kscarbel2

Paul, you have a beautiful 8x4 Trident.

Reuters / June 24, 2015 Daimler Trucks' full order books in the United States and western Europe are helping to more than offset weak markets in Asia and Latin America, the company said on Wednesday. Demand in western Europe was improving more strongly than expected and U.S. sales were also improving but other important truck markets were contracting, with Latin American sales down 44 percent from an already weak prior year, while sales in China and Indonesia were posting declines. "Our sales market structure means that overall, we are positively affected," said trucks chief Wolfgang Bernhard. The global market leader for heavy trucks was expanding production in Europe and the United States, with Daimler's biggest truck plant in Woerth expected to be operating almost every Saturday through the end of this year, Bernhard said. "In the United States, we've hired entire shifts and are employing additional workers to fill the mountain of orders," he said. European industry figures from ACEA show truck sales up 13 percent at nearly 672,000 in January to April compared with the same period last year. Heavy truck sales rose 17 percent.

Let us mention the U.S. Department of Transportation’s FAA Going back to the 1978 airline deregulation act, airline attorneys have been successful in using vague and ambiguous language to claim exemptions from passenger abuse including: Intentionally overbooked flightsDelayed flightsCancelled flightsUnclear disclosure of taxes and fees in published faresThe ability to change of cancel a ticketSchedule changesBumpingLost bagsThe refusal to give cash instead of vouchers for involuntary denied boarding compensationTarmac delaysExcessive ticket change fees Our deregulated airline industry, in which airfares and fees can be sold for whatever the traffic will bear, was suppose to deliver a cheaper, better flying experience. So you can’t help but wonder why airline ticket prices have remained high while the cost of jet fuel has plummeted 40 percent. Because U.S. airlines have consolidated into a handful of giant carriers, they can divide up routes and collude on fares. In 2005 the U.S. had nine major airlines. Now we have just four. And all are politically well-connected. The American airline industry is nothing less than a cartel, involved in price-fixing and collusion through restriction of supply. Deregulation, like NAFTA, was a backroom deal requested by big business (the airlines). The sales pitch to the unknowing masses for airline deregulation was a complete fabrication, a brilliantly played out sales pitch totally removed from the truth. The FAA has long been accused of being too cozy with the airlines. The agency is often cited as an example of "regulatory capture" - in which the airlines openly dictate to its regulators its governing rules, and arranging for beneficial regulation. During the Bush administration, the FAA actually called the airlines their “customers” and adopted a business model for evaluating its performance. Now, the FAA is calling the airlines "stakeholders." Talk about a conflict of interest, the American people have airline lobbyists romantically involved with Transportation Department chairmen. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) has been dating Shelley Rubino, a top lobbyist for the leading U.S. airline trade association Airlines for America, since 2014. (Bud Shuster, Bill’s father, was also a former chairman of the Transportation Committee. Following a long investigation, the Ethics Committee found Bud Shuster engaged in a “pattern and practice” of allowing his former top aide Ann Eppard — a transportation lobbyist — to appear before him on behalf of her clients after she left his staff. The CBS show “60 Minutes” filmed the elder Shuster hiding from TV cameras in the back seat of Eppard’s car in an attempt to conceal his relationship with her. Bud Shuster denied wrongdoing in his dealings with Eppard, but he resigned after the Ethics Committee released its report on him.......like father, like son) Insulation from state consumer protection laws, inefficient enforcement of federal law, and Congress's unwillingness to pass a “passenger’s bill of rights” has allowed air carriers to stiff passengers without repercussions. Of all the problems facing government, one of the greatest is the need to rebuild a competent, effective and honest public service. In the way that the FAA seemingly complies with the demands of the U.S. airlines, rather than regulate the airlines as per its mandate and promote their rise in efficiency and service, I broadly connect that with the fact that not a single U.S. airline is ranked in the Top Ten of global airlines (certainly none of us are surprised). · Qatar Airways · Singapore Airlines · Cathay Pacific Airways · Turkish Airlines · Emirates · Etihad Airways · ANA All Nippon Airways · Garuda Indonesia · EVA Air · Qantas Airways Delta ranked 45, the guarantor of nightmares United 60, Alaska 65 and American 79. The FAA, our employees, agreed earlier this year to allow Southwest Airlines to continue flying 128 aircraft despite the fact that mandatory rudder inspections had not been performed. Apparently the FAA doesn’t know how to effectively express the term “mandatory” to the airlines, and is unclear on the term “regulatory enforcement”. You may recall 2008, when it came to light that Southwest flew 117 aircraft without mandatory safety checks for a 30 month period. The FAA knew about the lapse in safety at Southwest, but decided to allow the airline to conduct the safety checks on a slower schedule because taking aircraft out of service would have disrupted Southwest Airlines’ flight schedule. Thus, the American people’s employees at the FAA illegally helped Southwest stay on schedule, and threw the American people’s safety to the curb. According to statements made by one of the FAA inspectors seeking whistle-blower status, a manager at the FAA “permitted the operation of these unsafe aircraft in a matter that would provide relief” to the airline, even though passengers were on board. When a U.S. government entity charged with enforcing regulations is itself intentionally breaking those regulations, and yet no person or persons is charged, convicted and jailed, there is little doubt that our government is no longer functioning under our constitution and laws. When you board an aircraft of a U.S. airline, our laws assure you that the aircraft is certified for flight (up to date with all inspections). No American on those Southwest flights was ever told/warned their aircraft was past due on inspections. To learn that your own government is in effect deceiving you, and allowing you to fly on an aircraft of unknown condition due to a lapse in federally required inspections.........is but one of many shocking wake-up calls.

