kscarbel2

Fleet Owner / February 12, 2016 New book argues trucking takes advantage of new and naïve drivers The trucking industry often takes advantage of new drivers and thrusts them into an unsustainable employment cycle resulting in dissatisfied workers, massive turnover and chronic labor shortages, according to a forthcoming book. Truck driving, once a way to climb the nation's economic ladder, now has fallen short of that promise, says Stephen Viscelli, author of The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream. "The transformation of labor markets in trucking has disempowered workers to the point where it’s rigged in the favor of employers. Driving doesn't provide the kind of opportunities that people were expecting," he says. "People within the industry know all the pieces of the puzzle that I write about in the book. Nobody in the industry is going to be surprised that drivers are misled or that they misunderstand what’s happening to them or that companies offload economic risk to them." Viscelli is an economic sociologist who focuses on labor markets and has studied the trucking industry more than ten years. He is a visiting assistant professor at Swarthmore College and Senior Associate of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy. He not only interviewed drivers, managers, shippers and others involved in the industry, but he worked and trained as an Over-The-Road driver for six months. He says that the industry is unfair to drivers at every stage of their careers. "You can see evidence of it in every step of the labor process from the advertising of incomes that aren’t actually happening to the segments [like contracting] that people are being attracted to but don't turn out as expected." It starts with training. "The industry now has systematically offloaded a large chunk of their training costs to the public and workers," says Viscelli. "Essentially you have anywhere from 150,000 to 200,000 workers when times are good circling into the industry and being burdened with debt for training… The cost of training contracts that many companies use also serves as a form of incentive for people to stay. Some would call it debt where you’re burdened with a $3,000 to $5,000 charge at 24 percent interest or whatever if you don’t work for the company for a year. Most of the workers I interviewed coming into the industry don’t understand that. They only see it on the back side. The more experienced drivers know this is happening [to the new drivers]. They talk about the 'CDL mill' and the 'professional steering wheel holder,' and it’s all very well known to folks who are in the industry. It’s just the people coming in who aren’t as aware." At the next stage of a driver's career comes the realization that they're working without being paid. "There are tons of unpaid time sitting at docks and in traffic and the shifting of all these inefficiencies to new drivers. The inexperienced drivers that most big truckload companies are relying on don’t know any other way to do trucking so they don’t have a problem with pay-per-mile or sitting unpaid at docks - at first." As a driver becomes more experienced, he or he realizes that this form of unpaid labor is unfair and they want to change their situation. "When drivers finally realize it - and it doesn’t take them very long - they want to get paid for that time, and they want control over their load assignments. That's when they look at independent contracting." Viscelli spent most of his time looking at independent contracting, which, for many drivers would be "the American dream" of being your own boss, making as much money as your skills, time, experience and ambition allow. Here again, he paints a less than rosy picture. "The industry has been able to completely redefine what it is to get people to work under what effectively becomes a forced-dispatch system and practice, according to the drivers I talk to. They work for the same pay rate regardless of the quality of the load. They don’t have control over the loads or the home time that they expected. The vast majority end up making less than they would as a company driver… Then, one, two, three years in, they see better opportunities open up for them in much better-paying private fleet niche markets. It has become a retention strategy by TL carriers to get people whose labor is worth more to stick around an extra six months, year, or whatever they can." Viscelli says that he interviewed many drivers who were considering contracting, those who were in the midst of setting up their independent contracting business, and those who were currently contracting. "Basically, none of them got out of it what they expected. Even the most successful contractors said they would never do it again. The opportunity is just not there. The kind of picture that’s painted for you about what’s possible is just not accurate. For a lot of these guys, that’s how they describe it, and it wasn’t why they got into the industry. Ninety-eight percent of them don’t come in thinking 'I’m going to own my own trucking business.' Most of them are low-wage workers downsizing from a blue collar job or upscaling from a retail job; they’re not thinking about business ownership. Most of them are thinking about improving what is most likely an under $30,000 a year household income. The industry sells them on this dream [of independent ownership]; it does it through websites and promotions that create a kind of new American dream." He notes that not all carriers engage in unfair behavior. "Of course, some companies treat their drivers with respect, pay them well, and their drivers enjoy their jobs." Can this cycle be broken? "I don’t know that I have a solution for it but the book looks at the way in which these kinds of transformations have happened. Go back to the teamsters. They solved a lot of these problems because they took wages out of competition; they ensured that there was low turnover. However, that's not a solution that the industry is going to be very interested in." Viscelli says that the industry can change if it makes some bold moves. For example, they can get drivers home by forming regular lanes where drivers drop trailers and head back the other way, the way some LTL carriers do it. This would require a large investment in infrastructure either privately or publicly to build truck ports. Would pay-by-the hour help alleviate solve many of the industry's driver issues? "You’d have to have a bold company willing to do that first, because market forces make it difficult to change [the current model]," says Viscelli. "I have interviewed many company owners. I understand it’s a conservative industry and I don’t expect individuals to be able to overcome the market economic forces that have brought this about [pay-by-the-mile]. From deregulation on, it's been tough to be a trucking company and get the bottom line that you need to survive. I think the big companies have managed to do that now… It's potentially a time when some of the more profitable big truckload companies can start to change their model. I think some of them are interested in doing it." But they probably won't, he says. "If we could get the top 100 companies with the lowest freight rates to pay their drivers by the hour, that would have an unbelievable impact. But I don’t think there's one company willing to take that risk. Drivers need to be paid more; they need a bigger cut of the revenue, but unless that translates into higher freight rates, it’s going to mean lower profits. Companies know that and that's why they’re not going to pay drivers by the hour." The Big Rig: Trucking And The Decline of The American Dream will be published in April by University of California Press.

