kscarbel2

David, I think you're being too kind. When a U.S. citizen desecrates (burns) the U.S. flag, that reflects their utter disgust with the United States of America. The only resolution is for them to be expelled from this nation that they despise so deeply. Such an action would serve as a much needed wake up call for recent generations who take living in the world's best nation for granted.

Heavy Duty Trucking / July 26, 2016 The parent company of truck makers Kenworth and Peterbilt reported an increase in second quarter earnings despite lower revenue, but it's in the red for the first half of the year due to a big fine. Net income for Paccar Inc. moved 7.6% higher from the same time a year earlier to $481.3 million, or to $1.37 per share from $1.26 per share, as sales and financial services revenue fell 13.2% to $4.41 billion. Truck sales and revenue for the company fell to $3.3 billion in the most recent quarter from nearly $4 billion a year earlier. Its parts segment revenue dropped to $756.4 million from $776.5 million. In contrast, financial services revenue inched higher to $297.4 million from $293 million. Paccar's pre-tax truck profit totaled $329.4 million, down from $420.1 million a year earlier. Paccar Parts generated quarterly pre-tax profit of $133.4 million compared to $145.7 million in the second quarter of 2015. Paccar Financial Services reported second quarter pre-tax income of $77.3 million compared to $90.8 million a year earlier. According to the company, Peterbilt and Kenworth are benefiting from the third best U.S. and Canada Class 8 truck market in the last 10 years, and have achieved 27% market share year-to-date this year. “Paccar’s strategic focus is to invest for growth in our core markets, while expanding our presence in emerging markets,” says Bob Christensen, Paccar president and chief financial officer. “Paccar is earning excellent returns on its investments, achieving nearly 20 percent average annual after-tax return on equity over the last six years.” “The truck market reflects the good economy and high freight tonnage levels,” said Gary Moore, Paccar executive vice president. The company is forecasting Class 8 truck industry retail sales for the U.S. and Canada in 2016 of 220,000 to 240,000 vehicles. However, Paccar’s second quarter new truck deliveries for the U.S. and Canada were down sharply from 26,800 in the second quarter of last year to 19,800 in the most recent quarter. In Europe, where Paccar sells its DAF brand trucks, it’s projecting industry sales in the above-16-tonne truck market to be 280,000-300,000 vehicles this year and describes the market as the strongest there since 2008. “The European above-16-tonne truck market continues to strengthen due to positive economic growth and increased freight activity,” said Preston Feight, DAF president and Paccar vice president. “DAF achieved market share of 16% in the first half of 2016. DAF’s above 16-tonne truck registrations increased 28% year-to-date compared to the same period last year.” European truck deliveries for Paccar increased to 13,100 from 11,200 a year earlier. Despite the improved second quarter results, Paccar reported a loss of $113.3 million for the first six months of the year compared to a profit of $825.6 million during the same time in 2015. Much of this is due to $833 million it has agreed to pay as fine as part of a price-fixing scheme in Europe involving its DAF brand. Net sales and financial services revenues for the first six months of 2016 were $8.71 billion compared to $9.91 billion last year. Worldwide new truck deliveries fell to 72,100 from 79,000 over the same time frame, due almost entirely to a decline in the U.S. and Canada.

Fleet Owners / July 26, 2016 Much is said of trucking's workforce struggles not only in hiring and holding onto good workers but bringing on young ones, with the median ages of truck transportation and bus service workers about five and nine years higher, respectively, than the current median worker's age of 42 across all industries.1 Even as you're trying to attract Millennials and younger professionals, could these workers be increasing security risks for your business? One group, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), has been raising this point recently in examining worker tendencies. The concept makes rational sense: young professionals have grown up with smartphones and other Internet-connected devices in their hands and apps running more and more things in their lives, from email to "wallet" finances/payment management to shopping and travel. So part of the risk is there's a kind of normalcy that can become overfamiliarity with doing almost everything online and via computer or connected device; carry that a little farther and it becomes more like naivety and lack of healthy suspicion where it's due. Younger workers may have "a different perspective" — e.g., they may have their guard down more — when it comes to things like sharing information on social media sites, SHRM notes, and that could open the door to higher risk of data and computer security breaches. Meanwhile, here's a damning double-statistic: IT giant Hewlett-Packard finds that three out of four, 75%, of all apps fail to properly encrypt data, and Gartner, Inc. projects that 75% of mobile security breaches will happen via apps. Information security breaches that happen through social media and other scams seeking criminal ends fall into the category of "social engineering" attacks. Herndon, VA-based cyber security services provider General Dynamics spells out some additional risks of this kind to be aware of, including: 1. Public WiFi. Have you become less hesitant about using unsecured WiFi with your devices where it's available — airports, malls, restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, amusement parks, etc.? Have you programmed unsecured WiFi networks into your smartphone to boost service based on your day-to-day location and where you usually travel? The honest answer for likely most of us is a shrug and a nod in the affirmative. "These connections should always be used with caution," General Dynamics advises, and it's best to avoid financial transactions or any sites where you log in/use passwords when using unsecured WiFi access. 2. Phone calls. "Phishing" and criminal activity can happen via telephone, although many phone scams prey on the elderly and perceived easy targets. However, it can happen at work, too: "Callers may sound like a vendor or familiar individuals calling to request updated credit card information, often claiming the previous card has expired," General Dynamics notes. 3. Hyperlinks. These often take the form of email message scams, which are familiar to many. Maybe it's a message with a clever subject line designed to look like a friend sent it, or maybe it's a phony message designed to look like it's officially sent by a trusted source. The obvious protocol you should be practicing is to be careful and deliberate about what messages (and any attachments) you open and what links you click. General Dynamics points out that it's safer to type links — particularly when doing anything financially related — directly in your web browser. 4. Giveaways. We've all seen those emails about things too good to be true; hopefully by now, we all know they aren't and avoid them. But people still fall victim to scams that seem insignificant or benign enough not to question, such as a phishing/information-seeking scam disguised as an offer of a few free music downloads. 5. In-person schemes. This one is rarer, but information breaches can happen courtesy of an in-person scam. General Dynamics says this "bold" method would include things like a person claiming to have forgotten a key to the office or posing as a legitimate employee, such as someone in IT needing to access computers or a custodian taking away documents to shred. Some advice to protect yourself: be sure you can identify someone before you let them in or give them any access to your place of employment, General Dynamics warns. Foreign objects introduced Regardless of which generation they belong to, there are also the various connected devices that all of your employees likely are bringing into your work environment, try as you may to secure it. The BYOD — "bring your own device" — argument and its implications for maintaining information security are a gray area that trucking and fleet are still navigating as more fleet management, routing, telematics and other systems make their way into trucks and other commercial vehicles. There's that end of the spectrum as well as the flip side — a policy strictly allowing only company-owned devices to be used — while other organizations are choosing a "COPE" (company owned, personally enabled) model for connected devices that's somewhere in between. According to BlackBerry, nearly half of U.S. business executives believe BYOD policies create serious risks. Software Advice, a company that provides software reviews and market research, finds in a 2015 study that at least this much is true: Millennials and younger workers increasingly feel distressed if they're without their smartphones and/or other devices and social media. But there's some good news for Millennials in this case. Baby Boom and Generation X employees are actually more likely — 48% and 47%, respectively — to use a personal device to access work files compared with 40% of Millennials, according to the study. Returning to sharing information on social media, however, SHRM also points to data from the Washington, DC-based Ethics Research Center showing that Millennials are more likely to engage in ethically questionable behaviors like blogging or tweeting negative things about their employers. So all things considered, are Millennials any better or worse than employees of other generations in exposing your company to risk, intentionally or unintentionally? For the trucking industry and others, that tossed coin is still up in the air.

