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Press Release / November 1, 2015-11-03 The UD “Electric Demonstrator” is a pure electric medium truck. Silent and emissions-free, it features a full-sized body that maximizes transport efficiency. The truck’s pure electric drivetrain was developed in-house by UD parent Volvo Group. Emissions-Free Zones where noise and speed are limited are becoming more and more common, as are zero-emissions areas. The UD Electric Demonstrator Truck can cross all zones and go where conventional trucks can’t. Silent Running Because of its pure electric drivetrain, the UD Electric Demonstrator Truck provides a drivers with a significantly quieter and more comfortable experience. Large Cargo Space The UD Electric Demonstrator Truck is a fully functioning medium-sized truck. This allows for greater flexibility, and the ability to carry large payloads. Electrical Flow (http://cdn.udtrucks.com/media.axd/Tms/downloaded/54483-UD-ELECTRIC-DEMONSTRATOR-GRAPHIC-INNER-5996mmx2455mm.pdf?v=BweWw9M5AAA) Driving 1. Both batteries send power to the junction box 2. The junction box combines the power from both batteries and sends it to the electric motor driver 3. The electric motor driver controls the electricity and sends it to the electric motor 4. The electric motor sends the electricity to drive the wheels 5. The electric motor sends the electricity via the unique 2-speed AMT to drive the wheels Braking Regeneration 1. Brakes create a resistance to the electric motor 2. Resistance to electric motor begins to generate electricity 3. Regenerated electricity is distributed back to the two batteries 4. Batteries are charged with regenerated electricity Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9v7Y4mQozg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIDGN_VttIY

Fuso Press Release / November 2, 2015

Goteborgs-Posten / November 2, 2015 The committee chairman of Volvo’s joint-venture in China, Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles (DFCV), in which Volvo's holds a 45 percent stake, has been arrested on corruption charges. "We have taken note of the news in the Chinese media that the president of DFCV is under investigation by authorities. At this time, we don’t know more than what is being presented by the media. It is too early to draw any conclusions regarding the possible impact on our joint venture," says Volvo's press manager Kina Wileke. Dongfeng Group owns a 55 percent stake in the DFCV truckmaking joint-venture, where Swedish truck and bus manufacturer Volvo holds a 45 percent stake. ------------------------------------------------------------ Facts: Volvo completed its purchase of a 45 percent stake in Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles (DFCV) in January 2015, a deal that was announced two years prior. The shares cost 5.5 billion Chinese yuan (about 7 billion Krona). Dongfeng Motor Group holds the remaining 55 percent stake. DFCV has a leading position in the Chinese truck market, which in 2013 amounted to 774,000 heavy trucks. The corruption suspect, Mr. Zhu Fushou, is one of four Chinese members of DFCV's Board of Directors, appointed by the Dongfeng Motor Group. Volvo has three board members. http://www.gp.se/ekonomi/1.2883362-korruptionsutredning-i-volvo-partner

The Washington Post / Novermber 2, 2015 John Sopko’s team of investigators has uncovered all kinds of wasteful spending in Afghanistan through its work as a U.S. government watchdog. Now the group has uncovered a $43 million gas station, which Sopko calls “gratuitous and extreme”—and possibly criminal. In a scathing report, Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, wrote that a similar compressed natural gas station in Pakistan cost $500,000, or about $306,000 at current exchange rates, meaning the Afghanistan station cost 140 times as much. He wrote that the Pentagon’s program had “several troubling aspects,” including $30 million in overhead costs, and the lack of a feasibility study before the project began. Sopko said that that the Pentagon essentially shut down when pressed about the program, saying: “One of the most troubling aspects of this project is that the Department of Defense claims that it is unable to provide and explanation for the high cost of the project or to answer any other questions concerning its planning, implementation or outcome.” The department that was in charge of it, the Task Force for Stability and Business Operations, has closed and so the Pentagon said it couldn’t comment on its activities, Sopko’s letter said. He wrote that he found it “both shocking and incredible that DOD asserts that it no longer has any knowledge about TFBSO, an $800 million program that reported directly to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and only shut down a little over six months ago.” [U.S. spent $3 million on boats for Afghanistan that were never used, IG says] Despite the lack of cooperation, Sopko said he intended to continue to investigate the program to see “whether any conduct by TFBSO staff or contractors was criminal in nature.” The gas station was intended to help Afghanistan curb its dependence on foreign petroleum products and take advantage of domestic energy. But investigators found that Afghanistan does not have the natural gas transmission infrastructure to support a “viable market” for cars that used compressed natural gas. And the cost of converting gasoline-powered cars to run on natural gas “may be prohibitive for the average Afghan.” The cost to do so is estimated at about $700 per car, while the average annual income in Afghanistan is $690. “In sum, Sopko wrote, “it is not clear why [TFBSO] believed the CNG filling station should be undertaken.” The project also angered Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, who wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter demanding answers about the station. “There are few things in this job that literally make my jaw drop,” she said in a statement. “But of all the examples of wasteful projects in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Pentagon began prior to our wartime contracting reforms, this genuinely shocked me.” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) took aim at the Pentagon saying, “The lack of accountability and transparency is disgraceful. The Defense Department needs to come clean, drop the obfuscation, and hold people responsible for a colossal waste of tax dollars.”