You can’t choose your neighbors, and the odds of them all becoming your best friends with whom you agree with on every issue are slim to none. Our world has become a much smaller place, and certainly one filled with more dangers which test our ability to intercept and neutralize them. It mystifies me why we can’t work with Russia on the destruction of ISIS, allowing us to form a working relationship with a country that is far better as a global partner than as an enemy. Breaking News: ISIS and radicalized Islam are a global threat. The U.S. and Russia as partners can not only neutralize this threat, but also guide the world in a better direction. As Jack Moniker (Robin Williams) said so well in the movie “Club Paradise”: “It's amazing how people can get themselves in these situations when, if you stop and think about it, you'll see that basically, you guys are not that far apart on this thing.” The day likely will come when mankind realizes that it has wasted years fighting amongst itself, rather than coming together to meet the future challenges it as a whole will face. Food for thought, renowned Cambridge professor Stephen Hawking recently said: “Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next 1,000 or 10,000 years.” Rather then continuing the centuries-old saga of trying to annihilate ourselves, Hawking hopes that mankind could escape the earth’s demise is by venturing into space. “By that time, we should have spread out into space, and to other stars, so a disaster on Earth would not mean the end of the human race.” says Hawking. Such an effort of course, would require a mature mankind that has gotten its priorities in order. If not, Hawking imagines that the earth’s demise will be precipitated by catastrophes of our own making, including nuclear war, genetically engineered viruses and global warming. Imagine another scenario………If there are advanced aliens in space, there’s a 50-50 chance they’re not “nice guys.” "Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they could reach," says Hawking. "If so, it makes sense for them to exploit each new planet for material to build more spaceships so they could move on. Who knows what the limits would be?" "We don't know much about aliens, but we know about humans. If you look at history, contact between humans and less intelligent organisms have often been disastrous from their point of view, and encounters between civilizations with advanced versus primitive technologies have gone badly for the less advanced. A civilization reading one of our messages could be billions of years ahead of us. If so, they will be vastly more powerful, and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria." [worse, they might not appreciate the sight of a pre-2000 Mack truck] If mankind managed to become less violent and shortsighted, and realize we’re all on the same boat (planet), imagine what we could do if we focused our defense spending and development on a united planetary defense system, and advanced spacecraft development (recall how far technology leaped, from 1939 to 1945....it's possible). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Guardian / February 13, 2016 Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at a security conference in Munich said the world is slipping into a “new cold war” after European leaders condemned his country’s airstrikes on Syria and called on Vladimir Putin to end them as a precursor for peace negotiations. Medvedev said a lack of cooperation threatened to return the continent to “40 years ago, when a wall was standing in Europe”. He rejected the widely held belief that Russian planes had hit civilian targets in Syria. “There is no evidence of our bombing civilians, even though everyone is accusing us of this,” he said on Saturday. “Russia is not trying to achieve some secret goals in Syria. We are simply trying to protect our national interests … “Creating trust is hard … but we have to start. Our positions differ, but they do not differ as much as 40 years ago when a wall was standing in Europe. “You could say even more sharply: we have fallen into a new cold war,” he said. “Nearly on a daily basis, we are being blamed for the most terrible threat to NATO as a whole, to Europe, to America, to other countries. They make scary movies where Russia starts a nuclear war. I sometimes wonder: are we in 2016 or 1962?” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said military cooperation between the US and Russia was the “key tool” to ensuring the humanitarian supplies were delivered and hostilities ended. “If we are moving closer to practical goals of [a] truce then, without cooperation between the military, nothing will work out,” he told the Munich conference.

