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Trump to end CIA support for ‘moderate’ anti-Assad forces in Syria RT / July 20, 2017 The White House and CIA have reportedly decided to end a covert operation to arm the so-called moderate Syrian rebels. The US has allegedly pumped some $1 billion into train-and-equip efforts with questionable outcomes. On Wednesday, US officials told the Washington Post (WP) and Reuters that Trump has decided to put an end to the covert CIA plan which began arming and training the so-called moderate Syrian rebels in 2013. Authorized by President Barack Obama, the secret Timber Sycamore weapons supply and training initiative has served as the backbone of Washington’s strategy to topple the Syrian President Bashar Assad. Two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity with Reuters, said the covert CIA scheme has produced little results. The Washington Post meanwhile claimed, based on their sources, that Trump’s reported intention to stop arming the rebels is the American president’s way of finding common ground with Russia on Syria. Moscow has always warned against arming the so-called moderate rebel groups in Syria, pointing out that weapons supplied to them often fall into the hands of jihadist groups such as Jabhat al Nusra and Islamic State. Trump’s decision to end the CIA program was reportedly taken in consultation with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and national security adviser H.R. McMaster ahead of his meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Hamburg earlier this month. During that meeting, on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Trump and Putin reached a ceasefire agreement for southwest Syria. The scrapping of the CIA’s Timber Sycamore program was not a precondition for the ceasefire negotiations, the US officials insisted. Without sharing the details of the program’s demise, the unnamed US officials claimed that Timber Sycamore would be phased out over a period of months. The WP report also said the decision to end the operation is being supported by the Jordanians, where some of the CIA training has been taken place. Varied US arms and training strategies to bolster rebel groups in Syria under the Obama administration have been notoriously underwhelming. In 2015, General Lloyd Austin, CENTCOM commander at the time, told Congress that only four or five of US-trained fighters have gone to Syria of the 5,000 the Pentagon envisaged. Earlier that year, the then Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee Carter that less than 1 percent of the pool of 7,000 Syrian volunteers for the US-funded train-and-equip program had made it through the vetting process. “As of July 3, [2015] we are currently training about 60 fighters,” Carter said. “I can look out at your faces and you have the same reaction I do, which is that that's an awfully small number.” The Reuters report notes that the US will continue to support select Syrian rebel groups with airstrikes and guidance as part of a separate effort. In February, Reuters reported that the US had frozen the CIA-run program after rebels in northwest Syria came under major attack by Islamists. The alleged suspension of the program, which included salaries, training, ammunition, had nothing to do with Trump replacing Barack Obama as president, two US officials familiar with the CIA program told Reuters at the time.

Turkey leaks secret locations of US, French troops in Syria France 24 / July 20, 2017 Turkey’s state news agency on Tuesday published the locations of secret US military bases in Syria as well as details on the numbers of US and French troops stationed there, sparking the ire of fellow NATO member states. In the latest display of tensions between Turkey and other NATO member nations, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency earlier this week published a detailed report of the secret locations of US military bases, operational posts and military posts inside Syria. The 620-word news report also included the numbers of US soldiers and French special forces stationed at these locations. The unprecedented leaking of sensitive battlefield information by the state-run news agency obviously had official Turkish backing, according to Jasper Mortimer, FRANCE 24’s Turkey correspondent. “It certainly was intentional. Anadolu agency is the hand-servant of the [Turkish] government. It would not have published this report without the green light from the top of government,” explained Mortimer, reporting from Ankara, adding that the revelation of troop numbers was particularly serious. “War correspondents do not give the number of troops in the unit to which they are attached. That is seen as giving information to the enemy. But here, Anadolu agency appears to have done exactly that.” ‘Advertising’ battlefield secrets The report, “US increases military posts supporting PKK/PYD in Syria,” lists US positions in Kurdish administered area of northern Syria and is the latest display of Ankara’s ire over Washington’s support for the PYD (Democratic Union Party), which Turkey views as the Syrian affiliate of the proscribed Turkish PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). The PYD is the political umbrella of the YPG (People’s Protection Units) which part of the US-led military operations against the Islamic State (IS) group in the region. “Turkey sees the YPG as an affiliate of the PKK and Turkey has long called on Washington to withdraw support for them. But there’s a difference between calling on America to withdraw support and actually advertising the details of that support,” said Mortimer. The US denies working with Kurdish separatists and maintains the YPG is part of the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), which includes a large component of Arab troops. French special forces on the ground The leaked details of US positions inside Syria include three US military posts in the northern Syrian province of Raqqa, home to the IS group’s de facto capital. The report mentions the presence of US and French special forces stationed in a military post located on a hill south of Kurdish-administered town of Kobani. At a military base in Ayn Issah, a town in northern Raqqa, troops included “200 US soldiers and 75 French special forces units,” the report added. Operational capacities of the locations, including bases that are large enough for military helicopters and cargo planes are also detailed, as well as weapons arsenal that include artillery batteries, rocket launchers and armored vehicles. Lives at risk, says Pentagon The report sparked strong condemnations from the US Defense and State Departments on Wednesday, with the Pentagon warning that the leaks could put lives at risk. "The release of sensitive military information exposes coalition forces to unnecessary risk and has the potential to disrupt ongoing operations to defeat ISIS," Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon told reporters on Wednesday, using another acronym for the IS group. French officials have not yet responded to the Turkish news report. When contacted by FRANCE 24, a French foreign ministry press officer said an official statement was not expected on Thursday. The latest Anadolu report marks another step in the deterioration of US-Turkey relations, with Ankara accusing Washington of failing to expedite the extradition of Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen. Ankara blames Gulen for masterminding the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, a charge Gulen denies. Tensions have also been simmering between Turkish military and NATO officials based in Brussels. Turkey is NATO’s only Muslim-majority member with the alliance’s second-largest standing army. In December 2016, NATO’s top commander, Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti warned of a “degradation” of the alliance’s command operations following Turkey’s dismissal of “talented, capable” senior Turkish military officials in massive purges after the July 2016 coup attempt.

