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Trailer/Body Builders / April 24, 2014 Navistar International Corp. is boosting truck and bus production at its Escobedo, Mexico, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, assembly plants. The company said that it would boost production at its Tulsa bus plant by 17% and its Escobedo truck plant by 24%. “Clearly, we’re seeing some positive trends in the industry, but more importantly, we’re seeing good customer response to our product offerings in the market,” said Jack Allen, Navistar chief operating officer. “As a result, we’re increasing our second-half production rates at two of our vehicle manufacturing operations.” The company's truck assembly plant in Springfield, Ohio, will maintain its current production rate. “In the Class 8 market, we have a complete portfolio of products that deliver the uptime, fuel economy and driver satisfaction our customers demand,” Allen said. “We’re seeing strong interest from customers for the Cummins ISB engine in our medium-duty trucks and school buses. And, there’s great anticipation for our vocational truck products powered by our 9L and 10L engines that will launch this summer with SCR emissions technology. With these product offerings, we’re seeing some positive momentum in our truck and bus orders and have an order backlog 80% higher than this time last year.”

Australasian Transport News / May 5, 2014 Navistar has refreshed its brand in the region, with NC2 Global Australia, which sells International and Cat branded trucks in Australia, New Zealand and Pacific markets, Navistar Auspac – standing for Australia Pacific. Navistar Auspac remains a wholly owned subsidiary of Navistar, Inc. and its executives and staff will maintain their existing roles. "This is an extremely positive and timely change," Navistar Auspac Managing Director Kevin Dennis states. "Navistar sees growth opportunities in the Australian, New Zealand and Pacific markets, and we are committed to realising the potential. "To have a major company like Navistar put its name to this region creates assurance for our current and future customers that they are dealing with a company that is totally dedicated to the truck business. "It’s certainly refreshing to now be officially operating under one powerful and widely respected brand name." .

Apparently Volvo cooperated with Chinese engine maker Weichai and installed at least one of the Chinese engines in a Mack MRU. This particular engine is a 10-liter (9.726L) natural gas model WP10NG. Now I've seen it all. .

Heavy Cargo / April 16, 2014 Ford Trucks Brazil has launched two new purpose-designed chassis for refuse collection, the Cargo 1723 6x2 and lighter Cargo 1119 4x2. Waste collection is one of the most demanding for commercial vehicles. The new Cargo 1723 and 1119 waste collectors are spec’d for refuse operations, delivering greater durability, performance and economy. The 4x2 Cargo 1723 has a 16,800kg (37,038lb) GVW, while the 6x2 version is rated at 23,000kg (50,706lb). The Cargo 1723 features a robust low-maintenance rear suspension from HBZ Suspension Systems. The Cargo 1119 is now the only medium truck with a gross weight of 11 tons (24,251lb) for refuse operations. With the most power in its class, the Cargo 1119 negotiates narrow streets with ease. The goal of Ford Trucks is seeking leadership in this segment that Ford has always had a strong presence in. Both the Cargo 1723 and 1119 represent Ford’s investment in the waste industry to bring to market the best performing truck possible. Ford Trucks introduced the two vehicles at an event held at Ford’s São Bernardo do Campo assembly plant.

I don't disagree with you. Speaking of the MAN D20 and D26 (MaxxForce 11 & 13), while MAN could only take EGR to Euro-5, former Navistar CEO Dan Ustian arrogantly thought his people could reach Euro-6 (EPA2010). I'm simply pointing out the role that the EPA played in Navistar's EGR technology, as many don't know.

Stuttgart/Chennai / April 10, 2014 Sales up by 67% in the first quarter of 20141,000 units in a month crossed for the first time in MarchMarket share expanded to more than 5%Just one month after beginning construction on a new bus plant, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, has crossed another milestone having sold 10,000 BharatBenz commercial trucks since the market launch in September 2012. Selling roughly 2,200 vehicles in the first quarter of 2014, the youngest brand in Daimler Trucks’ portfolio also achieved a growth of 67% as compared to the same period in 2013. BharatBenz’ sales success is impressive considering the Indian truck segment over 6 tons decreased by 20% in the first three months of the year. “It is a tremendous success for us that we have already sold 10,000 BharatBenz trucks within just 18 months”, says Marc Llistosella, Managing Director & CEO of DICV. “Despite a challenging market environment, we rely on high-quality products and transparent pricing without any discount. This is how we have gained the trust of our customers in a quite apparent way.” In September 2012, DICV entered the Indian market with an all-new range of heavy truck models. The product portfolio grew by several variants and medium-duty trucks in the months that followed. BharatBenz now offers a full range of trucks from 9 to 49 ton GVW (gross vehicle weight). In the 9+ ton segment, the company has achieved a market share of 5.3% on the Indian commercial vehicle market. Since May 2013, DICV has added FUSO trucks to its production portfolio at its plant in Chennai, India. Operating under Daimler Trucks Asia, BharatBenz works closely with the Japanese subsidiary of Daimler, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC). Following an additional investment of US$69.2 million, BharatBenz and Mercedes-Benz branded buses will begin rolling off the assembly line in Chennai starting in the second quarter of 2015. .