The Ward 79 steel hood retrofit was available for the RD (http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/34104-the-ward-79-steel-hood-retrofit/?hl=ward#entry225305).

In the same vein, United Technologies subsidiary UTC Climate, Controls & Security announced on Wednesday to thrilled employees that it will relocate its Carrier brand heating and air conditioning plants in Indianapolis and Huntington, Indiana to Mexico. Altogether, 2,100 American workers will lose their jobs. Can you hear that "giant sucking sound", of big business-lobbied NAFTA draining millions of American jobs to lawless Mexico?

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Sounds like your cab is a Mack type CA363. CA36 (pre 1973 R-model) CA361 (pre 1973 U-DM) CA363 (post 73-81 U-model) CA49 (post 73 R/RD/RS/RL - fiberglass and steel hood) CA491 (post 73 DM - fiberglass hood / 81' on U-model) CA492 (post 73 DM - steel hood) CA494 (RWI600/700 Super-Liner)

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/hillary-clinton-and-bernie-sanders-spar-over-super-043334749.html

Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed over support for the president at a PBS NewsHour televised debate. Clinton sought to cast herself as the protector of Barack Obama's legacy, sharply attacking Mr Sanders for criticising the president. "The kind of criticism I hear from Senator Sanders, I expect from Republicans," Clinton said. "Madame secretary, that is a low blow,' Sanders replied. 'I have worked with President Obama for the last 7 years. One of us ran against Barack Obama, I was not that candidate." At the debate, Clinton repeatedly emphasised her ties to Obama, who is extremely popular among minority voters. Sanders took pains to tailor to his message of economic fairness to address disparities in black communities. Clinton also stressed her pragmatism, questioning Sanders' pledges to provide universal healthcare and free higher education. "We have a special obligation to make clear what we stand for which is why we can't make promises we can't keep," Clinton said.

Joe, Scranton is one that goes back a long ways. It came into existence in the late 1920s.

Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright introduced Hillary Clinton at an event in New Hampshire on Saturday, telling the crowd and voters in general: “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other!" Albright said: “When she was secretary of state, she restored America’s reputation. Those other people before made huge mistakes. They really undermined our reputation and our position in the world, and Hillary Clinton brought us back, she restored our position in the world." (the total opposite of the truth.......not sure what color the sky is in Albright's world). Following that, Clinton's supporters chanted “Madam President! Madam President!” Normal ranting during the Presidential Elections shows. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/06/madeleine-albright-campaigns-for-hillary-clinton If a reporter flattered Clinton with the title, perhaps they were hoping for an exclusive with Clinton. They would be worth a bonus, raise and/or promotion.

