diesel mechanic for Cummins in Karratha so it made sense to have Cummins in the new truck. "It’s a beautiful little engine, great on fuel and not as noisy. It does a great job and pulls up the Adelaide Hills without a problem," he says. "The resale on these is great, you can’t beat them," he smiles. "But I know that this truck would see me through to retirement – and I’m only 43." .

Steve Brooks, Owner-Driver / July 6, 2017 Thinking of buying a new Cat Truck? Only a handful remain on Australian dealership stands and once they're gone it's all over. It would take an incredibly optimistic mind to believe that Cat Trucks are not on the edge of extinction, bringing to a close one of the most tumultuous, disjointed and ultimately disappointing brand histories to ever impact the Australian trucking industry. As things stand right now, there is little more than a handful of new Cat-branded trucks remaining on dealers’ lots and the likelihood, according to many sources within the Cat network in this country, is that once current stocks run out, there will be no more. From all appearances, typified to some extent by their complete absence from the recent Brisbane Truck Show, Cat-branded trucks will simply slink into oblivion. In effect, it is following in the path of the yellow engines which were once such a proud and prominent player in the big end of the truck business before Caterpillar’s 2008 desertion from the on-highway truck engine business. Once again, it’s leaving Cat’s somewhat maligned dealer group to wrestle with the wrath of truck operators who took the Cat trucks plunge. Still, any capitulation of the Cat brand from the truck business should not come as a complete surprise. After all, sales numbers over the past few years tell the simple, sombre truth that Cat trucks have not done well, failing dismally on the back of a brazen belief that a Cat badge and yellow engine would be enough to ensure success and in the process, dissolve the disappointment of its 2008 exit from the engine business. In all of 2016, just 63 Cat-branded trucks were sold across the country, representing a miniscule 0.6 percent of the total Australian market for heavy-duty trucks. This year is shaping to be no better with a paltry 31 trucks delivered in the first six months. Obviously enough, these are not figures to build faith in the future, nor a fiscal foundation commensurate with the requirements of a hugely competitive industry where truck operators are spoilt for choice. So given the numbers, Cat’s dawdling demise from the trucking fraternity has over the past few years at least become increasingly predictable. It is, of course, a far cry from the hype and hope of 2010 when the first Cat-branded highway trucks were launched in a spectacular, big budget event at Uluru in Central Australia to around 300 guests and their partners flown in to be part of this ‘world first’ event. The Cat Trucks venture grew from an entity called NC2, or ‘NC squared’ as some would call it, bringing together the resources of Cat and US truck maker Navistar and using the sleekly styled International ProStar as the platform for the Cat CT610 and CT630 models. Obviously, the trucks were powered by Cat engines – the C15 ACERT in the CT630 and C13 in the CT610. However, following the failure of the C13 to meet emissions requirements, a Navistar engine branded the Cat CT13 would provide the power for the CT610 model. There were big plans for NC2, including talk of a Cat-badged cab-over, and an early press statement proclaimed, ‘The joint venture leverages the potent combination of Navistar’s truck manufacturing expertise and Caterpillar’s powerful global network (and) a 2010 business plan has been formalised embracing high potential markets, with initial focus on Australia, Brazil and South Africa.’ Australia was defined as a ‘high priority’ market and as events would soon reveal, it certainly rated higher than Brazil and South Africa where Cat trucks simply failed to launch. However, the announcement also had considerable impacts in other areas. For starters, it came less than two years after Cat’s much maligned decision to leave the on-highway truck engine business which left a particularly sour taste in the mouths of many Australian truck operators. The joint venture also meant the end of Navistar’s relationship with Iveco Trucks Australia which for several years had enjoyed reasonable success with local production of the International 7600, 9200 and 9900 models. Today, of course, International and Iveco are once again involved in an arrangement which will see Iveco distributing the International ProStar on the Australian market. However, back in 2010 there was definitely no love lost between Iveco and International. What’s more, not everyone within Navistar’s executive sanctum was in love with the idea of a close coupling with Cat. During a visit to Navistar’s Chicago headquarters in late 2014, a senior executive who would eventually be one of several Navistar veterans sent to Australia to sort out the aftermath of the NC2 kerfuffle, openly conceded that the deal with Cat was flawed from the start. Like it or not though, the deal went ahead with around 540 Cat trucks hastily built to meet an upcoming emissions deadline on a reconfigured assembly line at Cat’s Tullamarine (Vic) plant. After those trucks were built though, it became a fully imported operation. Consequently, with early reliability issues accompanying an inflated price tag for a largely untried truck, plus a glut of stock with aging compliance plates and operator backlash from Cat’s exit from the engine business, high hopes soon turned to a hard sell. In surprisingly short time, NC2 started to unravel, leaving Navistar to pick up the pieces with a new company called Navistar Auspac while Cat progressively withdrew from the deal except for a licensing agreement which allowed Navistar to continue using the brand and the engine. However, Navistar Auspac at least attempted to deliver something more than simply a continuation of a Cat trucks business struggling for existence in a crowded market. In fact, local development continued to produce models well suited to the Australian market, spearheaded by the flagship CT630LS, the highly impressive CT630SC for B-doubles work and last, the roadtrain triples rated CT630HD. But again as the numbers testify, it has all been to little avail. Significantly, farcical management structures have also played a major role in curtailing confidence in Cat Trucks. What’s left today is a jumbled Navistar Auspac Cat Trucks operation run by a skeleton staff guided by veteran International executives including one based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Go figure! Navistar’s end game, it appears, is to see the Cat venture to its inevitable end while securing the platform for the re-introduction of the International brand through a new deal with Iveco. On a positive note though, ProStar in Cat clothing has at least shown its ability to be a durable and versatile performer under Australian conditions. In Cat guise, the truck has shown itself to be far more resilient than the brand. And therein resides the great disappointment and even sadness of the Cat Trucks adventure. The product and its customers deserved better, as did the people at both company and dealer level who gave the exercise their best shot and managed to stay remarkably loyal despite market adversity and astonishing corporate ineptitude. .