Behind every individual is a unique story. Stereotyping is, in theory, wrong. But having said that, there is a lot of truth to David's thoughts. He calls a spade a spade (he's a straight talker), which I like and respect (why waste time beating around the bush).

Transport Topics / July 19, 2017 U.S. retail sales of Class 8 trucks in June climbed to an 11-month high amid a moderately improving economy, experts said, but at just over 17,000 were down nearly 6% year-over-year; and through the first six months of the year, sales were off 19%. Sales reached 17,310, down 5.7% compared with 18,354, a year earlier, WardsAuto.com reported. Year-to-date volumes hit 84,331, compared with 104,158 in the 2016 period. One analyst, however, suggested 2017 ultimately may produce stronger sales than 2016. “Last year, [with sales] we started high and ended low. This year, we started low and expect to end high. Starting soon, and maybe in July, year-over-year sales are going to be increasing,” Don Ake, vice president of commercial vehicles at the research company FTR, told Transport Topics. “Sales have been the tail of the dog so far in market indicators,” ACT Research Co. Vice President Steve Tam said, referring to stronger gains in year-over-year orders and production. Demand going forward is likely to be aided by what American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello called “a moderate [but uneven] improvement in the economy.” “We are to go from a 1.2% gross domestic product in the first quarter to about 3% in the second quarter then high 2’s or mid 2’s after that for the rest of the year,” Costello said in July. June sales showed both gains and losses, year-over-year, depending on the respective the truck maker. But all truck makers saw sales fall year-to-date, compared with the 2016 period, Ward’s said. Freightliner remained the market leader for June and the first half of 2017. In June, Freightliner’s sales fell 6.1% to 6,313, good for a 36.5% market share, compared with a year earlier. Also, Freightliner’s year-to-date market share slipped to 37.8%, compared with 40.4% in the 2016 period. Freightliner is a unit of Daimler Trucks North America. Three truck makers posted sales gains for June: Peterbilt Motors Co., International Trucks and Western Star. Peterbilt saw a 19.2% jump to 2,781 trucks and a 16.1% market share. Year-to-date, its share increased to 15.9%, compared with 13.1% in the 2016 period. Peterbilt is a brand of Paccar Inc. International had a 10.2% increase to 1,710 trucks, good for a 9.9% share. For the first six months, its share slipped to 10.4% from 11.2% in the 2016 period. International is the brand of Navistar international Corp. Small and medium-size fleets are buyers and leasing companies “have a pretty strong presence” in the market now, Jeff Sass, senior vice president, North America truck sales and marketing for Navistar International Corp., told TT. One truckload carrier told TT it plans to add Class 8s powered by diesel and others by compressed natural gas, depending on the application. “We plan to source 10 new diesel trucks this year from Kenworth Truck Co. [a Paccar brand] to maintain our company fleet size. Some of our older company trucks have already moved into our lease-purchase program,” said Rich Casoli, vice president of business operations for Beemac Trucking. “Also, we also are looking to add on and replace some of our CNG trucks in 2018. That is our plan currently. All of our CNG tractors are running in extreme regional applications,” he said. “If we have a need to add a company truck that is in our regional application we would go with CNG. If it is an over-the-road application, we would go with diesel,” he said. Beemac is based in Ambridge, Pa. It uses 300 owner-operators in addition to 50 company trucks, 20 of which use compressed natural gas. Beemac considers itself a pioneer in pairing open-deck trailers with CNG tractors. Casoli said business this year is “phenomenal” and he expects growth among regional customers in 2018, too. Among other truck makers, Kenworth’s June sales year-over-year dropped 7.7% to 2,530, good for a 14.6% share. Year-to-date, its market share was flat at 14.1%, compared with the 2016 period. Kenworth is a Paccar Inc. brand, too. Mack Trucks sold 1,764 units in June, down 14.2%, and good for a 10.2% share. Year-to-date, Mack’s share rose to 9.3%, compared with 8.6% in the 2016 period. Volvo Trucks North America notched sales of 1,630, down 33.9%, earning it a 9.4% share. Year-to-date, its share fell to 9.6% from 10.1%. Niche truck maker Western Star — also a unit of DTNA — saw sales increase to 560 trucks, up 23.6% from a year earlier, and good for a 3.2% market share. Its year-to-date share was 2.8%, up from 2.5% a year earlier.

