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Scania Group Press Release / February 19, 2020 Stronger cabs, emergency brakes, better protection for drivers and their fellow road users. Safety is in Scania’s DNA. Here are some of the key innovations. It’s a familiar situation for all truck drivers: you are about to make a right turn at a crossroads. The inner-city street is busy with rush-hour traffic, pedestrians and cyclists. Having checked the side-view mirror, you put the indicator on and start turning. Suddenly an alert sounds in the cab: something is moving in your blind spot! You brake the truck and discover a stressed cycling father on his way to pick up the kids from daycare. Phew! – Saved by the Scania truck’s built-in safety feature: Side Detection. “This is the latest advanced driver assistance system in our trucks. We think it will contribute a lot to reducing what is a common accident that often has tragic consequences,” says Adam Claesson, Senior Engineer for active safety systems at Scania. Constant focus on safety The Side Detection function is the latest safety feature from Scania, but throughout its history the company has focused extensively on all aspects of safe transport – vehicles, drivers and fellow road users. The focus areas include passive safety (protecting the driver and other road users if an accident occurs) and active safety (preventing accidents from occurring at all). This means building safe, ergonomic cabs, as well as developing clever hardware solutions and intelligent support systems. Safety is in Scania’s DNA “Safety is a part of our DNA. Historically, Scania has invested vast resources into the area, and we often strive to go beyond the stipulated road and vehicle safety legislation,” says Dan Loftén, Expert Engineer for crash safety within Scania. Or, as Adam Claesson puts it: “Safety is part of our goal of driving the shift in the transport industry. Not only do we want to save the environment, we also want to save lives.” New era for safety in the transport industry The early 2000s ushered in a new era of transport and traffic safety. Active electronic systems to enhance the driver’s performance were introduced, including the Electronic Stability Program. Introduced in 2004, this feature stabilises the truck when there is a risk of skidding, overturning or jackknifing. Claesson adds, “And in 2013, we introduced advanced emergency braking (AEB). It’s a fantastic feature that reduces the risk of the vehicle colliding with the one in front. In my view, AEB is one of the most important active safety features in today’s vehicles, along with lane departure warning and our new side detection functionality.” Scania introduces the world’s first side curtain airbag With the launch of the company’s new truck generation in 2016, Scania took safety to a new level. The company introduced the world’s first side curtain airbag for trucks and the new truck generation also includes a stronger cab, where ultra-high strength steel has been used. “During the development of the new truck generation, we spent an enormous number of man-hours on crash simulations and crash testing,” says Loftén. “In total, we crashed over 40 trucks. We also used the latest technologies, such as Thor, the world’s most advanced crash test dummy. .

Renault Trucks Press Release / February 21, 2020 .

Ford Trucks International Press Release / February 20, 2020 We are going forward on our way in Europe. Our next destination is Belarus! .

Alan Adler, Freight Waves / February 19, 2020 The ratio of retail sales of Class 8 trucks to inventories in January ranked second-highest in industry history, trailing only the worst month of the Great Recession a decade ago. That means that without a rebound in orders, manufacturers will have to cut production further to achieve balance. Overall sales of Class 8 trucks are expected to be down 33-34% this year compared with 2019, one of the best on record. While inventories are swollen because of sluggish retail sales, the industry is in good shape in terms of how many trucks it is building per day compared to the order backlog. The inventory-to-sales and the order-to-build ratios taken together present a picture of the health of the heavy-truck industry. Retail sales follow the hierarchy of orders, backlog, production and inventory. Orders, production and sales are tracked and reported monthly Inventory to sales The inventory of Class 8 trucks rose 3,400 units in January over December 2019 because production outpaced weak sales. The inventory-to-sales ratio in January was 3.9 months, the highest since 4.4 months in April 2009, the worst month of the Great Recession. The ideal inventory-to-sales ratio is 2 to 2.5 months. That is about where PACCAR, the parent company of Peterbilt Motors and Kenworth Truck Co., found itself at the end of December, CEO Preston Feight said on the company’s Jan. 28 call with analysts. “We make sure that what we’re building has a customer name on it, so we’ve been able to adjust our build rates to align with our orders,” Feight said. Inventory management is critical in a cyclical business like trucking, which depends on how much it can charge per mile for hauling a load of freight. Falling spot rates over the last year led to slackened demand for new trucks after a frenzy of orders in the second half of 2018. “There comes a time in every cycle when the industry needs to start shedding inventory,” one analyst said. “High inventories were a positive contributor through most of 2018 and 2019. The total amount of inventory is going to be a headwind for production in 2020.” Simply put, there is no need to build more trucks when sales are slow. In the U.S. tractor market, which accounts for 60% of the heavy-duty truck sales, the inventory-to-sales ratio jumped to 3.1 months in January from 2.5 months in December. “Low is better, at least if you are a manufacturer,” he said. The vocational truck market, which includes off-highway trucks used in construction, also is experiencing lower sales while inventories remain flat. The inventory-to-sales ratio for vocational trucks was 4.3 months in January. The ideal ratio is three months, he said. Backlog to build At 5.4 months, the backlog-to-build ratio is in much better shape than the inventory-to-sales ratio, he said. The industry order bank stood at 119,000 units at the end of January when manufacturers built 1,050 trucks a day. The backlog fell about 4,500 units from December because more trucks were produced than orders placed. “Where the backlog rates are compared with the build rate, we’re golden,” he said. “This is very sustainable and very good for the industry.” By contrast, in August 2019, manufacturers built 1,400 units per day with a backlog of 151,000 orders. If orders continue to be weak and production continues at January’s rate, the backlog will fall further, possibly prompting further reductions in the build rate. Truck makers acknowledged this possibility in their most recent earnings reports. .