Forbes / April 16, 2014 The Indiana enginemaker believes deeply in the anachronistic idea that investing in its community is smart business. Could it be on to something? Just past the factory’s lobby, with its worn, gray chairs and a safety video droning on a flat-screen TV, through thick plastic curtains clouded by age and grime, there’s a whirr of air tools. Cummins Diesel workers are hunched around stocky engine blocks, adding crankshafts, pistons and piping. Every once in a while they look up, distracted by construction noise at the other end of the building. There, bright light bounces off brilliant white walls. Construction workers in clean orange vests and hard hats are bustling, laying new rail tracks and setting giant turntables into freshly poured concrete floors. The newest section of Cummins’ Seymour, Ind. engine plant is like another planet. The expansion is making room for the Hedgehog: the company’s new high-horsepower engine, one of the most powerful and efficient diesel engines in the world. With a price tag of a quarter of a million dollars, it’s a behemoth–16 cylinders, 4,000hp and the size of a trailer home–but it needs to be to power the locomotives, oil rigs and mining equipment that will depend on it. The Hedgehog is propelling a lot more than machinery, though. With its $100 million investment and 200 new jobs, Cummins CEO Tom Linebarger is making a long-term bet that he can transform Seymour (pop. 18,000), where it’s difficult to find employees with high school diplomas, much less attract engineers from the nation’s best universities, in the same way the company helped Columbus, Ind., Cummins’ hometown, 20 miles up the road. While many of the schools around Seymour are struggling and literacy levels are low even among adults, Columbus is a pocket of mid-western prosperity, with the highest concentration of mechanical engineers per capita in the country (31 per 1,000) and the lowest unemployment rate in Indiana (5.2%)–not to mention a stunning collection of world-class architecture that draws some 50,000 visitors a year. It has new pre-schools, a college campus offering joint degrees from three Indiana universities and a training center for advanced manufacturing. Cummins was instrumental in all of it, creating an education partnership that has become a model for tackling the U.S. skills gap. And it aims to have a similar impact in every one of the 190 places where it does business around the world. None of which is new for Cummins. In the 1950s longtime chief executive J. Irwin Miller embraced the trendy postwar notion that a healthy company can’t exist without a healthy community. Miller created a stakeholder model that balanced the interests of employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, regulators and the community in every decision. Unlike most other companies, Cummins stuck with it for the next 60 years. The result: Cummins, Columbus and Seymour are living laboratories for how business and community can work together at a time when that idea is once again very much in vogue. Attracting, retaining and cultivating scarce engineering talent is now a core business concern for many technology companies, and that anxiety is propelling the resurgence of the altruistic “company town.” Quicken Loans’ billionaire owner Dan Gilbert is buying up downtown Detroit in an effort to renovate and revitalize the bankrupt city–and attract young tech workers there. In Brooklyn, N.Y. IBM cofounded P-TECH, a public school aimed at turning students into IT workers–and plans to back 27 more. “What they’re doing is just taking an intelligent self-interest in their community rather than a selfish interest,” says Harvard Business School professor Joseph L. Bower, who has studied Cummins. Linebarger agrees. “Is it self-interest? Yes,” he says. “But it’s easier to attract people to your company if you’re in an area that has good schools, a clean environment and opportunity for all.” This idea that the role of a corporation extends to the care of the community around it and that the company has a responsibility to help guide the community–is, of course, hardly new. With distant roots in feudal preindustrial Europe, the “company town” flowered at the turn of the 20th century as industrial titans like Henry Ford and Milton Hershey decided they not only knew what was best for employees on the factory floor but off of it as well. From Hershey, Pennsylvania to Kohler, Wisconsin, the company–and company town–remained the center of life for millions of postwar American workers. “In the Fifties corporations were supposed to take care of society. That was the managerial perspective,” says Aneel G. Karnani, associate professor of strategy at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. “In the last few decades there’s been a shift to more of a shareholder perspective. Managers are agents of the shareholders. Government is supposed to take care of the rest.” Cummins has been at the center of life in Columbus since its founding in 1919 by a mechanic named Clessie Cummins and a financier named William Glanton “W. G.” Irwin, scion of a prominent banking family and the great-uncle of Irwin Miller. A tinkerer, Clessie Cummins was among the first to see the commercial potential of an unproved engine technology invented two decades earlier by Rudolf Diesel, and in 1929 he created America’s first diesel-powered automobile– a used Packard limo he’d adapted. Almost a century later Cummins is the world’s largest supplier of diesel engines and components to the trucking industry, with $17 billion in revenues and $1.5 billion in net income in 2013. More than half its sales are generated outside the U.S., especially in China and India, where it is the market leader. Miller’s vision was hatched in the 1950s. To keep up with the baby boom Columbus figured it would have to build a new school every two years. Miller, whose company was also growing, wanted to make sure it was done right. He fretted that Cummins wouldn’t be able to attract top engineers and their families to a small town in southern Indiana if the schools were built on the cheap. He took it upon himself to guide the development needed to attract them. “Mediocrity is expensive,” he often said, according to his son, Will, president of the Wallace Foundation in New York and a member of Cummins’ board of directors. Rather than just move the company, Miller changed the town, indulging his architectural tastes by using the company to subsidize public school construction. The Cummins Foundation would pay the design portion of each project but only if the city used world-class architects recommended by Miller. Later that was expanded to include all public buildings, including the fire station, courthouse, city hall and even the jail. Private developers followed. Today, Columbus boasts more than 60 modernist buildings designed by masters such as I.M. Pei, Eero and Eliel Saarinen, and Cesar Pelli. Six of the