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Speed limiter rule now open for comment Fleet Owner / September 7, 2016 It’s official: The Dept. of Transportation’s proposed speed limiter requirement for trucks was published in the Federal Register Wednesday, opening a two-month comment period. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, being developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) would require vehicles with a GVWR of more than 26,000 pounds to be equipped with a speed limiting device initially set no greater than a speed to be named later—and that’s where the formal comments come in. The agencies will evaluate input from the trucking industry, highway safety advocates, law enforcement and anyone else with an opinion whether there’s a need for such a regulation and just how fast trucks should be able to go. The proposal weighs the costs and benefits, both in accidents and in trucking operations, for hard-wired top speeds of 60, 65, and 68 mph. For its part, NHTSA would be responsible for the vehicle portion of the regulation. The agency would establish a new Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) requiring that each new qualifying vehicle be equipped with a speed limiting device and the means to record the settings (including the time and date the settings were changed) through its on-board diagnostic connection. FMCSA then would enforce the mandate, establishing a complementary Federal motor carrier safety regulation (FMCSR) to require carriers operating such vehicles in interstate commerce to maintain the speed limiting devices for the service life of the vehicle and to ensure they were used according to the rule. Fleet Owner’s initial coverage of the proposal, which was announced Aug. 26, includes the DOT’s explanation of the rule, the DOT analysis of the costs and benefits associated with the three suggested speed limits, and a critical look at the research behind the rulemaking. Comments may be filed at regulations.gov.

Navistar’s Clarke Touts Deal With Volkswagen Transport Topics / September 7, 2016 Volkswagen AG’s pending acquisition of 16.6% of Navistar International Corp. for $256 million will provide the Lisle, Illinois, truck maker with cash soon and then more efficient procurement and better access to new technology for engines and other applications, Navistar CEO Troy Clarke said in an interview. It could also lead to a merger of the two companies. “This deal will make us better, faster,” Clarke told Transport Topics on Sept. 6, several hours after the deal was announced. Clarke, Navistar’s CEO since 2013, and his new partner, Volkswagen Truck & Bus head Andreas Renschler, dodged specificity on merger questions, neither guaranteeing one nor ruling it out. “We’re excited to work together,” Clarke said, adding, “Let’s leave the next chapter open for today.” Renschler, the head of Daimler AG’s global truck unit from 2007 to 2013, said the deal helps turn VW into a “global champion” of truck-making, and as for the possibility of a full merger, “all options are open.” When complete, the cash-for-new stock deal would give VW an ownership stake very similar to investors Carl Icahn and Mark Rachesky. Those two investors each have two seats on Navistar’s nine-member board of directors, and Volkswagen Truck & Bus, which is based in Brunswick, Germany, will get that, too. Collectively, VW, Icahn and Rachesky will own about half of Navistar. Both Clarke and Renschler described the agreement, roughly six months in the making, as a broad framework that will be filled in over time by working groups to be named later. The two manufacturers stressed powertrain components in their announcement: engines, transmissions and axles. Clarke said Navistar’s N13 diesel truck engine is an example of the cooperation between the two companies that predates this week’s deal. The N13, formerly the MaxxForce 13, is based on MAN SE’s 13-liter engine. MAN is one of VW’s three main commercial vehicle brands, with Scania AB and VW being the other two. Clarke said the ability to use VW technology through a licensing agreement is highly desirable. “Scale means a lot on technology because the costs [of research and development] are high,” he said, adding that Navistar and VW also share an interest in telematics and connected vehicles, and cooperation on those fronts could arise from the recent agreement. The procurement benefit comes from VW’s greater size. If Navistar can piggyback on Volkswagen’s purchasing power, it could save the company $500 million over five years, Navistar said. The two parties said the deal must be approved by the Federal Trade Commission and/or the Justice Department, in accordance with the federal Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. The FTC’s website said the target for judgment on an application is 30 days after formal filing, which had not taken place by Sept. 6, the companies said. Clarke said he expects the deal will be completed later this year or in early 2017. .

Dana Milbank, The Washington Post / September 7, 2016 The smell of fresh paint greeted lawmakers reacquainting themselves with their workplace after their seven-week break. The scaffolding was coming down, revealing a gleaming dome and, underneath it, restored friezes, oil paintings and statues. The Capitol has been returned to its former glory. If only they could do the same to Congress. After their seven-week recess, which included both party conventions and was the longest break since at least 1960, the people’s representatives in the House are back for just four weeks before recessing again until the election — and there has been talk of cutting those four weeks of work to three or even two. They might as well go home, because the House to-do list could end up looking something like this: Impeach the IRS commissioner. Punish the Democrats. Sue the Saudis. This is how Donald Trump happened. Americans are worried and angry about the big issues: stagnant wages, immigration, trade deals, health care, entitlement programs, the tax code, the Zika virus, tainted drinking water. Yet the best Congress can do for the moment is to keep the government running on autopilot for a few more months, and even this isn’t guaranteed. With three weeks to go in the fiscal year, Congress has enacted not one of the 12 annual appropriations bills (the House has passed six). While leaders struggle to pass a temporary “continuing resolution,” Republicans fight among themselves about how long it should last and hard-liners threaten to derail it by adding language banning Syrian refugees. As Republicans sat down for their caucus meeting Wednesday morning, the conversation wandered — this member’s new grandchild, that member’s engagement, various anecdotes and talking points. GOP leaders held a news conference after the meeting, at which they voiced enthusiastic support for . . . a new soapbox that had appeared over the recess to help shorter members of the caucus be seen behind the lectern. “You could put three people on that thing,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said upon entering the room and spying the new piece of furniture. “Gee whiz!” exclaimed Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.), trying it out. “There’s room for all of you on the box,” she told the assembled reporters. With so little happening, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy tried to create the illusion of activity, asserting that in this Congress “a total of 219 bills have been enacted into law. That’s an increase over the 25-year average.” Actually, the average number of bills enacted into law in previous Congresses going back to 1991 is 435 — double the current output. McCarthy’s spokesman said the claim was based on when Congress went on its long summer holiday. But as of now, McCarthy’s 219 bills are well below the 25-year average of 257 enacted at this point by previous Congresses. And, as House Democrats point out, 195 of those 219 bills have been minor “suspension” bills, such as post-office namings. “People want a positive vision and a clear direction for solving the country’s big problems,” Ryan declared at his news conference. They do. But instead, they’re getting: ●An attempt to impeach the IRS commissioner. Some hard-liners, still angry about the IRS’s treatment of conservative groups, are using a “privileged resolution” to force leaders to hold a vote to impeach the current commissioner, John Koskinen, who took over after the alleged wrongdoing occurred. ●A bid to punish two dozen House Democrats, led by civil rights icon John Lewis, who staged a sit-in on the House floor in June to protest Republicans’ refusal to bring up gun-control legislation. ●Legislation allowing the families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia in federal courts. The bill has no chance of surviving an expected veto. Instead, House Republicans could spend their fleeting time at work resolving an impasse blocking funds to fight the Zika infection. The Senate reached a bipartisan deal in May to provide $1.1 billion for the effort, but the agreement fell apart when House Republicans added a provision restricting funds from going to Planned Parenthood. At Wednesday’s news conference, CNN’s Manu Raju asked Ryan why he wouldn’t accept a “clean bill” without the poison pill. “Look, give me a break,” Ryan said, blaming the Senate. But even some of Ryan’s Republicans aren’t giving him a break. Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) told Bloomberg’s Billy House that “we become obstructionists” with the Planned Parenthood gambit. And Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.) carried a jar full of Florida mosquitoes onto the House floor. “During the seven weeks . . . that we were gone, cases of Zika rose from 4,000 to by some estimates over 16,000 in the country,” he said. His constituents “are demanding action and they are seeing inaction, and in that inaction they are angry.” Yes, but have they seen that new soapbox for members of Congress? Gee whiz!