Wow.....just wow. Talk about ignoring the customer. No more Cummins option. The same arrogance as Paccar not offering the X12 so as to force customers to use their own DAF engines. https://www.macktrucks.com.au/trucks/titan/specs/

Volvo Group’s Mack Defense unit completes delivery of 1,500 re-badged Renault Kerax 8x8 trucks to Canadian Armed Forces Trailer-Body Builder / February 18, 2020 Volvo Group subsidiary Mack Defense recently assembled the 1,587th and final Medium Support Vehicle System (MSVS) truck for the Canadian Armed Forces’ regular forces and overseas deployments under its Standard Military Pattern (SMP) program. The truck rolled off the assembly line Feb 13 in Saint Nicolas, Quebec, in front of a select group of dignitaries, military officials and Mack Defense employees. “Mack Defense is proud to have completed the build-out of these trucks, and we look forward to continuing the program and supporting the more than 1,500 MSVS trucks that will be in service with the Canadian Armed Forces,” said David Hartzell, president of Mack Defense. “This program demonstrates the global reach and collaboration Mack Defense is capable of.” Mack Defense is part of the Volvo Group, allowing it to leverage the group’s large industrial footprint and global capabilities to engineer and produce the MSVS SMP trucks. Before final production took place at a Prevost facility in Saint Nicolas, additional work was completed at facilities located in Bourg-en-Bresse, Marolles, Blainville and Limoges, France. The MSVS SMP program was coordinated through Mack Defense headquarters in Allentown PA. In addition, Mack Defense said it called upon several Canadian partners, including Dumur Industries, EODC, Marshall, Craig Manufacturing and Link Suspensions of Canada (Raydan Division) to contribute to the project. Mack Defense was awarded two contracts in 2015 valued at $725 million CAD by the Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada on behalf of the Department of National Defense. The contracts called for Mack to deliver more than 1,500 8x8 MSVS SMP trucks, including variants such as cargo, material handling cranes, load handling systems and mobile repair trucks. .

I hate to pop Volvo's bubble, but a manual transmission should still yet be an option on the MD. The market share leader Freightliner M2 106 is available with four manual transmissions, from a 6-speed Benz unit to 9-, 10- and 11-speed Eaton units. https://freightliner.com/trucks/m2-106/specifications/

https://www.midontariotrucks.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/405/2020/02/c10c81c9-1056-4533-b51c-bfbc360413f5_Mack_MDSellSheet_Class7-web.pdf

We had such a great time meeting current & new customers in Las Vegas earlier this month. Excited to see the DC-64M on job sites—taking orders now! .

You need Mack part-no. 38MO343RP3.

An Australian Metro-Liner hood (pictured below) with redesigned Anthem-style fenders. .

Actually, Cummins power is not offered in the Super-Liner or Trident. Only the Titan is available with Cummins power (and the compact Metro-Liner exclusively with the ISL, alike the Granite MHD).

Reuters / February 18, 2020 SEATTLE - Boeing Co found debris that could pose potential safety risks in the fuel tanks of several 737 MAX aircraft that are in storage and waiting to be delivered to airlines, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday. Foreign object debris, an industrial term for rags, tools, metal shavings and other materials left behind by workers during the production process, has been a quality control issue for various Boeing aircraft, such as its KC-46 tankers. Mark Jenks, general manager of the 737 program, told employees in the memo that such debris was “absolutely unacceptable”. A Boeing spokesman confirmed the memo’s authenticity.

