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George Bush Sr book reveals a more dangerous Dick Cheney than anyone knew The Guardian / November 5, 2015 Destiny and Power shows a VP with more authority than almost all his predecessors, making plain Bush Jr’s administration could have been even worse. George Bush the elder is not the first father to blame his son’s mistakes on the bad crowd he fell in with, and the counter to such paternal indulgence is always the same: the son has an important say on the friends he chooses, especially when he happens to be the US president. The personal quotes in the new biography of George HW Bush, Destiny and Power: the American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham, show he has neither given up his long struggle with English syntax, nor abandoned his protective feelings towards his son and successor in the White House. It is another public window into a family wrestling with the most toxic legacies of the junior Bush’s presidency, the Iraq invasion and torture, and it comes after a series of episodes on the Republican primary trail in which Jeb Bush has tried to dodge a definitive verdict on his elder brother’s exploits. Both father and brother have sought to create distance without appearing to throw a close family member under a bus. For Bush Sr, the dilemma is all the more agonising as some of the White House advisers he now criticises are former employees he bequeathed to his son. Dick Cheney had been his defence secretary, and Condoleezza Rice was a Russian specialist in the first Bush White House and protege of Brent Scowcroft, the elder Bush’s national security adviser and friend. The two were part of a group of foreign and security policy advisers that Bush Jr gathered around him during the 2000 election campaign. They called themselves “the Vulcans”, not as a tribute to Spock, but to demonstrate they were as tough (or as Bush Sr might say, “iron-ass”) as the Roman god of fire. The Vulcans who huddled at Bush’s Texas ranch at Crawford also included the former and future defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and the man who would become his deputy at the Pentagon, leading neoconservative ideologue Paul Wolfowitz, as well as former top general Colin Powell, together with his close confidant, Richard Armitage. The latter two would emerge as the doves in the Bush administration, but at the time, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice were also seen as embodiments of continuity, steady hands at the side of a presidential candidate vulnerable to allegations of inexperience. However, beneath the surface lay plans for radical change from the very beginning. Even before 9/11, the younger Bush led his administration in a quite different direction from his father. While Bush Sr and Scowcroft cherished multilateralism and diplomacy, George W’s White House raised American exceptionalism to new heights, enthusiastically tossing US entanglements with the international community on the bonfire. The administration walked away from the Kyoto talks on climate change, and withdrew US support for the Rome statute establishing the international criminal court, going so far as to declare that it would “unsign” the treaty. This unilateralist inclination was clearly the younger Bush’s choice. It was how he intended from the outset to make his foreign policy distinctive from his father’s. And it was this characteristic that made for such a dangerously volatile and over-reaching US response when the 9/11 attacks came. There is no doubt that Cheney and Rumsfeld were given more licence and authority than almost all their predecessors once the “war on terror” began. Cheney was certainly the most powerful vice-president of modern times, with a large and assertive staff, something that Bush Sr draws particular attention to. Cheney and Rumsfeld used their enhanced power to poison the flow of information to the president’s desk about Iraq and its supposed weapons of mass destruction. The vice-president even made repeated trips to CIA headquarters in Langley to bully analysts into producing more hawkish reports, while Rumsfeld’s Pentagon sucked up highly dubious “evidence” from Iraqi exiles and ideological freelancers. But, as even as the ever-forgiving father admits in Meacham’s book, it was President Bush who allowed Cheney to grow his own empire. “I think they overdid that. But it’s not Cheney’s fault. It’s the president’s fault,” Bush Sr says. “The buck stops there,” he adds, in a riposte to his own efforts to spread the blame for the fiascos of his son’s presidency. Perhaps the most alarming revelation to emerge from the new Bush biography is the elder man’s recollection that while Cheney had been his defence secretary, he had commissioned a study on how many tactical nuclear weapons would be needed to eliminate a division of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard. Apparently the answer was 17, though a more profound conclusion is that Cheney was a more dangerous figure than anyone knew. It adds weight to reporting by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker that Cheney also contemplated the use of low-yield nuclear bunker-busters against Iran’s underground uranium enrichment facilities. The more we hear about the George W Bush administration, the clearer it becomes that the global damage it wrought could have been even worse.

