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ForConstructionPros / January 22, 2018

The Coffs Coast Advocate / January 23, 2018 Is electric shock treatment for fatigued truck drivers really the solution to the horror road toll? It might sound a little drastic, but it's not that far from a sensible idea. New South Wales Transport Minister Melinda Pavey raised the topic while talking about the tragic spate of fatal crashes involving truck drivers. Technology to detect fatigue in truck drivers has been around for several years and the device the Minister was referring to is a clever one that has been trialled in the mining industry. A camera monitors a driver's eye movements, looks for telltale signs of fatigue and then delivers a vibration (not really an electric shock) through the seat to alert the driver. "This should not come as a shock to anyone in the transport industry, no pun intended," Ms Pavey told Channel Ten's The Project. "This technology is being used around the world. It's just a little bit of a vibe through a chair or through a bracelet on a driver's arm and it works." In the UK a wristband vibrates to warn of fatigue. Several vehicle makers have similar technology on their cars and trucks and it shows great promise, although it's still in its infancy. Mercedes-Benz trucks in Australia are fitted with AEB, along with similar drowsy driver tech. In the case of Benz, the truck monitors a driver's steering inputs and delivers a vibration through the steering wheel if they detect lazy driving. They also have a lane departure warning, which sets off an alarm if the truck crosses the centre line or roadside markers. Many luxury cars can steer themselves back into a lane if the driver strays. Some will even gradually bring the car to a halt if they can't detect steering inputs. Problem is, none of this technology was readily available 12 years ago, and the average age of our truck fleet is 12 years. That could change quickly, though, as AEB can be retrofitted to trucks. It's expensive to install, though, and transport companies working on razor-thin margins are unlikely to adopt it unless forced, or encouraged to. So while it's refreshing to see a minister looking outside the square to fix the disastrous road toll, it would be better still if they bit the bullet and made lifesaving AEB mandatory. .

Iacobelli pleads guilty in latest court appearance Jackie Charniga, Automotive News / January 22, 2018 DETROIT -- Former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles labor relations chief Alphons Iacobelli pleaded guilty Monday to two charges related to a conspiracy to siphon millions from an employee training fund, overturning the not-guilty plea entered on his behalf in August. Iacobelli pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Labor Management Relations Act and for subscribing a false tax return before U.S. District Judge Paul Borman in Detroit. Sentencing was set for May 29. Iacobelli faces a statutory maximum of eight years in prison, and prosecutors said he will be required to repay $835,000. Iacobelli is at the center of an ever-expanding federal probe into executives at the automaker and the UAW for allegedly pulling funds slated for employees to line their own pockets. The probe since has spread to the UAW training centers for Ford Motor Co. and General Motors. In November, GM and Ford confirmed they were cooperating with the investigation into alleged misspending at UAW union training centers funded by U.S. automakers. GM is conducting an internal investigation into the matter. Federal investigators also met with FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne more than a year ago, according to reports. According to a plea agreement made public late on Monday, Iacobelli has agreed to cooperate in an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department into alleged misspending at UAW union training centers funded by U.S. automakers. A lawyer for Iacobelli declined to comment on Monday, Reuters reported. If Iacobelli chooses to cooperate with prosecutors, it's unclear how effective his testimony would be, according to Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor. "It will depend on whether he has agreed to cooperate, and also what information he could provide. With a defendant at his level, what interactions did he have with senior executives is an open question," he told Automotive News. "He has admitted he's engaged in fraud. That means his testimony wouldn't be all that trustworthy. He would have to be able to provide information that the government could confirm and be able to introduce in court beyond just his word." Several indictments naming Monica Morgan, widow of UAW Vice President General Holiefield; Virdell King, a retired UAW associate director; and Jerome Durden, a former FCA financial analyst, were released last summer. Detailed charges In addition to the counts he pleaded guilty for, the arraignment names Iacobelli for two counts of paying and delivering prohibited money and things of value to a union official, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to the 42-page indictment. Notable among Iacobelli's alleged purchases with money taken from the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center are a 2013 Ferrari 458 Spider and two solid-gold Mont Blanc pens, each valued at $37,500. Reports say Iacobelli sold the sports car when news of the probe emerged. He also said he knowingly authorized more than $450,000 in credit card charges for jewelry, furniture, electronics and other luxuries for FCA-UAW members. He also admitted to $262,219 in training center funds used to pay off Holiefield’s mortgage. Both pens are in the possession of the government at this time. On the tax charge, Iacobelli said he omitted more than $840,000 in income for the calendar year 2014, obtained illegally through FCA funds. Iacobelli was given 14 days to produce accurate tax forms for 2012 through 2015, but his lawyer, attorney David DuMouchel, asked for an extension. Other charges Others charged in the case have court appearances scheduled over the next several months, according to public records. Morgan is scheduled for a another plea hearing Feb. 6, while Durden is to be sentenced in May and King is to be sentenced in June. Durden and King pleaded guilty. According to the plea deal, Iacobelli's sentencing will not exceed 96 months. Henning said he would be "shocked" if time in federal prison was not recommended. "This was a substantial abuse of authority, both inside the company and in the union," Henning said. "Sometimes you see crimes of opportunity, where it's a one-time transaction. This was systematic corruption inside the corporation. That's what's likely to lead to a prison sentence." The UAW said in a statement Monday that it is "appalled at these charges. We have worked with the (national training center) and Fiat Chrysler to implement a range of measures aimed at enhancing transparency and internal controls at the NTC to reduce the risk of any future recurrence of these activities." Marchionne has said the “deplorable” conduct “had nothing whatsoever to do with the collective bargaining process” and the “egregious acts were neither known to nor sanctioned by (Fiat Chrysler)." The company had no further comment Monday.