The Washington Post / November 2, 2015 A large segment of white middle-aged Americans has suffered a startling rise in its death rate since 1999, according to a review of statistics published Monday that shows a sharp reversal in decades of progress toward longer lives. The mortality rate for white men and women ages 45-54 with less than a college education increased markedly between 1999 and 2013, most likely because of problems with legal and illegal drugs, alcohol and suicide, the researchers concluded. Before then, death rates for that group dropped steadily, and at a faster pace. An increase in the mortality rate for any large demographic group in an advanced nation has been virtually unheard of in recent decades, with the exception of Russian men after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The rising death rate was accompanied by an increase in the rate of illness, the authors wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Drugs and alcohol, and suicide . . . are clearly the proximate cause,” said Angus Deaton, the 2015 Nobel laureate in economics, who co-authored the paper with his wife, Anne Case. Both are economics professors at Princeton University. “Half a million people are dead who should not be dead,” he added. “About 40 times the Ebola stats. You’re getting up there with HIV-AIDS.” Since at least 1970, Americans and residents of other wealthy countries have generally enjoyed longer and healthier lives, as smoking has declined, better treatments have been developed and preventive measures and lifestyle changes have had an impact. But Monday’s bleak findings could have far-reaching implications as the surviving members of this sizable segment of the population continue toward retirement and eligibility for Medicare, according to experts. A sicker population that has been less able to prepare for the costs associated with old age will place an increasing burden on society and federal programs, they said. “This is the first indicator that the plane has crashed,” said Jonathan Skinner, a professor of economics at Dartmouth College. “I don’t know what’s going on, but the plane has definitely crashed. “High school graduates and high school dropouts now make up 40 percent of the population,” he added. “It’s not just the 10 percent who didn’t finish high school. It’s a much bigger group.” Death rates for other developed nations examined by the two researchers, as well as rates for U.S. blacks and Hispanics, continued their steady decline of recent decades. Whites in other age groups between 30 and 64, and more educated whites also had lower death rates. But the other age groups also experienced substantially higher death rates from drug and alcohol overdoses, suicide, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis of the liver. While the death rate for African Americans is still greater than the rate for whites, the turnaround among whites is shocking because of the advantages they enjoy, said David Weir, director of the health and retirement study at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Typically, socioeconomic circumstances “gang up on African Americans, who have lower education, lower incomes and race all working against them,” said Weir, who also reviewed the study for the journal. “In this case, that’s not happening.” Weir said economic insecurity, the decay of communities and the breakdown of families probably have had some impact on death and illness rates, in addition to the nation’s opioid epidemic and the factors the authors identified. But the study clearly shows they are not the result of diseases such as lung cancer or diabetes, which are declining and increasing slowly, respectively. “I think it has to have something to do [with] the pain underlying it,” both physical and psychic, he said. “That is the age when people have their midlife crisis . . . I think it has to do with that stage of life, and physical ailments do start to accumulate at that age. “This paper really is a question, not an answer,” he added. Case and Deaton were examining government statistics on death rates and illness when they discovered the spike in mortality for people ages 45 to 54 in the period between 1999 and 2013. “We both were sort of blown off our chairs when looking at that,” Deaton said. He said they knew that most demographers would look at the numbers and say, “You’ve got to have made a mistake. That cannot possibly be true.” When they pored over the data, however, they found that mortality rates for this group had risen an average of a half percent per year since 1999, after falling an average of 2 percent annually for the 20 years before that. If mortality rates group had stayed on their steady downward course, a half-million more people would be alive today, they determined. When they looked at illness (morbidity), “there was a large and statistically significant decline in the fraction reporting excellent or very good health” that was matched by increased reports of physical pain, according to the study. The proportion of people who said they were in “serious psychological distress” also rose significantly, the research shows. Deaton, awarded the Nobel prize for his work on individual consumption choices, has long studied measures of well-being, health and pain. He and Case authored a paper in June that found reports of physical pain “are strongly predictive of suicide in many contexts” and that reports of pain are increasing among middle-aged Americans. Their findings have been corroborated by other research. A report from the National Heroin Task Force established by the Justice Department puts the number of overdose deaths from legal and illegal drugs at 110 every day. The heroin death toll has quadrupled in the decade that ended in 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A study in the journal JAMA Psychiatry last year reported that 90 percent of the people who tried heroin for the first time in the last decade were white. Three-quarters said they were introduced to heroin through the use of prescription drugs. In January, the CDC reported that an average of six people die every day because of alcohol poisoning and that 76 percent are ages 35 to 64. Three-quarters are men. But just last week, researchers reported that the U.S. death rate for all causes declined 43 percent between 1969 and 2013, from about 1,279 per 100,000 people to about 730. The rate of death caused by strokes, heart disease and cancer all declined significantly, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. .

Owner/Driver / November 2, 2015 Brian Shiner loves his 1990 V8 Mack Valueliner, which goes better than it looks. This old Mack might not look real flash, but its owner gives it plenty of TLC and says it goes like a train. Brian Shiner has been wanting to send his 1990 workhorse to a paint shop for a decade but, like a lot of owner-drivers, he says he hasn’t had both the necessary time and money at once. But he’ll get around to it one day and in the meantime there’s nothing wrong with what counts, which is underneath the skin. And the V8’s note is awesome. The old girl has done just over 2.5 million kilometres, with a reconditioning job at 1.4 million kilometres despite no major problems. "So it’s nearly due to be done again," Brian, 48, says. He bought the Brisbane-built Valueliner – which is the successor to the R model – in 1996 from a bloke at Esperance in Western Australia for $115,000 when it had already done 860,000km "It’s been brilliant. I’ve never had any trouble with it really," Brian says. He does all the servicing himself, but he doesn’t have much choice anyway because the population of his home hamlet of Pingrup is only about 60. Pingrup is about 50km south of Lake Grace on the way to Albany, in the mighty wheat-sheep belt several hours east of Perth. Brian’s bread and butter is local grain cartage as well as grain and wool to Perth, and hauling fertiliser out of Perth. He says the truck is very comfortable to drive, and no wonder with its long springs and 6.2m wheelbase. "It rides like a dream," Brian says. He has been in trucks all his life, following in the footsteps of his father Paul who was a small Pingrup trucking operator before going farming when Brian was a teenager. "I thought he sold me out," Brian laughs. "I already knew I wanted to be a truck driver." Photo gallery - http://www.ownerdriver.com.au/truck-reviews/1510/1990-mack-valueliner-truck/