Chicago gangs assassinate 9-year old CNN / November 5, 2015 A 9-year-old boy shot and killed in a Chicago alley on Monday was the intended target of a gang-related shooting, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said Thursday. Tyshawn Lee was "lured" into the alley where he was killed, McCarthy said. "This murder is probably the most abhorrent, cowardly, unfathomable crime I've witnessed in 35 years," McCarthy said at a press conference held at the crime scene surrounded by community leaders. Two people suspected in the shooting belong to two gangs known to officials, McCarthy said. Police still need the public's help with information to be certain of whom to arrest, he said. "We don't have that tidbit and we don't have that person that's putting us over the top to make this case that we can make an arrest on," McCarthy said. Police are certain that fear in the community is playing a factor in keeping witnesses from stepping forward. A reward for information leading to an arrest has grown to $35,000. Police superintendent Garry McCarthy said the boy was targeted because father Pierre Stokes, 25, has connections to gang violence in the city. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Update: Chicago Police have one of three gang members responsible for the murder of a 9-year-old boy who police say was lured from a playground and shot in the head because of his father's gang ties. 27-year-old Corey Morgan, a Chicago gang member with an extensive criminal history, has been charged with first-degree murder. Police are looking for Kevin Edwards, as well as a yet unidentified third man, also involved in the shooting. Police say Morgan was looking for targets after an October 13 shooting that killed his brother and injured his mother while they were in a car. Morgan later said he "was going to kill grandmas, mamas, kids and all," and that he and the other two suspects went out armed every day looking for targets, according to Cook County prosecutors at a hearing Friday where Morgan was denied bond. The three men spotted Tyshawn in a play lot where he had climbed onto the swings after setting his basketball down beside him, prosecutors said. Investigators allege one man approached the boy, dribbled the basketball and handed it back to Tyshawn before leading him into an alley while the other suspects followed in an SUV. One of the men shot the boy multiple times at close range, prosecutors said. One bullet cut through the boy's right thumb, suggesting he was holding his hands out to block the gunshots, according to an autopsy report. Police say Morgan is a convicted felon with an extensive violent criminal history. He has a prior conviction for aggravated unlawful use of weapon and was sentenced to two years of probation. In a pending case, he was charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. .

Illinois mother allowed boyfriend to drown her 3 children Associated Press / November 5, 2015 In horrifying detail, prosecutors described how three children, trapped in the back seat of their mother's car, screamed for help before they drowned in 4 ½ feet of water in an Illinois lake while their mother and her boyfriend escaped unharmed. Amanda Hamm was convicted of child endangerment and served five years in prison for watching her boyfriend carry out a plot to drown her 6-year-old, 3-year-old and 23-month-old children in 2003 because they interfered with the couple's relationship and his sex-and-drugs lifestyle. He was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence. Now in a bizarre twist, Amanda Ware and her new husband are fighting to gain custody of three children — ages 5, 3 and 1 ½ — she had after leaving prison. They were taken away by child protection authorities last year after a doctor recognized Ware as the former Hamm. A Cook County judge on Friday will decide whether the children of Amanda and Leo Ware were abused and neglected, even without evidence that they were physically harmed. "This is a scary problem for all the people involved ... but most of all for the judge who has to decide whether to send these children home," said Bruce Boyer, director of the Loyola University child law clinic in Chicago, who's not involved in the case. "What's so difficult is that the likelihood of something going wrong may be low, but if does, the consequences are so high." Under a legal concept called "anticipatory neglect," the court is not required to wait until a child is harmed before intervening if someone has harmed or endangered a child in the past, Boyer said, adding that such findings aren't unusual in child welfare cases. On the other hand, parents cannot be disqualified for custody solely because of their past if they prove that they're a capable parent. But prosecutors and child protection authorities told Judge Demetrius Kottaras last week that, although none of the three living children has been physically harmed, there is direct evidence of current abuse and neglect. That includes domestic violence by Leo Ware against his wife and others, substance abuse and Amanda Ware's failure to follow treatment for mental illness, which created an injurious environment for the children. In 2012, Chicago police responded to a domestic abuse call at the Ware's house after Leo Ware struck his wife. The next year, while she was pregnant, Amanda Ware sought an order of protection, saying she feared for herself and her children because Leo Ware was using crack cocaine and might become violent. Two weeks later, she had the order dropped. Combined with the parents' histories, "this freight train of evidence is bearing down on three current children who must be protected," Assistant State's Attorney Joan Pernecke told the judge. Attorneys for Amanda, 39, and Leo Ware, 49, said the children showed no signs of abuse and were healthy, even crying and taking off their shoes and socks to try to prevent child protection workers from taking them from their home last year. They also said no problems had ever been reported to the state Department of Children and Family Services until a doctor at a hospital where Ware gave birth recognized her. Amanda Ware has a long history of depression and abusing drugs and alcohol, and 20 years ago told a mental health worker that she wanted to kill herself by driving into a lake, prosecutors said. During her 2006 trial, witnesses said she was abused and manipulated by boyfriend Maurice LaGrone Jr., who also terrorized her children — none of them his — including by putting one child's head in an oven and chasing a child with a knife. While he couldn't keep a job — and didn't want to watch the children while Ware worked — she bought him expensive clothes and jewelry, according to testimony. Prosecutors at that time said she couldn't live without a man so was willing to sacrifice her children. When the couple wanted to move from Clinton, Illinois to St. Louis, Ware asked her mother to take custody of two of the children, but she said she could take only one. Months later, the couple drove to nearby Clinton Lake, about 150 miles south of Chicago, where on Sept. 2, 2003, LaGrone drove the 1997 Oldsmobile Cutlass down a boat ramp, at some point jumping out with Ware. Both claimed the deaths were an accident and that they tried but could not get the kids out. Rescuers eventually called by Ware said it took just two minutes to remove the bodies. .

There is nothing "special" about Chicago's work force...............it's no better than many other areas of the country. Chicago's property is expensive, the road system is poor and the winter weather adds to operational costs. Chicago only excels in the quality and quantity of corruption.......as it long has since the gangsters ran the city (do they still, in fact?) Boeing, Navistar and now the merged Kraft-Heinz have all moved to Chicago. There was no need.........there was no point. About Kraft-Heinz, merged this past July, Berkshire (Warren Buffet) and Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital own 51 percent. Supposedly Berkshire owns 27% (and 3G 24%), but 3G oversees day-to-day operations (the Brazilians control the company).