The No. 28 Cummins Diesel Special Fleet Owner / July 26, 2016 In 1952, the No. 28 Cummins Diesel Special cemented a special legacy at the Indianapolis 500 and also, in many ways, helped reshape the future of the trucking industry. That year, this unique diesel-powered race car captured the pole position - the only diesel-powered racing machine ever to do so - with a one-lap time of 139.104 mph and four-lap time of 138.010 mph. It also helped Cummins validate the use of turbocharging and fuel injection within its diesel engine design. Photo gallery - http://fleetowner.com/equipment/no-28-cummins-diesel-special#slide-0-field_images-196951

Trailer/Body Builders / July 26, 2016 The National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA) announced dates for The Work Truck Show 2017, The Work Truck Show 2018 and the Green Truck Summit. Anyone who works with commercial trucks, including public and private truck fleet operators, manufacturers, dealers and equipment distributors, can find solutions to their business challenges at the Show. The Work Truck Show 2017 March 14–17, 2017 Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, Indiana Educational sessions, including the Green Truck Summit, begin March 14 Exhibit hall open March 15-17 The Work Truck Show 2018 March 6–9, 2018 Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, Indiana Educational sessions, including the Green Truck Summit, begin March 6 Exhibit hall open March 7-9 The Work Truck Show features the latest vocational trucks, vans, vehicle components and equipment on a trade show floor covering more than 500,000 square feet. The event includes a robust educational conference with more than 60 sessions designed to help attendees improve operations. Registration for The Work Truck Show 2017 opens in October. For additional information, visit worktruckshow.com or call 800-441-6832. J oin the conversation on Facebook at facebook.com/TheWorkTruckShow and on Twitter at @WorkTruckShow with the official Work Truck Show hashtag #worktrucks17 and Green Truck Summit hashtag #greentrucks17.

Cummins Engines / May 27, 2016 Recently we celebrated our historic ties to the Indianapolis 500 by starting the legendary 1952 Cummins Diesel Special #28 for the first time since 1999. This groundbreaking car won the 1952 Indy 500 pole position, averaging a qualifying speed of 138.010 miles per hour. In addition to being the first and only diesel-powered car to ever win the pole, the Special was also the first turbocharged car (it would be 14 years before another turbocharged car appeared at Indianapolis), first fully-aerodynamically designed and wind tunnel tested car at Indianapolis; and the first use of the Cummins PT fuel system outside of the test lab. After the race, the car made appearances in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, various trade shows, the Indiana State Fair and ultimately spent much of the last 30 years in the lobby of the Cummins Inc. corporate headquarters in Columbus, Indiana. .

Local couple married for over 80 years ABC News / February 19, 2015 Being married for 50 years is reason to celebrate. It’s almost unheard of to be married for 75 years. Here in Richmond, though, there is a love story more than eight decades in the making. In 1934, Franklin Roosevelt was President, the US was in the midst of the Great Depression, and Richmond’s Louise and Harwood Cochrane got married. Now they are just weeks away from their 81st wedding anniversary. “I can’t believe that. I don’t count the years anymore,” says Louise from her home on the North Side. It’s not even a mile from where she and Harwood first lived when they got married. When you get the two of them talking, you are taken back to 1930’s Richmond. She was a teenager from Halifax. He was a milk delivery man with Hanover roots, three years her Senior. “We met on a blind date. He had a date with my friend and brought his cousin along and I dated his cousin,” says Louise, now 99. “The next day he called me, wanted to see me again,” she recalls, explaining, “In those days, men did the calling, not girls and he called me and asked me for a date. That’s how we met, and it began to grow from that.” In those early days, there were double dates and flights over Richmond. On the ground, there was courting at Bill’s Barbecue. On March 31, 1934, they made it official with a simple wedding in the minister’s parlor at Tabernacle Baptist Church. “He was starting a business so he had to go out of town the next morning to Philadelphia, so we couldn’t go anywhere couldn’t have a honeymoon. He promised me a honeymoon and he’s still promising it. We haven’t had it yet,” Louise chuckles. “I’m still working on it,” jokes Harwood, who is now 102. There was no official honeymoon during their humble beginnings, but what evolved was a marriage filled with life! In 1935, Harwood founded Overnite Transportation, the first of his two trucking companies. It was a billion-plus dollar business. The wealth afforded the Cochranes opportunities like no other, including trips. “Quite a few. Gracious, we went to so many exciting places,” Louise recalls. One trip they especially remember was a flight around the world on the Concord. “You only have one life. That’s it. So you do the best you can with what you have. Don’t you say so?” Louise asks looking at her husband. “So,” he answers while she laughs at his brevity. Along with the experiences, they were a family. Three daughters, seven grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren have since followed, but the Cochranes never stopped working on just the two of them. “It’s a two-way game. You can’t always have your way. Sometimes let him have his way,” Louise explains their key to longevity. “And you’ll have some rough times ahead. We did, but you live through it. That makes you a little bit stronger, I think.” Even in those tough times, like losing a daughter, the Cochranes have been driven by a deep sense of philanthropy. Over the years, they have supported several Richmond landmarks, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. “We felt like that was a place when we had some money to give away that everybody could enjoy. School children, adults, Black and White. Everybody could enjoy the museum, so it’s still one of our projects.” The Cochranes have a passion for art. Louise still paints in her home studio as often as she can. She has an exhibition at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens this month and is planning for one at VMFA next year for her 100th birthday. After all these years, the Cochranes still share so much. “We enjoy the opera, we enjoy the symphony. We have our same seats at Center Stage,” says Louise. “When you get to be our age, it’s hard to find fun. It’s fun just living, I guess. We go to church, go for a ride in the country every Sunday after church. We enjoy that kind of a thing, but we don’t really take trips anymore.” Unless you count those trips down memory lane. There are still plenty of those. “Are you happy you stayed with me?” Louise asks Harwood, taking his arm. “I’m a happy man,” he says simply. They are happy and together for 81 years of marriage and counting! There is still so much they still want to do. “I’d like to get on the Queen Mary and go somewhere. Maybe I will yet, who knows?” Louise thinks of one item on her bucket list. “Anything you’d like to do that you haven’t done?” she prompts Harwood. “There are a few people I’d like to punch in the nose,” he jokes, while his wife laughs. They still have plenty of laughter, love and life with each other. “I just think we belong together now,” says Louise. .