Goteborgs-Posten / October 30, 2015 On Friday evening, Martin Lundstedt begins the weekend after his first full week as Volvo CEO. He will spend his weekend working on everything from the company's structure to the internal work and customer care. This week, Martin Lundstedt used the press meeting at a Volvo truck dealer repair shop to announce that business at Volvo will not continue as usual – the company will be heading into a new and different era. "We have a lot of hard work ahead of us,” he said. Not least, his work is about creating an all-new management culture very different from the just-ended Persson administration. Lundstedt was invited to head Volvo by a board and investors extremely dissatisfied with where the company is today. The Persson management team had from investment company Aktiebolaget Industrivärden’s headquarters in Stockholm (http://www.industrivarden.se/en-GB/Holdings/Investment-operation/). Owning up to a 30 percent stake in Volvo, the culture that characterized the Industrivärden world had deeply penetrated Volvo in the form of luxury yachts, mansions, extravagant use of private jets* and sponsorship of high-priced ocean sailing competitions. Signalling a new day at Volvo, the group is selling the Gothenburg villa of ousted CEO Olof Persson, which had been purchased for SEK 30 million (US$ 3.6 million). Now CEO Martin Lundstedt will reside in his own apartment in Gothenburg. With ex-Scania head Martin Lundstedt at the wheel of Volvo now, there is believe that Volvo’s days of provocative high-flying extravagances will end, as it has at other companies held by Industrivärden, since industrialist and financier Fredrik Lundberg became chairman of the investment company this past April. Martin Lundstedt is a person who speaks warmly of working on the front lines of the truck business, and the importance of good corporate governance. For example, top Industrivärden executives previously had the power to travel by private jet with their families on family trips at the company's expense to football games. It's always a gamble for an outsider to come in and transform a business. And it hardly gets any easier by Martin Lundstedt coming from Volvo’s toughest competitor, a career step that is extremely rare at the executive level in Swedish business. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Private jet scandal gives Swedish giant rough ride The Financial Times / January 22, 2015 The staid world of Swedish business was shaken on Thursday when a scandal over the use of private jets triggered one of the biggest corporate upheavals in the country’s recent history. Industrivärden, the owner of controlling stakes in companies including Volvo, Ericsson and Sandvik, and Handelsbanken, Sweden’s biggest bank and an Industrivärden holding, will both get new chairmen and chief executives under the shake-up. The jet scandal erupted after it emerged that wives and children accompanied directors on business trips abroad as well as to a hunting lodge owned by SCA, a paper and forestry company in which Industrivärden owns a large stake. Svenska Dagbladet, the newspaper which broke the story, reported that one unnamed person even sent a jet from the north of Sweden to Stockholm just to pick up his wallet, which he had forgotten. The affair has also shaken faith in the much-admired Swedish model of active ownership under which shareholders nominate board directors and help guide companies’ strategies. Industrivärden and the Wallenberg family foundations, Sweden’s two biggest holding companies, together control more than half of the market capitalisation of the Stockholm stock exchange. Sverker Martin-Löf, the chairman of Industrivärden and SCA, is the big loser of the scandal as he will resign from all his board posts, including as vice-chairman of Handelsbanken and Ericsson and a director of Skanska. He will be replaced as chairman of Industrivärden by Anders Nyrén, currently the holding company’s chief executive as well as the chairman of Handelsbanken. Mr Nyrén in turn will be replaced at Handelsbanken by Pär Boman, the bank’s well-respected chief executive who will also become chairman of SCA. “Once the dust has settled from the battleground, we can say Sweden is a very small country. We are a very close-knit sphere with a lot of influence and we were too thinly spread,” Mr Nyrén told the Financial Times. Swedish investors complained that power at Industrivärden was too concentrated between Messrs Martin-Löf and Nyrén, who sometimes signed off each others’ expenses. He said the move would bring in “new blood” as chief executives of Industrivärden and Handelsbanken, with both moves expected to be announced soon, and that the jet scandal had merely “forced us to accelerate” a succession plan that was already in place for next year. But group insiders spoke of a holding company that had at times lost touch with reality, led by Mr Martin-Löf, who had been chief executive or chairman at SCA for more than a quarter of a century. Mr Boman, who led Handelsbanken successfully through the financial crisis to become one of the European banks with the highest capital ratio, is expected to lead the clean up at SCA, which has already changed its company policy to ban family members from using private jets. Dagens Industri, Sweden’s main financial newspaper, compared the size of the affair leading to Mr Martin-Löf’s departure to previous scandals such as Percy Barnevik’s SFr148m ($172m) pay-off from ABB.