The Guardian / November 5, 2015 Former president claims hawkish reaction to 9/11 attacks and desire to ‘get our way in the Middle East’ hurt his son’s administration, says new biography Former US president George HW Bush has hit out at Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, two of the most senior figures in his son’s administration, labeling them too “hardline” and “arrogant” in their handling of the 11 September attacks. A new biography of the 41st president – Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey Of George Herbert Walker Bush – reveals that Bush Sr held Cheney and Rumsfeld responsible for the hawkish stance that “hurt” his son’s administration, Fox News reported on Wednesday. The book, by Jon Meacham, is based on audio diaries that Bush recorded during his time in the White House, as well as interviews with the former president and his wife, Barbara. Cheney served as defence secretary during George HW Bush’s 1989-1993 presidency and later as vice-president under President George W Bush. After 9/11, Bush Sr told his biographer: “I don’t know, he just became very hardline and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with. “The reaction [to 9/11], what to do about the Middle East. Just iron-ass. His seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East,” Bush told Meacham in the book, which is due to be published next week. Of his son’s role, Bush Sr told his biographer: “He’s my son, he did his best and I’m for him. It’s that simple an equation.” But he criticised Bush Jr for allowing Cheney to build “kind of his own state department” and for the inflammatory language that infused the US response to the 9/11 attacks. “I do worry about some of the rhetoric that was out there – some of it his [bush Jr], maybe, and some of it the people around him. Hot rhetoric is pretty easy to get headlines, but it doesn’t necessarily solve the diplomatic problem.” He added that George W Bush’s infamous state of the union address in 2002, in which the then president warned of an “axis of evil” of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, “might be historically proved to be not benefiting anything”. Rumsfeld, who was Bush Jr’s secretary of defense for most of his two terms, has so far not commented on the criticisms directed at him by the 41st president, who in the book calls him “an arrogant fellow”, adding: “I don’t like what he did, and I think it hurt the president. “I’ve never been that close to him anyway. There’s a lack of humility, a lack of seeing what the other guy thinks. He’s more kick-ass and take names, take numbers. I think he paid a price for that.” But Cheney told Fox News he took the “iron-ass” jibe as a compliment. “I took it as a mark of pride,” he says. “The attack on 9/11 was worse than Pearl Harbor, in terms of the number people killed, and the amount of damage done. I think a lot of people believed then, and still believe to this day that I was aggressive in defending, in carrying out what I thought were the right policies.” Cheney insisted he had enjoyed reading Meacham’s book. “The diary’s fascinating, because you can see how he felt at various key moments of his life. So I’m enjoying the book. I recommend it to my friends. And [i’m] proud to be a part of it.” But he dismissed claims leveled by the former president that Lynne Cheney, his wife, as well as his daughter Liz Cheney, had been the “eminence grises” behind his vice-presidency. “It’s his view, perhaps, of what happened, but my family was not conspiring to somehow turn me into a tougher, more hard-nosed individual. “I got there all by myself.” George W Bush said his father “would never say to me: ‘Hey, you need to rein in Cheney. He’s ruining your administration.’ It would be out of character for him to do that. “I made the decisions. This was my philosophy. “It is true that my rhetoric could get pretty strong and that may have bothered some people. Obviously it did, including Dad, though he never mentioned it.”

ATA enters fray on heavy vehicle charges Australasian Transport News (ATN) / November 5, 2015 Existing system will lead to trucking industry being overcharged $1.2 billion, lobby group says. The trucking industry is at risk of being overcharged more than $1 billion over six years unless Australia’s governments reform heavy vehicle charges, the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has warned. The industry’s peak representative group has pushed for changes to the charging system, one day out from a ministerial meeting on the matter. The National Transport Commission (NTC) told transport ministers in 2014 the existing formula used to determine fuel and registration charges was outdated and responsible for overtaxing truck and bus operators. A new set of options has been presented to ministers to consider when they meet to decide fees for next financial year. "We understand the NTC has provided ministers with three options," ATA CEO Chris Melham says. "The best option would be for ministers to agree to eliminate the overtaxing immediately. "This would see the road user charge fall from its current level, 26.14 cents per litre, to 25.3 cents per litre in 2016-17. "The vast majority of heavy vehicle registration charges would also fall." Transport ministers are expected to consider a freeze to existing charges during tomorrow's meeting. "But freezing government revenue wouldn’t solve the problem," Melham says. "It would overtax the truck and bus industries by more than $1.2 billion over the next six years, in addition to the overcharging in 2015-16 and previous years." He adds that transport ministers need to recognise that charges significantly affect the competitiveness of trucking operators. "The problem is made worse by the high upfront costs of heavy vehicle registration charges, which create cashflow difficulties for small businesses," he says. The federal government froze the fuel excise in its 2014-15 and 2015-16 budgets, in recognition of the problems with the charging model. The Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association, the Queensland Trucking Association and the South Australian Road Transport Association have also lobbied for a reduction in heavy vehicle charges to offset the overcharging that has occurred.