Airline Air China is in hot water with members of British parliament over precautions listed in its inflight magazine "Wings of China" relating to London. A London MP has written to the Chinese ambassador to the UK for an apology. "I am shocked and appalled that even today some people would see it as acceptable to write such blatantly untrue and racist statements," said Virendra Sharma, the member of parliament for an ethnically diverse district in western London. He said Wednesday he had written to the Chinese ambassador to the U.K. to demand an apology from the airline. In fact, the magazine's advice should be heeded. Racist? Rather, I think the airline politely and professionally presented the actual situation. Why is reality so hard for many to acknowledge nowadays? Why politicize a non-political matter? It's becoming increasingly difficult to speak the truth in a "thin skinned" politically correct world. .

Stock-purchase Deal May Prevent Engine Manufacturer`s Takeover The Chicago Tribune / July 16, 1990 Ford Motor Co., Tenneco Inc. and Kubota Corp. are investing $250 million for a combined 25 percent stake in the Indiana-based Cummins Engine Co., diminishing the likelihood of its takeover and increasing Cummins` prospects for growth. The agreement between Cummins and the three industrial companies was scheduled to be announced Monday. As part of the agreement, Ford and Tenneco each will acquire 1.6 million shares of Cummins common stock and Kubota will acquire 799,760 shares at $62.50. Ford will have a 10 percent stake in Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins, with an option for another 10 percent; Tenneco, a diversified manufacturer based in Houston, will have a 10 percent stake, and Kubota, a manufacturer of farm and construction equipment based in Osaka, Japan, 5 percent. Ford and Tenneco each may designate a representative on the Cummins board of directors. To meet regulatory review requirements, Ford, Tenneco and Kubota initially will be issued preference stock, which automatically will convert to common stock when the preliminary federal review required by the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act is complete and the New York Stock Exchange has approved the new common for listing. "This gives us an important new business arrangement and the ability to expand,`` said Henry B. Schacht, Cummins chairman and chief executive officer. ``We are a much stronger company with this agreement. It`s a major vote of confidence for us and allows us to be more competitive. It allows us to remain a U.S.-headquartered company in the capital goods business." Cummins` customers, employees and shareholders were not sure that Cummins would remain a U.S.-owned company a year ago. The British-based Hanson PLC was viewed as a potential takeover threat for Cummins until members of the Miller family, founders of Cummins, bought back the shares held by Hanson last year. Earlier this year, the Hong Kong-based Industrial Equity Pacific again put Cummins in the unwanted position of being a possible takeover target when Industrial raised its stake in Cummins to 14.9 percent. Cummins and Industrial later came to an agreement in which Industrial would not buy any more Cummins shares or seek a seat on Cummins` board for 10 years. "The sale of Cummins` equity doesn`t do anything to prevent a takeover, but in terms of perception, if there is a third party again looking at Cummins we now have a number of shareholders with strong strategic interests and we have the ability to meet capital expenditures," a source close to Cummins said. "It now means that the concern that our customers and shareholders have about being taken over is diminished. Our customers, our shareholders and employees will have peace of mind." Cummins employs 7,500 people in southern Indiana and has a worldwide work force of 25,100. The agreement Cummins has with its three investors also calls for the expansion of Cummins and Kubota`s complementary diesel engine product lines and a potential joint venture by the two companies for small diesel engine manufacturing in Europe. The pact means there also will be more opportunities for Cummins to build on its existing 50/50 joint venture with Tenneco. That part of the agreement couldn`t come at a better time for Cummins. Like other manufacturing companies that sell to the trucking industry, Cummins was hit hard by last year`s 14 to 15 percent drop in heavy-duty truck sales. Cummins holds more than a 50 percent share of the heavy-duty truck market. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ford-Cummins Accord Set The New York Times / July 28, 1990 The Ford Motor Company and the Cummins Engine Company have agreed to several provisions intended to cement their new relationship, according to documents filed yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Earlier this month, Ford told Cummins it could supply the diesel engines for its medium-duty trucks, and it became one of Cummins's largest investors when it received a 10.8 percent stake and a board seat in exchange for a $100 million cash infusion. Though the deal also called for Cummins to sell Tenneco Inc. a 10.8 percent stake and Kubota Ltd. of Japan a 5.4 percent stake, Ford extracted the most protection of the three, partly in recognition of its new business ties with the company. For instance, the documents state that Ford received a six-year option at no additional cost to buy up to another 10 percent of Cummins. Under most circurmstances, the price would be a 20 percent premium over the then-market price, but no less than $62.50 a share, the same price Ford paid for its current stake. If Ford accumulates another 10 percent of Cummins, as of 1992 it would be entitled to a second seat on the board, the documents say. Ford, based in Dearborn, Mich., also has the right to remain the company's largest holder on a percentage basis should Cummins sells a large block of shares to another party. Cummins, based in Columbus, Ind., has also promised not to sell any voting shares to another car or truck manufacturer unless Ford lowered its stake by at least a third. The three companies are also entitled to a partial refund should Cummins sells additional common shares during the next 12 months at less than $62.50 each. In that case, Cummins would pay Ford, Tenneco and Kubota the difference. Ford and Tenneco are also entitled to whatever terms, other than price and amount, that Cummins grants any other companies owning 10 percent of the concern. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cummins engine buys back 1.3 million shares from Ford The New York Times / January 4, 1997 The Cummins Engine Company said yesterday that it had bought back 1.3 million of its common shares from the Ford Motor Company and would repurchase 1.7 million more shares on the open market. The company also said that Kenneth R. Dabrowski, a vice president at Ford, had resigned from Cummins Engine's board, as planned under a 1990 investment agreement with the auto maker. Cummins, a maker of diesel engines, said it would issue 3.75 million shares of its common stock to an employee benefits trust. The stock would be used to finance employee retirement savings programs. In New York Stock Exchange trading, Cummins Engine rose $1.25, to $46. After the purchase from Ford, Cummins has about 38.2 million shares outstanding.

It's really quite something to witness in person. ABB is the world leader in plant robotics.

Not a bad video......not bad at all. Unlike "Born Ready" and the "Diesel Devil", the video features trucks from start to finish, and lacks the bizarre green glob background.

Prime Mover Magazine / September 6, 2016 Truck sales in Australia for August 2016 are slightly higher from the same period last year, according to the latest Truck Industry Council (TIC) figures. TIC results showed that August total cab chassis and prime mover results of 2,408 trucks were 148 units (6.5 per cent) more than for August 2015, and 241 trucks (11.1 per cent) over July this year. The year-to-date total of 17,449 is four per cent above the corresponding first eight months of 2015 and the TIC said that the industry’s raw unit growth is set to exceed the three per cent predicted growth in the overall economy for the total year. Isuzu continues to sell one in four of Australia’s new trucks, with its annual year-to-date growth rate of 15.4 per cent far exceeding the industry average. Western Star’s August sales showed that the Penske brand was 159 units (40.1 per cent) down on 2015, while its European brand, MAN, moved into some positive territory delivering 59 trucks in August, with its 2016 total so far to 186 (up 7.5 per cent). Hino was slightly down (minus 1.6 per cent), but improving on a monthly basis, and remains on track to match its 2015 full year result, while Fuso was 238 trucks up so far this year and the 2,339 units sold at end of August was 11.3 per cent up.