Overnite Transportation Founder Cochrane, 97, Still Consulted Frequently for His Sage Advice Transport Topics / September 13, 2010 RICHMOND, Va. — People in trucking have long viewed themselves as a collection of hardworking individuals — and there are plenty of stories to support that belief. But who among them has worked harder and longer than J. Harwood Cochrane, founder of the highly successful Overnite Transportation Co. at age 22 and the more middling Highway Express at age 78? What soul singer James Brown was to show business, Cochrane has been to trucking — the hardest working man in the industry. Cochrane will turn 98 in November and walks with the assistance of a cane after he broke a hip earlier this year. But he still follows trucking from his spacious apartment in a well-heeled retirement community here, ponders mergers and acquisitions, and offers advice to the president of UPS Freight, Overnite’s successor, at a monthly lunch. “He’s probably the greatest LTL trucker of us all,” said Earl Congdon, chairman of Old Dominion Freight Line, Thomasville, N.C. “I used Overnite as a pattern for Old Dominion. We tried to do the same thing, but we were 15 to 20 years behind him.” Cochrane is a thrifty — some say, cheap — man, who grew up in rural poverty, left high school without graduating so he could work, started a business during the Great Depression that is still around, amassed a nine-figure fortune and now has given most of it away to finance causes ranging from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to wells that provide drinking water for poor African villages. His first power unit in freight transportation had just one horsepower, and that horse’s name was Charlie. He pulled Cochrane’s Virginia Dairy milk wagon through the streets of Richmond, the state’s capital city. Early on, Cochrane drove poor-quality trucks because, he said, he couldn’t afford premium vehicles. He slept in his sleeperless cab, curled up with an oil heater for warmth. Later, he pushed for standardization in tractor and trailer design. He took Overnite public in 1957 and led it onto the New York Stock Exchange five years later. He spent years fighting off Teamsters organizing campaigns and collected judgments against the union. He sold Overnite, a less-than-truckload carrier, to railroad holding company Union Pacific Corp. in 1986 for $1.2 billion. His truckload venture, Highway Express, didn’t work as well. But when he sold it to Celadon Group in 2003 at age 91, he still had to sign a five-year noncompete agreement. Cochrane follows trucking and tends to his investments with the help of Nancy Earnhardt, his now part-time secretary, who has worked for him for 52 years. “I did everything wrong. I bought the wrong trucks, the wrong tires and trailers. I survived on determination and hard work,” Cochrane said as he reviewed his career during a recent interview here. He seems to have learned from his mistakes, though, and the industry’s events have kept his mind active for roughly 80 years. “I dream of mergers at night,” Cochrane said, adding that he doesn’t want to engineer them but that he naturally tends to speculate on the subject after having pulled off 56 of them during his Overnite years. His current favorite idea involves three regional carriers, all based in the East, forming a triple combination. “Those three would make a perfect combination, although they’d have to close 50 to 70 terminals,” he said. He has long thought LTL consolidation will continue, he said, until there are only about eight very large carriers left. Looking at other operations, Cochrane said he thinks Congdon’s Old Dominion is “well run.” On the truckload side, he also respects Heartland Express’ operations but wonders why the stock hasn’t done better lately, especially because Knight Transportation has. Cochrane’s heart may be in trucking, but as an investor, his head is not. “I would choose another industry before trucking as an investor,” he said. “If the company isn’t union now, there’s the threat of it.” C.H. Robinson Worldwide, the nation’s largest freight broker, worries him as a trucker but intrigues him as an investor. “They really take a high percentage [of the freight bill as a fee], but I’m tempted to buy some stock.” He also said the Con-way Inc. model of offering large-scale LTL and truckload services has great merit because of the opportunity to cross-sell to a single customer base. “The two services fit together quite nicely,” he said. “The first official action I took,” said UPS Freight President Jack Holmes, who has had the job as Cochrane’s successor since 2007, “was to establish a UPS Freight Leadership Hall of Fame. We inducted Leo Suggs, Gordon Mackenzie and Mr. Cochrane.” Suggs ran Overnite from 1996 to 2006, and Mackenzie was in charge between Suggs and Holmes, in 2006-07. It was Cochrane’s second Hall of Fame appearance. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Mich., in 1991. After Cochrane sold his ownership stake to the railroad in 1986, he stayed for four more years as a hired manager. His immediate successor, Union Pacific executive Thomas Boswell, did not get along with him. “He disliked me with a passion,” Cochrane said. Boswell asked him to leave in 1990, and Cochrane did. The next year, he started truckload carrier Highway Express. He ran that business for a dozen years until he sold it to Celadon. “I thought I had lost money on it, but after the final tax return was done, I found that I’d made $2 million. That wasn’t much money relative to all of the revenue involved, but it was nice to know that I didn’t lose anything,” Cochrane recalled. Holmes said the railroad removed Cochrane’s portrait from the lobby of the company’s headquarters here, “but I put it back up.” Holmes said he has been talking to Cochrane regularly since 2008, and it’s not just to be polite to an old man. “As it became obvious the economy was suffering and slipping away in 2008, I had to figure out what would be our approach,” Holmes said. “Harwood Cochrane was the only guy I knew who managed an LTL company through a worse economy. He survived the Great Depression. “He told me, ‘You have to count every nickel,’ and take control of the expense side. If you don’t take expenses down, he said, the customers will get caught in the middle as the revenue drops.” “I’ve got very selfish reasons for meeting with him,” Holmes said. In 1989, Overnite published a biography of Cochrane that tells his life story through the Union Pacific sale. Estelle Sharpe Jackson, who wrote about Cochrane for Virginia Business magazine, provides a useful chronology of his life and some compelling anecdotes. Cochrane had six siblings who survived to adulthood. For much of his childhood, their mother stayed with the children on a farm outside of town while Cochrane’s father worked construction in Michigan and sent back money. The elder Cochrane died at age 56, when Harwood was 16, shortly before the Depression started. The first job that he liked was the dairy job, but that was just his day job, according to Jackson’s “Mr. Cochrane’s Overnite.” He and his brother Calvin started Cochrane Transportation in 1933 to move furniture, groups of people and anything else around town. Success in trucking was not inevitable for the family. The brothers split at the end of 1934, with Harwood starting Overnite in January 1935 and Calvin keeping the name Cochrane Transportation. The two brothers did not want to compete with each other, Harwood Cochrane said, so he hauled freight in Virginia and North Carolina with nonunion labor, whereas Calvin looked north toward Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia and worked with unionized employees. Calvin Cochrane’s company went out of business before 1940, however, and he returned to farming for a living. Harwood Cochrane said he got his first big break after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In 1942, he began hauling freight for the Marine Corps from Philadelphia to North Carolina. It was lots of steady business. The other work that helped to stabilize Overnite in the 1940s and made it profitable and durable was hauling cigarettes, Cochrane said. Philip Morris Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. were both frequent sources of freight. Casting about carefully for the right word, Old Dominion’s Congdon called Cochrane “thrifty.” Others, speaking on the condition of anonymity, went straight for “cheap.” Congdon said Cochrane, like most businessmen in the 1950s, did not like the Korean War-era tax that collected 90% of profits and left only one dime out of every dollar with companies. “A White Trucks dealer was trying to sell him trucks and emphasized that point,” said Congdon. “Harwood replied, ‘Yes, but I want that dime.’ He was a light tipper. He’d tip 10% when I tipped 15%. But he was also a philanthropist who gave away much of his fortune.” Cochrane saw enough of life’s difficulties, even at an early age, to know that nothing was easy. There was the poverty of his youth, even before his father died and the Depression started. There was Calvin’s business failure in trucking. LTL carriers started folding in large numbers in the 1980s because they could not adjust to deregulation. Cochrane bought some of their signs and fastened them to a wall at one of his terminals to remind employees that no one is ever completely safe. “Hundreds of days could have been my last ones in business,” Cochrane recalled. “I didn’t have money to pay bills.” He had to learn both ends of the business, finance and operations. He shopped carefully for terminals, often snapping up real estate from failed competitors in exchange for ready cash. “I always looked at what was available when a company went out of business,” he said. “When you’re going bankrupt, you want money right quick. I had lousy terminals to begin with and wanted better.” He also prized modern tractors and trailers with easily replaceable parts that could be operated efficiently. “I’ve seen changes of every size and shape,” he said. “Trailers weren’t easily interchanged when I started. There were different types of fifth wheels, and light connectors usually had to be cut and respliced. There were no uniform fifth wheels and light plugs.” Cochrane said one of the most important things he ever did for trucking was to get together with management from Yellow Freight System, Roadway Express, Consolidated Freightways and Carolina Freight to urge Fruehauf Trailers to manufacture a standard trailer that all of those carriers would buy. Cochrane’s committee gave detailed advice on landing gear, fifth wheels, king pins and electrical hookups. “We got to 97% of a trailer,” he said, before things fell apart, but the work was picked up by others and led to greater standardization. “It was a great service to the industry, I think.” As a result of his obsession over operational efficiency, Overnite was one of the industry’s most profitable carriers, often producing operating ratios — expenses as a percentage of revenue — in the 80s, which is considered a sterling measure of financial performance. An important part of the financial side for Cochrane was his strong bias against unionized labor. Having observed early on that life often can be difficult and that success is never guaranteed, Cochrane knew only one way to run his company: work fiendishly hard as much as you can; give customers whatever they want whenever you can; and make sure your employees work hard, too. A couple of incidents related to union work rules made up his mind. As related in Jackson’s biography and confirmed in an interview, Cochrane did sign a Teamsters contract in the 1940s because of the Southern Biscuit Co., a major shipper with unionized employees who wouldn’t tend to Cochrane’s trucks because his employees weren’t union members. Cochrane signed a labor contract, and shortly thereafter, a fight ensued. A local Teamsters leader wanted Cochrane to fire an executive, but Cochrane wouldn’t — because the man in question did not work for Overnite but for another company instead. Picketing and interruptions took place until Cochrane could prove the man worked elsewhere. “Afterward, they laughed and said I should forgive and forget. I told them I could forgive, but I’d never forget,” he said. Another time, he was delayed significantly while moving 3,700 pounds of freight at a newly purchased New Orleans terminal because the necessary employee for freight handling was not around and an available employee on site was not allowed to do that job, he said. Among Cochrane’s memorabilia are two photos of checks from 1963. One, for more than $359,000, was signed by Jimmy Hoffa, the late union president. The other is from liquidating a Teamsters union hall in Charlotte, N.C., to satisfy a judgment against the union in favor of Overnite. Cochrane said he is not happy that his old company now uses Teamsters union employees. He and Holmes talked about the 2008 switch to representation. Cochrane said he’s concerned that UPS Freight will not be as agile in serving customer needs. Holmes said UPS has been working with the Teamsters union for about 80 years on the package side and that UPS managers know how to work well with Teamsters employees. Cochrane didn’t just shut out the union by fiat. He convinced his employees to vote against representation elections by providing steady employment, encouraging employees to get their relatives to work for Overnite, providing a well-funded retirement fund, offering stock ownership to employees and taking an interest in their personal lives. “He engrained a culture into the organization that was family-oriented,” said Leo Suggs, the one-time Overnite boss and now chairman and CEO of Greatwide Logistics Services, Dallas. “After he left [in 1990], it was much less personal. He had the commitment of people in the organization . . . and it was a hardworking group.” Suggs said he took the lesson on corporate culture to heart and has tried to replicate it with Greatwide. He had not met Cochrane before becoming one of his successors, Suggs said, but he called him up and found him happy to talk. “He encouraged nepotism. He wanted employees to want their sons and daughters to work there,” Suggs said. “He viewed Overnite as his family, and it was the most successful trucking company in America when he sold it. He loved the company and its employees, and it was mutual. “He didn’t sit behind his desk in his office. He went out with drivers and dockworkers,” Suggs added. “He learned that mutual respect and a willingness to share was the road map for a successful company. If employees know they have job security and good equipment, they feel better and do more for customers. That makes for better business. It’s a full circle and he reinforced it.” Cochrane no longer has a company to run. With Earnhardt’s help, he tends to his investments and follows events in trucking. Despite difficulty with his hip, he feeds the ducks at his community pond. While extremely comfortable, his fortune is much smaller. “I’ve given away about 75% of my holdings,” he said, and he estimated the value of the cash, stock and real estate given away to be more than $100 million. His wife, Louise, is a great lover of art, and so he has given $37 million to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, including the Louise and Harwood Cochrane Atrium and the Harwood and Louise Cochrane Fund for American Art. He’s also donated to Baptist groups, the American Red Cross, the University of Richmond and Randolph College in Lynchburg — formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. Although the poverty of his youth spurred him to great financial success at Overnite, hoarding cash was never the point, Cochrane said. “I wanted to do things better,” he noted. “It’s not so much that I wanted to be rich, but I wanted better trucks, better tires and better terminal buildings. I always want a way to do something better.”