Federal officials and an executive from automotive supplier Takata took turns Tuesday explaining to Congress why it took years before any of them took action to protect motorists from a deadly airbag defect and why the safety problem still threatens drivers. Their testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee came one day after the release of two reports that detailed serious lapses in how both approached their investigations of the problem. One report, issued by the Transportation Department's inspector general, found critical deficiencies in how the federal agency charged with protecting motorists failed at its job. Several senators criticized the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) years-long response to the airbag defect, which is responsible for the deaths of at least eight motorists in the United States at latest count. Even as NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind pleaded for more investigative staffing, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) said she was reluctant to support that request until the agency cleaned up its act. "This audit report is one of the worst I've ever seen," she said. "It's not about resources, it's about blatant, incompetent mismanagement." Citing a portion of the report that noted employees in the agency's Office of Defects Investigation could not agree on a standard of when an investigation into a safety defect should be opened, McCaskill said, "If NHTSA isn't clear on when an investigation should be open, we might as well shut it down." On Tuesday, DOT inspector general Calvin Scovel told Congress that NHTSA lacks procedures to ensure accurate data is collected, that information collected from consumers is too ambiguous, and that the Office of Defects Investigation doesn't follow standard statistical practices. He recommended 17 particular areas where NHTSA could improve. Members of Congress drew parallels between NHTSA's failure to recall the deadly airbags and the agency's years-long failures to thwart a deadly General Motors ignition switch defect that at last count was responsible for killing 117 motorists and injuring more than 200 others.

So many good points. It is truly sad where we stand today, and with no hope for improvement in sight.

MAN Press Release / June 24, 2015 Strategic programme to sustainably strengthen competitiveness continuedRealignment of the production network with clear responsibilities and core competenciesStreamlining of administrative areasNo compulsory redundanciesMAN Truck & Bus is implementing its extensive programme for strengthening the business in the competitive environment. It encompasses all the important areas of the company. One of the main focuses of the programme is realigning the production locations and streamlining administrative areas. By the end of 2017, the strategic programme will have significantly overcompensated for the one-off expenditure necessary in 2015; this will be achieved through cost savings and profit optimizations, ensuring that MAN Truck & Bus can move into the future in a more robust, flexible and efficient manner. The realignment of the production network of MAN Truck & Bus will reassign key responsibilities coming years to individual truck production sites in Munich, Steyr, Krakow and Salzgitter. This will ensure that, in the future, each location has clear areas of responsibility and core competencies. MAN is thus strengthening the individual production sites in their respective roles and is also avoiding duplication of work. At the same time, MAN is streamlining its indirect areas. This will involve approximately 1400 management positions and 400 in direct production areas. The business rules out any compulsory redundancies as well as any site closures. The streamlining will primarily be carried out through voluntary redundancies, semi-retirement and not re-filling positions should they become vacant. For this purpose, one-time expenses in the lower three-digit million range will be required in 2015. As Joachim Drees, Chief Executive Officer MAN Truck & Bus, comments: "With the refocusing of MAN Truck & Bus, we will be much better positioned in the competitive environment. We will work more efficiently and make our plants more flexible. Our strategic programme will not only pave the way for sustainable growth in the medium-term but also secure the jobs of our employees. Jochen Schumm, Chief Human Resources Officer at MAN Truck & Bus, emphasizes: "As in the past, we will present attractive alternatives to the employees in the areas concerned. There will be no compulsory redundancies.” In addition, the affiliation with the Volkswagen Group is a huge benefit. In detail, the production network realignment programme is as follows: Heavy series trucks will in future be assembled at the Munich and Krakow sites. Cab shells and painting will gradually be transferred to Munich. Spare parts/Logistics will be completely transferred from Munich to Salzgitter. Salzgitter will not only be developed into a parts logistics centre but also a component and re-manufacturing plant. Bus/coach chassis manufacture will be relocated to Ankara. Steyr will remain the production centre for truck assembly in the lightweight and medium weight series, as well as for cab equipment in the corresponding model ranges. In future, cab shells will no longer be manufactured at the site, but rather supplied by Munich. At the same time, Steyr will see the creation of a new plastic painting plant and a truck modification centre. Management and employee representatives have worked out the structural changes in close consultation. This is an approach that proved successful last year, when MAN Truck & Bus restructured the bus production. Also on this occasion, MAN honoured its social responsibility in offering an alternative position within the Volkswagen Group to every one of the 1200 employees affected. .