This was in 2001 Timmy, and Volvo shut down MackPower soon after.

First Merlin Marine, and then Daytona Marine. DME-9-500 16.36 500 @ 2,100 Daytona Marine Engine DME-9-550 16.36 550 @ 2,100 Daytona Marine Engine DME-9-700 16.36 700 @ 2,500 Daytona Marine Engine DME-9-720 16.36 720 @ 2,500 Daytona Marine Engine DME-9-750 16.36 750 @ 2,500 Daytona Marine Engine DME-9-820 16.36 820 @ 2,500 Daytona Marine Engine DME-9-880 16.36 880 @ 2,500 Daytona Marine Engine DME-9-925 16.36 925 @ 2,500 Daytona Marine Engine And also Manchester Mack.............https://www.absolutelyeverythingabout.com/boats/american-marine-diesel/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mack Power available for new markets MackPower Press Release / February 7, 2001 Mack Trucks, Inc. announced today that it will market its premier 12-liter diesel engine, the E7, as a power source for a variety of industrial and marine market applications. Mack Power is the company's new business unit which supports the marketing, sales, engineering, service, and parts operations for the E7's strategic move into several new and highly competitive market segments. According to Paul L. Vikner, executive vice president -- sales and marketing, "the Mack E7 engine is a natural fit for the many varied businesses that demand reliability, durability, and efficiency from a diesel power unit. Our engines, which are well known for all these attributes, offer additional advantages due to their outstanding power-to-weight ratio as well." The Mack Power E7 E-TECH, an electronically managed engine, will be available for the major industrial market segments of agricultural, construction, general industrial, material handling, pumps and compressors, and generator sets. For the commercial and pleasure marine market segment, the E7 engine will be available in both E-TECH and mechanical models. "This engine is a well respected product, and a quality alternative to competing products," notes Vikner, "with the weight, power, torque, performance, dependability, serviceability, life, and electronics necessary for a wide variety of applications in these market segments. And the E-TECH engine is a real workhorse. It's the same base power unit Mack offers to the Class 8 truck market." In the future, Vikner adds, the Mack Power E7 will be marketed in several non-competing niche on-highway applications as well. Mack Power products will be produced at Mack's Hagerstown, MD, operations facility. Scott H. Kress, vice president -- business development and industry relations and general manager of Mack Power, says "our goal is to bring to the industrial and marine diesel engine markets a world-class product range that is more than the equivalent of current market leaders -- products that benefit from the dedicated resources and support of the Mack company. The relatively small size and favorable power-to-weight ratio of the E7, combined with Mack's name and reputation, gives our product a significant competitive advantage over others." According to Kress, Mack is developing a distribution network specific to this market – partnering with select diesel engine distributors already servicing these markets that will add the Mack Power product to complement their other offerings. "Our first product shipment will be made in the first quarter of 2000 to the industrial market," Kress says, "and the marine market will follow later in the year. We also plan to unveil the Mack Power E7 at several industry shows throughout the coming year." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16-litre Industrial Engine MackPower Press Release The MackPower I-E9 V8, 16-litre Industrial Engine is ideal for demanding jobs that require extra power and torque. The MackPower I-E9 V8, 16-litre Industrial Engine is ideal for demanding jobs that require extra power and torque. According to Carrie-Ann Baker, sales and marketing manager of the MackPower business unit, "the E9 has years of proven performance, efficiency and reliability on the highway. It is well respected and well known and now a variety of applications can take advantage of this engine such as: mining, power generation, industrial, agricultural, construction, material handling, as well as pumps and compressors." The V8 cylinder, 4 stroke, 32 valve, turbocharged, intercooled diesel engine delivers between 475 and 700 HP. The I-E9 offers several other features common to its truck-driving cousin. These include: Electronically controlled pump line nozzle injection system with V-MAC control for high power density, efficient operations and low smoke. High pressure direct injected fuel for excellent fuel economy and smoke control. Three full flow spin-on oil system with 56.2 quart total capacity. Steel crown articulated piston and full wet replaceable cylinder liners for durability. High power-to-weight ratio for outstanding performance. All I-E9 engines will be manufactured at the Mack Powertrain Operations engineers and product developmentäin Hagerstown, Md., where MackPower specialists have been centralized. The toll-free number for all MackPower inquiries is 877-6-PWRMACK (679-7622) MackPower, 2100 Mack Boulevard, Allentown, PA 18103. Tel: 610-709-3837; Fax: 610-709-3636.