J. Harwood Cochrane, trucking magnate and arts benefactor, dies at 103 The Richmond Times-Dispatch / July 26, 2016 Richmond trucking entrepreneur J. Harwood Cochrane launched his transportation career delivering milk in a horse-drawn wagon. Decades later, he remembered a key element of his time at Virginia Dairy: “I went to work at five minutes to 2 (a.m.) for years and years,” Mr. Cochrane said in a 2014 interview. “That’s pretty early.” Early — or long — hours didn’t seem to be a deterrent for Mr. Cochrane, who went on to build a trucking empire. Over the years, he and his wife, Louise, also became known for turning their good fortune into millions for the arts and other community organizations. Mr. Cochrane died Monday at age 103. His wife died in December at 99. They were married for 81 years. “It’s a sad day for Richmond and for Virginia,” said Alex Nyerges, director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which has been a beneficiary of the Cochranes’ generosity over the years. “From the first time I can remember meeting him to the last time I saw him, probably in the last year, he looked to me like he stepped out of Hollywood casting,” said James E. Ukrop, former chairman and CEO of Ukrop’s Super Markets. “Such a dapper dresser, white hair and mustache. They were just a beautiful couple.” Added Ukrop, “He was quite the entrepreneur.” Mr. Cochrane was only 21 when he left Virginia Dairy during the Great Depression to jump into the fledgling trucking industry in 1933. He traded in his Ford car for a Chevrolet tractor and trailer, and he and a brother started hauling freight from Richmond to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Mr. Cochrane pawned whatever he could — jacks, spare tires and wheels, rear tires, his watch — to purchase gasoline on his return trips home, and he survived on the bread, bologna and jar of mayonnaise he carried with him. He acknowledged years later that he probably hauled loads that were too heavy — the tractor broke 27 axles in 41,000 miles — and for a nine-month stretch in 1934, he drove a truck that had no brakes or fourth gear. He also acknowledged that “things weren’t going well,” so he set off on his own. In 1935, he founded Overnite Transportation. He intended the name to be “Overnight,” but he discovered a Baltimore company already had that name, so he went with “Overnite.” At the outset, he wasn’t fueled by a desire to get rich. He simply wanted to do better every day, he said, and to be able to afford to buy two new tires at a time when he needed them or — if he really dared to dream — four tires. His business grew, and he began acquiring other carriers, which led him into other parts of the country and which also increased his role in the industry. He would advise U.S. presidents on the early interstate highway system, because he had grown weary of driving trucks on treacherous “dirt and gravel roads” across the country, his grandson, Chris Gilman, said Tuesday. By 1986, he had built Overnite into such a transportation empire that the railroad giant Union Pacific Corp. made an unsolicited offer. Though Mr. Cochrane was reluctant to sell, he finally agreed for the good of his shareholders, bringing in a whopping sale price of $1.2 billion. Mr. Cochrane stayed on as chairman and CEO, though he eventually was replaced as CEO and retired as chairman. In 1991, at age 79 and at the conclusion of a five-year non-compete clause, he purchased a 64-acre plot a block from Overnite’s terminal on Midlothian Turnpike and founded another trucking company, Highway Express. “When I sold Overnite, I had to do a lot of adjusting,” he said in a 2003 interview. “You go from a corporate culture where jet planes are always available, and the next week you’re pumping your own gas. You have culture shock, really. I just thought I’d miss that plane like I missed breakfast.” The new company thrived, though it never reached the size of Overnite, and he sold it in 2003. Bryce Powell, a Midlothian-based real estate developer who served on Overnite’s board, said in a 2003 interview: “Certainly when you look at Richmond businessmen in the 20th century, he has one of the most unique and remarkable stories from where he started and what he created. Overnite’s economic impact on Richmond has been tremendous.” Nancy Earnhardt, his secretary of 45 years, put it this way in a 2003 interview: “He worked so hard, and he made so much money, and he gave it all away.” Mr. Cochrane had a knack for hiring smart people but, from the beginning, Powell said, “Harwood epitomized Overnite. The company was a manifestation of his values and work ethic.” Mr. Cochrane said that just because he had a working life that lasted nearly eight decades, it didn’t make him a workaholic. “I don’t work hard,” he said. “I just work regular.” Born on Nov. 16, 1912, Mr. Cochrane grew up in Goochland County with six brothers and sisters in a home without plumbing or central heat. He dropped out of high school at age 16 and came to Richmond after his father died of pneumonia. His mother operated a soup kitchen in South Richmond. He met his future wife on a blind date — though not with each other — and they found time to court around the odd hours required of his milk-delivery job. They were married in 1934 in a ceremony in the parlor of the home of Tabernacle Baptist Church’s pastor. That evening, they ate dinner at the home of Harwood’s mother and then went to the movies. By 2014, they had forgotten the film but thought it was at the old Loew’s Theater at North Sixth and East Grace streets, which would have been pretty much perfect: They celebrated their 80th anniversary that year with a musical party for 1,000 people that featured the Richmond Symphony with Steven Smith conducting, the Richmond Symphony Women’s Chorus, Richmond Ballet and assorted soloists at the Carpenter Theatre, which was, in its first life, the Loew’s. The symphony was one of many community groups to experience the kindness of the Cochranes. “They were giants of philanthropy in the city and so deeply committed to making the symphony and its programs accessible to the next generation,” said David Fisk, the symphony’s executive director. “Just a lovely man to spend time with.” They also often attended the symphony, which was a theme of their philanthropy: They were not just donors but also participants. The Cochranes often went to events at such places as the VMFA and Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. “That’s the part that’s going to be most noticeable … (their) support in terms of enthusiasm, participation and attendance,” VMFA’s Nyerges said. “Harwood was here as recently as our former board member dinner in late June. We sat down and had a fabulous conversation. For me personally, he’s been a role model of determination and perseverance, both as a business leader and as a person.” Nyerges said the impact of the Cochranes’ generosity “fills the American galleries. We have paintings and sculptures and works on paper that have been purchased with funds from the Cochrane endowment.” Nyerges said the endowment was established in 1988 with a $5 million gift and has grown to almost $40 million. The Cochranes gave money to churches, schools and museums. They contributed to efforts to dig wells in Africa and to build a public library in their Hanover County community of Rockville. In the days after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in 2005, Mr. Cochrane dropped off an envelope to the local Red Cross chapter for Katrina aid. It was a check for $1 million. In addition to his grandson, Mr. Cochrane is survived by a son, James Harwood Cochrane Jr., and a daughter, Judith Cochrane Gilman-Hines, both of Henrico County; and seven other grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. A daughter, Suzanne Hope Cochrane Austell Martin, died in 2009; another daughter, Treena Louise Cochrane, died in infancy. One grandchild also preceded him in death. Visitation for Mr. Cochrane will be held Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. at Woody Funeral Home, 1771 N. Parham Road. Mr. Cochrane was a former owner of the funeral home chain. A funeral will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at Tabernacle Baptist Church, 1925 Grove Ave.