Overdrive / June 24, 2015 Fleets and owner-operators purchasing the new Kenworth Icon 900 by year’s end could be eligible for a $3,000 rebate. Kenworth and Paccar Financial are offering the rebate for qualifying U.S. and Canadian fleets and owner-operators. The Icon 900 is a customized limited edition tractor introduced at the Mid-America Trucking Show in March. “Since its introduction, the Icon 900 has generated a lot of interest from owner-operators seeking that traditional style truck, to large fleets looking for a driver’s reward truck and even some customers purchasing it as a collector’s item,” said Jason Skoog, Kenworth assistant general manager for sales and marketing. The Icon is available with 72- or 86-inch sleepers and up to a 600-hp engine. It features a unique chrome hood badge, may be ordered in any color and comes standard with many chrome and stainless steel accessories. The exterior includes such distinguishing features as stainless steel fender guards, upgraded headlights, headlamp covers, under-door panels and sleeper panels, grille closeout panel and a large sun visor. The interior features a custom dash plate showing the production number for this limited truck. Also included are high back leather seats with special Icon 900 embroidering to signify the limited edition, the sofa bed is upgraded to leather to match the seats, and the dash surrounds and door pads are chrome. Under the joint Paccar Financial and Kenworth program, there is a maximum quantity of 20 units per customer. Related reading - http://www.overdriveonline.com/first-look-at-premium-kenworth-icon-900-to-pay-homage-to-classic-w900l/?utm_medium=single_article&utm_campaign=site_click&utm_source=in_story_related

Australasian Transport News / June 24, 2015 Local councils across Australia will receive an extra $1.1 billion in road funding over the next two years, thanks to the reintroduction of indexation on fuel excise. Infrastructure minister Warren Truss says the government will provide the additional funding to its Roads to Recovery scheme as part of a deal to ensure permanent fuel excise legislation is accepted by Parliament. Moving forward, all of the money raised (a predicted $23 billion over the next decade) through increasing the fuel excise in line with inflation will be committed to roads infrastructure. "This popular roads programme was introduced by the Howard Government. Since coming to government, we have expanded it and made it permanent to give local government and their communities the surety they need that local roads will be future-proofed," Truss says. The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has welcomed the news, saying indexation will provide transport operators with renewed clarity and security. Without legislation, truckers may have been left out of pocket by the previous legislation that allowed for excise increases only for 12 months from October last year. Making the indexation permanent means truckers will still be able to claim back the fuel tax they have paid. "The trucking industry is protected from the increase in fuel tax, because our fuel tax credits automatically increase by the same amount," ATA CEO Christopher Melham says. "However, if legislation ratifying the tariff proposals is not passed before October 30, then trucking businesses will have to repay the extra fuel tax credits they received." That could have been around $750 for an owner driver, or up to $41,900 for much larger trucking businesses. Melham congratulated the Government and federal opposition for finding common ground on an important issue for the transport industry. It’s an important issue also for local governments. Australian Local Government Association president Troy Pickard says tying the excise increase to local road funding will benefit communities around Australia. "The bipartisan support for this initiative is a welcome indication of political support across the board for local government," he says. "The funding is particularly welcome at a time when councils have had to make tough decisions following the freeze to the indexation of financial assistance grants."

Diesel News Australia / June 18, 2015 The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has called for reforms to enable continuing improvement in productivity. In its submission to the Government’s Competition Policy Review, the ATA seeks changes to enable the trucking industry to continue to develop productivity in the face of an ever growing freight task. “Between 1971 and 2007, trucking industry productivity increased six-fold due to the uptake of high productivity vehicles like B-doubles,” said the ATA submission. “But the industry’s productivity has plateaued due to government regulation and policy decisions. “With the national freight task set to grow by 80 per cent between 2011 and 2031, governments must take action on policy reforms to enable the industry to improve its productivity, including by using longer, safer trucks on appropriate routes.” Road planning and funding reforms must be designed to optimise road infrastructure funding efficiency, said the submission. The trucking industry needs the right roads at the right price, with the right level of access. “We want to know that funding for road infrastructure provides value for money, with better processes to assess how effectively it is spent,” said the ATA. “This would include improving governance arrangements for public infrastructure projects, project benchmarking, and additional cost benefit analysis. “Our submission also urges the Government to examine road supply and management services provided by road agencies, with an eye to improving transparency and productivity in this area. The submission also calls for competitive neutrality between government and industry trucking accreditation schemes. “The competition review states that government businesses should not hold a competitive advantage purely because of their ownership. The Government should reflect this with fair and comparable treatment of industry accreditation schemes owned by industry (such as TruckSafe) and government (such as NHVAS).” The full submission can be downloaded from the ATA website.