Transport Engineer / November 4, 2015 Swindon-based Les Smith Haulage has upgraded 10 of its 31-strong fleet with new Iveco Stralis trucks, citing low total cost of ownership, fuel efficiency, driver comfort – and proven performance with other Iveco vehicles. Supplied by dealer Aquila Truck Centres, the haulier’s new additions are six 18-tonne Stralis Hi-Road 4x2 high-roof sleeper cab rigids and four Stralis Hi-Way 6x2 high-roof sleeper cab tractor units. The rigids have 28ft curtainside bodies, five with tail-lifts, and one a truck-mounted forklift. Each is fitted with a 9-litre Iveco Cursor 9 engines, producing 310bhp between 1,650 and 2,200 rpm, and up to 1,300 Nm of torque between 1,100 and 1,650 rpm. The tractors are fitted with 11-litre Iveco Cursor 11 engines, producing 460bhp between 1,500 and 1,900 rpm, and up to 2,150 Nm of torque between 925 and 1,500 rpm. The rigids and tractors all have ZF’s EuroTronic automated gearbox. Tony Smith, director at Les Smith Haulage, says: “We’ll haul anything – as long as it fits in the body or trailer, from Land’s End to John O’ Groats – so we needed a vehicle with the flexibility to match. “We’ve worked with Iveco for many years now, and our own experience of operating the marque, coupled with the low total cost of ownership, keeps us coming back for more. “An Iveco Stralis can more than do the job of its competitors, and for far less through-life expenditure. Plus, the company’s HI-SCR Euro 6 engine technology keeps our trucks on the road for longer, cutting downtime and ensuring an efficient operation. Our drivers also appreciate the amount of space and levels of cab comfort which come as standard.” .

Over 70 ag groups ask Congress to raise truck weight limits AG Professional / November 4, 2015 More than 70 of the nation’s leading food and agriculture associations – including the American Farm Bureau, American Fruit and Vegetable Processors and Growers Coalition, American Soybean Association, International Dairy Foods Association, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, National Grain and Feed Association, and the National Farmers Union – sent a letter urging Congress to include the Safe, Flexible and Efficient (SAFE) Trucking Act (H.R. 3488) as an amendment to the highway reauthorization legislation. In the letter, the organizations wrote: “In the agriculture and food industries, our farms and businesses are growing and making products more resourcefully, but outdated federal transportation rules force trucks to leave the farm and our plants when they are partly empty. By giving states the option to raise the federal gross vehicle weight limit from 80,000 pounds to 91,000 pounds for trucks equipped with six axles rather than the typical five, the SAFE Trucking Act would safely modernize truck shipments on Interstate highways by reducing the number of trucks needed to move our commodities and products through better utilization of existing capacity.” In its most recent “Comprehensive Truck Size and Weight Study,” the U.S. Department of Transportation found that six-axle trucks can safely weigh up to 91,000 pounds—the configuration allowable under the SAFE Trucking Act—while yielding significant truckload reductions, pavement wear savings and environmental efficiency benefits without diverting significant freight from rail. The U.S. DOT has also stated that the configuration is compliant with the federal bridge formula, and that wide use of the SAFE Trucking Act configuration would not cause any increase in one-time rehabilitation costs for Interstate bridges. Critically, the SAFE Trucking Act enables the U.S. DOT to require additional safety equipment for these vehicles before states can put these trucks to work. “On behalf of America’s food and agriculture community, we urge you to support Representative Ribble’s common-sense amendment because it is good for taxpayers, consumers, farmers, businesses, highway safety and the environment,” the groups concluded in the letter.

Truck weight increase rejected Fleet Owner / November 4, 2015 The House version of six-year, $325 billion surface transportation authorization reached the chamber floor Tuesday as members debated the first set of amendments to the bipartisan plan approved two weeks ago by the House Transportation committee. In trucking-related legislation, a shipper-backed highway bill amendment to increase truck weight limits to 91,000 pounds on the Interstate system for trucks with a sixth axle was defeated in an evening vote. The legislation by Rep. Reid Ribble, which received spotty support from the trucking industry, failed by a 187-236 vote. The bill would have given states the option of increasing the weight limit on designated federal highways. Ribble emphasized that many states already allow heavier trucks on smaller state roads, and that his bill would shift many of those trucks to the Interstates, “where they belong.” Additionally, the increased weight limits would reduce truck trips, along with fuel use and CO2 emissions. Opponents, however, cited a Dept. of Transportation study that recommended no changes in current truck size and weight limits, additional damage to roads and bridges, and the dangers of heavier and longer vehicles. Ribble explained that the DOT recommendation was political, and that the actual study—while inclusive because of insufficient data—actually showed that heavier trucks are more safe. Nor would the 91,000-pound limit exceed current Interstate bridge design limits; the configuration, in fact, would reduce life-cycle pavement costs. And, Ribble emphasized, the legislation in no way increased truck length. Ahead of the floor debate, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy that credited the bipartisan effort, but criticized the funding level as inadequate. Instead, the Obama administration continues to push its own GROW America Act. “Indeed, as the Nation's population rises and our existing infrastructure ages, funding at baseline levels as proposed in H.R. 22 will guarantee that roadway conditions and congestion worsen in the years ahead,” the memo reads. “The Congress should be thinking big, not locking in a worsening system.” Among specific concerns, the statement cites provisions in the bill that require the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to stop publishing some truck and bus safety data. Additionally, the White House objects to provisions that reform FMCSA and the way it develops regulations, “but the Administration has already established an effective retrospective review process without legislation.” “The Administration is focused every day on what can be done to expand opportunity for every American,” the statement concludes. “For America to succeed, we need the best, safest infrastructure in the world, and the Federal Government needs to lead the way.” Also Tuesday, the House Rules Committee blocked consideration of Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s (D-OR) amendment to raise the federal gas tax. The amendment would have raised federal gas and diesel taxes 15 cents over three years and indexed them to inflation. “Congress should have the opportunity to show the courage and vision to do what Ronald Reagan did in 1982 and what seven Republican states have already done this year – raise the gas tax to provide stable and meaningful funding for transportation,” said Blumenauer. “I’m deeply disappointed that we are considering what alleges to be a six-year authorization without a real conversation about paying for it. This is a missed opportunity to provide certainty for the hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake and give states and local governments the federal partnership they need and deserve.” Another set of amendments to H.R. 3763, the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act is scheduled for consideration Wednesday. Amendment Debate video - http://fleetowner.com/regulations/truck-weight-increase-rejected

