jonesie29

Just reading through some of your comments on here about your thoughts on diferent aspects of the volvo vs Mack issue,I noted in particular the story about the guy who came into someones workshop and took a look at an older truck with twin stick transmission and no ac etc and dissapearing out of the door thinking he'd just had a bad dream, and another about Mack using volvo cabs, these comments rang a bell with me because I use volvos in work and they along with the other european truck builders have obviously been trying to build trucks that any idiot can drive e.g electronic transmission, e.b.s, a.b.s, sat nav, constant satelite monitoring because they don't trust the driver to obey speed limits or tell the controler where they are when asked on the cell phone,digital tachographs that don't let you blink or breathe without recording it and boy do the law enforcers love that one, they are making a fortune out of it, a fine for this a fine for that, fines for absoloutly anything and everything and not just a few pounds either but serious money. the transport industry here seems to not want the long service professional guy any more, they seem to want short service disposable drivers to go with their short life disposable trucks, speaking for myself I no longer feel the sense of belonging to a profession wich had it's own strong culture that had developed over many years, and with long experience and a good work record a driver would gain respect in the industry, the don't want that any more because they think that it costs too much, they can get two cheap guys that won't be with them long enough to need a pension to drive the new ugly plastic electronic volvo's that all but drive themselves for the price of one good experienced truck driver that gets his or her professional satisfaction from driving more conventional trucks and doing a good job,and knowing that not everyone could do or would want to do his job, and is happy to put up with more basic comforts and not rely on electronics and technology to drive his truck for him thinking it knows better.The more I think of it the more i'm convinced that this Mack - volvo situation kind of says it all really, where Mack represents all that was strong,good and impresive about the trucking industry and culture volvo and some others represent the rot that has set in to it over recent years, I've been a lorry driver 24 years, I won't be doing 25, I wish Mack all the best of course but times are changing

Sure I accept your comments, but I can't help but wonder do we really need to have so much technology and electronics, everything in the truck seems to be controlled by them not just the emissions control,the majority of problems I experience with trucks while at work involves these aspects of them, the mechanical side of them are very good and pretty well totaly reliable,it seems such a shame that after making such good progress up until the 90's in developing realy good trucks they now make them so reliant on technology, I well remember when a few Mack ultraliners were imported into the U.K a few years ago,I had a chance to take a good look at them and thought WOW! this has got to be as good as it's gets, but trading conditions between here and the U.S made them expensive, they would have been great for U.K and european use everything you needed was there, they were modern,tough, reliable, plenty of space and comfort, good fuel figures, rust free cabs and not too much technology and boy did they look great, but sadly as you know Mack discontinued the model, very sad but they must have had their reasons. I appologise for going off the original subject of your discussion but when I start talking about Mack's my passion sometimes gets the better of me.

The fact that there seems to be no real let up in this recession in spite of what the politicians are saying, will be making trading tough for all the truck builders especially the ones who trade mainly or only in the American continent, Volvo may well be in a stronger possition than most because they trade in so many countries around the world and although we are told that the whole world is in financial recession, I think that different countries may well be in different levels of recession, some may well have hardly been touched by it and I bet Volvo sell trucks and cars there too,I can't help but think of an image in my mind of Volvo flying over their mortaly wounded competitors circling around like a vulture waiting for them to die just like in the old western movies, a foolish thought I know, but having thought about Mack's situation in the long term and its ownership by Volvo, much as I dislike the situation it may well be a life saver for Mack to have them as their parent company at this time, Mack may have fallen victim to the recession by now had they not had the security of being owned by such a strong company.I just hope that the U.S and Canadian opperators can support the Mack marque, but at this time they are understadably going to go for their cheapest options, loyalty to a particular make will only go so far especially when money is so tight for everyone as it is right now. I'm quite sure though that Volvo will hang on to the make for as long it remains profitable for them, wich is why it is so important that Mack's sales people do their job really well when thing take a turn for the better. The europeans like mercedes benz, m.a.n etc made really good trucks in the late 80's and early 90's but they have seriously lost the plot with their use of technology and electronics etc in today's trucks and making just simply ugly looking trucks, maybe there's a lesson to be learned there for Mack, if it ain't broke why fix it?.

Hi All on B.M.T. I'm a member from the UK and a truck driver and Mack enthusiast of many years, I was just reading your comments on the volvo vs Mack argument, allthough interesting some of the comments are pretty predictable, i'm having a de ja vue moment here I thought, the U.K was until a couple of years ago the home of the oldest truck builder in the world (Foden)and pretty good trucks they were until the daf company bought them out and eventualy closed them down, a similar story applies to all the UK truck builders, and now,sadly there are no british trucks names left at all. on the few visits I've made to Canada over the years I've often had conversations with truckers and operators there where I've told them of the demise of some good truck builders here, well sadly the very same companies that killed off our truck builders seem to have now turned their sights on the U.S and as I've said many times before LOOK AFTER YOUR OWN!!!, how loudly do I have to shout it, you make better trucks than them by far especially the 100% Mack trucks, you guys have got the quality of equipment we can now only dream of, you only have to read the trucking magazines and their web sites in the UK to see what a pathalogical fear the eropeans have of US built trucks and they take every opportunity to slag them down in the transport media, who of course print what their told by volvo,daf etc because they don't want to lose their adveriizing revenue, these volvo guys will go through the US truck building industry like the grim reaper and if you guys aren't carefull you'll end up like us driving up and down your highways in hideous ugly looking plastic junc filled with needless technology like a kids computer game that's just waiting for the right moment to foul up on you and spoil your day and your profits, as I saw on my last visit over the atlantic when I visited a truck show to take a look at the newest Mack's some damage has allready been done as the quality of the trucks didn't seem to be as good as I remember in the 80's and 90's, so please folks Iv'e said this before and I'll say it again try to learn from what happened to us, I know money talks but it's not worth loosing Mack It's too important a truck builder, I hope the experts in this field can try and find a way of getting it back under U.S ownership and keeping the quality in the trucks. Good luck all, I hope you get out of this economic crap storm soon, It's giving us a hard time too.