The stewardship of our country is at an historical low. But the masses either have no interest in how their country is run, or realize they can't influence how it is run. We haven't had a qualified president that had the ability to bond and lead the country in decades, and government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that dictate so much of the policy that effects our daily lives are led by unqualified Washington bureaucrats that are out of control. Do you see the American people taking issue with this unacceptable situation? No, and the government is thrilled to be able to operate without scrutiny. Personally, I'm extremely troubled with the direction that our government, industry and society are heading. With proper leadership, our country would be evolving forward (once again), but instead we are regressing.

Like ice out of the icebox.....Ford Advertising Claims Melt Fast ! https://www.gmheritagecenter.com/docs/gm-heritage-archive/historical-brochures/Chevrolet_History/The_Cold_Facts.pdf

Time / June 23, 2015 The Unilever-owned brand will bring back a nostalgic look for a summer tour Good Humor’s trucks will soon be hitting the road again after a decades-long hiatus, but the iconic ice cream brand’s fleet will be announcing its presence with tweets instead of clanging bells. Nearly 40 years after sidelining its famous fleet, Good Humor is launching a “Welcome to Joyhood” sampling tour this summer that will see the classic version of the brand’s ice cream trucks making stops in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Boston. Customers looking for an ice cream fix will be able to summon the classic Good Humor trucks by tweeting @GoodHumor. And, in another modern twist, the throwback trucks will be blasting pop music and rock songs instead of ringing their iconic chime bells. The brand, which is owned by the British-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever, sold its classic fleet of white trucks in 1976 and switched its focus to grocery store sales amid rising gas prices. Independent contractors still sell Good Humor products, which include classics such as ice cream sandwiches and strawberry shortcake ice cream bars, from their own ice cream trucks. This isn’t Good Humor’s first step toward a more modern feel. Earlier this year, one of the brand’s New York distributors decided to spice up the look of its own trucks by adding a flashy paint job and playing newer music. The distributor, Dover Group, also had its drivers swap out their classic Good Humor uniforms — all white with a black bow tie and white cap — for a more current look. The attempts to pump life into the Good Humor brand come after three straight years of falling sales for the brand in grocery stores. .

The Morning Call / June 19, 2015 Mack Trucks sales slowed in May, driven by a slight decrease in deliveries across North America. Mack delivered 2,230 heavy-duty trucks worldwide in May, up only 1.2 percent from 2,203 one year earlier, according to a report released Thursday by the Sweden-based Volvo Group, Mack's parent company (http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/40548-volvo-truck-deliveries-in-may-2015/). Solid gains in South America — deliveries jumped from 53 to 144 over the last year — helped offset a 2.6 percent decline in North America, where deliveries declined from 2,051 in May 2014 to 1,998 last month. Despite the decrease in North America in May, John Walsh, Mack's vice president of marketing pointed to year-to-date deliveries, which indicate the heavy-duty truck manufacturer is still well ahead of last year's production pace. So far this year, Mack has delivered 11,125 trucks worldwide, up 1,095 — or nearly 11 percent — from the same period in 2014. In North America, 10,226 trucks have been delivered this year, a 9 percent increase over last year. "Returning customers and new customers alike are drawn to our full range of reliable, fuel-efficient models that boost productivity and profitability," Walsh said in a statement. All Mack trucks built for the North American market are assembled at the company's Lower Macungie Township plant. The facility has approximately 1,950 employees. As demand for Mack trucks has increased, the company has hired about 290 employees at the Lower Macungie plant since January 2014. And demand has increased this year across the heavy-duty truck industry in North America. For example, Volvo — Mack's parent company — expects the total North American retail market for heavy-duty trucks to increase to about 310,000 vehicles in 2015. In 2014, the market increased by 14 percent to 270,300 vehicles, according to Volvo.