buildings were designated National Historic Landmarks in 2000. Since 1957 Cummins has spent $19.2 million on architectural fees for Columbus. Born into a family of preachers, Miller’s personal beliefs on social justice and service to others guided many of his business decisions. As the first lay leader of the National Council of Churches, Miller worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Andrew Young to organize the historic civil rights march on Washington in 1963. In the 1970s the company took a substantial financial hit when it pulled out of South Africa, abandoning a 20% market share for diesel engines because the apartheid government wouldn’t let Cummins desegregate its factories. It has offered domestic partner benefits to employees since 1999, and in the last few years the company and its executives have been lobbying to legalize gay marriage. “Whatever you do in this world, you’ve got a responsibility and a privilege of doing it the very best way you can,” Miller, who died in 2004, said in a company film clip. “And whether it is architecture or cooking or drama or music, the best is none too good for any of us.” By the late 1980s, of course, the idea that the “CEO knows best” seemed anachronistic, at best. The long bull market and the emerging culture of equity-incented employees made the idea that companies are run purely for shareholders–not managers and certainly not employees–mainstream. Conventional economic wisdom remains that maximizing profits is the only acceptable corporate mission. The idea of a company town with diverse stakeholders was beyond pass?–it felt like a throwback to Henry Ford’s paternalism, or even to the 19th-century utopian communities of Oneida, N.Y. and Amana, Iowa (in both cases, the businesses they spawned–silverware and appliances–outlived the utopias). But Cummins stuck with it. As the company’s operations spread across the globe, so did Miller’s ideas. In India, for example, the company opened the Cummins College of Engineering for Women to train more female engineers with degrees in mechanical engineering. Of the first class of 65 graduates, 40 received job offers from Cummins. Linebarger says the entire institution cost less than endowing a chair at a U.S. university and it fulfilled a critical need: a well-trained, diverse workforce. In Columbus the company partnered with schools, universities, city leaders and other businesses to increase graduation rates and promote economic growth. It convinced three local colleges to open Columbus branches and then added an Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence, where local high schools and colleges could train students for careers in manufacturing. In 2008 Columbus’ high school graduation rate hovered around 80%–just above the national average of 75%. So Cummins coordinated an army of volunteers to mentor at-risk students. By 2012 the graduation rate had improved to 88%. (Cummins says 73% of its 48,000 workers worldwide volunteer in their communities.) How much does all this do-gooderism cost? In 2012 Cummins invested approximately $31 million in corporate responsibility efforts, including $14 million to the Cummins Foundation, which in turn doled out $8 million in grants. While it’s impossible to precisely quantify the benefits, the costs are hardly a drag. Through most of the 2000s the company enjoyed strong growth, despite being hit hard by the recession. Sales fell almost 25% from 2007, to $10.8 billion, but rebounded by 2010 to $18 billion. The last three years have been softer, with sales of $17.3 billion on weak demand in key international markets. Despite those headwinds Cummins generated record cash flow from operations in 2013 that allowed it to continue to invest in its business (and its social projects) and still increase the cash returned to shareholders by 34% in 2013. This year the company expects revenues to grow between 4% and 8%, with earnings expected to grow faster due to cost controls and other initiatives. Linebarger says the company expects to return about half its cash from operations to shareholders. The stock is up 400% since 2009, or four times the S&P 500, to a recent $145 per share. Its market capitalization now stands at $27 billion. Cummins’ story of better schools, nice towns and solid profits makes it easy to forget the compelling counterargument that the best way for companies to benefit society is for companies to simply stick to their knitting: maximizing profits for their owners. “Why are you taking my money to do good things for society?” asks Karnani, who supports what Cummins does but still questions the universality of its philosophy. “A manager is in no position to make these tradeoffs on what is good for society. Companies should stick to making profits.” Cummins managers wave off these kinds of philosophical arguments. In an era of cash-strapped governments and increasing need for well-educated workers at every level, what they’re doing is pragmatic, not just altruistic. “We don’t think we have the perfect answer,” says Linebarger. “Nor do we sit back and think, ‘Let the government do it.’ We think companies can help. And we can help because we know what skills people are looking for. … We have skills, thoughts, knowledge, energy, all things that can be positive. In partnership we can be useful. We try to find those areas where Cummins has good things to offer, and the community needs it.” The decision to expand in Seymour wasn’t easy for Cummins. The likely choice was Pune, India, where costs are cheaper and where Cummins already has a huge manufacturing base. But for a brand-new product–especially one as sophisticated as the Hedgehog–there was a clear advantage to manufacturing it close to the engineers who designed it. Still, it was hard to justify further investment in Seymour. The existing plant had been targeted for closure at least ten times in the past 15 years because Cummins has had a hard time finding qualified employees. So the company decided to do what it always has done: Fix the problems. As in Columbus it teamed up with Seymour educators to begin drafting a school-improvement plan that would promote growth. (It’s doing the same thing in Jamestown, N.Y. and Rocky Mount, N.C., where it has plants.) Meanwhile the Lilly Endowment, a private philanthropic fund that liked what Cummins was doing in Columbus, gave $50 million to fund a broader initiative to create a “regional lifelong learning system” for a ten-county area of southeast Indiana. The goal is to assist each person in the area to move up at least one level from an education or career standpoint, particularly in the fields of manufacturing and health care. It may not be everyone’s cup of capitalism, and it may take years to see results, but to Darren Wildman, manager of the Seymour plant, it makes perfect sense. “Higher graduation rates mean more pull for industries, more jobs, better jobs, more taxes,” he says. “And better communities.”