Transport Topics / July 26, 2016 Trucking legend J. Harwood Cochrane, who entered freight transportation by driving a horse-drawn carriage and founded Overnite Transportation Co. during the Great Depression, died July 25 at 103 in Richmond, Virginia. UPS Freight, the Richmond-based less-than-truckload carrier that is the successor to Overnite, confirmed Cochrane’s death, which was first reported by the the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Cochrane sold Overnite to Union Pacific Corp. for $1.2 billion in 1986. “We’re all fortunate to have had Mr. Cochrane around to grow this industry the way he did, and to grow it the right way. All of us at UPS are extremely grateful for everything he accomplished. He had an impact on everyone he met. The industry lost a giant. He is missed,” said Rich McArdle, president of UPS Freight, North America’s fifth-largest LTL carrier and a unit of UPS Inc. Cochrane’s wife, Louise Odell Banks, died in December at 99 after 81 years of marriage. “This is a sad day for trucking in Virginia,” said Dale Bennett, president of the Virginia Trucking Association. Cochrane was a legend within the state, Bennett said, for his longevity, his business skill and his post-retirement philanthropy — to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Baptist groups, the Red Cross, and toward financing the digging of wells for drinking in Africa. He rose to great wealth from the most humble beginnings, having quit high school at 16 to find work after his father died. Cochrane’s first transportation job was delivering milk for Virginia Dairy with the help of Charlie the horse. That was in 1929, the year the Great Depression started. With the help of his brother Calvin, the two men ran Cochrane Transportation from 1930 to 1934. The year after the brothers went their separate ways, Harwood founded Overnite with one tractor, one trailer and one straight truck. That was also the year the Interstate Commerce Commission began the regulation of trucking. As part of a 2010 profile in Transport Topics, Cochrane described the discipline and thrift that allowed him first to survive and then prosper during the Depression. He slept in a day cab, curled up with an oil heater for warmth. Overnite became publicly traded in 1957. It was highly profitable despite an epic labor relations battle with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Cochrane said he tried to run Overnite as a family, encouraging employees to recruit their relatives as new employees. Bennett said Cochrane also gave out Overnite stock to employees and when the company was sold to Union Pacific, many of them became rich. Cochrane said one of his favorite pieces of memorabilia was a photo of a check for $359,000 written in 1963 to Overnite and signed by the late Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa to satisfy a judgment against the union and in favor of the trucking company. At the time of the sale to Union Pacific, Cochrane was tremendously wealthy, but he kept working. He remained with Overnite as its chairman for four years, until 1990. Then he switched to the truckload side of the industry by starting Highway Express at 78. Cochrane ran that company until 2003, when he sold it to Celadon Group. The sales contract included a five-year noncompete clause, even though Cochrane was nearly 91 then, so he retired from daily trucking. Earl Congdon, chairman of LTL carrier Old Dominion Freight Line, said in the 2010 profile that Cochrane is “probably the greatest LTL trucker of us all.” ODFL started in Richmond and briefly shared a terminal with Overnite. Bennett said he and Cochrane spoke regularly about trucking after the Highway Express sale. Cochrane also developed a relationship with Jack Holmes, McArdle’s predecessor at UPS Freight. “Mr. Cochrane built the envy of the trucking industry while dealing with the Great Depression, deregulation and an antiquated system of granting privileges to service states. He was a hero to many who are still part of the UPS Freight family,” Holmes said. .