That's a Mack CBL model bus chassis (right-hand drive version) with a locally-produced body. http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/35014-mack-international-global-bus-chassis-sales/?hl=cbl#entry236985

Allison automatics were a factory option on the MR, R, RB, RD6, RD8, U, DM, RWI Super-Liner and MH Ultra-Liner. Allison's MT654CR, HT740D, HT740RS, HT750DR and HT754CR could be paired with the E6-270, E6-275, E6-300 and E6-350, or Cummins NTC350/Formula 350, NTC365/Formula 365 and NTC400/Formula 400. And the Allison MT643 was available behind the Caterpillar 3208 in DM492 and MR492 chassis for municipal and government orders.

Those videos above would leave most people rolling in laughter, if not for the sad fact that this is our reality, an unqualified person leading our EPA. From EPA 98, the direction and time-frame for tightening truck emissions regulations has been controlled by the EPA, an out-of-control government titan with unqualified leadership, and a smoke-and-mirrors argument. If it was a private company, the incompetent leadership would have run it into the ground years ago. Most Americans, by nature and training, assume that the president and EPA, i.e. our government, will within acceptable boundaries make reasonable choices in policy, ie. in the best interest of America. However, the reality is an unqualified but all-powerful Washington has made horrendously bad policy choices which have put the U.S. truck industry through a period of chaos over the last 15 years. Euro-6 didn't take effect until 2014, when reliable technology was ready. But the EPA, always rushing, enacted the US near equivalent four year earlier. EPA2004 and EPA2007 cost U.S. truck industry billions, as the EPA in effect forced them to conduct business with truck emissions technology that wasn't far from a science project. The EPA also was completely out of line by financing Massive EGR technology development (EGR levels from 35 to 50%) for Navistar. The EPA is totally unqualified to become a designer of commercial truck emissions control systems. It isn't within the EPA's mandate to do so.