Daimler AG Press Release / October 30, 2015 For Stuttgart-based Auracher Moving's 1965 vintage LP911, retirement is out of the question. The truck is just getting broken in. Related reading - https://www.myvan.com/heritage-vans-between-the-barn-and-the-garage-with-oswald-and-felix-auracher/

Navistar Trail Magazine

Transport Topics / October 30, 2015 In response to an earlier recall by the manufacturer of the now discontinued Fontaine Ultra LT fifth wheel, all U.S. truck manufacturers recently said they have recalled their trucks with the product over issues with the device’s connector. Initially, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a September report there were 6,800 trucks, potentially, with the part the Fontaine Fifth Wheel Co., manufactured from July 29, 2009, to May 27, 2013. But in a series of recalls, truck makers announced in October the count rose to 10,984. Daimler Trucks North America, whose brands include Freightliner Trucks and the niche brand Western Star Trucks, recalled 5,801 units — the largest number of potentially affected trucks. Its recall is expected to begin Nov. 28. Navistar International Corp. was the next-highest with 3,776 trucks. Its recall was expected to begin in October. The other truck makers recalled far fewer vehicles. NHTSA in a report described the issue as: “Over time, improper coupling techniques may result in cumulative damage to the fifth wheel and its locking mechanism, which in turn may result in the locking mechanism failing to operate or to properly engage. If the fifth wheel and locking mechanism are sufficiently damaged, the locking mechanism may fail to operate as intended and the trailer may unexpectedly detach from the tractor, increasing the risk of a crash.” Fontaine Fifth Wheel will replace at no charge all Ultra LT fifth wheels in the field with Ultra NT model fifth wheels. DTNA is recalling 5,801 model year 2011-2014 Cascadia, Business Class M2, Coronado, and Columbia Glider vehicles manufactured April 5, 2010, to June 15, 2013. Navistar Inc. is recalling 3,776 model year 2011-2014 International ProStar trucks manufactured May 18, 2010, to April 5, 2013; 2012-2014 International LoneStar trucks manufactured Sept. 7, 2011, to March 25, 2013; and 2011-2013 International TranStar trucks manufactured Oct. 18, 2010, to Feb. 20, 2013. Volvo Trucks North America is recalling 669 model year 2011-2013 VNL and VNM trucks manufactured June 21, 2010, to Dec. 14, 2012. The recall is expected to begin Nov. 2. Mack Trucks Inc. is recalling 448 model year 2011-2014 Pinnacle (CHU and CXU) trucks manufactured Sept. 10, 2010, to June 17, 2013. The recall is expected to begin Nov. 2. Paccar Inc.is recalling 290 model year 2012-2013 Peterbilt 579 and 587 trucks manufactured Feb. 14, 2011, to Dec. 5, 2012, and 2011 Kenworth T700 trucks manufactured Sept. 21, 2010, to Oct. 1, 2010. Paccar has not yet provided a notification schedule, NHTSA said. Related reading - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/41732-fontaine-fifth-wheels-in-fatal-accident-recalled/?hl=fontaine