Anonymous, The Guardian / September 5, 2016 I started truck-driving in the late 1970s, graduating from a dump truck on a Bavarian bypass to trips the length and breadth of Europe in a succession of rust buckets. After living and working in France, Germany and the Netherlands, in 2000 I sold up and emigrated to live in the tropics – where, believe it or not, I get bored. These days I fly back to the UK in April, pick up the keys to a truck, hitch up a trailer and take off on a four-month European tour for a company that specialises in transporting equipment for bands. As a public school wide-boy, of whom there are many in the music business, with a taste for the open road, I’ve found my niche – where, as long as you do the job right, a certain degree of eccentricity isn’t a disadvantage. I love waking up and pulling back the cab curtains, not knowing what the view will be and getting paid good money to go to places other people pay good money to go to. Norway is my favourite; I couldn’t afford to go there otherwise. Working in the music business also means I don’t have to tolerate the awful working conditions some UK drivers accept: horrible food, lack of parking, filthy toilets and showers, hanging around unpaid while waiting to load and unload. No wonder there’s such a shortage of drivers. I have only met my boss once, very briefly. In the music business you’re left to get on with it and plan your own routes. I enjoy getting on with the crew and the musicians I work for. As humble diesel demons, we’re not really supposed to hang out with the talent, but I ignore that. The EU may have made border transit delays a thing of the past, but English hauliers have had almost all their European work taken from them by eastern European hauliers, operating under EU rules, who have cut prices to an absurdly low level and driven firms from wealthier countries out of business. The trucks you see lined up in Operation Stack on the motorway in Kent are almost all from eastern Europe, not the UK. The EU, as it applies to truck-driving, has meant flooding the market with cheap foreign labour, which is perceived to have forced down wages and worsened working conditions. It’s not just a British problem. I noticed recently that even Spanish hauliers are now using Romanian-registered subcontractors. One of my colleagues had a brick through his windscreen last week in Calais. It feels like only a matter of time before real trouble kicks off there. Around the “Jungle” is obviously a flashpoint but the people traffickers have now penetrated far further inland into France, with each gang “owning” a services centre, systematically assaulting English-bound vehicles, so nowhere within 300 miles of the Channel is safe. The French police don’t seem to care. Quite a few of my fellow drivers are linguists; many live abroad too. Speaking a foreign language helps, and can open other doors. A few years ago I was driving the equipment around Europe for a heavy metal band from New Orleans. During the end-of-tour party in Bilbao, the tour manager found out I lived in Brazil, so she invited me to tour South America and Mexico with the band as a guitar tech and translator. That’s not to say the job is all fun and games: it’s bloody hard work too. Last month I travelled 17,000 kilometres (10,563 miles), including a drive from the Arctic circle in northern Finland all the way to Lisbon, 24-hours off, then non-stop to Milan, Valencia, then back to London. Needless to say, it isn’t a line of work that allows much time for a work/life balance. Sometimes I wish I’d got into the music business earlier, but had I not already paid my dues on general haulage I wouldn’t have been good enough. Just as every good production and tour manager I’ve met started pushing boxes at midnight for peanuts, every good tour driver learned their trade trying to do five collections in Milan on a Friday afternoon, or 25 deliveries inside the M25. Actual over-the-road driving skills are assumed: a tour driver’s real added value is experience, knowing whether a route is possible within the set time limit. That and people skills, being diplomatic enough to get any potential problem sorted in advance, without ruffling feathers. A tour driver needs to be able to apply the planned tour schedule, set months in advance, to the EU truck and bus driving rules, which are, and this is a very short approximate summary of the basics: 90 hours’ driving time over two weeks; nine hours’ driving per day, 10 hours a day twice a week. Breaks: at least 11 hours per night, shortened twice a week to nine hours. Obligatory 24- and 45-hour breaks over a two-week period. All trucks, thankfully, are equipped these days with digicards: credit card-sized chip gizmos which record our every movement and are impossible to falsify, so all transport businesses now run legally. Everyone operates on the same playing field, not only in the niche market of the music business but also in other types of transport. Efficient businesses make money. I’m insured. The trucks are taxed. Bribery and other shenanigans are almost unheard-of. We drive top-of-the-range trucks with fridges and night heaters and get paid on time. In the old days, at least when I started, the opposite was true. All in all I love my job. However, never having had one, a work contract would be nice. And it’s definitely a lifestyle choice, not a sensible career option. My take-home pay is only relatively high because catering is paid for by the artist’s production company, and I’m paid while away from base during my time off. Averaged out per year, there’s more money driving nights for a supermarket. But I’m not complaining. The greatest pleasure is listening to good music. Hearing Tom Jones warm up backstage, for example – what a voice. I love the solitude of driving and the sense of reward of being good at what I do, trusted to go out alone on a four-month tour around Europe for famous artists, knowing that everyone relies on me to get to every show on time. For the record, I’ve never been late. In return I get paid to listen to good music and work with highly professional people. I tend not to watch television, or read the papers. What happens in the UK doesn’t affect me. At least, it hasn’t until recently, with what has been going on around the French/English border. Like almost all of my colleagues I voted leave in the referendum. At the sharp end of what the EU really means, I want out.