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) will invest $1.48 billion to retool its Sterling Heights Assembly plant in metro Detroit to build the next generation of the Ram 1500. The investment will allow the assembly plant to go from unibody to body-on-frame construction. FCA will end production of the Chrysler 200 will end in December in order for the plant to switch over to Ram 1500 production. FCA is relocating Ram 1500 production from Warren to Sterling Heights, so that Warren can produce the upcoming Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer (which share the next generation Ram 1500’s platform). FCA plans to discontinue production of compact and mid-sized cars, including the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200, and have another automaker takeover production. To date, FCA has not found an interested partner.

Car & Driver / July 2016 One truck, many flavors Overview: That the Ram 1500 trailed the Ford and Chevy half-ton full-size pickup trucks in our most recent comparison test doesn’t make it a bad choice. It actually has several things going for it that the others don’t, the most evident being the availability of a diesel engine, something Ford and General Motors still don’t offer in this light-duty segment. With 240 horsepower and a notable 420 lb-ft of torque at just 2000 rpm, the Ram’s turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 EcoDiesel has grunt that’s handy for truck work, such as towing and hauling heavy cargo, and it can tap into it while barely breaking a sweat. Better still, in a 2015 test we recorded a respectable 21 mpg in mixed driving, including stretches of highway where the truck’s trip computer reported as much as 29 mpg. The diesel doesn’t come cheap, however, adding a premium of $3120 atop the base price of a Hemi V-8 version. Like the Ford and GM pickups, the Ram can be had in a whole passel of flavors, including three cab sizes with two or four doors, three bed lengths, rear- or four-wheel drive, and a range of 11 trim levels. We drove an EcoDiesel example for this review, but the other powertrains include a 305-hp 3.6-liter V-6 and a 395-hp 5.7-liter Hemi V-8. All are paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission. The Ram’s maximum tow rating is 10,640 pounds, with a maximum payload of 1890 pounds when properly equipped. Base prices range from $27,340 to $53,515. What’s New: Change typically comes slowly to the world of pickup trucks, where buyers tend to resist radical departures from the tried-and-true, and the Ram 1500 is no exception. Aside from rolling out new special editions on a fairly regular basis—the most recent being the Mopar ’16 Ram Rebel—there really isn’t much new for 2016. Body and frame modifications were made for 2016 to better do battle with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s challenging small-overlap front crash tests (despite stronger A-pillars and added structure to deflect wheel penetration into the cab, the Ram joined other full-size pickups in getting dinged by IIHS). The center-console design has been updated, too, and there are new trim packages and minor tweaks. What We Like: We like the Ram well enough to have brought one into the long-term fleet a while back, and it rarely sat idle. Even with the base V-6, our truck was a capable tow vehicle. The available diesel powertrain with its low-end grunt and respectable fuel economy is great for long-distance hauling, but the gutsy Hemi V-8 and its old-school exhaust burble is also easy to like. And the ZF eight-speed—the transmission of choice for many luxury automakers, such as BMW—shifts incredibly smoothly and adds to the Ram’s over-the-road sophistication. We also like the available Uconnect infotainment system, which remains one of the easiest of its type to use and includes an 8.4-inch screen with Bluetooth and satellite radio, plus USB, SD, and auxiliary inputs. The Ram has other endearing qualities. Thanks to its coil- and (optionally) air-sprung rear axle located by five links, the 1500 rides surprisingly well for a truck—this suspension design is exclusive to Ram in the full-size-pickup category. The cabin is relatively quiet underway, and an unladen Ram hops around less over bumps than some trucks—it actually best lives up to the common boast of “carlike” handling, making allowances for its size and mass. It also has comfortable seats and clever storage compartments (an option dubbed “RamBox”) in the sides of the bed. The RamBox option narrows the bed’s load floor, but the 51.0-inch width can still accept four-by-eight-foot sheet goods. What We Don’t Like: The downside of the diesel is the cost of entry. With the added cost over the gasoline V-8, you’d have to rack up an awful lot of miles before seeing a payoff at the pump. And with gas prices still low, it’s even harder to justify laying out the extra cash for diesel fuel. Like its competitors, this full-size pickup has grown awfully large for casual use, and the 32-inch lift to get anything up into the bed (as we measured on our long-term test truck) draws frequent complaints. Verdict: It’s hard to go wrong with this truck in any configuration. Photo gallery - http://www.caranddriver.com/photo-gallery/2016-ram-1500-quick-take-review

Mexico should just skip Euro-5 and go directly to Euro-6 in 2018 or 2019. It makes no sense for Mexican market truckmakers to produce Euro-5 trucks for just 1-1/2 to 2 years, from July 1, 2018 to an unspecified date in 2020. There's no mystery to producing ultra-low sulfur fuel. It's just a matter of spending the money.

C'mon man, Cummins business has had a downward trajectory for years now. "If" Cummins had the best truck engines in the business, customers would have forced the US market truck brands to emphasize it in their trucks (i.e., "We want Cummins!"). But Cummins doesn't, which made it easier for Volvo (Mack), Daimler (Detroit - Freightliner/Western Star), Paccar (DAF) and Navistar (MAN) to push in their proprietary European engines.

You are 100 percent right. And that's why Cummins continues to lose market penetration. They've lost the US and European markets, and failed in China (now the world's largest market). Now, Cummins is not much more than a niche player.

??????????

No American citizen "has the right" to burn the United States flag...........legally or morally. United States law prohibits desecration of the United States flag. Thus, nobody has "the right" to do it. I don't know how to explain this point to you any more clearly than that. For someone that finds it repulsive and insulting, you certainly bend over backwards in support of illegal desecration of our nation's flag.

I'm not surprised, BMT Investors is a very exclusive membership-only group. Mulally leaned on the group for financial support in '08 rather than have Ford accept a more complex government bailout. We meet each quarter down at Hilton Head, where Watts Mack has an executive time share.

CNN / July 26, 2016 French President Francois Hollande says radical Islamist ISIS terrorists are behind a deadly hostage-taking at a Catholic church in Normandy, in which a priest was killed and another person seriously wounded. Two men, armed with knives, entered the church at Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, at 9.43am local time during morning prayers and took five hostages. Father Jacques Hamel, 84, who was held captive along with two nuns and two parishioners, had his chest stabbed and throat slit, investigative sources said, while the other victim was described as being seriously injured and between “life and death”. Adel Kermiche and his accomplice, also known to French police, forced 84-year-old Father Jacques Hamel to kneel at the altar before they slit his throat on camera and performed a 'sermon in Arabic'. Both were shot dead by police marksmen as they emerged from the building shouting 'Allahu Akbar'. Speaking to journalists, Hollande said the attack was a "cowardly assassination" carried out by "by two terrorists in the name of Daesh" -- another name for ISIS. An 84-year-old Catholic priest, the Rev. Jacques Hamel, was killed when two men stormed the church in the northern region of Normandy. In addition, two nuns and two churchgoers were taken hostage. One of the hostages was seriously wounded, and is "between life and death," said French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet. Brandet said the church was surrounded by the BRI, France’s anti-gang brigade who shot the attackers as they came out. Hollande met members of the brigade, who wore black balaclavas to mask their identities, and praised them for the speed of their intervention, which he said “prevented a much higher toll and saved the lives of hostages”. Authorities have identified the radical Islamists as Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, both age 19. Kermiche lived in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray and had tried to go to fight in Syria last year, but had been stopped in Turkey by authorities there. He was then sent back to France and sent to prison in May 2015. Before he was released, placed under police surveillance and forced to wear an electronic monitoring tag. French authorities have struggled to monitor the thousands of domestic Islamic radicals on their radar, and, in response to the heightened terror threat, Hollande has vowed to double the number of officials charged with the task. More than 10,000 people are on their "fiche S" list, used to flag radicalized individuals considered a threat to national security. . .

Reuters / July 25, 2016 In response to recent shooting attacks on police in Baton Rouge and Dallas earlier this month, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has acquired $7 million in military-style protective equipment for its patrol officers. "You name it, we're buying it," said Police Commissioner William Bratton. "There's not a police department in America that is spending as much money, as much thought and interest on this issue of officer safety." Bratton said the NYPD has purchased 20,000 military-style helmets, 6,000 heavy duty bullet-proof vests, trauma kits and ballistic doors and windows for patrol cars. He said the new bullet-proof vests are capable of stopping rounds fired from the type of weapon used in the Baton Rouge shooting that killed three officers and the Dallas shooting that left five officers dead and seven wounded. "Obviously all over the country people have been deeply trouble by the attack on our officers," added Mayor Bill de Blasio. "We made this decision quickly in light of the challenges we face." Special units are already equipped with protective gear like the upgraded equipment. Because patrol officers are likely to respond to active shooting situations, they will begin carrying the new equipment starting in September.