Fleet Owner / July 5, 2017 Eaton has begun production and shipping of its recently upgraded line of aftermarket Advantage Self-Adjust and Eaton Easy Pedal Advantage heavy-duty clutches. Twenty-eight part numbers with a wide range of torque ratings up to 2,250 lbs.-ft. are now available for replacement service for all makes and models of heavy-duty trucks in North America. “Enhancements were made to both designs to improve durability, reduce harmful vibration and better enable smooth, effortless shifting,” said Ben Karrer, global product strategy manager, Eaton Vehicle Group. “Contemporary diesel engines and powertrains, including downsped designs, continue to evolve. This newest line of clutches, our smoothest and most durable ever made by Eaton, are designed to better support those developments.” The 28 part numbers are a reduction from 41 previous part numbers by combining several earlier models into one. The line covers all commercial heavy-duty truck applications while allowing dealers to reduce inventory levels. According to Eaton, highlights include: A new strap drive system, which affixes the intermediate plate to the housing on the clutches, prolongs clutch life by eliminating lug fatigue that over time could lead to failures. The design also eliminates noisy rattle that is associated with the prior design. Eaton’s soft rate dampers absorb engine vibrations to prevent driveline damage and are now standard on all clutches. This technology enables downspeeding at all torque ratings up to 1,850 lbs.-ft. A patent pending spring separator system permits cleaner, quicker disengagement with the engine for more efficient, smoother shifting. A second wear tab indicator has been added to the Advantage Self-Adjust model giving maintenance professionals better access during visual inspections. Bearing lube intervals for all Eaton Advantage heavy-duty clutches is 50,000 miles. Eaton Commercial Vehicle components are backed by Eaton’s Roadranger network of more than 180 drivetrain professionals who provide solutions, support and expertise to fleets and dealers.

Heavy Duty Trucking / July 5, 2017 Kenworth’s T680 on-highway flagship and T880 and T880S vocational trucks are now available for order with the Cummins Westport ISL G Near Zero NOx emissions natural-gas engine. The 8.9 liter Cummins Westport ISL G Near Zero is rated at 320 horsepower and 1,000 lb.-ft. of torque. Emissions of the ISL G NZ are 90% lower than the current Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board NOx limit of 0.2 g/bhp-hr and also meet the 2017 EPA greenhouse gas emission requirements, according to Cummins Westport. The engine makes use of advanced engine calibration, a three-way catalyst aftertreatment system, and a closed crankcase ventilation system to help achieve lower emissions. The ISL G NZ can operate on either compressed natural gas or liquefied natural gas and is also compatible with renewable natural gas. “The Kenworth T680 and T880 specified with the ISL G Near Zero emissions engine are ideal for regional haul, vocational, and refuse fleets focused on decreasing their environmental impact and reducing operating costs,” said Kurt Swihart, Kenworth marketing director. ISL G video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8CxxGWfYYk .

Fleet Owner / July 5, 2017 State struggles to reach new budget agreement A proposal in the Wisconsin legislature to create a mileage-based fee on trucks to help fund highway improvements was met with fierce opposition from business groups. The proposal by state Rep Amy Loudenbeck (R) estimated it would create $138 million annually. The fee would charge 2.85 a mile on commercial trucks weighing 59,000 lbs. It was supposed by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R), but five senators came out in opposition, meaning it could not gain enough support for passage. Neal Kedzie, president of the Wisconsin Motor Carriers Association (WMCA), told Fleet Owner the idea appears to be dead, but "anything can happen" because there is not yet an agreement on a new budget. "We will continue our effort to oppose until we see the actual budget language has no mention of a heavy truck tax in it," Kedzie said. In late June, the WMCA, Schneider National, Walmart, and Roehl Transport were among more than a dozen business groups filing a letter in opposition to the idea. “The Wisconsin trucking industry alone paid 38 percent of all taxes owed by Wisconsin motorists last year, pay some of the highest trucking registration fees in the nation, and will continue to bear the brunt of additional efforts on taxes and other revenue generating mechanisms that won’t disappear once this budget is completed,” the groups wrote. The letter added there is no ton-mile collection system in operation in Wisconsin and “targeting heavy trucks . . . will raise the cost to do business here in Wisconsin, resulting in less routes through the state, increased prices for consumers and curtail new investment.” State lawmakers failed to reach a new budget deal by July 1. As a result, spending levels from the previous two-year budget are carrying over. State officials have said if the stalemate continues it could delay road construction.