New pickups leave Ford on aluminum island Michael Martinez & Michael Wayland, Automotive News / January 22, 2018 F-150 led the way, but no one followed DETROIT — Ford Motor Co.'s switch to an aluminum body on the 2015 F-150 was revolutionary. The change, although costly, helped the automaker boost its share of the hugely profitable segment, post record transaction prices and increase its margin as America's full-size pickup leader over Chevrolet and Ram. Ford looked to be leading the way toward making aluminum the industry standard for automakers to shed weight and improve fuel economy to meet government targets. But nobody followed. When Chevrolet and Ram unveiled their next-generation pickups at the Detroit auto show, the mostly steel bodies and beds underscored the starkly different paths the Detroit 3 are taking for their most important vehicles. "We don't believe in it. We fundamentally don't believe in it," Alan Batey, General Motors' North America president, told Automotive News about an all-aluminum pickup. He said the company analyzed the possibility of such a truck but decided against it. "We look at everything," Batey said. "Did we ever seriously consider it? No." The divergent strategies of the Detroit automakers, which account for 83 percent of U.S. light-duty pickup sales, go against the norm for the extremely competitive segment, in which big innovations by one company tend to quickly get adopted by the others. "It's not just different strategies," said Stephanie Brinley, an analyst with IHS Markit. "It's about strategies that play to your strengths." Ford, she said, needed to put its largest vehicles on a strict diet, and aluminum was the right choice for its needs at that time, helping the F-150 drop about 700 pounds. The different paths were made possible by breakthroughs in materials by organizations such as the Steel Market Development Institute, which has worked with automakers, including the Detroit 3, for decades. The steel industry fought back hard after Ford decided to use aluminum on the F-150 and other automakers began talking up other alternative materials, such as carbon fiber and magnesium. "Their focus the last several years has been on lightweighting," said Jody Hall, vice president of the automotive market for the association of North American steel producers. "That's when we've seen the most innovation from the steel industry." Hall argues that the most advanced steels for the auto industry are two to three times stronger than the highest-grade aluminum, which is why automakers continue to use steel for their pickup frames. In addition, lower gasoline prices have made fuel economy less of a concern for many pickup buyers than when Ford was working on the F-150's redesign. Ford says it has no regrets about switching to aluminum. In 2017, the F series logged its 41st consecutive year as the nation's best-selling pickup. It outsold the No. 2 Chevrolet Silverado by more than 300,000 vehicles, the largest gap ever between the two pickups, despite Chevrolet's attack ads that tried to portray aluminum as weak. "It's been fantastic," Brian Bell, Ford's marketing manager for the F-150 and Ranger, said in an interview. "Everybody's got a different strategy. They all look at their own programs in different ways. We think what we did has been the perfect choice for us." Sticking with steel Chevrolet has aggressively criticized Ford's use of aluminum — particularly in the bed of the F series — for several years. It continued needling its rival when unveiling the 2019 Silverado, which is up to 450 pounds lighter than the current version. "Work comes first for truck buyers, and the working end of every pickup is the bed," GM's product chief, Mark Reuss, said at the Silverado's Jan. 13 debut. "It's like the head of a good hammer. It's the end that does all the work and gets all of the abuse. I don't think you'd get much work done with an aluminum hammer." The bed of the fourth-generation Silverado features a roll-formed, high-strength steel floor as part of the company's "mixed materials strategy," which included optimizing "every component for mass, durability, safety and function," Reuss said. It's an approach GM plans to apply across much of its lineup, not just on pickups. Much of the weight savings came from the pickup's frame and body. All exterior swing panels (the doors, hood and tailgate) are made of aluminum, while fixed panels (the fenders, roof and bed) are steel. The underlying safety cage uses seven grades of steel, each tailored for the specific application, while 80 percent of the frame is made of high-strength steel, 2 to 5 millimeters thick. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, meanwhile, used mainly steel, with a "selective" mix of aluminum and composites on the 2019 Ram 1500. The company said it used aluminum "not just where possible but where practical." It also made greater use of composites, which helped shed hundreds of pounds compared with the current generation. Ram, according to brand chief Mike Manley, used 54 percent high-strength steel in the cab and bed and 98 percent in the frame. "That results in a Ram truck that is stronger than ever, yet still 255 pounds lighter," Manley said after revealing the pickup Monday, Jan. 15. Chevrolet's public assault on Ford's use of aluminum started two years ago, with a marketing campaign that included commercials showing the F-150's bed being easily punctured by a metal toolbox and concrete blocks. "We just don't believe an aluminum bed is the right way to achieve reliability and durability," Batey said last week. He added, when Ford announced the aluminum truck, "the bottom line is you didn't see the fuel economy benefits that a lot of people were speculating you would see." GM expects its next-gen pickups, which go on sale this year, to be "more profitable" than the current generation, which the company said has contributed to an 80 percent increase in the profitability of the current truck platform since its 2013 introduction. All in on aluminum Ford has plenty of numbers to validate its path with aluminum. Since 2014, the F series' share of the full-size pickup market has grown 1.3 percentage points to 37.8 percent. Its average transaction price has risen in each of the past four years, including a $3,200 jump in 2017 to a record $46,000. And this month, Ford said the F-150 will be the first full-size pickup to crack the 30-mpg barrier with a diesel engine debuting this year. "Whatever you see in the advertising, aluminum's working," CEO Jim Hackett said last week at the Automotive News World Congress. "People love driving this vehicle. They have no problem with the performance of the material." Ford has been so happy with the choice that it expanded its use of aluminum to the Super Duty, Expedition and Lincoln Navigator. But the strategy is limited to the automaker's largest vehicles. The midsize Ranger that debuted last week has a mostly steel body. Ford said the weight savings wouldn't have been enough on a vehicle that size to offset the costs. Ford also didn't need the Ranger to be as powerful as the F-150 and wanted to keep the Ranger's price down and help create separation between the two nameplates. As part of the F-150's 2014 redesign, engineers used the 700-pound weight savings to beef up performance and capability. "Aluminum for us was about more than weight," said Bell, the truck's marketing manager. "It handles better, brakes faster, hauls more, tows more. We were able to put that weight savings into more capability for the customer. We thought it was the perfect material for what customers do with their vehicles." Pickup Market Share Ford's share of the U.S. full-size pickup segment has grown for 2 straight years but hasn't returned to the level of 5 years ago. Ford GM FCA 2013 39.9% 34.8% 18.6% 2014 36.5% 35.9% 21.3% 2015 35.7% 37.7% 20.6% 2016 36.6% 35.5% 21.8% 2017 37.8% 33.9% 21.1% Source: Automotive News Data Center