When we talk about Navistar and their failed EGR strategy for EPA2010, there is much more to the story that needs to be said. Navistar didn't pull anything on the EPA. In fact, they were working together. Let's start at the beginning, about 15 years ago, at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA’s engineers were developing a Heavy to Massive EGR strategy which they named “Clean Diesel Combustion” (CDC). http://www.epa.gov/otaq/technology/420f04023.pdf The EPA first mentioned CDC in 2000. FEV Engine Technology (www.fev.com) was behind the scenes under contract to the EPA doing the actual development. Of course the EPA didn’t invent EGR. European truckmakers introduced EGR on Euro-4 engines in 2004. Both MAN and Scania went on to offer EGR in their Euro-5 (EPA2007) engines without any issues (they also offered SCR – giving customers a choice). Why is the EPA involved in the design of emissions technology? This is the business of the private sector engine manufacturers and companies like Eberspaecher and Johnson Matthey that engaged in the development and production of emissions reducing components. Clean Diesel Combustion (CDC) technology began to take form and be appreciated as we were looking for alternative paths to support the EPA’s heavy duty 2007 rules. We were looking for combustion approaches that enabled the engine to exhaust the combustion products with engine-out NOx emissions at or below a 0.2 g/bhp/hr level at every point where the engine was required to operate. This NOx emissions target is the ultimate level of the HD 2007 standard, and will be required for HD engines sold after 2010. —David Haugen, EPA Advanced Technology Division, at DEER 2004 The EPA team (thru FEV Engine Technology) discovered that it could handle NOx in-cylinder to a sufficient extent, without relying on aftertreatments, by reducing oxygen concentration to manage the oxidation (combustion) of the fuel in the diffusion flame region of the cylinder. Since NOx is formed at high temperatures as a byproduct of hydrocarbon combustion, the EPA sought to keep the local temperature below critical NOx formation threshold—around 2,100°K (1,827°C or 3,320°F), thus largely preventing NOx formation. A few months after announcing their EGR technology (“Clean Diesel Combustion”), the EPA and Navistar formed a “partnership” in 2004 in which Navistar would get to test the CDC (EGR) technology on their engines. Navistar went on to license the EPA’s EGR technology and put it into production. But while the EPA’s EGR solution worked for EPA2007 (as did everyone else’s although some clearly better than others), Navistar’s endeavor to further refine CDC to meet EPA2010 was a failure. http://www.epa.gov/oms/technology/420f04036.pdf The EPA gave Navistar prejudiced support all the way to the end when they got in trouble for it when in June 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled there wasn't sufficient justification for the EPA to disregard its normal rules and allow Navistar to pay $2,000 for every heavy truck engine that failed to comply with EPA2010 emissions.