Speed-Limiter Regulation Hits Roadblock in Trump’s Quest to Cut Rules Transport Topics / July 5, 2017 Years of pleas from parents whose son was killed by a speeding tractor-trailer, buy-in from some truckers and the promise of fewer highway deaths convinced U.S. officials in September to propose requiring speed-limiting devices on all large rigs. All it took was a few minutes for President Donald Trump to sign an order putting that regulation and hundreds of others in limbo. “This ought to be the biggest slam dunk you ever thought of,” said Steve Owings, whose son, Cullum, died in 2002. The latest hurdle for the truck-speed proposal is “very, very disconcerting,” Owings said. Trump brought a reformer’s zeal against regulations into the White House, vowing to block what he calls unnecessary rules across the government that stifle business and slow hiring. The order he signed in January requires agencies to kill two existing rules for each new one and caps the costs of new regulations — even ones backed by industry, lawmakers and the public. At the Department of Transportation, for example, it has brought a near halt to the regulatory process, forcing delays or rethinking of rules brokered through years-long efforts at compromise, enjoying at least some industry support and projected to create significant benefits. The speed-limiting devices for trucks — already mandated in most developed nations — would save hundreds of lives, lower fuel use and provide as much as $6.5 billion in benefits per year, the department estimated. If a rule like the truck-speed restriction is to get finalized, agencies have to find a way to save billions of dollars by cutting other regulations. The president has cast the effort as a way to free business of unnecessary burdens. ‘Morality Play’ It’s a “simplistic morality play” to say regulations are either inherently harmful to business interests or are purely for the benefit of the public, said Jerry Ellig, a senior research fellow at the George Mason University’s Mercatus Center who specializes in the issue. “Most regulations benefit some businesses and harm other businesses,” he said. Under the umbrella of transportation agencies regulating aviation, automobiles, rail and highways, of the 43 proposed rules subject to review under Trump’s order, 34 — or 79% — are designed to improve safety, according to a Bloomberg News review. Two would attempt to mitigate the hazards of trains hauling oil, which have derailed and exploded in recent years. Two more, born from the last major U.S. airline accident that killed 50 people in 2009, aim to improve pilot performance. Including the Owings’s truck proposal, at least 10 are focused on reducing the carnage on U.S. roadways, which took 35,000 lives in 2015. At least 15 of DOT’s actions were designed to address concerns raised by National Transportation Safety Board investigations of accidents. For safety advocates like Deborah Hersman, the former NTSB chairman who now heads the nonprofit National Safety Council, it’s frustrating seeing DOT’s proposed rules being held up while the agency searches for rules it can undo. “It’s like Sophie’s Choice. You’re asking people to pick between one thing that will kill you and another thing that will kill you,” Hersman said. Required by Congress Almost half of the pending regulations were required, at least in part, by Congress. They include rollover enhancements for motor coaches and safety upgrades for U.S. transit systems. While agencies are bound to adopt rules mandated by Congress, they generally must still find cost savings and other regulations to cut, according to White House guidance. The new policies apply to proposals that would cost society more than $100 million or are deemed unusual, a category known as “significant.” Military, national security and foreign affairs regulations are exempt. The result is that it’s almost certain to be harder for agencies like the Transportation Department to enact new rules, according to Richard Morgenstern, a fellow at the nonpartisan Resources for the Future and a former U.S. official with experience in crafting regulations. “You now have additional constraints which you didn’t have before,” Morgenstern said in an interview. By numerous measures, regulatory actions have slowed under the new administration. DOT hasn’t updated its monthly list of pending rules since Trump took office. It has halted or delayed implementation of some Obama-era rules, such as airline consumer measures and safety rules for electric and hybrid cars. It hasn’t finalized any of the pending regulations it inherited, including the truck-speed measure, according to government records. The slowdown has occurred across government, from rules governing how coal royalties are calculated to methane gas releases. In several cases, this slowdown has frustrated the very industries being regulated. Drone groups, for example, have urged swift action to create rules allowing unmanned aircraft to operate over people’s heads, arguing it’s needed to allow the industry to expand. Battery manufacturers also want the United States to adopt regulations restricting how airlines can carry flammable lithium cells so rules are consistent across borders. To the advocates for Trump’s regulatory slowdown, the purpose isn’t to block new safety measures or rules that would benefit people. “That would be perverse,” Marcus Peacock, who briefly served in Trump’s Office of Management and Budget and has become executive vice president of the Business Roundtable lobbying group, said at an April public forum. Peacock and others said that for decades there hasn’t been an incentive to remove outdated regulations or to streamline such things as paperwork requirements on businesses. The Trump orders will push agencies to be more efficient, and it should be easy to find enough savings among existing rules to allow for new regulations, he said. Costs of Regulations The stakes for interest groups and society as a whole are enormous. During the Obama administration, DOT forecast that benefits on 18 of the pending rules — reduced accident deaths and injuries, improved health and lower fuel consumption among other gains — would total almost $200 billion and outweigh costs by more than four to one. But the regulations also would create a wide array of additional costs for businesses and society, including required purchases of new equipment by companies or, as in the case of the speed-limiter proposal, the financial impact of delays in delivering goods. Those costs are estimated at about $44 billion. While the cost and benefit estimates are viewed skeptically by conservative groups and some industries, they remain the benchmark for the Trump administration. Under Trump’s regulatory reform orders, that means transportation officials must find billions of dollars in savings by cutting or revising existing rules before finalizing those regulations. ‘Top Priority’ The Transportation Department has allowed some regulations finalized in the final days of the Obama administration to become law, such as training standards for commercial drivers, the agency said in e-mailed statements. Officials believe there are inefficient rules that can be dropped or revised without compromising safety, which is the agency’s “top priority.” So far, details about which existing rules the administration is targeting for elimination have been sparse. “This is an exciting time in Washington,” the agency said in a statement. “We share the president’s commitment to reducing unreasonable regulatory burdens that stifle innovation and undermine shared prosperity without promoting safety.” The White House referred a request for comment to OMB, which didn’t respond to emails. Speed Limiters One of the most expensive pending transportation regulations — and therefore one requiring the elimination of significant existing regulations if it is ever to become law — is the Owings’s speed-limiter measure. Cullum Owings, 22, was a college senior on his way to school after Thanksgiving in 2002 when a truck slammed into his car as he was stopped in traffic on a Virginia highway. The truck had been speeding and the driver applied the brakes too late to stop. Determined to do something, his parents formed a group called Road Safe America. After they and American Trucking Associations, the largest U.S. trade group for truckers, petitioned the government seeking speed limiters, the Republican administration of President George W. Bush began the process of drawing up a proposal in 2007, according to records. Progress was slow and support mixed. When the proposed rule was finally issued nine years later on Sept. 7, the Owings felt it didn’t go far enough because it would only require the devices on newly built trucks. Groups representing smaller trucking companies, including the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, argued that limiting speeds wouldn’t reduce crashes. Over time, some members of the ATA got cold feet and the organization raised concerns in comments to the government. But the Trucking Alliance, a group made up of some of the largest trucking companies, many of which already use speed-limiters, has remained in favor, according to an April 12 letter to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. Government reviews found the benefits far exceeded the costs it would impose on industry in delayed shipments of goods. Costs are projected to be from $209 million to $1.6 billion a year. Fuel savings alone would exceed that, the government projected, and overall benefits including fewer highway deaths would range from $684 million to $6.5 billion a year. Owings said government officials he’s spoken with who are shepherding the regulation seem uncertain how to proceed under the White House’s new guidelines. A financial planner in Atlanta, he says he has sympathy with Trump’s call for reducing wasteful regulations. He just doesn’t think it makes sense for what he sees as a life-saving measure with little downside. “You would think that this should be so simple,” he said.