Ford’s New COO Gets Almost $2 Million Raise to Spur Turnaround Keith Naughton, Bloomberg / February 18, 2020 Ford Motor Co.’s new chief operating officer, Jim Farley, is getting a raise worth almost $2 million to help engineer a turnaround at the struggling automaker. Farley, previously Ford’s president of new business, technology and strategy, is to receive as much as $1.98 million in extra salary, bonus and stock in his new role, the company said Tuesday in a regulatory filing. Most of the increase in his compensation plan, which will total $8.29 million, is a boost to his annual stock grant. The 57-year-old’s promotion takes effect March 1 along with the retirement of his primary rival at the company, Joe Hinrichs, 53. The moves were announced earlier this month. Ford has been on a losing streak extended by the botched launch of the Explorer sport utility vehicle, which contributed to disappointing earnings results and a downbeat profit forecast for this year. Farley is now in position to eventually succeed Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett, but first he has to help him execute an $11 billion restructuring that analysts say is moving too slowly. “We cannot wait years and years,” Farley said in an interview on the day he was named COO. “In the context of our industry and how it’s changing, we have to accelerate.”

. . .

Ford Trucks International Press Release / February 18, 2020 Long maintenance intervals and low maintenance costs: International Truck of the Year Ford Trucks F-MAX keeps you on the road without breaking the bank. Ford Trucks and You – "Sharing the Load" At Ford Trucks, we’re serious about trucking. It's why we designed the Ford Trucks construction series from the ground up to meet your needs and expectations. See your authorized Ford heavy truck dealer for details, or visit the global Ford heavy truck website at https://www.fordtrucks.com.tr/tr-en/home .

They need a new cab, and they know it. A new cab is in the pipeline. This was a decent redesign for the current cab.

No Jim.

Designing Trucks that Drivers Want to Drive By Chris Ito, Navistar Director, Industrial Design February 7, 2020 While Navistar is committed to customer Uptime, it's not enough to build trucks that stay on the road. Instead, we're determined to build trucks that drivers want to drive. That’s the philosophy we call “DriverFirst”; and one important way we put it into action is the discipline of industrial design. Customers may not realize Navistar designers choose virtually every visual and tactile element of the truck, both exterior and interior. Whenever a driver gets a first look at the vehicle, or steps into the cab, we want everything to look natural and right. People may not notice when everything is in harmony, but they absolutely will notice when things are not in harmony, such as part-to-part color or grain discontinuity on interior components. That’s why we put so much emphasis on every detail. Color Choice Impact to Our Products With trucks, the most identifying element of our products, besides the shape of the cab, is the interior and exterior color selection. Colors can affect the emotional response and perception of the product by our customers. Colors can visually communicate customers’ visual identity and technology leadership, as demonstrated by the “Electric Blue” applied to the International® eMV, which recently debuted at the 2019 North American Commercial Vehicle (NACV) show in Atlanta. While white dominates the on-highway customer preference, Navistar offers customers thousands of color options. One of the most exciting and memorable colors we’ve created is “Sunrise Orange,” which we unveiled at the first NACV exhibition in 2017. The impact was greater than we anticipated: one of our major customers liked the color so much, they changed their corporate truck colors to match it. Interior Colors Aid Driver Productivity Inside the cab, strategically selected colors and their positions have a big impact on our customers’ “user experience.” Lighter colors create a perception of larger space, while darker colors tend to hide scuff marks and soiling. When the top of the instrument panel is darker, it reduces reflections into the windshield. This is an important safety consideration for our customers, many of whom drive their trucks 100,000 miles a year. Contrasting colors make instruments easier to read. All the colors on the instrument panel need to be considered together, using a concept we refer to as “illumination harmony.” This includes factors like the luminosity scale or the color of the light, the use of white lettering, and even the use of a consistent font on different switches. Designing from the Driver’s Point of View We also work with a multitude of suppliers to achieve visual harmony across all the components – everything from door handles to color display screens, switches on the instrument panels and steering wheel, and HVAC registers, just to name a few. We design all the visual graphic elements on our displays used in the instrument panel cluster. All the elements shown on the displays, including primary and secondary pressures, temperature, options for cruise control and other safety systems, are developed to provide visually appealing displays that capture ergonomic and HMI requirements. Even when adjacent components are manufactured by multiple suppliers, we want everything to look as though it came from the same company, and was designed with the driver’s point of view in mind. The positioning of knobs, switches and other features the driver needs to reach should also feel intuitive, or in other words, positioned comfortably for the driver’s position. That’s why we use “driver clinics” to identify the most favored locations for radio, HVAC and other switches. We have had participating drivers move components to their preferred spot on a simulated instrument panel. Our ergonomics and engineering teams validate these positions. That’s probably one reason our Product Marketing team has received positive feedback on the instrument panel, telling us not to change anything. Creating a Personalized Workspace We also seek to offer drivers more opportunities to personalize their workspace. This reflects drivers’ increasing role as logistics professionals who are responsible for managing the use of trucking assets. Here I personally take inspiration from my brother, who took over our Dad’s farm. On his tractor, he has a flat place where he keeps steno pads, a pen, a two-way, a cell phone and five coffee cups. Real-life examples like this inspired us to add a flat, horizontal trough on the instrument panel where drivers can place their items of choice, including pens, sunglasses, or personal devices such as their phone, creating an easy-to-reach useable storage space. The console between the two front seats has also been shaped by driver clinic input. Instead of the previous console, which incorporated three cupholders, long-haul drivers actually prefer a pared-down version that offers two cupholders, permitting easier access to the sleeper portion of the cab. This console design also includes a storage bin in front of the cupholders where drivers can place their smartphones or other similarly sized items. Helping drivers with all the facets of their jobs will continue to be a major focus for truck designers. Advanced technologies such as automation, connectivity and eMobility will make drivers’ work safer, more comfortable and more productive. Navistar Industrial Design will work to take full advantage of those advances, using visual harmony, functional integration and the driver’s point of view. .