Jon Harris, The Morning Call (Allentown, PA newspaper) / July 19, 2017 For the second consecutive quarter, Mack Trucks delivered fewer trucks than a year ago but received a surge in orders as a result of an active construction segment and slowly improving freight environment in North America. But the decline in deliveries wasn’t nearly as pronounced as the first quarter, when Mack reported a 24 percent decrease from the year-earlier period. In the second quarter, Mack delivered 5,507 trucks worldwide, a mere 1 percent decline — 81 trucks — from the 5,588 completed a year ago, according to a report released Wednesday by Mack’s parent company, Sweden’s Volvo Group. Meanwhile, Mack received 4,746 orders during the second quarter, a 58 percent rise from 3,007 in the year-earlier period. Mack’s primary market, North America, drove most of the growth, responsible for 4,143 orders in the period, a 48 percent increase from a year ago. By comparison, there were 5,281 orders for Volvo-branded trucks in the quarter, a smaller increase of 16 percent from last year. In the second quarter, Mack’s market share in North America increased to 8.2 percent, while Volvo Trucks’ share decreased to 8.8 percent. For Mack, the surge in orders, which translates to future deliveries, backs up the recent hiring the company has been doing at its 1-million-square-foot Lower Macungie Township facility, where all Mack trucks built for the North American market and export are assembled. The company’s Lehigh Valley Operations, as they’ve been dubbed, employ about 1,800 people, spokesman Christopher Heffner said last week. In addition, he said, the facility is still hiring, with available production jobs posted at www.careerlinklehighvalley.org/MackTrucks.aspx. According to the Volvo Group, the highway segment in North America is still “characterized by over-capacity due to the underutilized population of used long-haulage trucks.” But, the company noted, the construction segment continues to perform well and regional distribution is showing signs of higher activity. As such, Volvo upgraded its heavy-duty truck forecast in North America to 225,000 units for 2017, up 10,000 from its previous estimate. But that forecast is still short of the 243,000 trucks the market finished with last year, which John Walsh, Mack’s vice president of global marketing and brand management, said is an important factor to consider when thinking about the company’s year-over-year delivery declines so far this year. “As we move through the second half of 2017, we look forward to continuing to meet our customers’ needs with our current truck lineup, as well as with a new member of the Mack family coming this fall,” Walsh said, referring to Mack’s new highway model that will be unveiled Sept. 13.

"Snorkel Air Intake", in lieu of "Frontal Air Intake", was a factory option. Included was a Donaldson Air Ram Moisture Eliminator. Ryder Truck Rental chose the option on a majority of their MH Ultra-Liner purchases. The option was paired with a 13-inch Donaldson air cleaner on non-sleeper cabs (CA60), and a 16-inch Donaldson air cleaner on sleeper cabs (CAS62). The optional was available with Mack 6-cylinder, Mack V-8, Cummins and Caterpillar powertrains. The option was not available on MH642/643 models with Detroit Diesel power. The option had a retail price of US$562 for the CA60 cab with a weight addition of 47 pounds. The option had a retail price of US$753 for the CAS62 cab with a weight addition of 54 pounds.

The Guardian / July 18, 2017 The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) said it had interviewed Matthew Harrity, but Mohamed Noor had declined to be interviewed by BCA agents. Betsy Hodges, mayor of Minneapolis, told a press conference in Minneapolis on Tuesday night: “We cannot by law compel Officer Noor to make a statement. I wish that he would. “I wish that he would because he has a story to tell that only he can tell.” Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called the fatal shooting of Damond on the weekend “shocking” and “inexplicable”. “How can a woman out in the street in her pyjamas seeking assistance be shot like that?” the prime minister asked. “It is a shocking killing and, yes, we are demanding answers on behalf of her family.” https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jul/19/malcolm-turnbull-demands-answers-from-us-authorities-over-justine-damonds-death

Office of Communications A Division of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety NEWS RELEASE Bruce Gordon, Director of Communications CONTACT: Jill Oliveira 651-793-2726 jill.oliveira@state.mn.us FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 18, 2017 Update on BCA Investigation of Minneapolis Officer Involved Shooting ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) today confirmed identity of the two Minneapolis Police Department officers involved in an officer involved shooting incident on Saturday, July 15. The BCA is conducting the investigation at the request of the Minneapolis Police Department. Officer Matthew Harrity has been an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department for one year. [Somali immigrant] Officer Mohamed Noor has been an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department for 21 months. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office on Monday evening confirmed the identity of the deceased as Justine Maia Ruszczyk, 40, of 5024 Washburn Avenue South in Minneapolis. Ruszczyk died of a single gunshot wound to the abdomen. BCA agents interviewed Officer Harrity earlier today. Officer [Mohamed] Noor has declined to be interviewed by BCA agents at this time. Officer Noor’s attorney did not provide clarification on when, if ever, an interview would be possible. According to the BCA’s preliminary investigation, officers Harrity and Noor responded to a 911 call from a woman now identified as Ruszczyk of a possible assault near her residence just after 11:30 p.m. Saturday. Officer Harrity was driving. Officer Noor was in the passenger seat. The officers drove south through the alley between Washburn and Xerxes avenues toward West 51st Street in search of a suspect. All squad lights were off. As they reached West 51st Street, Officer Harrity indicated that he was startled by a loud sound near the squad. Immediately afterward Ruszczyk approached the driver’s side window of the squad. Harrity indicated that Officer Noor discharged his weapon, striking Ruszczyk through the open driver’s side window. The officers immediately exited the squad and provided medical attention until medical personnel arrived. Ruszczyk was pronounced dead at the scene. Both officers have been placed on standard administrative leave. Officer Harrity told investigators that the officers saw an 18-25 year old white male who was bicycling eastbound on West 51st Street immediately before the shooting. This individual stopped at the scene and watched as the officers provided medical assistance to Ruszczyk. BCA agents would like to speak with this person, and anyone else who may have witnessed the incident. These individuals are asked to contact the BCA at 651-793-7000. Crime scene personnel recovered a cell phone near the victim. No weapons were recovered. Body cameras were not turned on until after the shooting incident. The squad camera was not turned on. Investigators are aware of no video or audio of the shooting. The BCA’s investigation does not determine whether a law enforcement agency policy was violated. That would be reviewed through the agency’s internal affairs process. The BCA’s investigation into the shooting is active and ongoing. The BCA has briefed the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office about all evidence and information obtained in this investigation to date. As it does in all investigations, the BCA will present its findings without recommendations to the county attorney for review once the investigation is complete. https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ooc/news-releases/Pages/Update-on-BCA-Investigation-of-Minneapolis-Officer-Involved-Shooting.aspx