Hundreds of police officers lose licenses over sex misconduct Associated Press / November 1, 2015 Flashing lights pierced the black of night, and the big white letters made clear it was the police. The woman pulled over was a daycare worker in her 50s headed home after playing dominoes with friends. She felt she had nothing to hide, so when the Oklahoma City officer accused her of erratic driving, she did as directed. She would later tell a judge she was splayed outside the patrol car for a pat-down, made to lift her shirt to prove she wasn't hiding anything, then to pull down her pants when the officer still wasn't convinced. He shined his flashlight between her legs, she said, then ordered her to sit in the squad car and face him as he towered above. His gun in sight, she said she pleaded "No, sir" as he unzipped his fly and exposed himself with a hurried directive. "Come on," the woman, identified in police reports as J.L., said she was told before she began giving him oral sex. "I don't have all night." The accusations are undoubtedly jolting, and yet they reflect a betrayal of the badge that has been repeated time and again across the country. In a yearlong investigation of sexual misconduct by U.S. law enforcement, The Associated Press uncovered some 1,000 police officers who lost their badges in a six-year period for rape, sodomy and other sexual assault; sex crimes that included possession of child pornography; or sexual misconduct such as propositioning citizens or having consensual but prohibited on-duty intercourse. The number is unquestionably an undercount because it represents only those officers whose licenses to work in law enforcement were revoked, and not all states take such action. California and New York - with several of the nation's largest law enforcement agencies - offered no records because they have no statewide system to decertify officers for misconduct. And even among states that provided records, some reported no officers removed for sexual misdeeds even though cases were identified via news stories or court records. "It's happening probably in every law enforcement agency across the country," said Chief Bernadette DiPino of the Sarasota Police Department in Florida, who helped study the problem for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "It's so underreported and people are scared that if they call and complain about a police officer, they think every other police officer is going to be then out to get them." Even as cases around the country have sparked a national conversation about excessive force by police, sexual misconduct by officers has largely escaped widespread notice due to a patchwork of laws, piecemeal reporting and victims frequently reluctant to come forward because of their vulnerabilities - they often are young, poor, struggling with addiction or plagued by their own checkered pasts. Lawyers and even police chiefs told the AP that some departments also stay quiet about improprieties to limit liability, allowing bad officers to quietly resign, keep their certification and sometimes jump to other jobs. "My God," J.L. said she thought as she eyed the officer's holstered gun, "he's going to kill me." The AP does not name alleged victims of sexual assault without their consent, and J.L. declined to be interviewed. She was let go after the traffic stop without any charges. She reported her accusations immediately, but it was months before the investigation was done and the breadth of the allegations known. She is one of 13 women who say they were victimized by a police officer named Daniel Holtzclaw. The fired cop, 28, has pleaded not guilty to a host of charges. Each of his accusers is expected to testify in the trial that begins Monday, including one who was 17 when she said the officer pulled down her pink cotton shorts and raped her on her mother's front porch. But on a June night last year, it was J.L.'s story that unleashed a larger search for clues. A nurse swabbed her mouth. A captain made a report. And a detective got to work. On a checkerboard of sessions on everything from electronic surveillance to speed enforcement, police chiefs who gathered for an annual meeting in 2007 saw a discussion on sex offenses by officers added to the agenda. More than 70 chiefs packed into a room, and when asked if they had dealt with an officer accused of sexual misdeeds, nearly every attendee raised a hand. A task force was formed and federal dollars were pumped into training. Eight years later, a simple question - how many law enforcement officers are accused of sexual misconduct - has no definitive answer. The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, which collects police data from around the country, doesn't track officer arrests, and states aren't required to collect or share that information. To measure the problem, the AP obtained records from 41 states on police decertification, an administrative process in which an officer's law enforcement license is revoked. Cases from 2009 through 2014 were then reviewed to determine whether they stemmed from misconduct meeting the Department of Justice standard for sexual assault - sexual contact that happens without consent, including intercourse, sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling and attempted rape. Nine states and the District of Columbia said they either did not decertify officers for misconduct or declined to provide information. Of those that did release records, the AP determined that some 550 officers were decertified for sexual assault, including rape and sodomy, sexual shakedowns in which citizens were extorted into performing favors to avoid arrest, or gratuitous pat-downs. Some 440 officers lost their badges for other sex offenses, such as possessing child pornography, or for sexual misconduct that included being a peeping Tom, sexting juveniles or having on-duty intercourse. The law enforcement officials in these records included state and local police, sheriff's deputies, prison guards and school resource officers; no federal officers were included because the records reviewed came from state police standards commissions. About one-third of the officers decertified were accused of incidents involving juveniles. Because of gaps in the information provided by the states, it was impossible to discern any other distinct patterns, other than a propensity for officers to use the power of their badge to prey on the vulnerable. Some but not all of the decertified officers faced criminal charges; some offenders were able to avoid prosecution by agreeing to surrender their certifications. Victims included unsuspecting motorists, schoolchildren ordered to raise their shirts in a supposed search for drugs, police interns taken advantage of, women with legal troubles who succumbed to performing sex acts for promised help, and prison inmates forced to have sex with guards. The AP's findings, coupled with other research and interviews with experts, suggest that sexual misconduct is among the most prevalent type of complaint against law officers. Phil Stinson, a researcher at Bowling Green State University, analyzed news articles between 2005 and 2011 and found 6,724 arrests involving more than 5,500 officers. Sex-related cases were the third-most common, behind violence and profit-motivated crimes. Cato Institute reports released in 2009 and 2010 found sex misconduct the No. 2 complaint against officers, behind excessive force. In Connecticut, William Ruscoe of the Trumbull Police began a 30-month prison term in January after pleading guilty to the sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl he met through a program for teens interested in law enforcement. Case records detailed advances that began with explicit texts and attempts to kiss and grope the girl. Then one night Ruscoe brought her back to his home, put his gun on the kitchen counter and asked her to go upstairs to his bedroom. The victim told investigators that despite telling him no "what felt like 1,000 times," he removed her clothes, fondled her and forced her to touch him - at one point cuffing her hands. In Florida, Jonathan Bleiweiss of the Broward Sheriff's Office was sentenced to a five-year prison term in February for bullying about 20 immigrant men into sex acts. Because the victims wouldn't testify, Bleiwess' plea deal revolved around false imprisonment charges, allowing him to escape sex offender status. Prosecutors said he used implied threats of deportation to intimidate the men. And in New Mexico, Michael Garcia of the Las Cruces Police was sentenced last November to nine years in federal prison for sexually assaulting a high school police intern. At the time, he was in a unit investigating child abuse and sex crimes. The victim, Diana Guerrero, said in court that the assault left her feeling "like a piece of trash," dashed her dreams of becoming an officer, and triggered depression, nightmares and flashbacks. "It had never occurred to me that a person who had earned a badge would do this to me or anybody else," said Guerrero, who is now 21 and agreed to her name being published. "I lost my faith in everything, everyone, even in myself." A 2011 International Association of Chiefs of Police report on sex misconduct questioned whether some conditions of the job may create opportunities for such incidents. Officers' power, independence, off-hours and engagement with those perceived as less credible combine to give cover to predators, it said, and otherwise admirable bonds of loyalty can lead colleagues to shield offenders. "You see officers throughout your career that deal with that power really well, and you see officers over your career that don't," said Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty, who fired Holtzclaw just months after the allegations surfaced and called the case a troubling reminder that police chiefs need to be careful about how they hire and train officers. The best chance at preventing such incidents is to robustly screen applicants, said Sheriff Russell Martin in Delaware County, Ohio, who served on an IACP committee on sex misconduct. Those seeking to join Martin's agency are questioned about everything from pornography use to public sex acts. Investigators run background checks, administer polygraph exams and interview former employers and neighbors. Social media activity is reviewed for clues about what a candidate deems appropriate, or red flags such as objectification of women. In the predawn hours of June 18, 2014, J.L.'s report made its way to Oklahoma City sex crimes detective Kim Davis. By that afternoon, Miranda rights were being read to Holtzclaw, an officer who had arrived out of the academy nearly three years earlier, a seemingly natural move for the son of a career policeman but one borne of deep disappointment. The Oklahoma City Police Department refused to release Holtzclaw’s full personnel record. J.L.'s accusations made Davis and a fellow detective curious about an unsolved report filed five weeks earlier in which an unidentified officer was accused of stopping a woman and coercing her into oral sex. According to pretrial testimony, the detectives reviewed the names of women Holtzclaw had come into contact with on his 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift and interviewed each one, saying they had a tip she may have been assaulted by an officer. Most said they had not been victimized but, among those who said they were, other links to Holtzclaw were found, Davis said in court. The GPS device on his patrol car put him at the scene of the alleged incidents, and department records showed he called in to check all but one of the women for warrants, the detective testified. By the time the investigation concluded, the detectives had assembled a six-month narrative of alleged sex crimes they said started Dec. 20, 2013, with a woman taken into custody and hospitalized while high on angel dust. Dressed in a hospital gown, her right wrist handcuffed to the bedrail, the woman said Holtzclaw coerced her into performing oral sex, suggesting her cooperation would lead to dropped charges. "I didn't think that anyone would believe me," she testified at a pretrial hearing. "I feel like all police will work together." All told, Holtzclaw faces 36 counts including rape, sexual battery and forcible oral sodomy. Many of their allegations are similar, with the women saying they were accused of hiding drugs, then told to lift their shirts or pull down their pants. Some claim to have been groped; others said they were forced into intercourse or oral sex. The youngest accuser said Holtzclaw first approached her when she was with two friends who were arguing and he learned she had an outstanding warrant for trespassing. He let her go but found her again later that day, walking to her mother's house. She said he offered her a ride and then followed her to the front porch, reminding her of her warrant, accusing her of hiding drugs and warning her not to make things more difficult than they needed to be. She claims he touched her breasts and slid his hand into her panties before pulling off her shorts and raping her. When it was over, the teen said he told her he might be back to see her again. "I didn't know what to do," she testified at the pretrial hearing. "Like, what am I going to do? Call the cops? He was a cop." Victims of sexual violence at the hands of officers know the power their attackers have, and so the trauma can carry an especially crippling fear. Jackie Simmons said she found it too daunting to bring her accusation to another police officer after being raped by a cop in 1998 while visiting Kansas for a wedding. So, like most victims of rape, she never filed a report. Her notions of good and evil challenged, she became enraged whenever she saw patrol cars marked "Protect and Serve." "You feel really powerless," said Simmons, an elementary school principal in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Diane Wetendorf, a retired counselor who started a support group in Chicago for victims of officers, said most of the women she counseled never reported their crimes - and many who did regretted it. She saw women whose homes came under surveillance and whose children were intimidated by police. Fellow officers, she said, refused to turn on one another when questioned. "It starts with the officer denying the allegations - 'she's crazy,' 'she's lying,'" Wetendorf said. "And the other officers say they didn't see anything, they didn't hear anything." In its 2011 report, the IACP recommended that agencies institute policies specifically addressing sexual misconduct, saying "tolerance at any level will invite more of the same conduct." The report also urged stringent screening of hires. But the agency does not know how widely such recommendations have been implemented. Experts said it isn't just threats of retaliation that deter victims from reporting the crimes, but also skepticism about the ability of officers and prosecutors to investigate their colleagues. Milwaukee Police Officer Ladmarald Cates was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2012 for raping a woman he was dispatched to help. Despite screaming "He raped me!" repeatedly to other officers present, she was accused of assaulting an officer and jailed for four days, her lawyer said. The district attorney, citing a lack of evidence, declined to prosecute Cates. Only after a federal investigation was he tried and convicted. It's a story that doesn't surprise Penny Harrington, a former police chief in Portland, Oregon, who co-founded the National Center for Women in Policing and has served as an expert witness in officer misconduct cases. She said officers sometimes avoid charges or can beat a conviction because they are so steeped in the system. "They knew the DAs. They knew the judges. They knew the safe houses. They knew how to testify in court. They knew how to make her look like a nut," she said. "How are you going to get anything to happen when he's part of the system and when he threatens you and when you know he has a gun and ... you know he can find you wherever you go?" Though initially out on bond, Holtzclaw has been jailed since July after letting the battery in his ankle monitor go dead. Holtzclaw coerced one woman into giving him oral sex. She cried as she spoke, sitting on a dirty couch in a rundown apartment where a blanket attached to the wall with thumbtacks blocked the sunlight. She talked of how afraid she was to go to police, of how images of her alleged attack haunt her. Enveloped in fear, she said she slipped further into drugs. "I was getting high, but I wasn't feeling," she said. "I was too upset to feel anything." In the Oklahoma City neighborhood that prosecutors say served as Holtzclaw's hunting ground, a narrow ribbon of road twists through a canyon of untended growth littered with black bags of stinking trash. Locals call the spot Dead Man's Curve. On May 21, 2014, Holtzclaw told Syrita Bowen she could submit to oral sex and intercourse, or go to jail. She was convinced it was the cruel joke of some hidden-camera show until he insisted he was serious. She had been jailed many times before, and knew the math: a 15-minute ride downtown, two hours to be booked, up to a day of waiting to move to a cell, hearings drawn out over weeks or months. She figured she could give him what he wanted in six minutes. "God forgive me," she said, "that was the easiest thing for me to do." Bowen agreed to have her name published, and initially she offered a steely front, contending no fear or sadness lingered from her alleged encounter with Holtzclaw. But, before long, tears flowed. She has known poverty and addiction and imprisonment, and said she was repeatedly raped by a relative as a little girl. The violation she alleges now doesn't even rank as the worst thing to ever happen to her. But she said she thinks about it daily. There are no nightmares, she said, but reminders come in other ways. Patrol cars seem to pass more often than they did before. Sirens are more jarring. And when a man in uniform goes by, she wonders what might happen.