Diesel News (Australia) / April 16, 2014 Last Saturday, the Australian chapter of the American Historical Truck Society ran an event they call “Crawlin’ the Hume”, a collection of classic trucks making the journey from Melbourne to Albury. The idea was to use as much of the old Hume Highway as possible. To enter a truck in the event, it had to be over 25 years old. Here they are seen climbing along a misty Hume four lane section. . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-JNXmU0Dyo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPjsoVLX1Kw

Scania Press Release / April 15, 2014 For a number of years, the trucking industry has struggled to fulfill the exacting emission legislation that came into force at the end of last year. Scania is the truckmaker that has been able to present competitive solutions sooner and better than anyone else. Scania now offers its customers no less than 18 Euro-6 (EPA2010) engines for all types of applications – and is setting international records in low fuel consumption with their latest Euro-6 diesel engine. “Euro 6 has been a challenge for the entire industry,” says Joel Granath, Head of Product Management for Scania trucks. “Many predicted increased fuel consumption with increased complexity. Now the jury is in – at the end of last year, for example, a Scania Streamline G 410 set two undisputed records for 40-tonne (88,185lb) trailer combina­tions when German and French trade press journalist’s tested it on well-established and de­manding test tracks. According to the media, no equivalent rig, regardless of emission class, had previously passed the demanding route* north of Munich in just over 24 litres/100 km (9.8 miles per gallon).” Former concerns about Euro-6 have proved unfounded. Despite this, it seems as if both Scania and other truckmakers had a strong influx of customers during the autumn of 2013, many customers wanting to lock in a Euro 5 truck order before the new year. “Our customers are living with tough competition and I understand that some chose security over the unknown. But whoever chooses Scania also chooses proven tech­nology with Euro-6,” emphasizes Joel Granath. “Three years have passed since Scania delivered the first-generation Euro-6 engines. Today, there is indisputable evidence in the form of operating data from our customers that Scania made the right choices in development.” Joel Granath declines to go into the extent of the resources Scania has invested in its Euro-6 programs but emphasizes instead the achievements in terms of, for example, the breadth of the engine range using alternative fuels: “Scania has presently eleven diesel engines, two gas engines and five engines for 100 percent biodiesel in the Euro-6 engine range. We can offer solutions for all applications and needs. I am especially proud of the low consumption figures we reach with Scania Streamline. Our 13-litre, inline six with 410 horsepower and SCR only, was developed with European long-haulage operators in mind and has exceeded all expec­tations. It is a typical example of Scania’s main focus, to reduce our customers total operating costs.” http://mb.cision.com/Main/209/9569874/233816.pdf A 40-tonne (88,185lb) truck with Scania’s Euro-6, inline 13-litre six cylinder engine, producing 410 horsepower, can in theory drive nearly 3,700 kilometres (2,299 miles) on a single 900-litre (237.8 gallon) fuel tank as shown below.

My friend, she is talking about the U.S. market. Some interesting facts here. Freightliner has a 38% market share in U.S. Class 8, while Volvo's Mack brand has a mere 6%. And the Volvo brand, holding a 10% market share, is 4% ahead of Volvo's Mack brand. And note the credit she gave to Detroit Diesel for their success. ___________________ She was just off the plane from America, citing an impressive market share figure for Freightliner in US Class 8 (heavy-duty) trucks: a whopping 38 percent. Following way behind are International (16%); Peterbilt (14%); Kenworth (12%); Volvo (10%); Mack (6%); and Daimler stablemate Western Star (2%). Walker says Freightliner’s share is even better for Class 6/7 (medium-duty) trucks: 50 percent of the market. Then there are International (20%); Ford (19%); Hino (6%); and the Paccar brands Peterbilt and Kenworth (4% each).