Reuters / February 11, 2016 Armed protesters who ended their 41-day standoff on Thursday at a wildlife refuge in Oregon told federal authorities they left behind booby traps but did not say whether the trip wires and other devices would trigger explosions, a law enforcement official told Reuters. "They spoke to us about booby traps. We don't know how sophisticated or what kind," said the official. Materials to create explosives could be found on the refuge, the official said, because workers there previously performed controlled burns of the land. The official said law enforcement would use caution when moving into the refuge in remote eastern Oregon. "There were materials that could be used to create hazardous devices, so it's just very prudent for us to do to that," the official said. The final four occupiers left the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Thursday and joined 12 other occupiers to face federal charges. The takeover, which began on Jan. 2, was sparked by the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires that spread to federal property in the vicinity of the refuge. The armed protesters, originally led by brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, were known to be heavily armed and resistant to the federal government. Ammon and Ryan Bundy were arrested on Jan. 26 and have since called for protesters to leave. Their father, Cliven Bundy, flew to Oregon on Wednesday to support the movement but was arrested at the Portland airport on charges stemming from the 2014 standoff on his Nevada ranch. The official said law enforcement arrested Cliven Bundy at the airport because they knew he would be unarmed and the charges against him were ready.

http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/41544-fitzgerald-adds-kenworth-icon-900-western-star-4900-to-glider-kit-offerings/?hl=fitzgerald http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/40862-house-amendment-would-exempt-glider-kits-from-epa-proposal/?hl=fitzgerald

Fabco front driving axle and transfer case. I assume Volvo cancelled legacy Mack transfer case production. (http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/40601-can-anyone-explain-difference-between-tc15-and-tc25-transfer-cases/)

Reuters / February 11, 2016 [Apparently conducted behind a veil of secrecy last year so as not to dampen Hillary Clinton’s election bid.......IOU's cashed in] U.S. State Department investigators last year issued a subpoena to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation seeking documents about projects run by the charity that may have required U.S. government approval when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. A U.S. official said the matter was being investigated by the Inspector General, the State Department's internal watchdog. The subpoena issued in the fall also asked for records related to senior Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who for six months in 2012 simultaneously worked for several employers including the State Department, the foundation, and Clinton's personal office. The report follows a Reuters investigation last year that found the Clinton Foundation's flagship health project did not submit new or increased payments from at least seven foreign governments to the State Department for review, in breach of the ethics agreement Clinton signed with the incoming Obama administration in order to become secretary of state. Clinton has been criticized for using a private email account hosted on a private computer while secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, a matter the FBI is investigating.

I won't speak for every global truckmaker, but customers can still spec a Scania, item by item. And we make money. In the US market though, we all know there's a lot of truth to what you're saying, particularly in the light vehicle segment. Volvo is Sweden's "penny pincher" (e.g. they use Delphi fuel injection). I'm expecting Martin Lundstedt to change this.

Not a day goes by that you don’t hear that Russia is bombing civilians and making matters worse. Rather than giving them credit for knocking off bad guys, they get additional sanctions. Go figure. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Russia says U.S. planes bombed Syria's Aleppo on Wednesday Reuters / February 11, 2016 Russia's Defence Ministry said on Thursday that two U.S. aircraft had bombed the Syrian city of Aleppo on Feb. 10, and that Russian planes had not been operating in the area. A Pentagon spokesman had accused Russian and Syria government forces on Wednesday of destroying Aleppo's two main hospitals with air strikes, though he did not specify when the strikes were alleged to have taken place. The Syrian army has made rapid advances near Aleppo in recent weeks with the help of Russian air strikes. But Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement that "only aviation of the anti-ISIS coalition flew over the city yesterday", referring to the U.S.-led alliance of countries fighting the Islamic State militant group. "At 1355 Moscow time, two U.S. Air Force A-10 attack aircraft entered Syrian airspace from Turkish territory. Reaching Aleppo by the most direct path, they made strikes against objects in the city." He said the Russian targets on that day had been at least 20 km (12 miles) from the city. When asked on Wednesday whether the U.S.-led coalition could do more to help rebels in Aleppo or improve access for humanitarian aid to the city, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said that the coalition's focus remained on fighting Islamic State, which was "virtually non-existent in that part of Syria". {and yet, A-10s were there}

Except we didn't have to go around our elbow to get to our arm in building a 4x4 plow chassis like Volvo just did, at the "Customer Adaptation Center" (translation into truck English.....the Mod Center). No, we built our custom-built RMs on the assembly line, just as Scania builds their all-wheel-drive spec'd chassis today. Go figure.