Car & Driver / October 2015 Ram brand representatives swear that its new Rebel isn’t meant to compete with the Ford F-150 Raptor. But the comparison is impossible not to make. It’s a special off-road-themed version of a full-size American pickup. Its boldly branded grille, if not a blatant rip-off of the Raptor’s, is at least a suspiciously timed coincidence. And while you can get this hyperbutch off-road styling pack on both a rear-drive V-8 truck and a four-by-four V-6, if you’re looking to back up the appearance with real guts, the V-8 4x4 starts at $47,565—only $1525 less than the Raptor crew cab. Well, $1525 less than the last Raptor to be sold here, anyway. The only good reason not to consider the Raptor and Rebel as direct competitors is because the Raptor isn’t currently on sale (the new version won’t reach dealers until next year). It’s a good thing the Raptor isn’t currently on sale, because the Ford would wallop the Rebel. Behind and underneath the Raptor’s flat-black “FORD” grille are a unique frame and powertrain, as well as a specially designed long-travel suspension that counts racing in the Baja 1000 among its accomplishments. The Rebel, on the other hand, has an extra inch of ground clearance because the airbags in its suspension carry an inch’s worth more air. They’re the same parts that you’ll find in other Rams, where apparently they’re slouching. There are no other mechanical changes. It’s Got the Look The Rebel is a styling package, albeit a rather comprehensive one. Red trim that resembles anodized aluminum and gray that mimics cast iron adorn the door panels, the dashboard, the center stack, and the HVAC bezels. The seats are covered in a nice red and gray vinyl, while the center console, the steering wheel, and the dash have red and gray stitching. It’s all rather well done, particularly the seats, which have the very same tread design molded into them as you’ll find on the Rebel’s 33-inch Toyo tires, as though somewhere along the assembly line there’s a station where the truck drives over the seats before they’re installed in its cab. If that were actually the case, though, the tread design would be smeared, because the Toyos rarely meet a throttle application they don’t turn into positive slip. They’re not terribly noisy on the highway or in turns, but from a stop, the driver needs to be very judicious to keep the rears from squealing. In the rain, we put the Rebel into four-wheel drive just so we’d be able to accelerate at a reasonable pace. This truck would be spectacular, nearly undrivable fun in the wet were it not for stability control that can’t be fully defeated. And the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8’s gruff exhaust note only encourages such behavior. With ZF’s smooth-shifting eight-speed automatic behind it, the Hemi whips the Rebel to 60 mph in 6.6 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 15.2 at 92 mph. In spite of the tires’ off-road tread, we recorded exactly the same stopping distance (199 feet) and skidpad grip (0.71 g) as we did in the last Ram Laramie we tested. The Laramie is just one of the Rebel’s numerous in-house competitors, and Ram would prefer buyers not look beyond them. “Pay no attention to that other thing,” they must say. Because, sure, the Rebel is a nice styling package, but the Raptor is something more. Raptor drivers get to laugh at the Rebel, and Rebel drivers will just have to take it. If you’re the kind of person who would prefer to spend your money on appearance rather than on capability, then you’d better be okay with that. Photo gallery - http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2015-ram-1500-rebel-v-8-4x4-test-review