SILK WAY RALLY 2017: a hard second stage in Chinese territory for Team PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO IVECO Trucks Press Release / July 14, 2017 It was a long stage today for Team PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO: 813.89 km from Urumqi to Hami with a special distance of 421 km in the dunes, then on stony, broken ground. Kazakh pilot Artur Ardavichus achieved again the best result for the team, finishing the stage in seventh place with his IVECO Powerstar. After a well-deserved rest day in Urumqi, Team PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO was back on board today. This morning Artur Ardavichus left the bivouac at 7.36 ahead his teammates and drove carefully behind the wheel of his IVECO Powerstar, finishing Stage 9 from Urumqi to Hami in a good position. “Today it was a very hard day – confirmed the pilot – The stage was really tough, with dunes and gravel: to make it to the end it was necessary to drive not too fast but not even too slow. I think otherwise not all the trucks would have arrived at the end of the stage.” The newest driver of the team is still firmly in the 5th place of the overall ranking. Team leader Gerard De Rooy finished 10th in the special stage: “Unfortunately after two kilometres in the SS we blew a shock absorber, but we tried to go on anyway. In the dunes we were forced to stop to change a tyre and we lost a lot of time because the sand was so soft that it made it very difficult. Tomorrow we will try to make good time on the way to the next dunes.” De Rooy’s #302 Powerstar is now in 14th place of the partial general classification. Today was a very hard stage for the third member of Team PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO too: on board his Trakker, Dutchman Ton Van Genugten – with Marco Alcayna Ferran and Bernard den Kinderen – finished in twelfth position and maintained his eight place in the general. Today he drove carefully and lost time to help De Rooy change the tyre. Tomorrow, July 18th, the start of the third special in China will be very fast, then the track will become more technical and slower with many changes of direction. In “the 492 chapels of Mogao” there will be some very nice fast sections in a big wadi with magnificent landscapes. Throughout the last part of the stage, the track runs along a dried lake and is not always clearly marked, so it is easy to loose if headings are not strictly followed. The stage is 517.53 km long, of which 360.28 km of the special. Stage 7 and Stage 8 sum-up Today’s challenging stage follows the successful performances of the first week. On July 14th, Artur Ardavichus achieved Team PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO’s best result in stage 7 from Urdzhar to Karamay, finishing in 9th position and in the top five of the general ranking. Dutch teammates Gerard De Rooy and Ton Van Genugten drove carefully and arrived tenth and eleventh. The 8th leg from Karamay to Urumqi (July 15th), on the eve of the rest day, was a tough challenge that Team PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO tackled with success, with two IVECO trucks finishing in the top ten of the partial classification. Artur Ardavichus and Ton Van Genugten finished in seventh and tenth position and Team leader De Rooy finished Saturday’s stage in 14th position (due to 7h penalty assigned), maintaining his ranking in the overall classification. Stage 9 results – Silk Way Rally 2017 1. Airat Mardeev (Kamaz) 4h19m50s 2. Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz) +0m36s 3. Anton Shibalov (Kamaz) +5m09s 4. Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz) +9m25s 5. Martin Kolomy (Tatra) +11m40s ------ 7. Artur Ardavichus (IVECO) +25m47s 10. Gerard De Rooy (IVECO) +58m22s 12. Ton Van Genugten (IVECO) +1h16m11s Overall classification – Silk Way Rally 2017 1. Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz) 27h50m00s 2. Anton Shibalov (Kamaz) +14m27s 3. Airat Mardeev (Kamaz) +26m30s 4. Martin Kolomy (Tatra) +31m30s 5. Artur Ardavichus (IVECO) +1h43m59s ----- 8. Ton Van Genugten (IVECO) +7h52m23s 14. Gerard De Rooy (IVECO) +214h56m39s .