How Ford plans to use its new digs in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood Crain’s Detroit Business / January 21, 2018 DETROIT -- The business strategy of Ford Motor Co.'s big bet on a future of selling electric and autonomous vehicles will be devised inside a former hosiery factory in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood -- a move that was driven both by the automaker's ambitions to transform urban mobility and its employees' desire to work in an urban setting. Inside the multi-section building at 1907 and 1927 Michigan Ave. called The Factory, Ford plans to embed its "Team Edison" group of employees who are charged with developing the business and strategy for rolling out 16 fully electric vehicles by 2022, said Sherif Marakby, vice president of autonomous vehicles and electrification for Ford. "From a mindset standpoint, it was a really nice fit with how we're thinking … about the future of battery electrics and autonomy," Marakby said in an interview last week with Crain's Detroit Business at the Detroit auto show. Crain's is an affiliate of Automotive News. Ford's purchase of The Factory building marks the biggest re-engagement with the city where Henry Ford invented the assembly line a century ago since the last Ford workers left the Renaissance Center nearly 20 years ago. Marakby, who will be based at the new Corktown office, was a college trainee in the early 1990s when Ford still occupied office space in the RenCen -- now the headquarters of General Motors. The 111-year-old Factory building, once the home to the Chicago Hosiery and Detroit-Alaska Knitting Mills factories, sits in the middle of a section of Michigan Avenue in Corktown that seems poised for more development spreading west from downtown and the redevelopment of the former Tiger Stadium site a block away. "The reason I fell in love with the place as soon as I saw it is it really gives you that vibe of the heritage and the new coming together -- and it really brings it to life," Marakby said of the building along Michigan Avenue, where early 20th-century streetcar rail still peeks out from between cobblestone and asphalt. Building Team Edison In building Team Edison, which Marakby describes as "a tech company within the company," Ford executives wanted to be in a location where employees developing the business case for electric and autonomous vehicles could contemplate and experience the real-world application. "We see being in Corktown as a big advantage," Marakby said. "And it has actually, in many ways, increased the interest in working on the team -- internally and externally." Ford plans to start moving employees into the building in the second quarter. In the Southeast Michigan-based auto industry's race with Silicon Valley to put autonomous vehicles on the road, workspaces matter, said Glenn Stevens, executive director of MICHauto, the Detroit Regional Chamber's automotive mobility accelerator programs. "For Ford, Detroit and Michigan, it all boils down to culture and talent," Stevens said. "And that enables you to build the F-150s of the day today. And it enables you to have the vision of what the city of tomorrow will be with operating systems and data analytics and software systems and the connected car." AV strategy In addition to Team Edison, Ford also will have employees working on the business and strategy of autonomous vehicles based in Corktown, including software developers writing the programs that business clients will use to connect their applications to future autonomous vehicles, Marakby said. "We're going to fill the building," he said. "It's going to be exciting." The office in Corktown gives the EV and autonomous vehicle employees the ability to work in an urban setting, while not too far from home base, Marakby said. The Factory, a 45,000-square-foot recently renovated space, is a 20-minute drive from Ford's headquarters, engineering labs and manufacturing facilities in Dearborn. The building is about a mile from the central business district of Detroit -- and within walking distance of new housing that's being built or redeveloped in and around Corktown. "Our young people love ... living and working in urban areas," said Bill Ford Jr., executive chairman of the company and great-grandson of founder Henry Ford. "For me, it was a no-brainer. And also, it's still a pretty good deal to be in downtown Detroit." Ford Land Development Co., the real estate arm of the automaker, purchased The Factory at Corktown building from former IndyCar driver Robbie Buhl and his brother, Tom, for an undisclosed price. The company has secured parking for employees in a vacant lot across Michigan Avenue that will accommodate the 200-plus employees, Marakby said. Staying close to home Marakby said "a good portion" of the employees who will work in Corktown already live in the greater downtown area. The owner of a wine bar next door to The Factory is hoping that's the case. "My only hope is that they're not the type of people who get in their car and go right back home to the suburbs," said David Armin-Parcells, owner of MotorCity Wine, which has operated a wine bar and shop at 1949 Michigan Ave. since 2013. The Buhl brothers' race team and motorsports marketing company, Buhl Sport Detroit, will remain headquartered in a smaller two-story annex building at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Rosa Parks Boulevard. "Obviously, we're excited that Ford's coming back to Detroit and Corktown," Robbie Buhl said in an interview. "It just made more sense, with what their interest was, to sell them the building." The Buhls, who bought the building in 2015 for $1.8 million through an entity called Riverfront Partnership I LLC, also will continue to share rented space with Brothers Tuning Detroit, which produces after-market gear shift knobs for the Ford Focus and Fiesta cars. The Buhls rehabilitated the building over the past three years and were using the third floor for special events until Ford executives expressed interest in the building a few months ago. "Everything just came together, and it happened very fast -- it happened in weeks," Marakby said. Ford announced its acquisition in mid-December. "Three years ago, would I ever have thought this was something that would have transpired?" Robbie Buhl said. "No way." .