Here's how Ford redesigned its Super Duty pickup truck to 'run to failure' Business Insider (Australia) / September 6, 2016 Ford isn’t holding back. In the past two years, the automaker has redesigned and launched its two most important vehicles, the F-150 full-size pickup and the iconic Mustang muscle car. The F-150 has been America’s best-selling vehicle for decades, and the 51-year-old Mustang is synonymous with Ford. As if that weren’t enough, Ford unveiled the jaw-dropping GT supercar at the Detroit auto show in 2015. The $400,000-plus machine, in racing trim, brought Ford back to the 24 Le Mans in France to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ford’s legendary win there — and brought home an epic second victory. The carmaker’s onslaught of risk-taking has now been extended with the launch of an all-new Super Duty pickup for 2017, the first major revamping of this segment-leading vehicle in nearly two decades. That’s quite a run. Both the new F-150, reengineered to use more lightweight aluminium, and the Mustang, now more sports car than muscle car, have been hits. The GT was so popular that Ford has extended production, initially capped at 500, for two more years. But the Super Duty is another story altogether. This is the truck of trucks, holding a 43% chunk of the heavy-duty pickup market in the US. That’s astonishing, given how competitive the US truck market is. Almost half the people who need to tow a big trailer or haul massive loads, for business or pleasure, choose Super Duty. These customers are among the most demanding anywhere. There’s a reason why Ford didn’t mess with it for 18 years. It was absolutely, positively not broken. A critical vehicle for the Blue Oval “Super Duty is a very, very important product,” said Ford CFO Bob Shanks on the company’s second-quarter earnings call in late July, before diving into a litany of reasons why. “It’s high volume. It’s very high margin. It’s a big changeover because we have not had a complete redesign of this product for 19 or 20 years. It’s going into a big plant. It’s aluminium. It’s a new frame. It’s powertrain upgrades. It’s new features. It’s new technologies.” In fact, the Super Duty redesign is so important to Ford that both Shanks and CEO Mark Fields prepped the investment community to expect weaker results in the second half of the year, at least on some fronts, as Ford goes through the immense, once a generation costs of launching the first new Super Duty since the late 1990s. “It’s a big deal,” Brian Rathsburg, Ford’s marketing manager for the Super Duty, told Business Insider. “The truck is our halo vehicle in terms of capability. We’re absolutely operating from a position of strength, but with that comes a burden of responsibility to continue to be the leader.” The Super Duty is actually a complete lineup of heavy-duty trucks, which start tipping the scales at over 8,500 pounds and tend to be found in oil fields, on ranches, and pressed into service by business that need serious cargo and towing capacity. The lowest trim level is the F-250, moving up through F-350 and F-450 models. The prices start at just above $30,000 and top out at almost $80,000 for the Platinum F-450. Engines are huge, and they come in numerous gas and diesel versions. One V8-diesel option offers a Brobdingnagian 925 pound-feet of towing torque, which is probably enough to adjust the orbit of the moon, if you could get it hooked up. Completely maxed out towing, at the limits of the Super Duty’s capacity, is 32,500 pounds — over 16 tons. It could haul more than six F-150s behind it. Customers at the core As with all pickups these days, the new Super Duty is being offered with a host of cab configurations and premium amenities. Many of the upgrades for Ford were driven by customers, with whom the automaker maintains an almost symbiotic relationship — you might think any big truck would satisfy truck people, but truck folks are in fact the most demanding of all vehicle buyers. “Customers are a fundamental aspect,” Rathsburg said. “They live in the truck — it’s a mobile office. They wanted more room and more storage.” Ford never loses touch with Super Duty owners, so the company was ready when the requests started to roll in for changes. For example, the need for additional storage was addressed by adding a lockable compartment under the front seats in the Crew Cab. In a bold move, Ford also kitted out the Super Duty with a suite of cameras designed to substantially improve towing and backing maneuvers. But the biggest “if” for Ford-truck loyalists over the past two years has been the switch from steel to aluminium construction, intended to decrease weight and improve fuel economy so that the automaker’s bread-and-butter vehicles don’t get regulated out of existence as federal and state mileage and emissions standards intensify. The change was trickier for F-150 buyers than it was for Super Duty folks. “There was no convincing process,” said Rathsburg. “Heavy-duty customers get it. They were more receptive than 150 customers because many of them were familiar with the material. The trailer industry has already gone there.” The pressure was on Beyond customers, there was the attention that the Ford brass devoted to the Super Duty, which had been updated several times since 1999 but not completely rethought. That pressure fell squarely on Craig Schmatz, the Super Duty’s chief engineer. He’s been working on tucks for 27 years, and this was a crowning achievement. “It’s what I’ve always wanted to do,” he said. And he added that the development of the new Super Duty stretched back several years, beginning when the new F-150 was first undertaken, due to the shared cabs for each truck. “It was definitely special,” he said of the first planning meetings. “The whole team was very charged up. We really wanted to define what we could do with the vehicle.” And Ford’s leadership wanted to see what they could do, too. And they wanted to see it frequently. “We had all the standard meetings — and quite a few additional ones to, make sure we were getting it right. But they trusted what we were doing.” But yet again, the toughest sell was to the customers. “They’re very much into the details, and they know what the competition is up to,” Schmatz said. “And that’s good. We’re happy that they know their vehicles.” They didn’t remain quiet when the saw something they didn’t like. Schmatz recalled that commercial buyers who didn’t want a conventional pickup bed but intended to have a box mounted behind the cab identified some design issues early in 2016 that they didn’t like, so Ford’s engineers made adjustments. Bold guardians The new Super Duty, it can fairly be argued, was Ford’s most collaborative new vehicle of the past two decades. It was so collaborative that Ford’s design team conducted preliminary research to assess what kind of people would be using the truck. “We call them ‘bold guardians,'” said Gordon Platto, the Super Duty’s chief designer, of the customer archetype. “They’re not into being intimidating, but they want to back up what they say. They want the Super Duty’s grille to fill the rearview of any car they’re behind.” But those customers also understand that there’s tough, and there’s too tough. “You don’t want anyone thinking the truck can deliver more than it’s capable of — you don’t want something that overpromises. If it looked like a big industrial earth mover, that would have been too much.” The bottom line for Ford is that there’s no way to fool around with the Super Duty owner. They’re the most demanding buyers on the planet. ‘Run to failure’ “We have a saying called ‘RTF’ or ‘run to failure,” said Nate Berges, who owns and operates an awning company in New Jersey and maintains a small fleet of Ford Super Duty trucks of varying ages. “We use our trucks to the max. I own the truck, and I’m not going to baby it. I’m not light on the pedal because I’m pulling every bit of horsepower from the engine. We do between 20 and 30 jobs a day, and we’ll pull up, shut the truck off, and then fire the truck back up, to go to the next job. We use the trucks, every day, 365 days a year. They need to rise to the occasion.” Berges has Super Duty’s in action that date back to the early 2000s and has been a longtime Ford customer, buying the trucks since the 1980s. But loyalty hasn’t eased the demands he places on the automaker. If anything, he expects more out of Ford. He doesn’t just expect his pickups to be built Ford tough. He expects the Super Duty to pay off, long term. “It’s an investment,” he said, adding that buying a Super Duty is almost like stretching his dollars. “I’m spending $50,000 on the trucks, and I want my money to go as far as it can.” When Ford makes this group of its most hardcore buyers happy, it knows it done something special — not to mention something that helps the company in very tangible financial ways. Super Duty trucks are hugely profitable, with the F-Series overall making a major contribution to Ford’s ability to turn in string earnings in good times and ride out the bad stretches. “Watching the trucks rolling off the assembly line is outstanding,” Schmatz said, speaking from the Ford factory in Kentucky. “Seeing them actually being built is the most rewarding thing.”