While McCarthy was assistant EPA administrator from 2009 to 2013, her top deputy John Beale stole $886,186 between 2000 and 2013. Despite that, she was promoted to EPA head. Beale is the EPA bureaucrat who got caught receiving $886,186 in pay without working, because he claimed he also was employed by the CIA. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee reported that Beale “retired” when questions arose about his spotty attendance and expense records. Only he didn’t file his retirement paperwork and continued to draw an active-duty salary for some time after. His boss at the time in the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation (OAR), now-EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, knew this for about 7 months and did nothing to stop it. On March 29, 2012, an OAR official raised concerns about Beale’s retirement when he informed McCarthy that Beale was still on payroll. Despite being aware of the fact that one of her subordinates was collecting a paycheck without working, the situation continued for 7 more months before McCarthy ever contacted Beale. In December 2012, McCarthy met with Beale for the first time in nearly 15 months, and he informed her that he was no longer planning on retiring. Two more months passed before concerns with Beale were officially reported to the inspector general. On April 30, 2013, McCarthy had cause to fire Beale, but instead elected to allow him to voluntarily retire with full benefits. According to the Senate report, Beale’s career at the EPA was marked by relentless dishonesty on matters large and small and a cadre of supervisors who, like McCarthy apparently in the matter of his retirement pay, enabled his self-dealing behaviors. He claimed an injury so he could ride first-class on flights for government business, which in one case drove the ticket price from $1,000 to $14,000. He forged expense forms, claimed to be away on CIA business for 2½ years worth of work days and flew to Los Angeles and stayed in posh hotels on the EPA’s tab for family visits that had nothing to do with agency work. Few even attempted to question Beale’s frequent absences, enormous expense reports, exorbitant salary—he retired as the agency’s highest-paid employee—and lack of accountability. He was personally popular, well-connected and believed to be among the agency’s most effective employees. But Beale’s greatest deception has nothing to do with first-class flights and fancy hotels. Beale, who is serving a 32-month sentence in the federal prison in Cumberland, Md., for pleading guilty to felony theft of government property, spent most of his career devising regulations under the Clean Air Act that are justified by science few have seen and no one has peer-reviewed, according to the Senate report. “We should all question how John Beale became a senior official at the EPA and played a major role in long-lasting policy decisions while pulling off a scam I thought only Hollywood could make up,” said Senator David Vitter, R-La. “But this egregious case helped us successfully reveal how EPA has wasted taxpayer resources and mismanagement in a manner that is far too common.” Beale’s penchant for bilking the EPA out of money eroded the trust Americans place in their government and EPA employees place in their superiors and coworkers. But it was the role he played beginning in the mid-1990s in creating and implementing regulations pursuant to Clean Air Act that continues to reverberate and linger at the expense of the American people. Staffers with the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee set out last year to probe the relationship between “sue-and-settle” arrangements and evidence they had uncovered that pointed to the manipulation of scientific data. What they discovered, as detailed in their report, titled “EPA’s Playbook Unveiled: A Story of Fraud, Deceit and Secret Science,” was how agency officials concealed and misled about the science that underpinned its most significant initiatives and silenced and marginalized their own internal watchdog offices, which enabled the agency to greatly overstate the benefits and underestimate the costs of its Clean Air Act rulemaking. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is required to create National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter and ozone. The American Lung Association sought to jumpstart this process with a so-called “sue-and-settle” suit filed in 1995. The idea behind “sue-and-settle” is for friendly plaintiffs to sue a government agency, work out agreeable terms—perhaps even beforehand—and emerge with a court order to implement rules or regulations that could not have been achieved through the democratic or even regulatory process. The American Lung Association suit resulted in a consent decree that called for the EPA to propose final standards for particulate matter by Nov. 29, 1996, and issue the standards by July 19, 1997. The decree set no deadline for ozone standards because they had been reviewed in 1993 and were not up for another review until 1998. But Beale and boss Robert Brenner made what documents called a “policy call” and seized on the urgency to produce new particulate matter standards to rush through a new ozone standard as well. This put the agency in the position of advancing two regulatory standards simultaneously, which it had never done. And it put the agency and those charged with reviewing such regulations, including the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, under impossible deadline pressure. The EPA admitted in court papers filed pursuant to the American Lung Association lawsuit that any period shorter than Dec. 1, 1998, for promulgation of the particulate matter standard “would require the EPA to reach conclusions on scientific and policy issues with enormous consequences for society before it has had an adequate opportunity to collect and evaluate pertinent scientific data” and that further time was needed to reach a “sound and scientifically supportable decision.” But Beale had no time for that. He needed an ally to move things along and found one in Carol Browner, the Al Gore acolyte and former staffer who served as EPA administrator through both terms of the Clinton administration. Beale formed a close relationship with her and met with her multiple times per week to discuss his progress on this. The urgency, as well as his influence with the boss and an unwillingness of others at EPA to block him, gave Beale “the mechanism he needed to ignore opposition to the standards.” Beale’s efforts to include ozone in the new regulations proved expensive for Americans. The EPA estimated the cost at $2.5 billion, but its estimate was based on receiving the full benefits of cutting ozone but achieving only a partial attainment of the standards, which the law did not permit. The Council of Economic Advisers also measured the cost and found it to be $60 billion—24 times the EPA estimate. Indeed, as was the case with him getting away with not showing up for work and submitting exorbitant expense reports, succeeding in this regulatory sleight of hand only emboldened Beale to go further. That first round of standards, which regulated coarse particulate matter, such as pollen and dust, became known as PM10. But Beale wanted more. In 1997, with the backing of his superiors, he sought to engage the agency in regulating fine particulate matter—particles a fourth the size of those regulated under PM10 and too small to be visible to the human eye. But to enact these regulations, EPA first had to produce scientific research that established these smaller particles posed a threat to humans. To accomplish this, Beale pulled data from two controversial studies—the Harvard Six Cities Study and an American Cancer Society study known as ACSII. The data was not trusted. The air advisory committee pointed out it had not been peer-reviewed, and others indicated Beale was exaggerating the findings for his desired result. Further undermining those studies’ credibility is that even now, 20 years later, EPA still refuses to release the data, despite McCarthy’s promise to do so during her confirmation hearings. Though Beal is out of the picture and in prison, his rulemaking techniques he employed to advance the 1997 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone and particulate matter remain firmly entrenched. “This effort codified EPA’s now customary practice of using fine particulates (PM2.5) to inflate the benefits of nearly all regulations issued under the Clean Air Act,” the Senate report concludes. “Yet the science supporting nearly all of EPA’s alleged benefits remain hidden and unverified.”