"Take it for what it is, it's the best we're going to get" It sounds like you are suggesting that Americans should all simply roll over and buy these Mack-badged North American Volvos, your argument being because "most trucks on U.S. highways are not American anymore". I personally can't buy into that thought process (and that will be a hard sell with the thousands of operators who have suffered from the long-time injector cup nightmare). "Mack wouldn't even exist today" Correction, Mack Trucks no longer exists today.

Great disinformation campaign. If I run for office, I'm going to need someone with your spin skills. On another note, the M123 you drove was more than likely built by Consolidated Diesel Electric.

It's isn't our (America's) namesake marque anymore (and hasn't been since 2000). The Mack "marque", now merely a nameplate on a North American market Volvo chassis, is owned by foreign truckmaker Volvo Group of Gothenburg, Sweden. Förstår du? Why should Americans take the Mack-branded Volvo "for what it is", a Volvo, and support a foreign truckmaker's business in the United States?

Absolutely disgusting. "The sound is America"..........with the American flag waving in the wind. It is appalling of Sweden's Volvo, a foreign company which has NOTHING to do with America, to drum up warm memories of the former American Mack Trucks, Inc., and try to grab one's heart with images of American-designed Mack R-models, Cruise-Liner's and Super-Liners. Legendary American engineers, the likes of Walter May and Win Pellizzoni, led the way for these signature American trucks. Throwing in a Mack-branded Volvo at the end, as if there was some connection between this Swedish concoction and the aforementioned, respected American trucks, is nothing less than delusional on Volvo Group's part. Rather then investing in a video that mocks America and the late Mack Trucks, Volvo Group would have spent their money more effectively by launching common rail-equipped engines in North America more quickly.

Isuzu Motors Press Release / October 28, 2015 For 2016, Isuzu has completely redesigned its popular GIGA heavy truck range. Exterior A new more aerodynamic cab design reduces air resistance for enhanced fuel economy. Cab steps and grab handles have been redesigned for a more user-friendly experience. The cab’s front fascia has a functional and modern appearance, and is better designed to channel air to the large intercooler for higher performance. Interior For easier and efficient driving, a semi-round instrument panel has been adopted. All the switches, grouped by frequency of use, are located near the meters for easier operations and higher distinguishability. In addition, the steering wheel-located switches and a 4-inch multi-information LCD monitor allow for safer and easier driving. The seats have been improved in adjustability, air permeability and capability to support the occupant's postures. Engine The 6UZ1 engine has been upgraded, resulting in stronger low to mid-range torque and improve fuel efficiency. The turbocharger has been upgraded, the intercooler and radiator have been enlarged, and a high efficiency EGR cooler has been added. , adopted. A new ultra-high pressure common rail system improves engine response while reducing emissions. Rigid and vocational models feature an "ecostop" system which automatically stops and restarts the engine to minimize the unnecessary fuel consumption during idling. Transmission The automated manual transmission (AMT), “Smoother-Gx”, has been improved to enable the vehicle to offer smoother launches by decreasing "shift shocks". Models equipped with the 6UZ1-TC engine and 12-speed Smoother Gx AMT come standard with the "Smart Glide" system, which automatically disengages the clutch when the vehicle is running on a downgrade, allowing the vehicle to effectively utilize its inertial force and “freewheel” for greater fuel savings. Safety Collision avoidance support has been added to cope with moving obstacles, in addition to the conventional collision mitigation system. A combination radar/camera detection system greatly improves forward obstacle detection. The newly adopted LDWS (Lane Departure Warning System), monitors the lane markers using the camera, and alerts the driver when the truck wanders out of the lane with a combination of audio and video warnings. High Load Capacity The all-new GIGA continues to combine durability and strength with lightweight construction. Low curb weights allow for high load capacities and profitability. Remote Assistance by Telematics The MIMAMORI system, which analyzes data “real-time” from the truck on-line, is now standard equipment. In addition to providing eco-driving coaching and regulatory compliance information, the real-time status of the vehicle can be easily monitored via the internet by the customer. Isuzu’s state-of-the-art maintenance program, "PREISM" is provided, utilizing vehicle data collected via the MIMAMORI system. Through this maintenance program, Isuzu dealers are able to boost customer uptime. .