Auto Express / September 6, 2016 Bringing vehicles into developing nations comes with its problems, but the OX, from the Global Vehicle Trust (GVT) could be the solution. It’s a rugged, multipurpose truck, strong enough to cope with the worst of roads but cheap and simple enough to be built and maintained by just about anybody. The OX is the vision of Sir Torquil Norman, who founded GVT five years ago. It harks back to the ‘Africar’ project of the 1980s, which took Citroen 2CV mechanicals and a sturdy plywood bodyshell, aiming to bring mobility to harsh environments in developing countries. The OX shoots for the same goal, but does it in a very different way. The OX sets itself aside immediately thanks to its ‘flat-pack’ construction. This allows the vehicle to fold into itself, creating a compact package that can be more easily transported across the world. Six OX vehicles can be shipped inside a single shipping container, keeping costs down at both ends. It also creates jobs in the destination country, where local companies will be employed to assemble and maintain the finished vehicles. An OX can be put together in approximately 12 hours by three skilled people. The OX’s entire design suits the countries where it will end up. The vehicle is two-wheel drive, for simplicities sake, but lots of ground clearance, chunky tyres and independent suspension ensure it can keep going on the roughest terrain. A central seating position means the vehicle won’t need expensive adaptations for the mixture of left and right-hand drive countries in Africa. A 2.2-litre Ford diesel engine provides just 99bhp, but 310Nm of torque should keep the OX plodding through most anything. The OX also has a party trick – a massive payload. It’s able to carry 1900kg in the load bed, which is getting on for double what most European pickups can manage. GVT engaged the services of Professor Gordon Murray to help design the OX. Professor Murray’s other projects include Formula 1 cars and the iconic McLaren F1, but he’s a big fan of the OX. “Honestly, I’m more proud of this vehicle than anything else I’ve ever done – including the McLaren F1 road car which was a narrow product for only a few wealthy people across the globe,” he said, when we interviewed him. “The vehicle is so good. We’ve benchmarked it and know that there’s nothing else like it on the planet. It can carry up to 13 people, eight 44 gallon drums, or three Euro pallets. It’s truly unique.” So what next for the GVT OX? Sir Torquil Norman and Professor Murray hope to secure investment from a larger manufacturer. With proper backing, the hope is that production could exceed 10,000 units each year. Sir Torquil said: “Feedback we have had so far from contacts in Africa and with aid agencies has been very positive. OX is about making a difference now, being part of something ground-breaking and unique. Most of all it presents a real opportunity to make a fundamental and lasting difference to people’s lives.” “Our priority now is to raise the funding to complete the testing and take the project to fruition… my dream is to one day see an OX in every village in Africa.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Motor 1 / September 6, 2016 Flat-pack deliveries are most often associated with IKEA furniture, but now there’s an automotive application of the technique. Global Vehicle Trust, founded in 2011, aims to bring affordable mobility to parts of the developing world. The most unconventional thing about the group’s new vehicle, though, is that the truck that can be flat-packed inside itself. The Global Vehicle Trust Ox can be partially disassembled for easy shipping, making it cheaper and simpler to move to foreign countries. GVT says that three people can ‘flat-pack’ the Ox in just six hours, and once in that reduced state, the Ox is compact enough that six can be transported in one, 40-foot shipping container. At the other end, three workers can fully rebuild the truck in just 12 hours. The supremely simple truck is designed to be able to provide lots of utility in demanding terrain. It has a payload capacity of 4,188 lb (1,900 kg) and 247 cubic feet (7 cubic meters) of cargo space, despite weighing just 3,527 lb (1,600 kg) dry and measuring only 169.3 inches (4,299 mm) in length. It has been designed with aggressive approach and departure angles, and nearly 10 inches of ground clearance, out of recognition that many developing countries have poor or non-existent roads. It can also ford 51.2 inches (1,300 mm) of water. GVT envisions the Ox serving in rural Africa or other nations where it could be used to deliver water, food, fertilizer, or other supplies. The cargo area can, depending on configuration, accommodate 13 passengers, eight 44-gallon drums, or three pallets. Other neat design tricks include a center-mounted driving position, so the Ox can be used in both left- and right-hand-drive countries; a modular tailgate that can be removed and used as a loading ramp; and the bench seat frames that can be removed to use as sand ladders in case the vehicle gets stuck. Power comes from a Ford 2.2-liter turbodiesel engine, with a five-speed manual transmission routing power to the front wheels. The GVT enlisted famed automotive designer Gordon Murray – of McLaren and Gordon Murray Design fame – to design the vehicle. In a statement, he applauded the project’s goals and scope. The OX design and prototyping programme is undoubtedly one of the most interesting and challenging I have undertaken during my 45 years of car design, including my years in F1,” he said. “The added challenge of a flat-packed vehicle design over the already tough targets for cost, durability, and weight-saving made for a fascinating and stimulating journey from concept to prototype.” . .

Transport Engineer / September 6, 2016 Some 75,000—90,000 tractor-trailer journeys have been saved and up to 10.6 million vehicle-km cut to the end of 2015 under the government’s LST (longer semi-trailer) trial scheme, according to figures released today (6 September 2016). That has in turn resulted in cleaner air, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and less congestion on UK roads since trials began in 2012, says the DfT (Department for Transport) semi-trailer evaluation report for 2015, which analyses data from 151 operators and has been published by Risk Solutions. In fact, the 10-year trial, which now involves some 1,800 LSTs (up to 2.05m/6.7ft longer than standard 13.6m/44.6ft semi-trailers) of which 1,511 are running, is expected to have saved more than 3,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. “Lorries are the engine of our economy and this pilot scheme is helping hauliers deliver the day-to-day goods we need more efficiently” comments transport minister John Hayes. “This is good news for consumers, a boost for motorists – as it is helping cut congestion with fewer vehicles on the road – and it is also helping the environment,” he adds. As for the economic benefits, Hayes’ department estimates that British haulers will have saved £33 million (US$44.3 million) by the time the trial ends in 2022, with up to one in nine journeys eliminated. That conclusion is based on what it sees as a reasonable mix of trailer designs in the existing LST fleet, which includes twin decks, flatbeds and skeletals. Importantly, the DfT specifically finds that longer semi-trailers are safer than their standard 13.6 meter counterparts, stating that nationally they have been involved in 70% fewer collisions and casualties per kilometer. Risk Solutions confirms that there may be evidence that they are performing better – although it wants data collection to continue until the close of 2017 to confirm that statistic and states that there remains insufficient data on urban operations. “Following these positive results we are consulting trade associations and participants on whether to increase the number of vehicles in the trial,” states Hayes. “We are also seeking views on extending the trial,” he says. Risk Solutions recommends that work carried out to date by VCA (Vehicle Certification Agency), collecting design parameters of LSTs into a master trial dataset, needs to be continued to enable analysis of operational and incident patterns in relation to key measures such as tail-swing.

At the front of the carrier is a flat surface. Here, the carrier model, 11KHA assembly number (for spare parts ordering) and ratio are "stamped". .

Dagens Industri / September 6, 2016 According to the Brazilian Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers (ANFAVEA ), Volvo registrations of new heavy trucks over 15 tons in Brazil fell by 10 percent to 387 units in August 2016, compared with the same month last year. Compared to July 2016, the previous month, registrations increased by 14 percent. The total number of heavy truck registrations in Brazil amounted to 1,299 vehicles in August, a decline of 15.1 percent compared with the same month last year. Compared with the previous month, heavy truck registrations declined 15.5 percent. Scania registrations of new heavy trucks over 15 tons in Brazil amounted to 302 vehicles in August, a decrease of 9 percent compared with the same month last year. Statistics also show that 128 Volvo medium-heavy trucks were registered in Brazil in August, a decrease of 49 percent compared with the same month last year. The total number of medium-heavy truck registrations in Brazil amounted to 1,202 vehicles in August.

Scania Group Press Release / August 29, 2016 .