One reason is the larger, more spacious cab. Particularly for highway applications, the 28-year-old CH cab is smaller than what the competition offers. Drivers can't stand up right out of the seat. Volvo, for 15 years, has exhibited no interest in addressing this issue (until finally......next year).

The first and second generation GM Volt, brought about by the brilliant Bob Lutz, and the high range (about 200 miles) pure-electric Bolt, are no joke. With GM's new deeper cooperation with LG, you're going to see some amazing developments.

Piech wanted Winterkorn removed, but instead Piech got ousted as chairman. He still wanted Winterkorn out, and now wanted revenge for his ousting (he had led VW for several decades). There's little doubt that Piech had something to do with the emissions scam coming to light.

Scania’s Martin Lundstedt receives Pontus Schultz Award for more humane business Dagens Transport / September 29, 2015 Martin Lundstedt is this year's recipient of Pontus Schultz award for a humane economy. He was handed the award for his work as President and CEO of Scania, where he made diversity a key part of the company's business model. The award is given annually by the Pontus Schultz foundation to individuals in the business community who have made significant efforts to increase diversity, equality and sustainability.. Martin Lundstedt was presented with the award for his seminar "Moving Limits - about the importance of biodiversity to Sweden's competitiveness", which was also organized by the Foundation. “I'm incredibly proud of the work that I, together with my colleagues at Scania has implemented attention with this fine award,” says Martin Lundstedt. “For me, the recruiting talents with a diversity of backgrounds and experience just the starting point for a variety of work. It is primarily about implementing a diversity perspective in the analysis and approaches where different people's way of interpreting the world need to be included in the daily work. For companies operating on a global market, this is today crucial for continued success.” The judge’s motivation: "This year's laureates are constantly in motion, moving boundaries and challenge the prevailing view. In his role as Scania CEO, Martin Lundstedt has put a heavy truckmaker companies rolling at high speed by making diversity and inclusion a part of the business model. He has not only made ​​it because he is convinced it is the right thing, he has made ​​it to secure the value and future business opportunities in the global market. This year's laureate is a person who stands for its values ​​and the jury is convinced that he will continue to be a leading voice and force for a more humane business when he is now taking on the next challenge. " The foundation’s board took note of Martin Lundstedt’s accomplishments: - He set diversity as one of Scania's priorities for 2020 with the aim of removing labels such as gender, ethnicity and age and instead thinking skills, experience and attitude. - That during his time at Scania initiated a number of projects to identify improvement areas in which the diversity perspective is missing. At Scania, which has 42,000 employees in 100 countries, diversity is seen as a business issue, and developments are monitored with clear indicators relating to diversity in leadership positions and how the understanding of diversity can be turned into pure business value. - Scania's top management during Martin's tenure as CEO came to consist of people with 5 different nationalities. - That the requirement to be Swedish is abolished in the company's trainee program. Sara Öhrvall, chairman of Pontus Schultz Foundation, said of the award winner: “Martin Lundstedt has a long and solid work on Scania diversity on the management team's agenda and formulated diversity as a business critical factor to remain competitive when the markets become more complex and global. With clear objectives, he has shown that the diversity of experience and perspective brings a diversity of ideas that can realize the best solutions. It is with great pleasure that we award Martin Lundstedt the 2015 Pontus Schultz award for more humane business.”

C'mon now, that's far from the truth. The other carmakers were using SCR which can meet Tier 2 Bin 5, but VW tried to save money over the 2009-2015 period and use a much cheaper Lean Nox Trap on their smaller models, which is insufficient in ability but much cheaper. They planned to start using SCR on the smaller models from mid 2015, and did so. They gambled, knowing the added cost of SCR on smaller, more price-sensitive car models way back in 2009 would hurt sales.........and it would have. Cars like the Golf would have been too expensive (with the diesel option), prohibiting the volume sales they wanted. I do wonder who let the cat out of the bag, and don't believe the official story line.

PACCAR Expands Presence in China Paccar Press Release / December 21, 2006 PACCAR is expanding its business in Asia by opening an office in Shanghai, China. The office will open in 2007 and will focus on purchasing production parts for worldwide operations.