UD Trucks Press Release / October 25, 2015

Diesel News Australia / October 29, 2015 Not content with over charging the trucking industry through rego charges, the Queensland government is to make trucks bear the full cost of a road upgrade. The National Road Transport Association (NatRoad) President, Allan Thornley, has called on governments not to view Australia’s road transport industry as a ‘milch cow’ providing them with an easy source of revenue. “The Australian road transport sector continues to be overcharged by the Commonwealth and State governments by a minimum of $200 million annually, via the heavy vehicle charges regime,” said Thornley, in a statement in reaction to the Queensland announcement. “Despite acknowledging that the overcharging exists, governments continue to avoid implementing the simple changes necessary to correct the overcharges. “The recent announcement by the Queensland Government compounds these concerns with its announced plans to fund the $450 million upgrade to Brisbane’s Logan Motorway solely by an increase in truck tolls, this is unacceptable. What is especially concerning here is the complete lack of consultation with industry and the assumption that industry can be milked as an easy source of revenue.” “The road transport industry does not exist in a vacuum. The claimed 52 per cent increase in freight traffic volumes does not occur for no reason, it’s due to an increase in the demand for goods and services as part of a growing economy. The road transport sector is the essential backbone to economic growth and development. Therefore, any costs should also be borne by the broader community.” “The alternative is for a more considered and consultative approach by the Queensland Government with ALL motorway users, with the trucking sector, of course, paying its appropriate share along with everybody else. Margins in the transport sector are tight. Increased costs will need to be passed on, which will mean increased prices in consumer goods and services to the general community. Industry supports the continuing development of vital infrastructure upgrades and developments. But the way to do that is by a consultative and cooperative engagement with all road users, to determine the best mix of funding and appropriate increases in user charges”.

Diesel News Australia / October 29, 2015 Just to keep the trucking industry aware of its reputation, the southeastern Australian state of New South Wales's Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) has done it again. In a direct contradiction of its previous advice, the RMS has now informed heavy haulage operators traveling from interstate they will be required to hold an MC (multi-combination) license if using a dolly between prime mover and trailer. “Drivers who operate a low loader trailer, connected to a low loader dolly attached to a prime mover must ensure they hold the appropriate licence class or risk serious fines if caught,” said an MC Class License Bulletin, released by RMS this week. “It is vital that truck drivers hold the correct licence for the vehicle they are operating to ensure they have the right skills to manage the vehicle combination for the safety of all road users. “Drivers and operators who are on the road without an appropriate licence may also risk voiding insurance should there be an incident.” This is followed by the real kicker: “This requirement also applies to interstate licenced drivers who are driving these multi combinations on NSW roads. They must have an MC class licence to avoid enforcement action.” Back on October 2, Diesel News reported the RMS policy outlined by the authorities at the time and while NSW licensed drivers were to be forced to use an MC licence when using a dolly, this rule would not apply to those with interstate licences. Unsurprisingly, the notice referred to, at the time, an RMS fact sheet posted at http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/documents/business-industry/heavy-vehicles/multi-combination-licence-2015-09.pdf, is no longer to found on the RMS website. “Roads and Maritime consulted with the heavy vehicle industry earlier this year,” said the notice issued this week by RMS. “Concerns about the licence status of heavy haulage drivers were raised. Industry agreed a six-month transition period was required during which formal warnings were issued by Roads and Maritime inspectors instead of penalty notices. This notice period ended on 30 September 2015. “Roads and Maritime and NSW Police enforce this regulatory requirement. Drivers are considered unlicensed if they do not hold an MC class licence and the vehicle will be grounded. Roads and Maritime will assist the driver in contacting the operator and making arrangements for the vehicle and load to continue on the journey. “A penalty notice fine of $637 applies for a first offence and $1,275 applies for a second or subsequent offence for anyone caught with an inappropriate class of licence. The fine system is designed to influence behaviour by making sure individuals take responsibility for actions which break the law.” .

Prime Mover Magazine / October 29, 2015 Iveco releases new book on Australian history Iveco has launched a new book titled ‘Inter to Iveco’, which chronicles its Australian truck history. The book documents "the rise and fall of the International Trucks brand in Australia" and its subsequent acquisition by Iveco in the early 1990s. According to Iveco, the book is the fourth truck industry title by Colin A. McKenzie, a former Chief Engineer of the Truck Division of International Harvester Co. of Australia, and one he describes as a “labour of love”. “I thought this story was one worth sharing and needed to be documented for the future,” said McKenzie. “International Harvester was established here in 1912 as a distributor of agricultural and truck products with local manufacturing of agricultural equipment starting in 1939 at Geelong, and truck production in Dandenong in 1952, this facility was bought by Iveco in 1992. “Having spent some time at Iveco during the writing process, it was pleasing to see that there was still a good deal of Australian engineering taking place at the facility – the operation was still working with the same intent as when it was started: manufacturing to suit the local market.” .