EPA Chief Gina McCarthy Can't Answer Climate Questions Investor’s Business Daily / March 5, 2015 Climate Change: Gina McCarthy, head of the EPA, can’t answer basic questions about global temperatures, climate models or numbers of hurricanes. She didn’t know being a global warming zealot requires knowledge of math. If the science of climate change was “settled,” you’d think one of the generals in the war on global warming would have memorized the numbers that point to our planetary doom from a menace the administration says is a greater threat than terrorism. But McCarthy was asked some pretty simple questions Wednesday at a Senate hearing Wednesday on her request for $8.6 billion to help fight the claimed imminent doom of climate change, and her performance didn’t help her case. One of the questions involved droughts and the claim that their frequency has increased due to warming that is said to be caused by mankind’s increased production of greenhouse gas, such as carbon dioxide, the basis for all life on Earth but judged by the EPA to be a pollutant. “Let me ask you this,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., inquired of McCarthy. “There was an article from Mr. (Bjorn) Lomborg … from the Copenhagen Institute. He says, along with Dr. (Roger) Pielke from Colorado, that we’ve had fewer droughts in recent years. Do you dispute that?” The seemingly clueless McCarthy pathetically responded that she didn’t “know in what context he’s making statements like that.” Context? Truth has its own context, and the inconvenient truth that McCarthy wasn’t aware of, or didn’t want to face, is that Pielke and Lomborg are right. Pielke, a professor at the University of Colorado, told the Senate environment and public works subcommittee in July 2013 that droughts have “for the most part become shorter, less frequent and cover a smaller portion of the U.S. over the last century.” Globally, he said, “there has been little change in drought over the last 60 years.” Sessions also asked McCarthy if we’ve had more or fewer hurricanes in the last decade. It was another question she said she couldn’t answer because “it’s a very complicated issue.” Well, no, not unless basic math is a complicated issue. Sessions noted that we have in fact gone nearly a decade without a Category 3 storm or higher making landfall in the U.S. The last hurricane to hit America as a Category 3 or higher was Wilma, which struck Florida on Oct. 24, 2005. Superstorm Sandy had wind speeds barely reaching Category 1 status when it slammed into New Jersey in 2012 and wreaked havoc. Sessions inquired of the global temperatures that have virtually flatlined for two decades: “Would you acknowledge that over the last 18 years, that the increase in temperatures has been very little, matter of fact 90% below most of the environmental models that showed how fast temperature would increase?” McCarthy replied that she didn’t know “what the models actually are predicting that you are referring to.” Sessions called her ignorance and inability to outline the danger we supposedly face from climate change, as well as her failure to justify the EPA’s funding request, a “stunning development.” So do we. The science is indeed settled, but not the way climate zealots think. McCarthy’s lack of knowledge and facts on her side only underscores the fact we have wasted billions on fighting a nonexistent threat and shackled our economy with lower growth and higher job loss. .

Chosen by Obama to replace Lisa Jackson in 2013 as head of the EPA, Gina McCarthy has no working understanding whatsoever of heavy truck design and the trucking industry. Lisa Jackson (2009-2013), a chemical engineer, was another unqualified Obama appointee. For the record, McCarthy graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Anthropology in 1976. In 1981, she received a joint Master of Science in Environmental Health Engineering and Planning and Policy from Tufts University. This unqualified EPA head, like the last one, is charting the future of emissions-related heavy truck design efficiency in the United States. This is shocking........this is scary. Our EPA today, has zero credibility. U.S. government policy on truck fuel efficiency needs a total reboot, backtracking to verifiable facts, and subsequently working out from there. McCarthy has inappropriately been put in the pilot’s seat, and a realistically voiceless American populace can do nothing more than read about it in the media. Volvo and Daimler are against the McCarthy plan, and rightly so, as overemphasizing engines in the regulations could result in added costs, weight and vehicle complexity. The proposed engine standards aren’t aligned with real-world operations. And truth be told, if the EPA was prudent and competent, it would abandon the go-it-alone U.S. emissions regulations, and adopt the Euro emissions standards used by the rest of the world. Welcoming the U.S. to the party, I'm sure countries around the world would be willing to rename it the "Global Emissions Standards". EPA Head McCarthy Unable to Defend President's Warming Claims While Imposing Job-Crushing Climate Regulations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKZj-PR2Egg Obama EPA Chief McCarthy Can’t Say Whether Climate Models Were False Or Not https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24DP1uG-MEM .

Automotive News / June 22, 2015 Ed Peper, GM's vice president of fleet and commercial sales, said dealers who do significant fleet business have been asking for years for GM to return to the medium-duty market. "We've heard from Chevy dealers saying, 'What are you going to do on medium-duty product?' There are a lot of adjacent sales associated with it," Peper said in an interview. GM shut down its medium-duty truck line in 2009 while in bankruptcy after failing to find a buyer for the operation. Chevy will sell regular-cab and crew-cab versions of the new trucks, which will offer a GM-sourced 6.0-liter, V-8 gasoline engine or Isuzu's 3.0-liter and 5.2-liter turbodiesel engines, depending on the model. The line will be based on Isuzu's N Series trucks. While Ford Motor Co. sells other styles of medium-duty trucks, Peper said no domestic competitor sells low-cab forward trucks, which position the driver as far forward as possible, in front of the engine. They're used in everything from construction and garbage collection to food delivery. Peper said the U.S. market for low-cab forward trucks is about 30,000 units annually. Isuzu and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. also sell them.