We're heading to Atlanta next week for #TMCAnnual20 and we're bringing the Autocar ACTT terminal tractor. It's the fastest-growing, best-performing terminal tractor brand in North America with best in class uptime, safety features and ergonomics! Visit us in booth #1823. Always Up - Autocar Trucks .

The air intake air filter on the cowl (under the hood) in a US market option, but perhaps standard in Oz. https://www.raneystruckparts.com/mack-Cab-air-filter-ch-cv-cx-cl/

GM failed only because it never had the right leadership for Asia except in one instance.........Philip Murtaugh. And they stupidly ran him out in the end, the only GM guy who ever understood the China market.

The Ford Escape was produced in Taiwan and sold in Asian markets under the Maverick badge.

GM to phase out Holden, pull Chevy from Thailand Reuters/Bloomberg / February 16, 2020 General Motors is retreating from more markets outside of the United States and China, saying on Sunday that it will wind down sales, design and engineering operations in Australia and New Zealand and retire the Holden brand by 2021. GM also said that China's Great Wall Motor Co. had agreed to buy its Thailand manufacturing plant. The automaker said it also plans to pull the Chevrolet brand from Thailand. The company expects to incur net cash charges of about $300 million in connection with the changes, and total cash and non-cash charges of $1.1 billion. In rearranging its global operations, GM is accelerating a retreat from unprofitable markets, notably Europe, while becoming more dependent on the United States, China, Latin America and South Korea. GM Chief Financial Officer Dhivya Suryadevara told analysts during a Feb. 5 presentation that restructuring GM's international operations outside of China so they produce profit margins in the mid-single digits "does represent a $2 billion improvement" compared with 2018. Ahead of that presentation, GM forecast flat profit for 2020 and reported a better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings in the face of a $3.6 billion hit from a 40-day United Auto Workers strike. With the proposed sale of the Thailand plant to Great Wall, GM is giving up an opening to expand operations in Southeast Asia. GM is "focusing on markets where we have the right strategies to drive robust returns, and prioritizing global investments that will drive growth in the future of mobility," especially in electric and autonomous vehicles, GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. “I’ve often said that we will do the right thing, even when it’s hard, and this is one of those times,” Barra added. She has prioritized profit margins over sales volume and a global footprint since taking over in 2014. In 2017, GM sold its Opel and Vauxhall business units in Europe to Peugeot SA and exited South Africa and other African markets. Since then, Barra has decided to pull GM out of Vietnam, Indonesia and India. In earlier moves, GM withdrew the Chevrolet brand from Europe in 2015 and left Russia the same year. Like Britain, Australia and New Zealand are right-hand drive markets. With sales of GM's Australian Holden brand plummeting, the company could not justify the investment to continue building right-hand drive vehicles, GM President Mark Reuss said in Sunday's statement. Reuss ran Holden in 2008 and 2009, but since then GM's market share has fallen from almost 13 percent to 4.1 percent, the company said in a statement. GM ended Holden manufacturing in 2017. GM imports the majority of the Holden models it sells in Australia, mostly from South Korea and Thailand. Even when GM stopped manufacturing Holden models -- adorned with a "lion and stone wheel" logo -- in Australia, GM and brand officials maintained it was "going to be a part of the fabric" of the "country for a very long time." Yet the cost of maintaining a separate brand in such a small and fractured market, increasingly dominated by Asia automakers, proved too daunting, even for an automaker with GM's global scale. GM has 828 employees in Australia and New Zealand and another 1,500 in Thailand, the company said. Great Wall, one of China's biggest SUV makers, said it will sell vehicles from the Thai manufacturing plant in Thailand, other ASEAN countries and Australia as the Baoding-based automaker seeks to expand globally amid a slowing domestic market. In January, Great Wall signed an agreement to buy a GM plant in India. The companies said they expect the transaction would be completed by the second half of 2020.