Australasian Transport News (ATN) / November 4, 2015 The Queensland trucking industry has joined a growing chorus demanding relief from exorbitant heavy vehicle registration and fuel charges. Queensland Trucking Association (QTA) president Ben Almond used his speech at the group’s 2015 annual dinner to criticise governments for sticking to the existing charging formula despite knowing it has led to trucking operators being overcharged. Like the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association (ALRTA), the QTA wants transport ministers to agree to a reduction in charges to make up for the years of overcharging. Transport ministers are due to meet this week to discuss the heavy vehicle charges to apply from July 1, 2016. The National Transport Commission (NTC) in 2014 recommended changes to the charging system to prevent overcharging. "My association has recently provided the Queensland Government with a detailed submission on the subject of heavy vehicle charging," Almond says. "Our message and that of the industry throughout Australia is that it is time to stop the overcharging of truck operators in this state and in this country. Minister’s accepted in 2014 that the overcharging was a reality. "The option of freezing government revenue will simply lead to a continuation of overcharging to the extent of $1.2 billion over the next six years. "We urge the Queensland Government to support the direct implementation of the NTC option which will deliver a reduction in heavy vehicle registration removing the current overcharging." The ALRTA and the South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA) have publicly voiced their concerns about heavy vehicle charges. ALRTA president Kevin Keenan says the trucking industry is being overcharged about $200 million annually under the existing system. Transport ministers put off implementing the NTC’s recommendations until July 1, 2016, but Keenan claims alternative options are now being considered. "We have already had a two year delay, which is more than enough time for governments to adjust to a fairer charging system," Keenan says. "Further delays would be nothing more than a blatant opportunistic tax grab".

In the days of the former Mack Trucks, warranty repairs represented a very small fraction of a Mack Trucks distributor's overall shop work. However today with the name under Volvo Group, warranty repairs represent the majority of Mack Trucks distributor's overall shop work. Volvo's tedious step-by-step warranty repair process is both frustrating and time consuming. You have to make numerous phone calls to Greensboro, speaking with Volvo engineers who don't know much more than you do.

No "correctly manufactured" replacement parts available for the world's leading brand truck (sarcasm, on my part). You pay a premium for a truck manufactured with cheap parts wearing a high quality paint finish. Where are the replacement parts coming from - Mexico, Brazil, India or China ???

Mack brand third quarter orders plunged 51 percent. (http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/42364-mack-third-quarter-deliveries-increase-6-percent/?hl=51) The Morning Call, the long-time Allentown (Lehigh Valley) newspaper, can't come across too harshly, or Volvo will shut them out from future interviews. But with orders off by more than half, the near future is bleak.

The Morning Call (Allentown) / November 3, 2015 Mack Trucks' assembly plant in the Lehigh Valley likely will be hit with layoffs, though the extent of the planned reduction is not yet known. Stephen J. Marzen Sr., chairman of United Auto Workers Local 677's Mack unit, said in a letter dated Monday that a layoff is likely in the coming months due to an "anticipated daily build rate reduction." The reduction, he wrote, would trigger "voluntary layoff" opportunities, and workers should review their union-contract language and prepare proper paperwork to initiate or revoke their decision to be let go. Neither Marzen nor Ed Balukas, Local 677 president, responded Tuesday to interview requests. Mack [Volvo Group] expects the heavy truck market to decline about 10 percent in 2016 and needs to adapt production at its Lehigh Valley operations to meet market demands, Mack spokeswoman Kim Pupillo said in an email. "It's too soon to say how many employees will be affected, but as soon as we do quantify the impact, we'll be communicating it to our employees first," she said. Several industry analysts expect heavy truck production to peak this year. In a recent report, Stifel Financial Corp. estimates North American heavy-duty truck production will decline about 15 percent next year. Fluctuations in Mack's workforce are not uncommon as the company monitors the market and adjusts employment needs accordingly. For example, the company's Lower Macungie Township facility, where all Mack trucks built for the North American market are assembled, employed about 1,950 as recently as late May. Then, in mid-October, Mack officials said the figure was approximately 1,870. Mack is Lower Macungie's largest employer. In a separate example, Mack added 200 people in 2012 due to increased demand for heavy-duty trucks. But the boost was short-lived, as the company started laying off 175 production workers in January 2013 because of an industry-wide slowdown. While the state Department of Labor and Industry has not received a WARN notice tied to the possible layoff this time around, state officials said the regional Rapid Response Coordination Services field representative is aware of the potential for layoffs at Mack. Pupillo said Mack will meet with employees this week at regularly scheduled quarterly meetings to discuss business results of the quarter. Through the first nine months of this year, Mack has delivered 18,749 trucks in North America, a 9 percent increase from the 17,136 delivered during the same period in 2014, according to a report released last month by the Sweden-based Volvo Group, Mack's corporate parent. The company's orders in North America, however, are headed in the opposite direction. Mack orders declined 51 percent in the third quarter, the result of "dealers focusing on reducing their inventories and the comparison with a good quarter last year," Volvo Group said. Similarly, in the second quarter, Mack orders were down 50 percent, mainly "a result of cancellations of some of the large quantities of dealer orders placed in the fourth quarter of 2014 combined with a softening in demand in some of Mack's core market segments," such as energy, the company said. While Volvo said it expects the total North American retail market for heavy-duty trucks to approach 310,000 trucks in 2015, the company is anticipating lower demand, about 280,000 trucks, in 2016. Despite the lower forecast for next year, local officials last month believed Mack had room to grow in the Lehigh Valley. The Lower Macungie plant, they said, is pumping out 116 trucks a day. In mid-October, Lower Macungie's Board of Commissioners unanimously adopted a resolution of support for Mack's local operations. In the resolution, the board agreed to facilitate and execute permits and approvals related to construction and renovations of Mack's local operations in a "prompt and efficient manner." In addition, to further the development and growth of Mack's operations, the board agreed to encourage and advocate, to the fullest extent permitted by law, for economic support from local and state government entities. At that time, Wade Watson, vice president and general manager of the Lower Macungie plant, issued a statement saying the company had no major expansion plans but is looking to make site improvements designed for efficiency. He also said the facility, now in its 40th year, requires some updates, including sufficient employee parking. In addition, Watson said, Mack is looking to develop space to be more efficient in how it handles trucks that are ready for delivery. "These sorts of renovations require the support of local government through the permitting process," Watson said in October. "The resolution passed by the Lower Macungie board is simply a commitment from the board to work closely with us as we look to improve our facilities."