Answered - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/40601-can-anyone-explain-difference-between-tc15-and-tc25-transfer-cases/

Iveco Press Release / June 19, 2015 Iveco 40 years of excellence, 150 years of experience ​The brand is celebrating its 40th anniversary – a success story that tells of great international acclaims and vehicles that have come to symbolise commercial transport around the world. The website www.iveco40.com offers people the chance to celebrate Iveco’s 40th birthday by sharing stories in pictures or videos. The new pay-off: Iveco. Your Partner for Sustainable Transport Iveco is blowing out 40 candles: this is an important milestone for a major brand that has shaped the history of global commercial transport. It represents not only 40 years of success, but also 150 years of working alongside customers, of superb performance, of vehicles that have become fixture on roads all over the world and that convey a message of technology and sustainable transport today. Iveco is a brand of CNH Industrial, a global leader in the capital goods sector. Through CNH Industrial, Iveco products are manufactured at production facilities in Europe, China, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and Africa, with business activities in over 160 countries. To celebrate this birthday, Iveco has created a special logo in honour of the occasion, which represents a stylised vehicle with the slogan “40 years of Iveco, 150 years of experience”. The logo will appear on all of the brand’s written communications until the end of 2015. Indeed a great deal of the celebrations will be promoted on a dedicated website www.iveco40.com, published in 14 different languages. It sees the launch of a competition encouraging Iveco enthusiasts to celebrate Iveco’s 40th birthday by sharing their stories in pictures or videos for all to enjoy. Each week, the best photo will be added to a virtual book dedicated to the special anniversary. This special anniversary has also been commemorated with a video - available to watch online at https://youtu.be/XwSoJzxHoVs – that recounts the key events in Iveco’s history decade by decade from 1975 until the present day. These range from vehicle launches and technological innovations to major sponsorship deals, which have become an inseparable part of the history of commercial vehicles, not only in Europe, but globally. Iveco: a new pay-off, a new approach focussing on Technology, Total Cost of Ownership, Sustainability and Business Partnership Iveco is a brand that has shown itself able to take a bold approach to change over the years. It is now writing a new chapter in its history, persistently pursuing its vocation as a major player on the international and multicultural stage, continuing to focus on its core values: Technology, Total Cost of Ownership, Sustainability and Business Partnership. Thanks to a continuous attention to innovation and new technologies, Iveco became a European leader in the field of alternative traction, anticipating solutions that will contribute to further reduce the environmental impact in the transport sector and becoming the ideal partner for sustainable transport, as the new Iveco’s payoff declares: Iveco, Your Partner for Sustainable Transport. From 1975 to the present: a story of success The company launched its challenge to the market in 1975, when it was created from the union of the then top five European firms with more than 150 years’ experience in designing and making industrial vehicles: Magirus-Deutz, Fiat, Lancia, Unic and OM. A global vision with international roots, formed through the fusion of five pre-existing companies, each of which made its own important contribution to the history of the commercial vehicle sector in Europe starting from the late 19th century: Fiat Industrial Vehicles from Turin, Italy; OM from Brescia, Italy; Lancia Special Vehicles from Bolzano, Italy; Unic from Puteaux, France and Magirus-Deutz from Ulm, Germany. Through acquisitions, alliances and international joint ventures over the years, Iveco has joined the highest ranks of the world’s major players in road transportation, becoming a group with considerable specialist expertise able to bring out the best in technological innovation and establish itself as a manufacturer and commercial provider in the most important industrialised markets and emerging markets alike. In 1986, as part of that heritage, Iveco Ford Truck Ltd, was born as a joint venture (and effectively a merger) with Ford of Europe’s truck division. In 1990, Iveco acquired the Spanish industrial vehicle builder Pegaso. Over the course of its history, Iveco has earned international recognition and numerous accolades, including three “International Truck of the Year” awards - for the Eurocargo in 1992, the EuroTech in 1993 and the Stralis in 2013. .

The former Mack Trucks and MAN share a common connection, in the sense that both the International Motor Company (the forerunner of Mack Trucks) and German truckmaker MAN produced Swiss Sauer brand trucks under license. MAN began producing Saurer trucks under license from 1915. The International Motor Company, the holding company that included the Mack Brothers Motor Car Company and Saurer Motor Company*, began producing Saurer trucks under license from 1911 at a plant in Plainfield, New Jersey which went on to become Mack Truck’s legendary Plainfield drivetrain production location. *The New York-based Saurer Motor Company had been created in March, 1911 to build Swiss Saurer trucks under license, 7 months before becoming a part of the International Motor Company in October.

MAN Press Release / June 21, 2015 The history of MAN trucks and buses began exactly 100 years ago today: it was on 21 June 1915 that the "Lastwagenwerke M.A.N.-Saurer", the M.A.N. Saurer truck factory, was entered in the commercial register of the city of Nuremberg – a reason to celebrate for the Munich-based company. Further reading - http://www.corporate.man.eu/en/press-and-media/presscenter/Happy-Birthday_-MAN-Truck-and-Bus_-211840.html .