Volvo FE Low Entry Cab (LEC)

Plant life: Factory timeline Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant has undergone a number of changes over the course of its 60-year history. Since opening in 1957, it has built everything from wagons and pickups to SUVs and sedans. Here are some of the plant's key moments. 1957 Plant opens: A 760% rise in Mercury station wagon sales from 1947 to 1956 sparked the establishment of the Michigan Station Wagon Plant. ■ 1964 Truck production:The first pickup -- a Ford F-100 -- rolls off the line of the newly renamed Michigan Truck Plant. ■ 1965 Historic milestones:2 milestones are reached: The plant builds its 100,000th truck and its first Ford Bronco. ■ 1966 Bronco boom:The SUV highlights the plant's lineup. Bronco output ends in 1996, a year before Expedition and Navigator production begins. ■ 1974 Plant expansion:Michigan Truck Plant gets an 18,000-square-foot expansion as part of Ford's worldwide capital expenditure program totaling $1.1 billion. ■ 1997 SUV production:The plant begins producing the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator, and continues through November 2008. A flexible body shop is added to the plant in 2005. ■ 2010-11 New Focus and EV:Renamed Michigan Assembly Plant, the factory undergoes an extensive physical transformation to ready for the production of the new Focus and a companion electric vehicle. Ford's electrification strategy entailed launching 4 new electric-powered vehicles by 2012. ■ 2018 Plant conversion:The plant will undergo an $850 million renovation to build the Ranger midsize pickup and Bronco SUV.

A factory in flux Automotive News / July 17, 2017 Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant tracks the industry's shifting winds DETROIT — After nearly 20 years working on the line at Ford Motor Co.’s Michigan Assembly Plant, Bob Wieck is used to change. The 39-year-old started at the site in 1999, and during his career — which included a brief stint at the Dearborn Truck Plant — he has switched from building cars to trucks to cars and, next year, back to trucks. Wieck had been making Ford’s unibody Focus sedan at the Wayne Stamping and Assembly Plant when, in 2009, the automaker decided to close it, consolidate production at neighboring Michigan Truck and rename the site Michigan Assembly. The state-of-the-art factory would build gasoline, electric and hybrid small cars after a $550 million renovation using a government loan. Wieck was moved to Dearborn Truck for about a year during the conversion, but returned to renovated Michigan Assembly in 2011. He said initially workers were worried and confused over the closure and transition, but were ultimately excited that Ford dedicated major resources to adding C-Max hybrids and increasing Focus output. “That was huge,” he said. “We knew we had at least another 10 years.” Not quite. Less than a decade later — after production cuts and layoffs — Ford is abandoning that investment, sinking about $850 million into Michigan Assembly to convert it back to a body-on-frame truck and SUV plant, this time for the Ranger midsize pickup and Bronco SUV. Although Michigan Assembly is Ford’s second-biggest plant in the United States and contributes billions to the state’s economy, the automaker can’t seem to settle on a role for the plant. Twice in about seven years, Ford has significantly changed its product plan for the site — a process that has cost billions in construction, new machinery and worker retraining. “In many respects, the whole site there is really a sign of the times of what has happened the last 10-plus years in the industry,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of global operations, said in an interview. “It’s a reminder of what changes.” Stalling workflow for weeks at a time to gut the interior of a plant is inefficient, especially for a company whose founder preached the benefits of interchangeable parts to achieve maximum productivity. But analysts say such costly decisions are neither uncommon nor avoid-able. Consumer preferences have changed drastically since the turn of the century: Buyers who once scooped up gas-guzzling utility vehicles traded them in for economically sensible sedans as gasoline prices spiked, only to return to larger vehicles as the economy rebounded and oil prices fell. Automakers, meanwhile, are forced to respond to the whims of the buying public with product plans that are often set four or five years in advance. For instance, Fiat Chrysler is preparing to convert its Toledo North Assembly plant in Ohio from making unibody Jeep Cherokees to body-on-frame Wranglers. “They have to react to what the future market conditions are expected to be,” Kristin Dziczek, director of the industry, labor and economics group at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., said in an interview. “Any time you’re trying to hit a mark several years into the future, it’s hard to know.” Plant history Ford’s 60-year-old Michigan Assembly Plant is a case study in how automakers adapt to changing market demands. The factory opened in 1957 as the Michigan Station Wagon Plant building MercuryColonyPark wagons. The previous decade, demand for such vehicles spiked 760 percent as American families expanded and began taking long road trips. Seven years later, in 1964, Ford retooled the site to build F-100 pickups and renamed it the Michigan Truck Plant. A year later, it produced the first-ever Bronco SUV. Nine years after that, Ford put in an 18,000-square-foot expansion as part of $1.1 billion in worldwide capital expenditures. Bronco production ended in 1996, and the next year Michigan Truck started churning out Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators, two massive family haulers that helped define the large SUV segment. In 2005 Ford added a flexible body shop. But as gasoline prices surpassed $4 a gallon, demand for small cars skyrocketed. At the time, Ford was building its Focus small sedan at the Wayne Assembly Plant, next to Michigan Truck. “In 2008, I was running manufacturing and having conversations around how in the world can we make more Focus vehicles?” Hinrichs said. “We were out of capacity at Wayne. One of the ideas was to leverage Michigan Truck next door to increase our total Focus capacity.” Ford decided to move the Expedition and Navigator to Kentucky, and retool, consolidate and update Michigan Truck, renaming it Michigan Assembly. It was an extensive project — and Ford turned to the government to help pay for it. In 2009, it received a $5.9 billion loan from the Obama administration’s Department of Energy for the creation of fuel-efficient vehicles and technology. Ford used a portion of that loan — $550 million — to transform Michigan Truck into a small-car plant that could build gasoline, electric and hybrid vehicles on the same line. At the time, it was Ford’s most flexible plant, capable of building vehicles of varying sizes with different powertrains. Plant leaders went through three weeks of training as they switched from building body-on-frame trucks and SUVs to unibody Focus and C-Max cars. During the revamped plant’s first week of production, Ford combined its two-shift crew into one, overlapping start times so employees could work out any early kinks together. Shift in demand Michigan Assembly was successful, at least early on, with the small cars. According to a 2013 study by CAR, the site at the time supported more than 48,000 jobs nationally, including 24,000 in Michigan. The plant’s annual contribution to the gross domestic product then was $3 billion in Michigan and more than $5.7 billion nationally. Ford built more than 850,000 vehicles during the first three full years of production, according to the AutomotiveNewsDataCenter. But output has fallen every year since 2013, and the same factors that prompted its creation ultimately became the plant’s undoing. “At that time, gas prices had been relatively high, so demand for small cars was there,” Dziczek said. “Now it’s not.” Slumping sales led to extended downtime at the plant, making for an awkward encounter in January 2015 when President Barack Obama came to the site to hold a rally touting the resurgent American auto industry. Because the assembly lines were temporarily shut down and workers had been sent home, Ford had to rely on employees coming in on their day off to form a crowd. Months after the president’s visit, Ford decided to lay off about 700 workers, eliminating a third shift that it had added a few years earlier. In 2015, Ford announced it would move the Focus out of Michigan Assembly to a low-cost location in 2018, but that no jobs would be lost because it would replace production with two yet-unnamed vehicles, which turned out to be the Ranger and Bronco. Ford later said it would move Focus production to China, and has yet to announce plans for the C-Max, which many expect will be killed. The about-face signaled the end of the government-funded renovation after just seven years. “Was it a bad investment? From the government’s perspective, it was a loan that’s being paid back,” 
Dziczek said “I think it secured a future for the plant so it could live on to get this new investment now.” A Ford spokeswoman said that the automaker has paid back $3 billion of the $5.9 billion federal loan, and is on track to complete repayment in 2022. 'Not ideal' The last Focus and C-Max are to roll off the line at Michigan Assembly in mid-2018. Ford has said it expects a four-week changeover, a process that it has perfected thanks to its 2014 overhaul of the Dearborn Truck Plant to convert to aluminum-bodied pickup production. Wieck said workers were told the changeover will last one to two months and that the company will keep some existing machinery. While workers likely will have to undergo another round of training to build the different vehicles, he doesn’t expect dramatic change. “Working on the line is just a part of the puzzle,” he said. “There will probably be little adjustments, but I don’t think it will be huge.” Wieck is excited about the massive transformation about to occur. He said despite the change, the plant’s future is likely more secure than before because it will be building vehicles that are more in demand. Ford officials echo his optimism. Although car production didn’t last long, Hinrichs believes the past seven years have been beneficial to Ford’s understanding of hybrid and electric vehicle development. “If you look at it over a long time period, we went from body-on-frame to unibody back to body-on-frame,” Hinrichs said. “That’s not ideal, but at the same time I think we’re ending up at a really good place: Focus production moving to a low-cost location, which has been needed for a long time, and two very important nameplates being brought to the showroom I know our dealers and a lot of customers are excited about.” Archive photograph - Through the years, the plant has adapted to changes in the marketplace with products including Mercury station wagons in 1958, top; Ford pickups, the 100,000th of which rolled off the line in 1965, below; Ford and Lincoln SUVs and Ford Focus compact cars since 2011. .