Commercial Carrier Journal / November 3, 2015 Volvo Trucks North America has issued two recalls recently, affecting approximately 8,200 trucks total. One of the recalls affects approximately 8,103 model year 2009-2015 Volvo VN trucks manufactured between April 14, 2008, and Dec. 23, 2014. The affected trucks could experience corrosion of the ball joints due to the seals being compromised, which could result in faster wear and failure of the ball joints. Failure of the ball joint could cause separation of the socket and a complete loss of steering, increasing crash risk. Volvo will notify owners, and dealers will inspect and replace the drag links for free, the recall notice says. Volvo says parts are not currently available, so owners will be sent a second notification when the parts are available. The second recall affects 101 model year 2012-2014 Volvo VNL trucks manufactured between Dec. 1, 2011, and Sept. 1, 2013, equipped with certain Electric Auxiliary Power Units, part number BA600, manufactured by Idle Free Systems (IFS). Volvo says the affected APUs have metal housings with mounting points that could crack and tear, and the mounting bolts of the power units could loosen or fail. If this were to happen, the APU could fall off the truck into the road, creating a road hazard. Volvo will notify owners, and IFS dealers will inspect the APU for damage and fix the problem if necessary.

Transport Topics / November 3, 2015 The House on Nov. 3 rejected an effort by Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) aimed at allowing states to increase weight limits for trucks. By a vote of 187 to 236, Ribble’s amendment to a multiyear highway bill on the House floor was not adopted. Under Ribble's proposal, states would have been authorized to determine whether to allow weight limits for trucks to increase to 91,000 pounds. The current standard weight limit for interstate highways is 80,000 pounds. Ribble’s amendment was co-sponsored by Reps. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), David Rouzer (R-N.C.) and Collin Peterson (D-Minn.). Since pushing his provision in September, Ribble did not garner significant backing from the chamber's Republican leaders. The proposal also had been criticized by key members. During the highway bill’s floor debate on Nov. 3, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said such a provision did not belong in a bill seeking bipartisan support. The House will continue to take up amendments to the highway reauthorizing bill on Nov. 4. Passage is expected by the end of the week, the bill’s floor managers say.