The Trucker / April 4, 2014 The National Transportation Safety Board Thursday issued seven recommendations urging the National Highway Safety Administration to take action to improve the safety of tractor-trailers. These recommendations stem from a 2013 NTSB safety study on single-unit trucks and other research, which identified issues that apply to tractor-trailers as well. "Millions of large trucks travel our roadways every day, transporting goods and keeping the American economy moving," said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman. "But research shows that eliminating blind spots and underride events would reduce fatalities and injuries involving other road users." Like large single-unit trucks, tractor-trailers may have blind spots that can reduce the ability of drivers to see other vehicles and road users, Hersman said, adding that researchers found that limited field of view can increase the risk of death or injury among passenger vehicle occupants, pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists when drivers of tractor-trailers change lanes, make turns, go straight, or back up. Collisions with the sides of tractor-trailers resulted in about 500 deaths each year and that many of these deaths involved side underride. Researchers also found that current trailer rear underride guard standards are outdated. The recommendations call on NHTSA to require that both newly manufactured truck-tractors and trailers be equipped with side underride protection systems, and that revisions be made to improve trailer rear underride guard standards to better protect passenger vehicle occupants from fatalities and serious injuries. Finally, the NTSB asked NHTSA to address the issue of data collection on trailers. When a tractor-trailer gets into an accident, police officers routinely record basic information about the truck-tractor component of the tractor-trailer, including the model year and vehicle identification number. However, information about the trailer component is usually missing from federal and state databases. Having this information could help with evaluation of safety standards and determine whether certain trailer designs and equipment should be altered to reduce injury risks to passenger vehicle occupants. Therefore, the NTSB recommended that NHTSA add information on trailer model year and trailer vehicle identification numbers to its national database of fatal crashes and encourage states to add trailer information to their crash databases. The complete safety recommendation letter to NHTSA is available at: http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/recletters/2014/H-14-001-007.pdf

Overdrive / April 15, 2014 The Federal Highway Administration will be holding an open-to-the-public webinar May 6 to provide an update on the MAP-21 required study on truck size and weight limits, the agency announced April 15 in the Federal Register. FHWA says the update will “include an update on the technical analysis and project schedule” of the Comprehensive Truck Size and Weight Limits Study. The study, required by Congress in MAP-21, seeks to find the impacts on safety, infrastructure and enforcement of increasing the size and weight limits of trucks, along with the effects on freight movement. The webinar will be held from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern May 6, and those interested in tuning in can register on FHWA’s site. Click here to register or see more details. This is the third public session FHWA has held on the size and weight study. There are currently two bills in Congress dealing with size and weight increases — one that would freeze current limits and one that would let states raise weight limits to 97,000 pounds. And with work on the next highway bill heating up, a coalition of trucking, safety and enforcement groups took to Capitol Hill last week to voice their opposition to any size and weight limit increases. Click here to see Overdrive’s coverage of the event. A study released last week by Marshall University also added fuel to the opposition fire, pointing toward higher fatality rates for larger and heavier trucks when involved in crashes, along with strong opposition from drivers and enforcers. Click here for more on the study.

Fleet Owner / April 15, 2014 As more engine makers aim to push the use of low viscosity oils for their products, mainly in a bid to comply with ever-tighter heavy truck fuel economy mandates, fleets are voicing concerns about the long-term protective capability of such “thinner” oil – a concern lubricant makers are trying to dispel via a variety of outreach efforts. Chevron served up the most recent iteration of such “outreach” during a series of engine teardowns conducted at the Mid America Trucking Show last month. “The big concern for a lot of fleets is protection,” Jim Gambill, Chevron’s North America Commercial and Industrial brands manager, told Fleet Owner. “Even though about a third of the trucking market has converted to low viscosity oils, most fleets don’t have the luxury to try something out to see if it works. They want more concrete proof that it works, which is why we’ve been conducting such ‘live’ engine teardowns in the market.” Gambill explained that, from the fleet perspective, any fuel economy savings generated from using low viscosity oils won’t be worth it if the protective capability of the oil is compromised. “Simply put, the dollars gained just aren’t worth it if the [low viscosity] oil can’t protect the engine like today’s thicker oils can,” he stressed. That’s the reason why Chevron took its engine teardown on the road, he noted – to show that a lighter 10W-30 oil blend offered protection comparable to a thicker 15W-40 blend in a DD15 engine with over 400,000 mi. of service on it. “We made sure via the teardown exercise that fleets and truck operators could see all the vital parts vulnerable to excessive wear – particularly the cam, cam shaft, and piston linings – were in the same if not better condition when using 10W-30,” Gambill said. “Having that protection is critical to obtaining the full fuel economy savings of the low viscosity oil.” He added that the price differential between 10W-30 and thicker 15W-40 blends is not large, with the 10W-30 blends typically costing 10% more and sometimes only 5% more based on volume discounts, with the lower viscosity formula able to deliver about a 1% to 2% fuel economy savings based on Chevron customer fleet tests. “When we isolate the engine oil performance in the lab, we see savings of about up to 1% – but even a half percent gain in fuel economy can save significant money over time when diesel is costing near the $4 per gallon mark,” Gambill explained. “Not only that, we’re seeing reduced use of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) and longer oil filter life as well so there are ‘ripple effect’ savings to be gained as well by switching to lower viscosity engine oils.” He added, too, that the trend towards smaller displacement engines – downsizing from 15 liter to 13 liter models to help save on weight – adds another dimension of savings potential for lower viscosity oil blends. “You tend to generate more fuel savings from low viscosity oils when engine RPMs increase, simply because the engine isn’t working as hard with the thinner oil at that those higher RPMs,” Gambill said. “Thus is the engine works less at higher RPMs, the bigger the fuel savings. That’s the key trend here.”