MAN Truck & Bus Press Release / July 4, 2017 The MAN "Connected CoDriver" training is set-up as a virtual training at the workplace of the driver to avoid downtimes. It shows how to save up to 10% fuel by offering tips and tricks on how to drive a truck efficiently with the help of the MAN assistance systems. Read more about the MAN ProfiDrive® trainings: http://www.profidrive.man All Costs at a Glance. Effectively reduce your TCO. With MAN. Find out more: http://www.tco.man. .

Owner-Driver / June 29, 2017 The Sydney Classic and Antique Truck Show, held at annually at Penrith’s Museum of Fire, brought together a wide cross section of Australia’s trucking heritage Penrith’s Museum of Fire hosted its seventh annual Sydney Classic and Antique Truck Show on May 28, bringing together rare makes and models from decades past, as this photo gallery shows. Museum of Fire CEO and show organiser Mark White, who also runs the annual Penrith Working Truck Show in March with a willing team of volunteers, has been successful in attracting classic truck enthusiasts to the event each year. Models on display included Fords, Atkinsons, Leylands, Diamond Ts, Kenworths, Dodges, Whites, Western Stars, Macks, Peterbilts, Internationals and, of course, antique fire engines. .

Volvo Trucks Australia / July 3, 2017 Cows never stop producing milk, so for SRH Uptime is everything. Watch the video to see how pre-planning has made all the difference to the company's uptime. .

Melker Jernberg has been appointed President of Volvo Construction Equipment and member of the Volvo Group Executive Board. OEM Off-Highway / July 3, 2017 Melker Jernberg was born in 1968 and is currently President and CEO of the Sweden-based powder metallurgy company Höganäs AB. Prior to this he held the position of Executive Vice President and Head of Business Area EMEA at Swedish-based steel manufacturer SSAB. Melker Jernberg will assume his new position on January 1, 2018. Melker Jernberg replaces Martin Weissburg who, due to family reasons, has decided to move back to the U.S. and will take up a position as Senior Advisor to Volvo’s President and CEO Martin Lundstedt. Martin Weissburg will be stationed in Greensboro, USA. “Martin Weissburg has, through his strong leadership, been key to the considerable improvement in the performance of Volvo Construction Equipment and he will continue to have senior positions within the Volvo Group. Martin Weissburg will remain in his position until year end 2017 and take up his new position as Senior Advisor to me during the course of Q1 2018,” comments Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO of the Volvo Group.