Hackett urging Ford to think, act in new ways Michael Martinez, Automotive News / January 21, 2018 DETROIT — You'd be forgiven for having a tough time keeping up with some of Jim Hackett's musings. Ford Motor Co.'s cerebral CEO says he likes to think in the abstract and often considers problems along three time dimensions simultaneously. Hackett views issues in the "now," "near" and "far," likening the view to a bull's-eye with those words in concentric circles. His job, he says, is to manage Ford in each of those circles to ensure success. That might explain why most of Hackett's public appearances since becoming CEO in May take the tone of a college-level philosophy or physics lecture. He invited a Harvard philosopher onstage this month at CES in Las Vegas to lead the audience through a thought exercise about data privacy, and delved into a discussion of deep learning last week during a fireside chat-style appearance at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit. The 62-year-old Hackett, a newcomer to the auto industry after two decades running the office furniture maker Steelcase in western Michigan, often recorded Charlie Rose's self-titled TV show for its interviews with leading intellectuals and starts most mornings by scanning Science Daily's newsletter of top headlines. He lists former President Gerald Ford, former University of Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler and former Steelcase Chairman Robert Pew as heroes for their integrity. He drives a Mustang Shelby GT350, although he's the first to admit he's not a car guy. But Ford's board of directors, including Executive Chairman Bill Ford, think he's exactly the kind of leader the 115-year-old automaker needs as it charts a course for the future. "There's great people with great minds that can't get people to follow them, and then there's people who have followership that don't know where they're going. I'm humbled by how difficult that is," Hackett told Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein during the World Congress appearance. "The clarity of what this future is, is undeniable to me. I'm humble about that, but I think I have a pretty good handle on what that is." Unexpected job Hackett wasn't so clear about his own future. He almost declined the Ford CEO role when the board decided to part ways with Mark Fields. The offer came three years after he retired from Steelcase, a role into which he poured his heart and soul. He was so focused on the furniture business, he said, that he would read Architectural Digest in the bathtub. Did he really want to devote himself to another company? An 18-month stint as interim athletic director at Michigan, which he accepted out of a sense of duty to and love for his alma mater, cleansed his palate and reignited a desire to do something, he said. Then his friend Bill Ford persuaded him to become chairman of the automaker's new Ford Smart Mobility subsidiary. But when he was offered the CEO job in May, he initially suggested someone else within the company would be a better fit. Then he asked for a weekend to think it over. He turned to his family, which has long been his anchor. He rarely finishes a public speaking event without mentioning his wife and high-school sweetheart, Kathy, or his two beagles, Ozzy and Rudy. Ultimately, Hackett's family persuaded him to say yes. Kathy said he'd regret saying no by the time he turned 75. His two sons each wrote him a letter: one about great leaders in history who made their mark after age 62, and the other about what the automotive industry could become. "They both got me and Kathy pushed," he said. "I'm so happy about saying yes. Everything that was hesitant has gone. I'm so excited about what we can do in this business." He said his moment of clarity about what Ford can do came in September when he joined his family in Los Angeles for his son's wedding. "It hit me when I was out there because I was with family who hadn't seen me since I got the job," he said. "I said, 'I know what we need to do.' " A few weeks later, on Oct. 3, he met with investors and laid out a sweeping plan to cut $14 billion in costs, shift $7 billion from cars to light trucks and speed product development and technology implementation. He summed up his vision for the company in six words: "smart vehicles for a smart world." ‘Aim ahead' If Ford wants to compete — and win, Hackett says, it must improve its competitive "fitness" and think more like Apple and Tesla than General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. "I have to compete with Apple in a warehouse, and you can't tell me what they're working on," he said. "Not to dismiss GM or Daimler or any of those guys, because they're all really good, too. But they're not defining that fitness." What Apple and others get right, Hackett said, is that they think about the future of transportation in new ways that legacy automakers haven't grasped. "What if I said you have to travel the speed of light to be fast?" Hackett said. "Well, you can't. So how would you beat it? You need to aim ahead, where it's going to be." As Ford faces challenges from Google, Apple and other nonauto companies, Hackett said he is preparing Ford so it doesn't get caught off guard. "Apple is not going to bring the Apple car to the Detroit auto show," he said. "They're going to come at us in a way we didn't expect, and I think I know how they're going to do that, too." Ford, he said, will aim ahead of where it has to be, betting on technology and propulsion systems that may make better business sense in the future than they do now. Consider that the "far" part of his bull's-eye. "It has to be ahead," Hackett said, "in order for people to believe our strategy isn't about catching up to someone else's old view." Hackett said he admires Tesla CEO Elon Musk for getting employees to think hundreds of years in the future and realize that many problems will be solved by time. Speed is important to Hackett, partly because of the intense competition among Ford and its rivals, but also because of his age. "I had 20 years to get Steelcase right," he said. "I don't have that time here." Smart cities What does Hackett see when he looks to the future? He gave some hints at CES. It includes highly connected cities, in which cars talk with streetlights and phones talk with bikes, in which people and goods move freely, without congestion. Hackett is adamant that vehicles will need to be integrated into cities in new ways. "Everywhere in history, when transportation was invented, there was a delegation of the design between two forces," he said. "A horse had a trail, a car had a road, an airplane had an air-traffic control system. Autonomous vehicles have to have something more than the road." Hackett says vehicle propulsion systems will change too. Applying his "aim ahead" strategy, he expects electric vehicle costs to drop and the public to see EVs' benefit. "The cost of the battery is going to go through a step-function improvement," he said. "Moore's law [which generally holds that computers' processing power doubles every two years] is also going to make the cities smarter. Therefore, five to seven years from now we have to be careful about declaring that the population will only buy 5 percent electrification." The automaker is so sure that it has vowed to invest $11 billion in electrification by 2022 so it can introduce 40 new vehicles, including 16 that are fully electric. As Ford imagines the "city of tomorrow," it announced a partnership with Postmates to test the viability of moving goods autonomously. It also is experimenting with Domino's on driverless pizza delivery. "The promise of it is so magical," Hackett said. "The Amazon problem of small businesses closing could be reversed. The logistics power in these instruments could change the scale advantage a small company needs to move goods." His future The most passionate member of the Jim Hackett fan club might be Bill Ford. And vice versa. "He is a treasure of the highest order in this world," Hackett said of his boss. He said the two talk at least 10 times a day, echoing a similar sentiment expressed by former CEO Alan Mulally, who said he and Bill Ford wore a path between their offices on the top floor of Ford's headquarters. Hackett wouldn't say how much the two talk about succession planning but said he has "zero concerns about the executive bench." There are three or four people who could be CEO today, he said, and five other behind-the-scenes candidates who are capable, too. He doesn't know how long he'll last at Ford, but his acute awareness about time and speed apply to himself, too. "Every month on the Ford job is a marble in a jar," he said. "Imagine there's 84 marbles in that jar. I've now taken nine out. The wisdom in that is how fast they go." How many more will be taken out? Even he and Ford don't know. "We just talk about a lot of marbles in the jar," Hackett said. "We haven't counted." .