Heavy Duty Trucking / February 10, 2016 A custom Mack Granite snow plow model outfitted with all-wheel drive was built for Somerset Township, Penn., to deal with hilly terrain and windy roads in the area, Mack announced. The OEM is using it as example of how it can spec trucks to meet customer needs. Mack took a Mack Granite model originally built as a 4x2 and spec’d a factory-installed all-wheel drive system, 11-foot front snow plow and an aluminum body and salt spreader. The truck is powered by a Mack MP8 engine with 455 horsepower. Somerset Township is located just over an hour southeast of Pittsburgh and maintains 123 miles of roads that must be plowed after each snowstorm. The township required a truck that could deal with the hills, twists, and turns of its roads as well as the snow, limiting its options. Somerset’s local Mack dealer Legacy Truck Center worked with Somerset to take their desired specs and develop a solution through Mack’s Customer Adaptation Center, where it was assembled. Somerset took delivery of the truck in late 2015 and it is currently in service. “When we began the process of ordering a new truck, it quickly became clear that we wouldn’t be able to do what we had in the past,” said Randy Beistel, Somerset Township supervisor. “Mack stepped up to the plate. We worked closely with our local Mack dealer, Legacy Truck Center, and we built the truck we needed.” .

Dodge 2500 HD pickup gets new 4x4 option Fleet Owner / February 11, 2016 Will become available in the third quarter this yearDodge Truck is rolling out a new off-road package for its Ram 2500 HD pickup at the Chicago Auto Show this week: an optional beefed up 4x4 suspension for short- and long-wheelbase Ram 2500 crew cab and mega cab models, powered by either gasoline or diesel engines. Dodge added that the new Ram 2500 4x4 off-road package will be offered on all trim levels – including Tradesman, SLT, Big Horn/Lone Star, Outdoorsman, Laramie, Laramie Longhorn and Limited – and will become available in the third quarter this later. “Truck customers require a wide range of off-road capability options,” noted Bob Hegbloom, head of FCA's Dodge Truck division. “Anyone who spends most days on the outskirts of a job site or the weekend on the shore of a favorite fishing hole will benefit from the standard features on our new Ram 2500 4x4 off-road package.” Those features include: - Bilstein monotube shock absorbers to soak up the bumps at all four corners and distribute excessive heat that can be generated when driving rough sections for extended periods of time. - Firestone LT 275/70R 18E OWL on/off-road tires for added traction, with some models spec’d with Firestone LT 285/60R 20E OWL on/off-road tires. - Transfer case skid plate at the lowest mid-point of the truck to prevent underbody strike damage. - Hill-decent control, to help drivers control speed down steep grades using the buttons on the column shifter and without the need to use the throttle or brake pedals. - A rear anti-spin differential, which turns both rear wheels in tandem when increased torque is applied.