Yes, and that's the Mack part number 95RU32. .

Steve Brooks, Owner-Driver / July 17, 2017 Paul Mifsud's 1964 Kenworth 923 model is still going strong. Funny how things happen. Like, I’d just climbed out of the first of Kenworth’s stunning T900 Legend trucks and was walking back to the main office when this old banger with the homespun paint job came into view, by chance unloading at the Paccar Parts warehouse. Time was short but owner-driver Paul Mifsud was more than happy to share a few details. For starters, and despite the ‘KW 1965’ number plate, he said it’s a 1964 923 model which has been working faithfully almost every day since he bought it in 1984. Asked about the truck’s early history, Paul walked over to the cab and produced a photostat copy of an original build sheet, showing that it was brought to Australia by Cameron Kenworth Imports in Melbourne. Ed Cameron, of course, was the driving force behind the introduction of Kenworth trucks to this country. The truck was delivered to the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works in September 1964. Built on a heavy-duty twin-skin chassis, power came from a six cylinder GM punching 238 horsepower into a Spicer four-speed main box and four-speed auxiliary, feeding into Rockwell SQDD-P diffs running a deep 6.44:1 final drive ratio. Top speed was a blistering 47 miles per hour, or roughly 75km/h. Nowadays it’s powered by a 365hp Cat 3176B and the four-speed main 'box has been replaced by a 10-speed Roadranger but with the four-speed auxiliary still attached. Meantime, the original diff set has made way for Rockwell SP40s and a 4.1 final drive ratio. As for the truck’s future, Paul’s not sure. He’s not getting any younger either and retirement is starting to look good. Even so, he’d like to find a good home for the old toiler. Fair enough! .