https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/43631-announcing-mackstripe-by-mack-western/

Going back to the LTL era, there certainly wasn't anything more beautiful. The built in-house by Mack Trucks F-model (and CF) cab was something we were very proud of. It was heavy, but you couldn't wear it out. I personally do have a strong connection to it.

It's crazy, but I remember the launch of the CM as if it were yesterday. There was nothing wrong with the truck, however to me, it represented the truck that nobody was asking for.

https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/46655-mcaleese/

Okay, my Top 5..... 1. U.S. market Value-Liner 2. Australian market Value-Liner 3. Ultra-Liner 4. Super-Liner 5. Trident https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/41322-sell-me-on-a-2016/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-299942 https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/34441-mack-trucks-the-difference-behind-the-name/?tab=comments#comment-230667 https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/30035-mack-australia-trident-a-well-kept-secret/

No, the lower three trucks. Note the hood-mounted "Value-Liner" and "V8" badges. https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/30016-mack-australia-the-other-value-liner/

The V8-powered Australian market Value-Liner ranks in the Top 3 of the most attractive Mack trucks.

No. We built that in the US. It has an RVI cab and engine (the CM423 has a Cummins), but was otherwise a concoction of US components.

No, those other manuals are completely unrelated. You can search “CM400” on the BMT website for additional info. Glen, you’re going to have difficulty obtaining parts for that truck.