Dagens Industri / July 4, 2017 Melker Jernberg leaves the metallic powder giant Höganäs after only three years to become CEO of Volvo Construction Machinery (VCE). Thus, the Scaniafication of Volvo Group is strengthening while the Wallenberg sphere loses another top director to the sphere around Industrivärden. Melker Jernberg, 48, Martin Weissburg succeeds as CEO of Volvo's VCE business area at the turn of the year. Thus, Melker Jernberg Höganäs, which has annual sales of approximately SEK 7.5 billion, leaves a significantly larger VCE, which has a turnover of around SEK 55 billion. The departure of American Martin Weissburg from VCE does not come unexpectedly. At Volvo's report for the first quarter, Di asked CEO Martin Lundstedt asked how sustainable it is for Martin Weissburg's family living in the United States while VCE has its headquarters in Gothenburg. Martin Lundstedt gave a somewhat evasive answer. Following VCE's very convincing result for the first quarter, Martin Weissburg is now looking forward to leaving the flag at the top. The streamlining measures that he has taken in recent years seem to yield the best possible results. The fact that Melker Jernberg is recruited to Volvo is also not surprisingly taken into consideration by Martin Lundstedt's predecessor for recruiting directors with a background of arch competitor Scania. Di wrote at the beginning of 2016 that the former Scania director was the most likely candidate to become Volvo's global truck production. For many years, he has worked with Martin Lundstedt at Scania. Now, Melker Jernberg gained a much more prestigious Volvo assignment, which also presents an interesting development potential if the group chooses to sell VCE after a few years. Melker Jernberg started working at Scania in 1989. Before joining 2011, in order to become Business Area Manager at SSAB Steel Company, he joined the Group Management as Chief Executive Officer and reported to Martin Lundstedt, who was then Sales Director at Södertäljebolaget. According to consistent data, Melker Jernberg and Martin Lundstedt have a similar leadership based on openness and delegation of responsibility and trust. Both are also adept at creating a lightweight and positive atmosphere in their surroundings. The recruitment of Melker Jernberg further enhances the Scaniafication of Volvo. Since Martin Lundstedt himself was recruited from the Södertälje-based truckmaker in 2015, Scania has also recruited Andrea Fuder as Purchasing Director and Lars Stenqvist as new technology director. Before becoming CFO at Volvo, Jan Gurander held the same position at Scania. In addition, former Scania director Håkan Samuelsson sits on the Volvo Group Board. Since Scania historically has been a significantly more profitable and more value-creating company than Volvo, it is interesting and promising that Volvo's top management is now dominated by former Scania directors who contribute new knowledge and change the culture of the Gothenburg Group. At the same time, it is not entirely unproblematic if Volvo Group Management appears like Martin Lundstedt's Compass Club from Södertälje. Normally, it is preferable that in a group there are people with many different experiences. However, as long as earnings performance is favorable, no one complains about Martin Lundstedt's building. Höganäs is owned by Wallenberg Foundation's FAM and Lindéngruppen. This means that the Wallenberg sphere now that Melker Jernberg leaves for Volvo again loses a heavy name to the sphere around Industrivärden. Less than two years ago, Björn Rosengren left Wärtsilä, where Investor is the main owner, to become Sandvik CEO. Whoever takes over as CEO of Höganäs is hard-judged. A possible candidate is Kerstin Konradsson, who is the business area manager for Boliden's smelter and is also part of Höganäs Board.

Volvo Trucks Press Release / July 2, 2017 Twenty years ago, Mark Clare bought a milk run and started up his business with just one truck. Today, his company is considered the number one provider of frozen and temperature controlled goods in Ireland. .

Iveco Trucks Press Release / June 3, 2017 The Bullen of IVECO Magirus step again on the podium with two third positions and finish second in the Team ranking The Nürburgring is in a class of its own. Despite the usual Eifel weather of wind and rain, over 100,000 truckers and truck enthusiasts enjoyed a thrilling weekend that saw the “Bullen of IVECO Magirus” team and their three vehicles compete once again. The "Bullen von IVECO Magirus" step on the podium again with a third place earned by Jochen Hahn – Team Hahn – on Saturday’s first race, followed by a third position for Gerd Körber – Team Schwabentruck – in the second race of the day. The “Bullen of IVECO Magirus” are now in second place in the overall team ranking, 5 points behind the first position, and Jochen Hahn defends his third podium placement in the drivers’ ranking. Before the start of the race, tribute was paid to a special anniversary: precisely 30 years ago, Gerd Körber of Team Schwabentruck first climbed into a racing truck. In spite of his truck’s 750 hp engine – an impressive output at the time – he still only finished in fourth place. Nowadays, Gerd Körber and Jochen Hahn rely on a powerful 1200 hp IVECO Cursor 13 engine. Both drivers were under extreme pressure – after all, they are well known names in Eifel: Hahn is the current European Champion and has held the title numerous times in the past, while Körber, also a European Championship winner several times, is famous as a trusted member of the Schwabentruck team, from its very beginnings to this day. The first – and rainy – day of the home fixture on the Ring turned out to be one of mixed fortunes for the Bullen of IVECO Magirus: in qualifying, Jochen Hahn settled down into pole position, but soon faced pressure from behind and finished the race in third place, while Gerd Körber crossed the line in eighth position. In the second race, starting with inverted starting grids, collisions were non-stop right from the first bend. Thrilling clashes and a wealth of shredded plastic kept the spectators on the edge of their seats. After a well-fought race, Gerd Körber beat teammate Hahn to the third spot on the podium by a whisker – and was ecstatic with the result. After qualification, Sunday’s starting grid saw Hahn take his place in the first row. Körber was in eighth position and was able to hold it all the way to the finish line, while Hahn, after a number of skirmishes, slid into seventh place. As a result, both needed to be in the first starting row in the next and final race of the day. Due to an oil spill from an accident (during an interim race in another class), the track would have to be cleaned, but it proved impossible to manage this in good time. The decision was therefore taken at 17:00 to cancel the last race. One of the main attractions at the IVECO stand was a Stralis XP Limited Edition – one of only 124 in the whole of Europe – that was developed to celebrate a collaboration with the Abarth-Scorpion team. The New Stralis XP with its traditional red and grey Scorpion colour scheme was a reminder of the successes of the legendary Fiat Spider 124 rally vehicles and the newly released "Abarth 124 Rally Selenia". A Stralis and a Eurocargo will be responsible for the racing team's logistics across Europe for the next three years. .