The Morning Call / April 15, 2014 A truck caught fire Tuesday evening as it was being tested after coming off the assembly line at the Mack Trucks plant in Lower Macungie Township, a spokeswoman for the company said. Lower Macungie Fire Co. Chief David Nosal said the truck was being driven on a dynamometer when it caught fire in the plant's final area where finished trucks are tested and inspected. A dynamometer is a device used to simulate running a vehicle under road conditions. Mack spokeswoman Kimberly Pupillo said there were no injuries caused by the fire, although the building was evacuated while firefighters worked to ensure the blaze was extinguished. Pupillo said production in the plant at 7000 Alburtis Road was halted, but company officials were working to restart the assembly line around 8 p.m. Tuesday. Nosal said the truck where the fire started was destroyed, but damage to the building was minor. The building's sprinkler system kept the fire contained until firefighters arrived. There was some damage to the roof immediately above the burning truck and a large amount of water in the testing area, he said.

You mentioned the frame had been shortened. If I recall correctly, the frame dimensions of the G were the same as the RD. So if you can still buy new long length blank RD rails, you could cut off the front and recreate new G frame rails.

The more common MaxxForce 11 and 13 are license-built German MAN D20s and D26s. Only the MaxxForce 15 was CAT related (C15). The "Massive EGR" (EGR levels from 35% to 50%) emissions system used on the MaxxForce 11, 13 and 15 was Navistar-designed. MAN and CAT merely provided the basic engine. The MAN-designed Euro-5 EGR engines in the global market performed very well. MAN went with SCR for Euro-6 (near EPA2010).

Australasian Truck News / April 14, 2014 Fresh from the booming US truck market, Kristi Walker is no stranger to Freightliner or the Australian scene Kristi Walker says out loud what a lot of people in the trucking industry might be thinking. "It’s not every day in Australia you see a young woman from America coming across to sell heavy-duty trucks," points out the new General Manager for Freightliner in Australia. Walker has worked with Freightliner all her decade-plus career, most recently as manager of sales operations for Daimler Trucks North America, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before that she was market manager for Freightliner in Australia and New Zealand: "So for me although I’m not an Aussie it’s a bit of a homecoming." Walker was speaking at her first official outing here − the media event for the recent 25th anniversary of Freightliner in Australia. She was just off the plane from America, citing an impressive market share figure for Freightliner in US Class 8 (heavy-duty) trucks: a whopping 38 percent. Following way behind are International (16%); Peterbilt (14%); Kenworth (12%); Volvo (10%); Mack (6%); and Daimler stablemate Western Star (2%). Walker says Freightliner’s share is even better for Class 6/7 (medium-duty) trucks: 50 percent of the market. Then there are International (20%); Ford (19%); Hino (6%); and the Paccar brands Peterbilt and Kenworth (4% each). So it’s no surprise that Freightliner reckons the potential to increase its share of the pie in Australia is "huge". Walker attributes the American success to such factors as the "competitive advantage" of having Detroit engines; "industry benchmark" fuel economy; technology leadership, for example introducing cleaner emissions a year before becoming mandatory; "the lowest total cost of ownership"; and providing the most 24/7 service locations. The promising news for all truck brands in Australia is that the American truck market is going through the roof. "The market in the United States is great," Walker says. "Sales have accelerated faster than we expected and we actually expect 2014 to end up being over 10 per cent more than 2013. "The industry backlog is substantial, it’s also grown over 2013 to the point where the industry will need to add production." Freightliner is already building 100 trucks a day more than during the fourth quarter of 2013, an increase of nearly 20 percent. .