Thor Trucks Takes Different Approach to Electric Trucks Jack Roberts. Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT) / January 19, 2018 What do you get when you get together a group of West Coast tech heads with family backgrounds in trucking? A whole new electric truck company, that’s what. At least that’s what Giordano Sordoni thinks. Sordoni is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Thor Trucks, a Los Angeles-based truck manufacturer and technology lab. He told HDT in an interview that the Thor Trucks team is focused on providing long-haul electric truck solutions that are “reasonable and profitable now.” The resulting prototype is a tough-looking regional-haul truck with an aggressive stance and styling that even old school truckers can appreciate. But styling cues aside, Sordoni said the Thor truck – and his company’s vision – is firmly rooted in future technology and the rapid changes coming at trucking. “The push toward more in-home delivery is where our vision was born,” Sordoni said. “Our families have a fleet background, so we understand the challenges of compliance, maintenance, fluctuating fuel prices, and other trucking issues today. And an electric truck solves a lot of those problems. You go from a vehicle with 2,000 moving parts to fewer than 20, so maintenance is cheaper. There’s no exhaust treatment or diesel particulate filter to deal with. And, if you get enough of these trucks on the road, you’ll eventually see fuel prices stabilize. So, electric trucks are actually good for fleets that run diesel, too." The God of Thunder Comes to Trucking The first Thor truck, dubbed the ET-One, is spec’d for regional-haul applications with daily ranges of 300 miles or less. The company says the truck features instananeous torque starting at 0 rpm, with powertrain options ranging from 300 to 700 hp. The ET-One features a regenerative braking system and battery packs designed specifically for commercial vehicle applications, and has the highest energy density lithium-ion cylindrical cells available today, according to the company. While Sordoni and his team think electric powertrains will eventually be feasible in long-haul applications, changing freight patterns and a new emphasis on in-home grocery deliveries are the primary factors driving his design team today. “Right now, I think regional haul makes the most sense for us,” Sordoni said. “We’re looking specifically at predicable routes that the drivers know like the back of their hand. Fleets know exactly where trucks on these routes are at any point during the day or night. So, we’re looking at developing a vehicle and a charging network spaced in an intelligent way to support those operations. And by doing so, we’ll have a capable truck that appeals to a huge swath of the trucking industry today.” Based on their collective fleet backgrounds, Sordoni said his design team has focused heavily on giving Thor trucks a familiar, comfortable, and productive environment, noting that many regional-haul routes rely heavily on human drivers unloading the truck, checking inventory, and reporting issues back to headquarters. “And those types of jobs won’t be replaced by robots any time soon,” Sordoni added. “In fact, my co-workers hate going to lunch with me because I’m always chasing down a truck on a route and talking to the driver. We also make a point of inviting drivers we meet on routes back to our labs to inspect our trucks up close and give us feedback on what we’re doing. They’re pretty skeptical at first. But once they take a drive in the truck and see what our approach is, they convert pretty quickly.” Partnering with Established Suppliers Thor also has taken on a business model that is “a little bit different” from the one being pursued by most of his electric truck competitors, Sordoni said. “We’re seeing a lot of OEMs out there trying to do everything themselves,” he explained. “They’re making huge claims and promises regarding dealerships, service and nationwide charging networks. Our strategy is to partner with existing companies already in the trucking ecosystem to manufacture or service our vehicles. There’s not a lot of value in us designing and manufacturing an axle, for example, when there are a lot of excellent companies out there already producing components like that, and there’s frankly not a lot of value we can add in that area.” The next steps for Thor, according to Sordoni, will be demonstrating prototype vehicles throughout 2018 with an emphasis on getting the truck into the hands of potential customers. “We want them to run them in their daily operations and make certain they can live up to the duty cycles we’ve designed them for."

The Transtar II remains one of my favorite COEs.

Today's Trucking / January 18, 2018 Take a ride back in time aboard Steve Constantin's out-of-this-world 1980 International Transtar II Eagle COE. Steve's a machinist not a driver, and his skills and handiwork make this a truck like almost no other. We interviewed Steve in August 2016 at the Athens Antique Truck Show in Athens Ont. The summer truck show season is just getting underway here in Ontario, starting with the Great Lakes Truck Club's premiere event, the Clifford Antique and Classic Truck Show July 1-2. .

Trailer-Body Builders / January 19, 2018 Freightliner Trucks’ new Cascadia model was selected for a recent 2017 Good Design award, which selects product designs and graphics from more than 46 nations for design excellence. Good Design was founded in Chicago in 1950 and curated by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. According to the company, it is one of the oldest and most recognized programs for design excellence globally. Submissions are received from Fortune 500 companies and design firms. “Every detail of the new Cascadia was carefully conceived to provide the best possible experience for drivers,” said Martin Kreidl, design director for Daimler Trucks North America. “We’re honored that the Good Design jury selected the new Cascadia, and are pleased they recognized our team’s thoughtful approach and forward-thinking, driver-centric innovations.” According to the company, the new Cascadia’s interior space configurations let drivers customize their living space to best suit their needs. The sleeper area offers dimmable ambient LED lighting that can illuminate the interior to near daylight levels. The space also has more cabinets, as well as larger areas to accommodate standard appliances and a sturdy, flat-panel TV swivel bracket that can hold up to a 26-in. screen television. Options for a double bunk or a driver’s loft are also available. The driver’s loft includes a dinette/work table and opposing seating with seat belts, which can be quickly folded to allow for a full-size, drop-down, murphy-style bed with the double bunk option. “We’re proud that the new Cascadia has been recognized with the Good Design award, and we’re even more proud of the achievements found in the new Cascadia that benefit drivers while they’re both on the job and off,” noted Kelly Gedert, director of product marketing for Freightliner Trucks and Detroit Components. .