Truckers who carry your favorite goods to market are being cheated to save you money The Los Angeles Times / June 3, 2017 Juan Lara was headed back to the Port of Los Angeles two weeks ago from his daily pickup in the Mojave Desert when his truck erupted with engine trouble. He managed to bring the truck and its 50,000-pound load of borax limping into the port. There the 63-year-old driver says he faced a bill for $10,500 in repairs for a truck he doesn’t even own. That will take a big chunk out of his pretax pay of about $2,500 a week, which is reduced by more than half by his expenses for fuel, insurance and the truck lease itself. Subtract federal, payroll and state taxes, and Lara may be working for less than $18 an hour, with no benefits. Lara is classified at his trucking company, California Cartage Express, as an “independent contractor,” not an employee, even though he says he drives exclusively for the company and operates under the control of its dispatchers. The vast majority of the roughly 12,000 regular truck drivers at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach are classified by their bosses as independent contractors. But as federal and state judges and labor regulators have consistently ruled, they’re employees in all but name. They just don’t get the benefits — access to employer-owned equipment, workers compensation and unemployment insurance, employer contributions to Social Security and minimum wage protection. They don’t get retirement or healthcare coverage, or reimbursement for their work expenses. Typically, they work on 90-day renewable contracts, which means they can effectively be fired at will, with no recourse to the protection against arbitrary treatment enjoyed by employees. The misclassification of workers as independent contractors is a national scandal. But the port may be the single most concentrated example of this race to the bottom in the American workplace. Port trucking “really is a case study in the bigger economic trends we have seen since the 1980s,” says Jessica Durrum, head of the clean & safe ports campaign for LAANE, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. “This is not about one or two bad apples.” There’s no mystery why shipping firms at the port prefer the independent contractor model: It saves them about 30% compared to the cost of operating with employee drivers. That’s the estimate of Fred Potter, director of the port division of the Teamsters, which represents about 500 drivers at the port and is trying to expand its representation. The Teamsters’ goal is to get the drivers as much as 30% more in pay over the average $28,000 that the union says the “independent contractors” can pull down after expenses, but resistance by the firms has been ferocious. As long as the misclassification continues, Potter says, “the employers who break the law have an advantage.” The drivers haul not only industrial cargoes, but merchandise for leading retail chains, including Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Wal-Mart as well as merchandise bearing some of the world’s most familiar brand names. Those chains and brands are the customers that shipping companies try to please by undercutting each other’s rates, and they have the power to require the shippers to comply with the law. We reached out to the four big retailers; Target said it expects all its vendors “to comply with our vendor standards and all applicable laws and regulations around labor, wages, overtime and more,” including “the appropriate classification of their workers.” Home Depot said, “we're investigating the issue and we're exploring ways to ensure drivers are aware of available channels to raise concerns with us.” Lowe’s said it had “no information to share” and Wal-Mart didn’t respond. We also reached out to California Cartage, Lara’s company, but they didn’t respond. Shipping companies claim that truckers prefer to be independent contractors. “The market is telling us that independent contracting is where the talent pool is,” says a spokesperson for XPO Logistics, a big port shipping firm. “For them it’s about pay and flexibility, and that’s important for us, too.” “Of drivers offered the opportunity to be employees or independent contractors,” says Weston LaBar, executive director of the Harbor Trucking Assn., “more than 90% choose to be independent contractors.” But that choice is really a sham because opportunities to be employees are limited; the few employee-only companies at the port face “a significant economic disadvantage,” says an industry insider who asked to remain unidentified because he serves in port management. Legal rulings have almost uniformly found that the truckers meet all the markers of employees and almost none of independent business operators; LaBar concedes that “99% of the cases” have been ruled in favor of the drivers. As a National Labor Relations Board judge found in 2015 in a case involving Green Fleet Systems, the company dictated each driver’s shifts, set payments unilaterally, effectively prevented them from working for other companies and required the drivers to park the trucks on company property between shifts — and charged them up to $15 a week for the parking. “In every real sense, they were neither independent nor businesses,” ruled the judge, Jeffrey D. Wedekind. “Rather, they were dependent drivers.” As the rulings pile up, so do the liabilities. The port firm Shippers Transport Express settled a federal court suit over the misclassification of more than 500 truck drivers for $11 million in 2015, while agreeing to convert the drivers to employee status. Of about 900 complaints filed with the California labor commissioner since 2011, rulings have been issued in more than 375 — every one finding that the drivers are employees and ordering back pay totaling nearly $40 million, according to Julie Gutman Dickinson, a Los Angeles-based lawyer for the Teamsters. About 350 cases have been settled or sent to arbitration, and 150 are pending. In May, U.S. Judge William D. Keller of Los Angeles ordered Pacer Cartage, a unit of XPO, to pay five drivers a total of $958,657 in unlawfully deducted wages, lease payments, expenses and interest. XPO is appealing the order. During the trial Keller warned Pacer that case law had moved inexorably toward the conclusion that the drivers had been improperly classified as independent contractors.“That isn’t a storm cloud for you,” he said. “That is an absolute tornado coming at you at about a hundred miles an hour. And you better scatter.” The industry attributes its string of losses to “politically tilted” judges and regulators and the influence of “plaintiffs’ attorneys and organized labor,” as Greg M. Feary, the head of a law firm that represents the shippers, wrote in response to a recent USA Today investigation into lease abuses at the Port of Los Angeles. The classification of drivers as independent contractors dates back to federal deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980. Companies that mostly employed Teamster members on fixed wages were soon supplanted by nonunion companies that sold their trucks to their drivers and paid them by the load. Established Teamster companies, including California Cartage, shifted to the new model. A vigorous trade in used trucks developed among drivers. But the economics for drivers took a drastic turn for the worse in 2008, when the port instituted an initiative to get old, polluting diesel trucks scrapped and replaced with fuel-efficient, lower-emission — and much more expensive — new models. The goal was to quell local residents’ complaints about filthy air, paving the way for a port expansion to relieve congestion. As a federal appeals court later observed, port officials believed that the conversion to clean trucks would be “prohibitively expensive” for independent drivers. The city of Los Angeles issued a mandate that all trucking firms at the port, which had better access to the capital needed to convert the fleet, would have to change back to the employee-only model. The shipping firms successfully sued to overturn the mandate in federal court. “Every day I come to work knowing I’ll have to cover $60 for the lease that day, plus fuel and insurance,” says Daniel Seko, 39, a driver for Intermodal Bridge Transport who gets paid by the load. In a good week, Seko says, he might earn $900 before expenses. “If it’s not a good week, $500.” There are signs that the industry is moving toward an employee-only model, but at a snail’s pace. One reason may be that the companies are hoping that the advent of the Trump administration heralds a more indulgent approach at the NLRB. A few weeks ago, XPO asked an NLRB judge to suspend two cases in which the Teamsters accuse the firm of illegally misclassifying drivers, to “see whether the new administration remains interested” in the cases. The judge rejected the motion and scheduled a hearing for July 24 in Los Angeles.