Trade Trucks AU / July 26, 2016 A V8-powered R 730, converted to 10x8, is set to take on the Pilbara Scania Australia says it has just completed its biggest ever truck for Australia, converting an R 730 V8 8x8 to a 10x8 for mining haulage company Qube Bulk. Configured to take advantage of any future payload regulation changes, the unique Scania is capable of leading a PBS Quad road train with up to 220-tonnes of iron ore throughout the Pilbara. To work 6-and-a-half days a week, the R 730 is expected to carry the bulk iron ore from a variety of mine sites to the terminal at Port Hedland. With the around the clock treatment, and with trips close to 450km, the truck may cover a million km over its first three years in action. Accommodating the Qube Bulk requirements, general manager of Scania’s WA-based Mining and Resources Division Robert Taylor says the R 730 model is a glimpse into the future. "This vehicle is the prototype for future iron ore PBS Quad haulage," Taylor says, and one that "we hope to deploy more widely in this market as they combine safety, comfort and efficient operation for customers." Powered by a Euro 5 V8 engine with EEV (Enhanced Environmentally Friendly Vehicle) that can run biodiesel, the Scania is fitted with a fully automated Opticruise gear change system, full steel multi-leaf suspension, a heavy-duty Jost DR38C-1 fifth wheel rated to 260kN, planetary hub-reduction bogie drive axles, and a fifth axle operating as a tag unit at the very rear. Scania says the CA8x8EHZ specification also includes 4,700mm axle and 1,450mm bogie distances. "The Scania R 730 is fitted up with some hydraulics and has a high-riding chassis suitable for this type of work," Taylor says. "The 8x8 base configuration includes drum brakes all round for greater durability in very arduous working conditions. "This vehicle has amazing traction, and with its powerful 730hp engine, it has the heart for pulling four trailers of ore across vast distances to the terminal." Qube Bulk director Todd Emmert says the converted Scania models offer a combination of safety and performance. "The most important factor leading to the purchase of this vehicle was safety on the road," Emmert says. "We have safety as a number one priority." While PBS offers greater surety for drivers and other road users, it also provides a competitive advantage. "We have designed this truck to give us the flexibility to take advantage of payload improvements under PBS now and into the future," Emmert says. "As it stands now, a standard Quad Road Train can pull 175-tonnes, or 200-tonnes under PBS. "We anticipate that in the near future we should be able to raise this to 220-tonnes, once permission is granted by the relevant authority." The higher payload limits may also see a reduction in the number of trucks on the road, he says. "Reduced interactions between cars and trucks, and having trucks with higher levels of safety will all combine to make these roads safer for all road users," Emmert says. .

I respect your thoughts. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The First Amendment of the United States Constitution: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Nowhere does it give United States citizens the “right” to burn the flag. Freedom of “speech” and flag desecration.........are two separate matters. There have been attempts, in this politically correct age, to adopt a flag desecration amendment. But like yourself, congress strongly disapproved of allowing people to desecrate our nation’s flag. So rationality and American ethics, morals and values prevailed, and congress voted it down. Thus, desecration of the United States flag today remains an illegal act, and rightly so. And, I personally believe, the burning of the United States flag is "a slap in the face" to every current and former member of our military from 1776 to the present who has placed his life on the line for our great country.

"Any objective observer will conclude that -- based on her ideas and her leadership -- Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States," said Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. .

These "Lowliner" spec Actros have an extremely low chassis/5th wheel height for high cube trailers. The maximum allowed trailer height is generally 4 meters (13.1 feet). The Ford Cargo 1846T is also available with a ultra-low 960mm 5th wheel height (as well as 1,050mm and 1,200mm 5th wheel heights), using 295/60R22.5 tires, Meritor 17X drive axle and air suspension.

Daimler Press Release / July 25, 2016 Major truck order for Mercedes-Benz Trucks The international operating logistics company Ekol has ordered 150 Mercedes-Benz Actros tractor units. The handover of five of the trucks – all in the Ekol paint finish and livery design – recently took place in the Customer Centre of Daimler AG's Wörth plant, the largest truck plant in Europe. Ahmet Musul, Chairman of Ekol, Levent Demir, General Manager Procurement and Administration of Ekol, and Alecsandru Mucenic, Ekol Country Manager Romania, were presented with the keys at a handover ceremony by Till Oberwörder, Head of Marketing, Sales and Services Mercedes-Benz Trucks. This major truck order is the first which Mercedes-Benz has received from the logistics provider in Europe. Ekol has offices in 13 European countries and plans to open two more in Iran and Slovakia soon. "Our economical and eco-friendly long-distance haulage vehicles and the close-knit Mercedes-Benz service network in Europe go a long way to supporting the expansion strategy of Ekol Logistics," remarked Till Oberwörder. "At the same time, it speaks volumes for the success of our transnational customer support. Our Global Key Account Management was able to successfully carry out such a large order together with many different Daimler value-added partners in Turkey, Romania and Germany." Logistical operations with powerful and eco-friendly Mercedes-Benz fleet "The Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks are fuel-efficient and reliable. They keep operating costs low, are extremely environmentally friendly – and they are our preferred choice, as eco-friendliness, performance and cost benefits are characteristic core values of the green logistics that Ekol has championed for many years now," said Ahmet Musul. The 150 new trucks are all state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz Actros 1842 LsnRL Euro VI Lowliner models with a wheelbase of 3700 mm. Their equipment includes efficient latest-generation OM 471 diesel engines, air suspension at all axles, ESP, Active Brake Assist, Lane Keeping Assist and Attention Assist, as well as additional thermal insulation. The StreamSpace L-cab boasts a level floor throughout, resulting in a very spacious interior and unhindered through-cab access. The 150 new tractor units are destined for supplier and intra-factory transport operations for Romania's automotive industry. Ekol keeps growing in Europe Ekol is one of the largest logistics service providers in Turkey. Beyond the Bosphorus, the company runs its own subsidiaries in twelve European countries (Germany, Italy, Greece, France, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania, Hungary, Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria) and will open own companies in Iran and Slovakia in the short perspective. Ekol specialises in intermodal transport and environmentally friendly transport solutions. The range of services offered encompasses international transport, logistics and customs clearance. For this, Ekol owns more than 5500 transport means and five RO-RO vessels that connect Turkey with Europe. Furthermore, the company has as well vast storage capacities covering an area of around 750 000 m². A multinational workforce numbering some 6500 employees keeps operations running swiftly and smoothly. .