Scania Group Press Release / September 6, 2016

Scania Group Press Release / September 6, 2016

Daimler Press Release / September 6, 2016 Innovation: as the first truck manufacturer to do so, Mercedes-Benz is introducing the Digital Service Booklet across 30 European countries Maintenance work undertaken on a truck will henceforth be digitally documented and always accessible Shorter workshop visits thanks to ability to plan repair and maintenance work better The world of connectivity is now also extending to the service booklet as evidence of maintenance work undertaken: from October 2016, Mercedes-Benz Trucks will be introduce a Digital Service Booklet (DSB) in 30 European countries. This replaces the conventional paper-based service book entries and ensures seamless online documentation of all maintenance work undertaken. The booklet will be available for Mercedes-Benz Actros, Antos, Arocs, Atego and Econic, and its use brings benefits for the customer and the workshop in equal measure. For truck customers, a visit to the workshop normally involves the loss of valuable time that could be spent carrying goods. At this point the Digital Service Booklet becomes relevant. Of particular note here is that all maintenance and servicing work on the truck is now fully documented in digital form, while a print-out can be provided to the customer at any time upon request. This immediate and comprehensive data transparency makes it easier for the workshop to log the job as well as to plan repair and maintenance work or emissions and safety inspections, and thus shorten the stay in the workshop. For trucks travelling on transnational routes, far away from the home workshop, the Digital Service Booklet also provides valuable assistance. Even in another country, it is a straightforward step for workshops to access the Digital Service Booklet in their own language in order to be able to see relevant data and information. The system can be used by all authorised Mercedes-Benz service outlets, but also by independent workshops who have previously registered to do so. This brings clear benefits above all to authorised fleet operators, who are able to access the complete service history of a vehicle online. This is stored for the full operating life of the vehicle. The Digital Service Booklet also proves its worth when a vehicle is sold: the transparency it gives over completed maintenance work, and its seamless tracking of the vehicle's mileage, provide protection against attempts to manipulate data – the maintenance history remains verifiable, thus adding to the resale value of the Mercedes-Benz truck. Even in the event of a service report being lost, any authorised Mercedes-Benz workshop is still able to access the information at any time and provide information as necessary.

MAN Truck & Bus Press Release / September 6, 2016 Boasting our new 15.2-liter "D38" engines, the MAN TGX brings a perfect synthesis of power and efficiency to the roads – giving your performance a major improvement. With power outputs from 520 hp to 640 hp, and torque ratings from 2,500 to 3,000 Nm, the engines set the standard in terms of performance, reliability and efficiency. A slight touch on the accelerator and you can enjoy pure driving dynamics. But more importantly is the economic advantage. Experience a driveline in a class all of its own: https://www.mantruckandbus.com/D38 .

Jack Roberts, Fleet Owner / September 6, 2016 A couple of weeks ago, in the wake of the release of the final rule for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Phase 2 Greenhouse Gas regulations, I told Fleet Owner readers the different ways I thought that ruling would affect powertrain development over the next decade. As I noted, one of the likely new technologies we'll start to see in the next decade will be hybrid-electric drivetrains, which will be optimized to give heavy duty trucks a big torque boost in lower gears to get the vehicle moving in a much more efficient manner. Hybrid-electric drivetrains aren't new, of course. They first appeared in the late 1990s, most notably as a joint medium-duty offering from Eaton and International Trucks. In this incarnation, hybrid-electric drives functioned much as they likely will in the future, providing instantaneous electric torque to drive wheels. But, designers at the time also envisioned hybrid trucks as rolling power stations. The vehicles were outfitted with massive, heavy, battery packs that stored powered and enabled trucks to run a wide array of equipment with it. In most cases, this showed up on bucket trucks, or mobile drill rigs or service trucks. The idea seemed so promising at the time that light-duty OEMs quickly followed suit, with GM, in particular, offering hybrid-electric options for Silverado and Sierra pickup trucks. Alas, it all came to naught. As it happened, hybrid-electric drivetrains on the medium-duty side of the market proved to be too costly for municipal fleets to purchase in large numbers. Hybrid production never scaled up, and remained prohibitively expensive throughout its production run. Another problem was maintenance. By and large, the systems were reliable. But when problems did occur, they proved difficult and expensive to repair. The trucks' complex high-voltage electrical systems were particularly tough to trouble-shoot and repair. In the end, most fleets simply decided the fuel economy gains and modest convenience of having a mobile power pack didn't justify the added costs of the vehicles. Over time, they pretty much faded away. But now, thanks to the EPA, hybrid-electric drives appear poised to make a come-back. And while I fully understand if you're not turning cartwheels at this bit of news, stop and consider that the hybrid-electric drives of the near future will not be the hybrid-electric drives of 20 years ago. As is often the case, I felt that after-market suppliers actually ID'd the optimal hybrid-electric drive powertrain configuration. At the height of trucking's hybrid drive flirtation, after-market suppliers began developing and selling hybrid modification kits that could be installed on a light-duty van or truck transmission to provide a "light" hybrid power boost when the vehicle was getting under way. These systems did away with the heavy and complex battery packs featured on heavier trucks, and didn't bother with trying to store energy to use later on. The system was simplified and optimized to give the drivetrain a boost at low engine RPMs, and that was it. I have a feeling this is the route Class 8 OEMs will take when they opt to add hybrid-electric drive lines to trucks as part of their GHG 2 strategy over the next decade. Clearly, there simply isn't room for large battery systems on Class 8 trucks to be viable. And I don't need to point out that the weight penalty associated with those battery packs is a non-starter for fleets. But, a highly-optimized, light-hybrid system that can capture kinetic energy during braking and put that power to use to get heavy trucks up and moving quicker makes an awful lot of sense to me. Remember, fuel burn on a Class 8 truck increases exponentially when it is starting out in lower gears, and then drops off dramatically once the rig is up and moving in higher gears. Clearly, the systems will need to be carefully designed to keep weight and space requirements low. And it will need to be a robust system that is fairly easy to maintain and repair. But if those goals can be met, my suspicion is that hybrid-electric drivetrains may eventually prove to be a fuel-saving technology that fleets will feel is a winner.

Navistar-Volkswagen deal: What can customers expect? Fleet Owner / September 6, 2016 Two years after taking over Swedish truck maker Scania and combining it with MAN, Volkswagen has agreed to take a 16.6% piece of Navistar International Corp. in a move that will give the German company a foothold in the North American market while boosting the capabilities (and bank account) of Navistar. But what will it mean to truck buyers on this side of the Atlantic? Stay tuned, explained Navistar President and CEO Troy Clarke on a conference call with Wall Street analysts and news media. And he wasn’t being evasive: It’s simply too early to know the products that might emerge from the deal, one that has only been recently negotiated by small teams of top officials from each company, Clarke noted, and he characterized the initial, strategic aspects of the alliance as the “30,000-foot view.” Clarke did point out that the current N-series 13-liter engine is derived from a previous licensing agreement with MAN, and so the companies already share “a very close engineering working relationship” on the platform. “We have plenty of opportunities over the next months to see what we can do to align our product portfolios,” Clarke said, and he agreed that “it would seem logical” that Navistar would produce Volkswagen engines in North America. He also hinted that a powertrain product could be developed by 2019, an “illustrative” timeframe that’s “not tomorrow, but not well into next decade.” Likewise, Andreas Renschler, CEO of Volkswagen Truck & Bus, explained the timing is critical, as the truck unit is developing a common, global powertrain platform for MAN and Scania. “It’s the right timing to do so, because now Navistar can be there from Day 1,” he said. Renschler also noted that, in his previous role with Daimler, he had been involved in developing the global truck manufacturing strategy. “It’s always good, if you have the experience, that you don’t make the same mistakes,” he said. “Don’t ask me what kind of mistakes, but with that experience you can expect something from [the new alliance]. As to suppliers that might be displaced with an integrated powertrain platform, Clarke emphasized that “Cummins is a great partner for us. The Cummins engine is truly an outstanding product that’s given us a lot of traction in the market. We work very closely with them, and we anticipate that we’ll continue to offer Cummins products for a period of time. We’re not speculating on that today.” So far this year, 73% of Navistar Class 8 trucks built have used a Cummins engine, according to an investment note from Stifel, in contrast to the shrinking share of third party engines used by PACCAR (Kenworth and Peterbilt truck brands) and Daimler (Freightliner, Western Star). “In fact, we wonder whether supplying engines to the North American market might be the largest motive of the deal from Volkswagen’s perspective, given Volkswagen’s capabilities in that area through its MAN and Scania nameplates,” the report suggests. However, “we believe the OEMs will continue to offer all available engines to all customers, many of which have a preference for the Cummins 15-liter engine.” More broadly, the agreement “relieves anxiety” for some International Truck customers, Clarke explained. “If you buy trucks, you don’t want to buy something that leaves you stranded when the technology is discontinued at some time in the future. It disrupts the residual value that you often rely upon for payment for the next truck,” Clarke said “This will get at that in a big way. We’re already improving our market share, just not as fast as we had hoped. This will accelerate consideration of our products. This is just the first step, then we’ll concentrate on the next step, and the next step. With this kind of alliance, it gives us the opportunity to get some good stuff done it the market.” As for the Project Horizon rollout—a series of new product announcements slated to begin next month and continue through 2017—Clarke suggested that there’s nothing in alliance with Volkswagen to distract customers or “disrupt the very positive sentiments that will be created” with the pending launch. While the deal won’t result in any new products in the near term, customers can expect to see immediate benefits from the global sourcing alliance with Volkswagen, Clarke added. “There’s a whole bunch of great reasons to consider the International product today,” he said. “This [alliance] is just another great reason.” .