Big Rigs / July 18, 2017 There is a pristine International R200 parked up against the fence. It is painted a magic blue - the colour blue of the sky that you might see in the Outback or the blue of the Adriatic Sea. On one side of the bonnet are inscribed the words 'Kenneth Graham' and on the other, 'Dorothy Joyce'. Next to the truck is a gazebo with Ken and Dot Keating lounging in comfortable chairs, enjoying this warm afternoon. I take them to be said Ken and Dot and wander over to offer my praise for their historical masterpiece. Mistake number 1. "Hi Ken and Dot.” I say, introducing myself. "Hi back. I'm Ken and this is my wife, Maureen.” Not knowing when to quit when behind and being adept at putting both feet in my mouth at the same time I respond. "So who's Dorothy Joyce?” "Dot was my wife when we bought the truck some thirty years ago. She passed away eighteen years back and I've been married to Maureen for eight or nine years.” "Ten years actually,” responds Maureen. Sitting down on the ground to extricate my feet from my gob I express my condolences at the loss of Ken's first wife and my congratulations on his marriage to Maureen - albeit a few years too late in both instances. Maybe time to turn the conversation to the International. Looking at the Inter, Ken says "yep, pretty happy with her, I've owned her for 32 years. She was a mucky yellow when I got her. The blue is not an Inter colour but I just loved it and the appreciative comments I've had over the years have justified that decision. That shade of blue is in fact my company colour”. Keating Freight Lines is Shepparton based and runs 14 prime movers and six rigids. They also have a depot in Melbourne's Campbellfield. Originally owning part of Geoffrey Thompson Transport, Ken bought his partner out, except for the Interstate business. "We don't do Interstate. Happy to run Shep to Melbourne every day. The business is mainly refrigeration - of which we have ten these days, down from a high of 26. We also have three B-Double Taut Liners and Five Dries, three refrigerated taut liners and one flattop still.” The company has run Scanias since 1972, a decision that Ken is happy to stand by. "The trucks and the company have been good to us.” These days Ken's three sons operate the business and youngest son Mark rebuilds trucks, including the International. He stripped it to the chassis and went from there. Whatever had to be replaced was replaced. Ken would like to hop behind the wheel of one of the big boys for a drive every now and then but the kids won't let him so he plays with the International as a sort of second prize. He proudly shows me a picture of it hooked up to and hauling a road train in the company's yard. "Bloody tempted to do a run to Melbourne in the old girl with a couple of trailers hooked up,” he said. "Reckon she'd still show the new boys a thing or two.” Memories from the past are living on through Ken Keating and the R200 International. .

Volvo attracts KNDS, CMI bids for Renault Trucks Defence Reuters / July 17, 2017 Swedish truckmaker Volvo has attracted two bidders for its armored vehicles maker Renault Trucks Defence (RTD) worth roughly 500 million euros (US$573 million). Volvo put the unit up for sale late last year as it sheds non-core assets to reduce complexity across a group built through a series of large acquisitions. Volvo has already sold its aerospace unit and external IT operations as well as a large real estate portfolio [plus "Volvo Rents" in the US for US$1.1 billion and US$278 million stake in its Indian Eicher joint-venture]. French-German tank maker KNDS, which evolved from the merger of Nexter and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, is expected to hand in an offer for RTD by a July 24 deadline, as is Belgian group CMI. Private equity groups which initially expressed interest in RTD are not expected to take part in the auction, which is organized by Rothschild. The French government favors an industrial buyer rather than a financial investor. Volvo, KNDS and Rothschild declined to comment. A CMI spokesman said the company is interested in RTD. "Eighty percent of our group is owned by Bernard Sarin, a French businessman, and we have many French subsidiaries. We are a Belgo-French group that would integrate another French company and we would have synergies between Belgium and France. We are talking about more and more cooperation between the French and Belgian armies," he said. Volvo may reap less than initially expected from the sale of RTD after a slump in recent trading, people familiar with the matter said. RTD recently adjusted its business plan and now expects less than 80 million euros in 2018 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, one of them said. "Earnings are less important than the order backlog," another of them said, adding he would expect the group to sell for about 7 times its estimated core earnings.

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Kenworth Truck Co. Press Release / July 17, 2017 The work you do requires everything you’ve got and then some. Same for your trucks and the people who drive them. With the T880, you’ve got a dependable, versatile vehicle capable of performing your toughest jobs. And the new Kenworth T880S set-forward front axle model delivers more flexibility and operating advantages than any other work truck in its class. .

Billy, I'm sorry to be late in replying. I'm wide open these days with a full plate of work. We used to casually say that the E7 was the E6 made metric. Some truth to that. I'm not aware of the E7 architecture having been planned to go from its 12-litre size to say 13-litres. And back in 1987-88 when we were designing the E7 (launched in 1989), we really didn't have the 13-litre size on our radar. After all, our E6-350 4V could run circles around a 350hp Cummins and blow it away in fuel economy. Power, economy, durability.......what more can a 6-cylinder customer ask for? Today, thanks to new technologies like CGI (Compacted Graphite Iron) engine blocks, we can easily get 450hp from an 11-litre block and 500-520hp from a 12-litre block. But realize the E7 was designed around the technologies on hand in 1987-88. That said, we did improve (evolve) the E7. I did not like unit pump injection on it, or any other engine. EUP was a stepping stone. Common Rail was the ticket, solving a long list of problems with a relatively simple design and superb reliability. Mack Trucks' E7 direct injection heavy-duty diesel engine is a four cycle, in-line six cylinder design. The 728 cu in. (12 1) engine is turbocharged and chassis mounted air-to-air aftercooled. The E7 is being introduced in 1989 with power ratings of 250 hp to 400 hp (186 kW to 298 kW) at 1700 to 1800 rpm, calibrated to 1990 EPA standards. Highlights of the E7 engine's design, development and performance are presented. Information is included which illustrates the strategies utilized to attain program goals of controlling weight and cost while extending power ratings, reducing emissions levels, and improving fuel economy, serviceability, durability and reliability. http://papers.sae.org/892497/