Transport Topics / April 14, 2014 Volkswagen AG ruled out raising its $9.2 billion bid to buy out Swedish truck maker Scania AB after some minority stakeholders rejected the deal as being too low. “Volkswagen is confident that the offer is compelling to Scania shareholders,” Wolfsburg, Germany-based VW said in a statement said in a statement. “Volkswagen therefore declares that it will not increase the consideration in the offer.” The German car and truck maker, which controls 62.6% of Scania’s capital, is bidding for the rest to push forward cooperation between the Swedish company and MAN SE, the German truck maker that VW also controls. The offer is 36% higher than Scania’s closing price on Feb. 21, when VW announced its plan. So far, minority investors representing about 2.3% of Scania’s capital have publicly rejected the offer. Volkswagen has said it will only pursue the bid if it can secure 90% of Scania, the threshold needed under Swedish law to force remaining owners to sell their holdings and delist the company.

Fleet Owner / April 14, 2014 Bully Dog has released a new ECM tuner with four variations for CAT, Cummins, Detroit and Paccar engines.The tuner can also read and erase trouble codes and adjust speed limiters, the company said. Users can choose between the Economy tune, Economy + Power or custom tuning. The Economy tune can help drivers achieve mileage gains of 6-12%, Bully Dog said. By using Economy + Power, fleets can increase horsepower and torque up to 15% while still maintaining economy. The device’s display makes it easy to read and erase trouble codes, adjust the speed limiter, and perform vehicle diagnostics while on the road. http://bigrig.bullydog.com/electronics.php

Transport Topics / April 14, 2014 Specialty-vehicle manufacturer Oshkosh Corp. said its defense segment plans to cut about 700 hourly jobs in Oshkosh, Wis., starting in June and about 60 salaried positions starting in July. After the layoffs, Oshkosh Defense will employ about 1,850 workers, the company said in the April 10 statement. “We need to reshape our workforce with U.S. defense spending down as a result of tight government budgets and a return to peacetime operations,” said John Urias, Oshkosh executive vice president and president of Oshkosh Defense. “We have gone to great lengths to minimize and delay the impact of the reduced spending on our defense workforce.”

Mack Trucks, Inc. 25 Broadway, New York, NY Trucks ● Buses ● Fire Apparatus ● Rail Cars ● Locomotives "Predominant in Commercial Highway Transportation" .

So at the same time Volvo is attempting to sell military vehicles and components to the United States using their Mack Defense shell company, the Swedish company is also trying to sell to the Russians. That’s slick. Our boys could be going up against Russian equipment propelled by Volvo engines (produced at Volvo Powertrain in Hagerstown, formerly owned by America’s Mack Trucks). And Volvo is now reconsidering, not because supplying the Russian military (with modern technology) is the wrong thing to do, but simply because they fear the Swedish government will veto the deal. Talk about corporate ethics.

Volvo Suspends Russia Tank Project Over Ukraine Uncertainty Agence France-Presse / April 7, 2014 STOCKHOLM – Volvo Group said Monday it has suspended a project to build an armored infantry fighting vehicle with a Russian company due to uncertainty over the Ukraine crisis. Renault Trucks Defense, which is owned by the Swedish truck manufacturer Volvo, in February 2013 signed an agreement to develop a combat vehicle with Russia's state-owned UralVagonZavod. But the project has been reconsidered due to concerns the Swedish government would veto the deal as the West seeks to isolate Moscow over its annexation of Crimea. The "Atom" armored infantry fighting vehicle would use a 600 horsepower Volvo D13 engine and so would require approval from Stockholm. The Atom is a heavy 8x8 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) jointly developed by the Russian company Petrel (a division of Uralvagonzavod) and Renault Trucks Defense. The Atom is based Renault Trucks Defense’s VBCI (http://www.renault-trucks-defense.eu/Defense/DRIVELINE-VBCI/VBCI). "As we see many uncertain factors around a possible collaboration, we have suspended our cooperation agreement until further notice," Volvo spokesperson Karin Wik said. The agreement was meant to last until March 2015, she added. Sweden is not part of NATO, whose members have yet to block weapons sales to Moscow over its intervention in Ukraine but have suspended military cooperation. Sweden has been outspoken against Russia's annexation of Crimea. Swedish daily Dagens Industri wrote last week that Stockholm's "policy is clear: Swedish companies shouldn't furnish the Russian military or defense industry with military equipment that risks being used against Swedish troops."

In addition to non-powered railroad passenger cars, Budd's motorized Rail Diesel Cars (RDCs) were highly successful and important to rail development in America. In addition to producing truck cabs for Mack (N-Series), Ford (C-Series) and FWD, Budd was a long-time body supplier to both Ford and Dodge. http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/b/budd/budd.htm