Automotive News / February 11, 2016 Dodge Trucks is updating back-country, heavy-duty offerings for 2017 with a freshened Power Wagon trim and expanded off-road packages across its three-quarter-ton pickup lineup. The new off-road packages will be available across the Ram 2500 lineup and include a number of options to improve the pickup’s performance in rough terrain, such as hill-descent control, which allows the driver to automatically and safely descend steep terrain without using the brake. The feature had been available only on the heavy-duty’s traditional off-roader, the Power Wagon. “We’ve had customers ask us for an off-road truck in our heavy-duty series, but we’re not going to limit it. We’re going to have it available with every single cab, with every single powertrain, in all the trims and with all the colors,” said Dodge brand head Bob Hegbloom. The off-road packages, available beginning in the third quarter, will feature all-terrain tires and larger fender flares, underbody protection devices, limited-slip differentials, improved shock absorbers and special badging. Pricing was not announced. Power Wagon The freshened Power Wagon features an updated grille that trades the current model’s chrome and crosshairs for a blacked-out version similar to that used on the Ram Rebel 1500. Also making the leap from the Rebel 1500 is badging that trades the traditional ram’s head logo for the brand’s name in bold block lettering on the grille and tailgate. New Power Wagon graphics on the rear quarter panels complete the look and evoke an image of the off-road pickup’s 1979 version. The Dodge Power Wagon was the first mass-produced 4x4 civilian pickup in 1945 and was a favorite workhorse for soldiers returning to the farm after World War II. It was reintroduced into the brand’s pickup lineup in 2005. For the 2017 model, designers freshened the exterior and interior of the Power Wagon, with a new hood featuring a large gloss-black graphic. For the first time, the Power Wagon will have an interior that is unavailable in other Dodge pickups. Inside the cabin, designers picked up cues from the Rebel, including embossing the pickup’s off-road tire pattern into the seat backs. The Power Wagon will offer an optional backup camera in its tailgate, along with a second optional camera high on the center-mounted stoplight that allows the driver to monitor the pickup’s bed from its 8.4-inch infotainment display. The Power Wagon retains its 410-hp 6.4-liter V-8 and eight-speed transmission, which delivers 429 pounds-feet of torque. The 2017 Power Wagon is rated at up to 1,510 pounds of payload, with towing capacity of up to 10,030 pounds. (A diesel-equipped Power Wagon remains unavailable) The Power Wagon will continue to be manufactured in Saltillo, Mexico, and the 2017 version is expected in U.S. dealerships in the fourth quarter. Photo gallery - http://www.autonews.com/article/20160211/OEM04/160209825

Fleet Owner / August 1, 1998 At the end of the 1980s, the EPA announced fairly stringent emissions standards for heavy-duty diesel engines and essentially told engine makers that they would have to invent the technology that would allow them to meet those standards. Manufacturers responded with electronic engine controls that have not only satisfied the requirements, but have also delivered major improvements in engine performance, durability, and fuel economy. Now, prodded by a number of environmental watchdog groups, the EPA is saying that the technology is too good, that it sidesteps federal emissions requirements, and that manufacturers are violating the law even though all of their engines have been certified by the agency. What's happened is that the EPA designed a certification test cycle that mimics stop-and-go conditions. That's where emissions are highest for mechanically controlled engines, and the EPA assumed that emissions for more fuel-efficient operating states such as steady highway speeds would be similar, if not better. In essence, the EPA told engine makers to develop new technology to meet the law, but wrote enforcement procedures based on old technology. The electronic controls are far more sophisticated than the EPA anticipated. They can control combustion for low emissions during the types of conditions they experience under the test cycle, and then move to more fuel-efficient timing under more typical over-the-road conditions. It seemed like everyone won - the government was satisfied because the engines passed its tests, and engine users were happy because they were getting better fuel economy. The problem is that the engines produce substantially higher emissions when they're operating in that more fuel-efficient mode. The discrepancy was common knowledge, but EPA chose to ignore the issue until political pressure was applied earlier this year. http://fleetowner.com/mag/fleet_new_tech_old http://articles.mcall.com/2002-05-15/news/3407299_1_engine-manufacturers-detroit-diesel-mack-trucks

E-Tech was launched in 1998 (after the EPA's stunt), and Volvo took over in 2000. Volvo wanted Mack's Hagerstown engine plant......to produce Volvo engines. Thus, the days of the Mack engine were numbered from 2000 as they set a schedule for incorporating Volvo global components into the Mack truck for economy-of-scale.

The list below is a compilation of all the factory branches in the history of Mack Trucks (I need to grab my 1980s directory to add a few). The largest of the branches were operated into the 1980s and 1990s, and you know many of them.......Allentown, Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Maspeth (Queens), Chicago, ect. I had long been told that the IRS changed tax rules in the 1980s which made their ownership considerably more expensive.