An individual who needs to take a long walk down a short pier on the River Thames. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Britain's Anjem Choudary jailed for ISIS support CNN / September 6, 2016 Notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary, who led a flag-burning demonstration outside the US embassy in London on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and voiced support for jihad, has been jailed for inviting support for ISIS [Why not expelled ?]. The former lawyer was sentenced to [a mere] five years and six months in prison. His supporters shouted "Allahu Akhbar" as he was led away from the dock in London's Old Bailey court. Choudary has courted controversy over two decades, skirting the edges of the law, backing extremism but with no proof of actually inciting violence. He earned the wrath of Britain's tabloid newspapers, making him - by his own admission -- the country's "most hated man." In 2014, he pledged allegiance to ISIS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, bringing him under scrutiny and leading to his arrest. British authorities say they were able to link him to the battlefields of Iraq and Syria; UK police say they don't know exactly how many of the 850 Britons who have traveled there were directly influenced by Choudary, but they say he is a "key" figure in ISIS's recruitment drive. "These men have stayed just within the law for many years," Commander Dean Haydon, of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command, said when he was convicted. "But there is no one within the counter terrorism world that has any doubts of the influence that they have had, the hate they have spread and the people that they have encouraged to join terrorist organizations." ISIS pledge of allegiance Despite his vocal support for the terrorist group, Choudary has previously insisted he is not a danger to the public. "I don't pose a threat to anyone in this country," he said in 2014."I pose an ideological or political threat, definitely." But British authorities say Choudary has been linked to the radicalization of a string of the terrorists who have stood trial in the UK over the past 15 years [He’s an accessory to murder]. Together with Omar Bakri Muhammad, he founded the now outlawed radical Islamist organization Al-Muhajiroun. Bakri Muhammad was later banned from the UK over links to al Qaeda. He was pictured at a protest with Michael Adebolajo, later convicted of the violent murder of British soldier Lee Rigby, and he was linked to Siddhartha Dhar, suspected by authorities of replacing Jihadi John as ISIS executioner. But rather than traveling to Syria himself, he has stayed in Britain, where he was born and raised, and taken on the role of a vocal supporter for ISIS and radical Islam. "Sometimes the propaganda and the verbal jihad is even stronger than the jihad of the sword," he says. A jury at London's Old Bailey found Choudary (and his associate Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, 33) guilty of "inviting support for a proscribed organization" - a charge he had denied. Who is Anjem Choudary? Choudary used to party hard at university -- where, as a young law student, he was known as Andy -- but is now a hard-line Islamist, advocating the introduction of laws based on the teachings of the Quran. "I believe that the Sharia is the best way of life," he says. "I believe that one day it will come to America and to the rest of the world." If that comes to pass, he says: "of course, alcohol will be banned, drugs will be banned, pornography will be banned, gambling will be banned." He is a vocal supporter of jihad "I preach jihad everywhere in the world but how that manifests itself is different," he said while on bail in December 2015. "From here we can support the Muslims around the world. In other places Muslims are fighting." In an earlier interview, he claimed: "The best death is one of martyrdom. I would love to die defending myself and my community, but of course death is in the hands of God; our life span will end when he decides." Defending his own decision not to go to Syria, he explained: "My passport has been taken away ... I will continue to struggle, wherever I am." He thinks the Islamic State is paradise "There is peace. There's no corruption, there's no bribery, there's no usury, there's no alcohol, gambling -- all of the vices which you're used to in America and other parts of the world don't exist there." "I believe that Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi -- may Allah protect him -- has brought in the dawn of a new era," he told CNN's Nima Elbagir while on bail awaiting trial in December 2015. And that "moderate" Islam does not exist "There is no such thing as a 'radical' or a 'moderate' form of Islam," he insists. "A woman is either pregnant or not pregnant. "If you abide by Islam, you'll follow what is in the Quran and the traditions of the prophet." He believes notorious acts of terrorism are justified "What took place on 9/11 or 7/7, or on 3/7 in Madrid, I can see they have an Islamic justification," he says. Choudary insists attackers from al Qaeda and ISIS are following the teachings of Islam - a viewpoint refuted by more moderate clerics. "The Quran says, 'Whatever the prophet did, do it; whatever the prophet forbade, forbid it ... the prophet himself sent many people to assassinate others," he said in 2015. In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris, he said the cartoonists who died had brought the attack on themselves by "dishonoring" the prophet Mohammed. "I think the cause has an effect; if I need to condemn, I need to condemn the provocation ... I cannot condemn them [the killers] ... they have a juristic opinion which they are following." He's an unapologetic propagandist for ISIS "I am very proud and happy to lay the seeds of Islam in the hearts and minds of Muslim youths. There is nothing wrong with that," he insists. "My love for Allah, his messenger, love for the sharia, love for the khilafah [caliphate], love for even jihad. This is part and parcel of Islam, however much people might demonize it." .