Transport Topics / January 18, 2018 An autonomous-driving technology firm plans this year to begin commercial-hauling operations in Arizona using Class 8 trucks that will require nearly no driver control of the vehicle. Beijing- and San Diego-based tuSimple (aka. Beijing Tucson Future Technology Co., Ltd. /北京图森互联科技有限责任公司) has a supplier committed to the project, which will run trucks the 120 miles from Tucson to Phoenix, Partner and Vice President of Product Chuck Price told Transport Topics. He refused to identify the supplier. “We are testing at our Tucson facility in the first half of the year. By September, we will move to [operating for] a commercial shipper of cargo to generate revenues,” Price said. The tuSimple systems will be installed in Peterbilt trucks that will run at autonomous Level 4 of High Automation, defined as a vehicle system capable of conducting all driving without human control except in special circumstance, such as a traffic jam. Price said a driver will be behind the wheel for the Arizona runs. TuSimple conducted successful tests last summer of its Level 4 systems in China and on a 200-mile run from San Diego to Yuma, Ariz. TuSimple does not build trucks but provides the “stack” of autonomous technology that includes Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) and its Drive PX computer system, along with multiple radar and camera sensors. A series of commercial runs using Level 4 systems would be a big step for autonomous technology in Class 8 trucks. The tuSimple system trucks are capable of running themselves as they travel from on-highway to off-highway and in depot parking lots, Price said. In 2016, Uber’s self-driving truck subsidiary, Otto, conducted with Anheuser-Busch a driverless 120-mile beer delivery in Colorado. Last October, autonomous technology firm Embark teamed with Ryder to haul Frigidaire products between Texas and California. Both ran driverless on highways but switched to human control for merges and off-highway driving. TuSimple, formed in 2015 in China by Mo Chen and Xiaodi Hou, has raised $83 million from Chinese investors and Nvidia, according to CrunchBase. The company seeks to build out 50 trucks equipped with its autonomous systems, with an annual goal of hauling commercial freight at Level 4 for 3 million miles, Price said. It plans to outfit 25 Peterbilt Model 579 trucks in the United States and 25 Shaanxi Automobile Group trucks in China with its systems. The firm also will offer an extensive maintenance program. Its business model calls for users to pay a base charge and a recurring subscription fee. In return, the users get the tuSimple technology and staff training, in addition to system and software updates as the program evolves, Price said. The firm also will find and fix a vehicle if a problem occurs that takes it out of commission. “Let’s say the vehicle is disabled — due to weather, a blowout, a system failure — we can detect this and move it remotely or rescue it for the fleet customer,” he said. “We work to ensure [the system] works in all conditions. You can’t leave $1 million in product sitting on the side of the road.” TuSimple takes a different approach from some of its autonomous technology competitors. It opted for radar technology over the widely used lidar systems as radar can sense objects up to 300 meters away and respond, while lidar claims about 150 meters. That extra distance is important for trucks where short stopping distance is essential, Price said. Radar works better in rough weather and it’s cheaper, he noted. And tuSimple deliberately chose to headquarter in San Diego, away from Silicon Valley, where many new technology companies settle. “Our plan is to be the first commercial [Class 8] operator. It’s not our goal to just do demos and get acquired,” Price said. “We build technology that really works. We want to be out of Silicon Valley where there is pressure to get bought.” http://www.tusimple.com/ https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/30870500 .