Volvo D13 turbo compound engine delivers up to 6.5% improvement in fuel efficiency Green Car Congress / July 13, 2017 Volvo Trucks North America’s new VNL series delivers up to 7.5% improved fuel efficiency when spec’d with Volvo’s available D13 Turbo Compound engine (D13TC). (Earlier post.) Designed for customers with long-haul, steady-speed operations, the 13-liter Volvo D13TC utilizes turbo compounding technology that recovers energy typically wasted through the exhaust, converting it into useable mechanical energy that is transferred back to the engine. By employing a secondary exhaust turbine downstream of the main turbocharger, the normally lost energy is routed to the flywheel, recovering as much as 50 hp and helping to improve fuel economy by up to 6.5% when compared with previous GHG14 D13 engine models. Combined with an additional 1 percent fuel efficiency benefit from the improved aerodynamics of the new VNL series, customers spec’ing the D13TC will see up to a 7.5 percent improvement overall. —Göran Nyberg, president of Volvo Trucks North America Customers are able to pair the D13TC with Volvo’s XE—eXceptional Efficiency—powertrain packages. XE packages rely on Volvo’s fully integrated I-Shift automated manual transmission to downspeed the engine, enabling a cruise rpm up to 300 rpm less than the average truck sold today, saving fuel. The VNL series comes standard with the Volvo D13 engine, with the D13TC available as an option. Customers choosing Daycab and VNL 400 models also have the option of spec’ing the 11-liter Volvo D11 as an alternative. The 15-liter Cummins X15 is also available in the VNL series. All three Volvo engines feature the patented wave piston, which employs a uniquely designed piston crown. The new wave piston increases compression ratio from 16:1 to 17:1, increasing efficiency. Improved flame propagation increases cylinder efficiency while at the same time reducing soot. A proven common rail fuel injection system improves fuel efficiency by enabling finer control and more accurate fuel injection. The engines also feature a revised EGR flow sensor with a new double-wall casing to reduce condensation and soot buildup in cold weather, preventing downtime. An available two-speed coolant pump also contributes to improved fuel efficiency as a result of reduced parasitic losses. The new intake throttle enables a faster warmup when the engine is started. .

U.S. outlines NAFTA goals, including currency provision Reuters / July 17, 2017 WASHINGTON -- The United States on Monday outlined a tough negotiating strategy for revising the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement and for the first time in a U.S. trade deal said it would seek to deter currency manipulation by trading partners. In a much-anticipated document sent to lawmakers ahead of talks expected to begin next month, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the Trump administration aimed to reduce the U.S. trade deficit by improving access for U.S. goods exported to Canada and Mexico, the two countries in NAFTA besides the United States. The document asserts that no country should manipulate currency exchange to gain an unfair competitive advantage. The 17-page summary of negotiations for NAFTA offers a glimpse into what a Trump administration trade agenda could look like. Until now, President Donald Trump's agenda has been shaped by campaign rhetoric and tweets. While Canada and Mexico are not considered currency manipulators, the reference in the list of objectives could set a template for future trade deals such as a pending negotiation to modify a five-year-old U.S.-South Korea free trade deal. South Korea is on a U.S. Treasury monitoring list for possible signs of currency manipulation. Among the priorities, Lighthizer said the administration would seek to eliminate a trade dispute mechanism that has largely prohibited the United States from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Canadian and Mexican firms. It also plans to eliminate a range of non-tariff barriers to U.S. agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico. These include subsidies and unfair pricing structures. The USTR said it would seek to strengthen NAFTA's rules of origin to ensure that the pact's benefits do not go to outside countries and to "incentivize" the sourcing of U.S. goods. It offered no details on such incentives and did not specify how much of a product's components must originate from within North America. The demands that the Trump administration makes in the NAFTA talks could have far-reaching implications for U.S. trade relations across the globe, with China eager to make inroads with Mexico and Canada if the United States is seen to be retreating. Lighthizer said the negotiations would begin no earlier than Aug. 16, 2017. U.S. labor union leaders and Democratic lawmakers weighed in on the issue early, reminding Trump they expect him to keep 2016 election campaign promises to protect American workers in NAFTA talks. They stopped short of demanding termination of the 1994 trade pact with Canada and Mexico. Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization of unions representing 12.5 million workers, said NAFTA had been an "unequivocal failure" and should be completely renegotiated. "We will do everything we can to make this a good agreement and to hold the president at his word and make sure we get a renegotiation," he told a conference call with reporters. "If it comes out that it is not a good deal, no deal is better than a bad deal," Trumka said. NAFTA has quadrupled trade among the three countries, surpassing $1 trillion in 2015. Over a decade to 2010, however, the United States lost nearly 6 million manufacturing jobs. The U.S. trade balance with Mexico also swung from a small surplus in 1994 to deficits that have exceeded $60 billion for most of the past decade.