WattsMack

Five truckers have been honored for their heroism in the face of flames, being named as finalists for the 26th annual Goodyear North America Highway Hero Award.View the full article

A New Jersey Appeals Court ruled that a furniture retailer cannot take advantage of the trucking exemption in the state's overtime pay laws to avoid paying its delivery workers time-and-a-half when they work more than 40 hours a week.View the full article

Despite the slowing economy and and a decline in fuel volumes, TravelCenters of America posted better results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2008 than the previous year.View the full article

YRC Worldwide announced today the successful March 1 integration of the national networks for Yellow Transportation and Roadway. The two industry leaders will now do business as YRC.View the full article

Patrick Collignon was named plant manager at Volvo Trucks North America's New River Valley Plant in Dublin, Va.View the full article

Effective March 1, Arnold Transportation raised the independent contractor pay for its Super Regional and Southwest Regional areas despite the current economic challenges.View the full article

The Timken Company is realigning its organization to improve efficiency and reduce costs,View the full article

Volvo Trucks North America said its trucks with EPA'10 emissions reduction technology will include a surcharge of $9,600.View the full article

Diesel fuel prices continue their slide downward to the $2 mark, with a gallon of diesel averaging $2.087 nationwide according to weekly figures released Monday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.View the full article

Haldex Commercial Vehicle Systems announced that effective immediately, the Haldex Friction Center business will report to Joe Panella, senior vice president, Global Sales.View the full article

Phillips Industries has won the NAPA Heavy Duty Manufacturer of the Year Award for 2008.View the full article

Bergstrom, Rockford, Ill., has selected Pro Force Marketing as its exclusive, authorized representative in the Canadian market.View the full article

The Truckload Carriers Association has recognized truck driver Tommy Dodd as a Highway Angel for providing aid to a teenage accident victim despite freezing temperatures.View the full article

Transportation Costing Group of Rockville, Md., specialists in activity-based profitability and cost analysis for the transportation industry, have hired David Mahstedt as vice presidentView the full article

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood spoke last week to the American Trucking Associations' Board of Directors, focusing largely on safety issues, but also touching on the economy and infrastructure funding.View the full article

A 3-percent month-over-month increase in the American Trucking Associations' advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index in January did little to erase the revised 7.8 percent contraction in December 2008.View the full article

A requirement for duplicative background checks for commercial truck drivers has made the Small Business Administration's top 10 list of burdensome federal regulations.View the full article

The California Air Resources Board approved more than $700,000 in grants to bolster the commercialization of three cutting-edge clean air technologies.View the full article

You may see fuel prices drop in Wisconsin after a court overturned a law that was designed to prevent unfair price cutting among fuel sellers.View the full article

The California Trucking Association managed to get commercial vehicles exempted from California's new increases on state vehicle license fees.View the full article

Daimler Trucks North America last week opened a new manufacturing plant in Saltillo, Coahuila, in northern Mexico.View the full article

FleetPride has completed the acquisition of Multibearings Service Co., Hialeah, Fla.View the full article

Eaton announced that Eric Zahrai has been named manager for Aftertreatment Marketing and Strategic Partners for its Truck Group.View the full article

So - It's the end of February. Mud season has issued a warning to us that it's not too far away. The snow comes overnite and melts to mud during the day. But it feels good. The sun looks different and the light is better somehow. Spring is close. It's lighter earlier and later in the day. Everybody just plain feels better. And our building business has gotten a couple of shots in the arm. Work looks OK for the spring. Still a long way to go to get out of the woods, but I'm pretty optimistic after a really bad spell. The Mack hobby has almost taken on a life of it's own. I'm getting numerous calls for parts, and have sold a couple of trucks just recently. It's been great fun. The driveline choices have been made for the B-67. I'm using an NA-711 from my 1966 R Mack, which has 198,000 original miles and runs like a top, and a nine speed overdrive duplex TRD-720 with the original 4.28 rear gears on tall 22.5 rubber. It should be a pretty good combination for a comfortable 65 mph cruise speed at about 1800 rpm, yet have a little low end power for pulling a load. My 2nd choice is a turbocharged ENDT 673-C engine that I have acquired. But I don't know much about that engine yet. I'm not going to install the Jake brake or the air ride rear cross member until I see how I actually use the truck. Looking for all of the Bendix air valves and equipment needed to plumb a modern dual brake system in the truck. Finding some things used on E-Bay, and getting quotes on a whole list of valves that I have made up from a couple of vendors. (The Bendix Air Brake Manual is invaluable, if you have the copy that has the part numbers in it) The prices look more reasonable than I originally thought. That's nice for a change. So on that note - I'm signing off to go up to bed and contemplate just exactly how we, the 60% of us who actually pay taxes, are going to increase our government spending to new lofty heights, extend health and welfare benefits to illegal immigrants, lengthen the term for unemployment benefits, increase the unemployment benefits, offer unemployment to part time workers, reduce your taxes, give you some great stimulating checks, pay your mortgage for you if you want and reduce the federal deficit even though the budget actually increases the deficit by threefold. I've never been real good at math, so I will have to think this through very carefully! It must be the latest, cutting edge math. It looks a little like magic to me. Or voodoo. I've said before that I believe that, although Mr. Obama was not my choice, he is our President, and deserves our full support and respect. I hope that he and his administration don't make that too hard. View the full blog entry

Made my 2 stop deliveries in Oberlin and Vermilion, Oh. then went to Brookfield again and back to Roanoke. Delivered there late Friday night and got to the south Lynchburg truckstop about 2:30 am. Saturday. I didn't take any pictures this week but Big Jim sent me some. He went to Miami and went across rt. 41 through the everglades. He stopped somewhere and took all these alligator pictures. They weren't in a cage somewhere, they were in the wild. Looks like he was getting a little too close for me, but I guess he just zoomed in on them. I know he has a good camera. In fact, unlike myself, he's actually a real photographer. I sent one back to him showing what the 'gators were thinking when he was taking pictures of them. He also took these pictures at Calvert City, Ky. when he loaded there just after the ice storm. Attached thumbnail(s) // // // // // // // View the full blog entry