Murder your son and face the death penalty? No, just a mere 10 years in prison. What will it cost taxpayers to incarcerate an admitted murderer for 10 years? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associated Press / January 19, 2018 Nearly three years ago, a state trooper conducting a traffic stop discovered a boy’s body in the trunk of his mother’s car. Quincy Jamar Davis hadn’t been seen for 11 years – his whereabouts unknown since 2004, around the time he was a middle school student in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He was never reported missing. This morning, his mother pleaded guilty to killing her son more than a decade ago. Tonya Slaton, 46, had been facing a second-degree murder charge, but under an agreement in Hampton Circuit Court, she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. The judge then sentenced her to 10 years in prison – the maximum punishment for that conviction – with two years suspended. Court records place Quincy’s death sometime between July 24, 2004, and July 24, 2005 – when he was 14 or 15 years old. A medical examiner was unable to determine his exact cause of death, but Quincy had a broken vertebrae in his neck that had not yet healed, according to a summary of evidence read aloud in court by prosecutor Richard Shayegan. His body also showed multiple injuries over time. Quincy attended elementary and middle school in Virginia Beach, but friends didn’t see him after seventh grade. He was withdrawn from the Virginia Beach division in September 2003, when he would have entered eighth grade. In June 2015, Slaton was headed east on Interstate 64 in Hampton, Virginia when state police pulled over her Ford Mustang. The state tags were expired, and the license plate wasn’t registered with the state, Trooper Chad Dermyer wrote in a summary of the incident filed in court documents. VIN numbers on the car looked like they had been tampered with, Maurice Lockett, a state police trainee who was with Dermyer that day, previously testified. At first, the troopers thought Slaton may have been a victim, he said. They thought someone may have stolen the car, changed the VIN and sold it to her, Lockett testified. After spending more than 45 minutes on the phone with a DMV agent, Dermyer decided to call a tow truck to further investigate the VIN numbers, he wrote in his report. The troopers then searched the car. When Dermyer opened the trunk, he saw trash bags under a spare tire, according to his report. Slaton told him she had clothes in the trunk that she planned to take to the Salvation Army. But one bag caught his attention. It appeared to contain something long and thin, about the width of a roll of toilet paper, Dermyer wrote. The bag “seemed to be duct taped close to the item,” and it didn’t look like clothes, he wrote. Dermyer tore through several layers of garbage bags and noticed what appeared to be rotting flesh, he wrote. He turned and looked at Slaton. “What is this?” he asked. She said it was just clothing, grabbed another bag with a blanket and covered it up, Dermyer wrote. The trooper uncovered the bag again. He saw what appeared to be two legs, severely decomposed. “I could see from around the knee down to the feet, which were covered by socks,” he wrote. Dermyer detained Slaton, put her in the front of his patrol car and called dispatch, he wrote. Slaton initially was charged with one felony count of concealing her son’s body. Prosecutors dropped the charge in early 2016, and a grand jury directly indicted Slaton on the murder charge. Slaton’s prior record includes a 1997 misdemeanor assault and battery conviction for injuring Quincy when he was 6. Court records filed in her current case show she was convicted of misdemeanor assault and battery in 2002 in Virginia Beach. In 2008, Slaton was sentenced to serve four years in prison for felony attempted maiming and shooting at an occupied dwelling for firing a gun at her boyfriend during a fight in Hampton.

Trump administration says US mistakenly backed China WTO accession in 2001 Reuters / January 20, 2018 WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The United States mistakenly supported China's membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 on terms that have failed to force Beijing to open its economy, the Trump administration said on Friday as it prepares to clamp down on Chinese trade. "It seems clear that the United States erred in supporting China's entry into the WTO on terms that have proven to be ineffective in securing China's embrace of an open, market-orientated trade regime," the administration said in an annual report to Congress on China's compliance with WTO commitments. "It is now clear that the WTO rules are not sufficient to constrain China's market-distorting behavior," the report said. While the annual report from the U.S. Trade Representative's office has long taken China to task for unfair trade practices, the first such review under U.S. President Donald Trump takes a harsher tone against Beijing. It comes amid worsening trade tensions between the world's two largest economies and as the administration prepares actions to curb China's alleged theft of intellectual property. A decision in the so-called "Section 301" investigation is expected in the coming weeks. The report also points at Russia's behavior, saying Moscow had no intention of complying with its WTO obligations, a trend the administration said was "very troubling." A White House official said despite consultations with China, it had failed to follow through on promises of moving more toward a market-orientated economy and playing by international trading rules. "The president and his principal advisor are united in the belief that this is a problem that has gone on for too long and needs to be addressed," the official said. "In the past, conversations have focused more on discreet opening for discreet products, and what we're saying is systematically we're not going to tolerate broad-based policy that attempts to promote state-led enterprises," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Trump told Reuters in an interview this week he was considering a big "fine" against China for forcing U.S. companies to transfer their intellectual property to China as a cost of doing business there. While the administration is also looking at whether foreign imports of steel, aluminum, washing machines and solar panels are harming U.S businesses, China's alleged theft of intellectual property is a particular concern to Trump because it affects a large swath of American firms, the official said. Trump did not specify what he meant by a "fine" against China, but the 1974 trade law that authorized an investigation into China's alleged theft of U.S. intellectual property allows him to impose retaliatory tariffs on Chinese goods or other trade sanctions until China changes its policies. In Beijing, many experts believe Washington is unwilling to pay the heavy economic price needed to upset prevailing trade dynamics between the two countries. In the report released on Friday, Trump's trade envoy, Robert Lighthizer, said the global economy was threatened by major economies who undermined the global trading system. "The global trading system is threatened by major economies who do not intend to open their markets to trade and participate fairly," Lighthizer said. "This practice is incompatible with the market-based approach expressly envisioned by WTO members and contrary to the fundamental principles of the WTO." The Trump administration has already pledged to transform 164-member trade body and has blocked WTO judicial appointments in a move to win WTO reforms. "What we want to do is see countries behave responsibly within the international trading system," the White House official said.

I believe the last year one could order a Class 6-7 Ford (F-650/F-750) with a Caterpillar (7.2L C7) was 2009. And the last year one could order a Class 6-7 Ford with a Cummins (6.7L ISB) was 2015. Fast forward to last year (2017), I think the lack of better credentials (Cummins powerplant, Allison automatic, Eaton transmissions) and lack of aggressive sales marketing are the root of Ford's problems in medium duty.