Caught Black-Handed: Why Did Volkswagen Cheat? Car & Driver / December 2015 It’s amusing to watch the mainstream press sink its fangs into an auto scandal. Business-page reporters hurriedly scan the releases and the statements—quickly now, the home page needs updating every 17 seconds—and distill a basic, highly superficial narrative. Press agents for experts in all manner of non-automotive subjects, from business ethics to crisis management to consumer advocacy, flood the email inboxes of the news outlets, their clients desperate for the exposure that comes from getting a rote observation into quotes. The flames of public outrage get fanned for a few days with hyperbolic and often-inaccurate punditry. Granted, Volkswagen’s diesel doomsday is not a simple story, rife as it is with technical inside-baseball. Basically, VW programmed an algorithmic routine into the controllers of its model-year 2009–2015 2.0-liter turbo-diesel engines that recognized the protocols of the EPA’s FTP-75 test, including the US06 and SC03 cycles, and altered the engine calibrations to selectively reduce oxides of nitrogen to make the engine compliant with U.S. EPA Tier 2, Bin 5 limits, all in violation of sections 203(a)(3)(and 203(a)(1) of the Clean Air Act. Got it? Legions of TDI owners who thought they bought a “Clean Diesel” (in spite of the slip-slap sound of the stinky, carbon-rich fuel going into their tanks) howled in indignation. Were they victims of a greedy corporate evil, or of ordinary people in the trenches trying to wriggle out of a difficult spot? Here’s a theory on why a carmaker that seemed to have the world conquered made such a heinously bad, unethical, and trust-eroding decision that equally battered both its reputation and its market value. While other automakers pursued hybrids and electric cars, VW long ago bet its green-tech chips on diesels. The decision was emblematic of VW’s prioritization of Europe, where diesels are popular, over diesel-averse North America, a market the carmaker has traditionally dismissed as secondary. The pressure on VW engineers to deliver a clean diesel, or one delivering both good fuel economy and low emissions, was titanic, but the effort ran headlong into U.S. regulations. The decision to cheat must have happened sometime before 2009, two years after the EPA’s Tier 2 emissions standards were in full effect. Tier 2 sets extremely difficult requirements for ­diesels, cutting allowable oxides of nitrogen by 83 percent over Tier 1 regs, to 0.07 gram per mile (fleet average). NO and NO2 (NOx), the strange chemical compounds formed by the high temperature and pressure of an internal-combustion engine, especially diesels, contribute to ground-level ozone, or smog. Tier 2 established by far the toughest NOx standard in the world. It came at a bad time for VW. The most effective technology to cut NOx is called selective catalytic reduction (SCR), which involves spritzing small amounts of urea and water into the exhaust stream to facilitate the breakdown of NOx into nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The problem is that SCR requires a tank, a pump, and plumbing—not easy things to package on a small vehicle platform such as the PQ35, the aging component set comprising the fifth-generation Golf and Jetta. There’s more to putting a urea tank on a car than just lashing it down with zip ties. The floorpan will likely change, the addition of a secondary filler can mean retooling a quarter-panel, and the reengineered car has to go through full crash certification. Golf V owners liked their multilink rear suspensions, a feature that probably would have to be scrapped in favor of a more compact torsion beam to leave room for the tank. (The larger Passat got a urea system in 2012, but VW programmed it so that, apart from the emissions test, it would be stingier with the urea injections, meaning that the owner wouldn’t be inconvenienced with refilling the tank as often.) With Tier 2 looming, VW faced spending millions on an aging product to make its diesel engines legal in the U.S., one of the smallest diesel-passenger-car markets in the world. In 2007, diesel passenger cars represented only about 0.2 percent of the American market. Factor in the contemporaneous collapse of the world economy and the plunge in U.S. vehicle sales, and VW’s engineers were painted into a corner. But a new, totally compliant Jetta TDI appeared as a 2009 model. Its supposed silver bullet was an underfloor Lean NOx Trap (LNT), in which NOx is captured, then converted to nitrogen and carbon dioxide via occasional spurts of diesel fuel. Maybe it didn’t work quite as well as SCR, but it was a lot easier and cheaper to retrofit. And there didn’t seem to be a fuel-economy penalty. The companion 2010 Golf TDI advertised stellar city and highway figures of 30 and 41–42 mpg (depending on the transmission), and owners in forums claimed even higher mileage. What nobody knew then was that the engine was programmed to squirt less fuel into the exhaust when the car was off the test dyno, allowing more NOx out of the tailpipe and raising mileage. Given the choice of reducing the global problem of CO2 or the local problem of smog, VW’s engineers chose a middle path with a cheat that would give U.S. regulators the low NOx they demanded and TDI buyers the high mileage they wanted. As it happened, the fudge would only be needed for six years, until 2014, when Europe, the market that dominates VW’s decision-making, implemented its own tough NOx standards with the so-called Euro 6 regs. By then, the engineers may have figured, VW could phase in better NOx-eating technology through normal platform updating. Why VW continued to include the software cheat in engines built in 2014 and afterward is anyone’s guess. The perpetrators likely believed they wouldn’t be caught, as self-certification is the norm under the EPA, which is too cash-strapped to test but 15 percent of the powertrains on the market and is perennially threatened with extinction by Congress. (Independent researchers discovered the ploy.) And if they were caught, VW probably figured, the penalty and market fallout would be small. Perhaps it was an easy choice to cheat. The European competitive environment is rife with deception. Just look at FIFA soccer, where officials are under indictment by U.S. prosecutors. Europeans have a win-by-any-means streak that sometimes emerges under intense pressure. There certainly was pressure. Then-CEO Martin Winterkorn, who took over Volkswagen AG in 2007 determined to make VW the world leader in volume and profit, ordered his staff to deliver a clean diesel that could be sold worldwide and could carry VW’s diesel religion to the New World to convert nonbelievers. And they did deliver. Did Winterkorn know the details? Maybe he didn’t want to. He has denied any knowledge of the deceit. From a moral and legal standpoint, the fraud was a colossally bad decision. Whether it was a bad financial decision remains to be seen. A half-million cheater diesels were sold in the U.S., with 11 million sold worldwide. Meanwhile, the costs of the scam will take years to measure. It took four years for the federal government to slap a $1.2 billion penalty on Toyota for hiding evidence in its sudden-acceleration investigation, so it’ll be a while before we know how many pounds of VW’s flesh are in play. It almost certainly will be a fraction of the $18 billion widely speculated upon in the press. The rules allow Uncle Sam a lot of wiggle room. This was an emissions issue, after all, not a safety defect involving crashes and fatalities. If you look at the settlement pattern—$935 million for GM, $1.2 billion for Toyota—the fines tend to be starkly punitive but not crushing. Then again, European regulators will likely demand something and there will be civil suits to settle. Once all the shouting is over, VW’s decision to break the rules may prove hugely damaging, a shattering of its recent momentum that distracts and dispirits the company, opens a crack in its armor for competitors, and scuttles demand for the diesel technology upon which VW has staked so much. Or it might just be a break-even, forcing both VW and government regulators into some uncomfortable but necessary changes while being a financial wash against the sales it generated. Or it may even prove to have saved the company some money over the alternatives available to the engineers at the time. Only VW’s accountants will ever know the whole truth. .