Navistar, Volkswagen forge global partnership Fleet Owner / September 6, 2016 The Volkswagen Truck & Bus (VW) division of Volkswagen is buying a 16.6% stake in U.S. truck maker Navistar – a new stock issuance priced at $15.76 per share, equaling some $256 million in fresh cash – as part of a new global joint venture between the two companies that aims to deliver VW-built powertrain options to International-branded trucks starting in 2019, along with “significant” cost savings for both companies especially in terms of global sourcing and parts procurement. “This is a major milestone on way to create a ‘global champion’ truck business,” noted Andreas Renschler, CEO of Volkswagen Truck & Bus, in a conference call with analysts and reporters. Renschler, who formerly headed up Daimler AG’s global truck business before joining VW back in early 2015, added that this partnership also enables VW to gain access to the North American truck market. “It is a highly attractive alliance since it brings together two companies with a complementary geographic footprint,” he added. “Together we cover 25% of global [truck] market. We strongly believe this a very, very powerful global position. Combined, the two companies will build 226,000 commercial vehicle units per year. That gives us significant global scale.” In terms of savings, Navistar said it expects the alliance to be accretive beginning in its first year, with “cumulative synergies” to ramp up to at least $500 million over the first five years. By year five, the alliance is expected to generate annual synergies of at least $200 million for Navistar, with its annual “run rate” expected to grow materially thereafter as the companies continue to introduce technologies from the collaboration. Walter Borst, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Navistar, added that he believes the majority of the deal’s expected savings won’t kick in until the early part of 2019 and will come from procurement and “more efficient spend” in regards to “structural costs,” especially on engineering side of business. “I feel very feel comfortable with our liquidity position and even more comfortable with it with this deal,” he noted on the call. “I sleep better knowing we have over $1 billion in cash on hand [as] we need $500 million to run the business.” Troy Clarke, president and CEO of Navistar, added during the call that both companies will benefit from the ability to better integrate powertrains thru the deal plus optimize the overall capital spend for both, while lowering the costs associated with developing “next generation” powertrains. Clarke told Fleet Owner telematics represents another big potential area of cooperation and savings for both Navistar and VW. “If you think about it, all [commercial] trucks are slowly fitting into the same ‘box’ where emissions and connected vehicles are concerned,” he said. “The software may be different but the hardware is the same. Personally I am excited about the opportunities for collaboration here.” Clarke stressed, though that new partnership won’t substantively affect Navistar’s effort to renew its “entire truck portfolio” in 2018; an effort dubbed “Project Horizon” that will witness a new product introduction every four to six months on average, with the first to be introduced at the end of this month. “But now we will be able to go in and align product platforms,” he pointed out. “We are certainly counting on structural efficiencies. There is a well-established trend in the global [truck] industry along vertical integration, though it is pacing out differently for countries and participants in the market.” Clarke emphasized, though, that products springing from the Navistar/VW will be “steered by what customer want” and offers in his words “a tremendous opportunity for us both to be even more customer focused -- not just in terms of products but services going forward.” A few other key points made during the call: Renschler noted that VW Truck & Bus generated gross revenues of 30.4 billion Euros (some $27.17 billion U.S.) in 2015, employs 76,000 worldwide and built 179,000 commercial vehicles units worldwide last year. The deal provides VW with the opportunity to claim two seats on Navistar’s board of directors. Clarke said Navistar’s gross revenues topped $10 billion in 2015 and said the company’s network of over 800 dealers providing 8,000 service bays and 7,600 technicians is a key focus of the alliance. Clarke added that the 13 liter engine Navistar currently offers – its N-13 unit – is derived from a previous deal made with VW subsidiary MAN. “So we have a close engineering relationship with MAN [and] this was the genesis of the opportunity we saw together.” He noted VW’s engine portfolio plays up into the 15-liter “big bore” realm and down into 9 and 10 liter displacement as well. “We will work over the next few months to align our product portfolio,” Clarke said. Borst said neither company has filed the necessary paperwork yet to consummate the partnership but that he does not expect to face too many regulatory challenges. “We’ve got a few in the U.S. and a few other jurisdictions: Mexico, Canada and Brazil other key ones,” he said. “Hopefully regulators see this as we do; that there are no issues in this area.” Neither side mentioned how Cummins, a major supplier of engines to Navistar, will be affected by the new partnership. “The Cummins engine in our product truly outstanding; we anticipate offering [the] Cummins product for a long period of time,” Clarke noted. “So we are not speculating or making announcements on that today.” Clarke pointed out that while truck orders “are thin for everyone” right now, he believes the new partnership with VW with “eventually” translate into increased market share. “The [truck manufacturing] industry as a whole has to get through this valley, this fall in orders, and get back to order volumes that reflect demand.,” he explained. “That will give us a clearer view. Our products are more than competitive now and [the VW partnership] now gives access the global scale of technology. It gives customers one more good reason to consider Navistar. It allows us to get better and get better fast.” Clarke added that the deal would also “relieve anxiety” on part of customers about Navistar’s powertrain systems and its ability to integrate technology. “They don’t want to buy stranded technology; that affects residual values which they use for the down payment on their next truck,” he said. “This deal will get at this in a big way. This also gives us an opportunity to get back on the balls of our feet in the market.”

VW jolt not enough to end Icahn trucking nightmare Antony Currie, Reuters / September 6, 2016 The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Carl Icahn is trapped in a long-haul trucking nightmare. The investor’s 20 percent stake in sputtering U.S. manufacturer Navistar International got a welcome jolt on Tuesday after the company announced a partnership with Volkswagen’s truck unit. Even after the 40 percent-plus surge in Navistar’s stock by early afternoon, though, it still needs to rise by another 50 percent or more just for Icahn to break even on the $500 million he has invested. It has been a downhill ride for the activist since he first jumped into the cab with an almost 10 percent stake in late 2011. Back then, it looked as if he would try to mesh Navistar with rival Oshkosh, another of his holdings. A deal might have produced enough cost cuts to cover a big premium and leave plenty more upside for both sets of shareholders to enjoy. Icahn and former protégé Mark Rachesky, whose MHR Fund Management has also been a Navistar shareholder for years, helped oust then Chief Executive Dan Ustian in August 2012. He had invested in diesel technology which failed and almost crashed the company. The recovery has been slow. Navistar lost money in 14 of the past 15 quarters. And its EBITDA margin may only hit 6.6 percent this year, compared with 11.3 percent at rival Volvo, according to Thomson Reuters data. Even if that metric improves by around a percentage point a year for the next three years, as analysts project, Navistar would still be a laggard. Icahn and Rachesky, whose fund also owns a 20 percent interest, between them control four of Navistar’s nine board seats. Fellow activist Mario Gabelli, who owns some 12 percent of the company, has for years wanted Navistar to sell itself. Tuesday’s less decisive deal with VW shows the paucity of options available to turbocharge the business. The $256 million investment from the German giant is welcome, but the $200 million of annual savings Navistar expects to find after five years is only 2 percent of total operating costs in the company’s most recent full year. Executives may find more gas in the tank as the joint venture progresses. But such improvements take time. Icahn, Rachesky and Gabelli – already five years into their campaign with nothing to show for it – will have to patiently ride shotgun for a while yet.

Navistar: Why Volkswagen Deal is Bad News…For Cummins Barron’s / September 6, 2016 We view the reports as being potentially negative for Cummins since, at least based on reports we are aware of so far, Volkswagen plans to supply Navistar with engines. Third-party engine manufacturers have not been major players historically in the commercial vehicle manufacturing industry in Europe, as they have historically in North America. Vertical integration is already one of the most discussed threats to Cummins with, for instance, PACCAR producing about 40% of its own engines currently, up from 0% before 2010. The trend had also been toward vertical integration at Daimler, the largest commercial vehicle OEM in North America. To date, Navistar has bucked that trend and has more heavily utilized third-party suppliers in the wake of the 2010 emissions standards and Navistar’s own failings with its in-house engines. YTD in 2016, 73% of Navistar Class 8 trucks used a Cummins engine. If reports are correct that Volkswagen intends to sell engines in Navistar trucks, Cummins could face vertical integration risk at Navistar as well, the only OEM which has not yet been a headwind for the company in the North American market. In fact, we wonder whether supplying engines to the North American market might be the largest motive of the deal from Volkswagen’s perspective, given Volkswagen’s capabilities in that area though its MAN and Scania nameplates.