FORD: Lower fleet sales drive June down 5% Automotive News / July 3, 2017 Ford Motor Co.'s June sales fell 5 percent as fleet sales declined. The automaker's sales to daily rental companies fell 2.4 percentage points to 13 percent of its overall U.S. light-vehicle sales, as companies such as Avis and Hertz take a more cautionary approach amid a plateauing market. Sales to commercial businesses dropped 0.6 percentage points of overall volume and sales to government agencies fell 0.5 percentage points. Total fleet volume fell 14 percent, Ford said. Fleet volume represented a third of Ford's U.S. sales in June. Ford has said the fluctuations in its fleet business -- those sales increased 8.4 percent in May -- is timing-related, and are tough comparisons to last year, when most of its fleet orders were front-loaded. The automaker still plans to finish the year with about the same fleet sales as 2016. Ford's retail sales were flat -- off just 36 vehicles -- compared with last year. The company was again driven by pickup/van and SUV/crossover sales, up 1.4 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. Car sales plummeted 23 percent. Through the first six months of the year, Ford sold more SUVs/crossovers than it ever has. "Customers drove a record 406,464 Ford brand SUV sales in the first half of this year," Mark LaNeve, Ford's vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service, said in a statement. "F-series continues expanding its sales and share this year, with customers opting for high-series pickups and investing in class-exclusive features that only Ford trucks offer." Ford's F-series sales rose 9.8 percent last month, as average transaction prices rose $3,100 to $45,600. It was Ford's fourth month in a row selling over 70,000 pickups. Ford's SUV/crossover sales were driven by the Explorer, up 19 percent, and the Edge, up 20 percent. Ford blamed a 6.4 percent decline in Escape sales on fleet orders. Escape retail sales rose 5 percent and Ford is shortening its summer shutdown at its Escape plant in Kentucky because it expects continued strong demand. Sales of Ford's Lincoln luxury brand rose 5.3 percent; it was the brand's 17th consecutive month of retail sales gains. MKC sales increased 16 percent, and Lincoln's car sales were again propped up by sales of the new Continental, with 973 deliveries.

2004 Bronco concept hits street -- sort of Automotive News / July 3, 2017 Ford Motor Co.'s 2004 Bronco concept is finally hitting the streets — sort of. The SUV, unveiled at the 2004 Detroit auto show, will be seen in the upcoming movie Rampage, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The wrestler-turned-actor recently posted an Instagram photo that featured the Bronco in a scene from the movie, which is based on the 1980s arcade game of the same name. The Rock is a spokesman for Ford's service centers and earlier this year helped unveil the freshened 2018 Mustang, but the automaker quickly pointed out that the concept's cameo wasn't a tease of what the new Bronco — due in 2020 — will look like. "The Ford Bronco seen in Dwayne Johnson's upcoming movie, 'Rampage,' is the 2004 Bronco concept," a Ford spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. "It does not represent the future Bronco beyond sharing the iconic Bronco name." .

America's broken healthcare system – in one simple chart The Guardian / July 2, 2017 The US spends more money on healthcare than any other wealthy nation. But it hasn’t resulted in better health Healthcare in America is more expensive than in any other rich country. In 2016, the average American spent $4,571 on their health – a figure five times higher than the average out-of-pocket spending of other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). That fact hasn’t changed much over the years: compared to 35 other countries, Americans have spent more on their health every year since 2000. Even once you factor in government spending, healthcare in the US is still more expensive than elsewhere. Total health spending last year, including private out-of-pocket and government spending, was $8,985 per person in the US while the OECD average was just $3,633. And yet all that health spending hasn’t resulted in better health. The life expectancy of the average American is 78.8 years, putting the US a fraction ahead of the CzechRepublic, where out of pocket spending was just $236 last year. .