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Melker Jernberg has been appointed President of Volvo Construction Equipment and member of the Volvo Group Executive Board. OEM Off-Highway / July 3, 2017 Melker Jernberg was born in 1968 and is currently President and CEO of the Sweden-based powder metallurgy company Höganäs AB. Prior to this he held the position of Executive Vice President and Head of Business Area EMEA at Swedish-based steel manufacturer SSAB. Melker Jernberg will assume his new position on January 1, 2018. Melker Jernberg replaces Martin Weissburg who, due to family reasons, has decided to move back to the U.S. and will take up a position as Senior Advisor to Volvo’s President and CEO Martin Lundstedt. Martin Weissburg will be stationed in Greensboro, USA. “Martin Weissburg has, through his strong leadership, been key to the considerable improvement in the performance of Volvo Construction Equipment and he will continue to have senior positions within the Volvo Group. Martin Weissburg will remain in his position until year end 2017 and take up his new position as Senior Advisor to me during the course of Q1 2018,” comments Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO of the Volvo Group.

Dagens Industri / July 4, 2017 Melker Jernberg leaves the metallic powder giant Höganäs after only three years to become CEO of Volvo Construction Machinery (VCE). Thus, the Scaniafication of Volvo Group is strengthening while the Wallenberg sphere loses another top director to the sphere around Industrivärden. Melker Jernberg, 48, Martin Weissburg succeeds as CEO of Volvo's VCE business area at the turn of the year. Thus, Melker Jernberg Höganäs, which has annual sales of approximately SEK 7.5 billion, leaves a significantly larger VCE, which has a turnover of around SEK 55 billion. The departure of American Martin Weissburg from VCE does not come unexpectedly. At Volvo's report for the first quarter, Di asked CEO Martin Lundstedt asked how sustainable it is for Martin Weissburg's family living in the United States while VCE has its headquarters in Gothenburg. Martin Lundstedt gave a somewhat evasive answer. Following VCE's very convincing result for the first quarter, Martin Weissburg is now looking forward to leaving the flag at the top. The streamlining measures that he has taken in recent years seem to yield the best possible results. The fact that Melker Jernberg is recruited to Volvo is also not surprisingly taken into consideration by Martin Lundstedt's predecessor for recruiting directors with a background of arch competitor Scania. Di wrote at the beginning of 2016 that the former Scania director was the most likely candidate to become Volvo's global truck production. For many years, he has worked with Martin Lundstedt at Scania. Now, Melker Jernberg gained a much more prestigious Volvo assignment, which also presents an interesting development potential if the group chooses to sell VCE after a few years. Melker Jernberg started working at Scania in 1989. Before joining 2011, in order to become Business Area Manager at SSAB Steel Company, he joined the Group Management as Chief Executive Officer and reported to Martin Lundstedt, who was then Sales Director at Södertäljebolaget. According to consistent data, Melker Jernberg and Martin Lundstedt have a similar leadership based on openness and delegation of responsibility and trust. Both are also adept at creating a lightweight and positive atmosphere in their surroundings. The recruitment of Melker Jernberg further enhances the Scaniafication of Volvo. Since Martin Lundstedt himself was recruited from the Södertälje-based truckmaker in 2015, Scania has also recruited Andrea Fuder as Purchasing Director and Lars Stenqvist as new technology director. Before becoming CFO at Volvo, Jan Gurander held the same position at Scania. In addition, former Scania director Håkan Samuelsson sits on the Volvo Group Board. Since Scania historically has been a significantly more profitable and more value-creating company than Volvo, it is interesting and promising that Volvo's top management is now dominated by former Scania directors who contribute new knowledge and change the culture of the Gothenburg Group. At the same time, it is not entirely unproblematic if Volvo Group Management appears like Martin Lundstedt's Compass Club from Södertälje. Normally, it is preferable that in a group there are people with many different experiences. However, as long as earnings performance is favorable, no one complains about Martin Lundstedt's building. Höganäs is owned by Wallenberg Foundation's FAM and Lindéngruppen. This means that the Wallenberg sphere now that Melker Jernberg leaves for Volvo again loses a heavy name to the sphere around Industrivärden. Less than two years ago, Björn Rosengren left Wärtsilä, where Investor is the main owner, to become Sandvik CEO. Whoever takes over as CEO of Höganäs is hard-judged. A possible candidate is Kerstin Konradsson, who is the business area manager for Boliden's smelter and is also part of Höganäs Board.

Volvo Trucks Press Release / July 2, 2017 Twenty years ago, Mark Clare bought a milk run and started up his business with just one truck. Today, his company is considered the number one provider of frozen and temperature controlled goods in Ireland. .

Iveco Trucks Press Release / June 3, 2017 The Bullen of IVECO Magirus step again on the podium with two third positions and finish second in the Team ranking The Nürburgring is in a class of its own. Despite the usual Eifel weather of wind and rain, over 100,000 truckers and truck enthusiasts enjoyed a thrilling weekend that saw the “Bullen of IVECO Magirus” team and their three vehicles compete once again. The "Bullen von IVECO Magirus" step on the podium again with a third place earned by Jochen Hahn – Team Hahn – on Saturday’s first race, followed by a third position for Gerd Körber – Team Schwabentruck – in the second race of the day. The “Bullen of IVECO Magirus” are now in second place in the overall team ranking, 5 points behind the first position, and Jochen Hahn defends his third podium placement in the drivers’ ranking. Before the start of the race, tribute was paid to a special anniversary: precisely 30 years ago, Gerd Körber of Team Schwabentruck first climbed into a racing truck. In spite of his truck’s 750 hp engine – an impressive output at the time – he still only finished in fourth place. Nowadays, Gerd Körber and Jochen Hahn rely on a powerful 1200 hp IVECO Cursor 13 engine. Both drivers were under extreme pressure – after all, they are well known names in Eifel: Hahn is the current European Champion and has held the title numerous times in the past, while Körber, also a European Championship winner several times, is famous as a trusted member of the Schwabentruck team, from its very beginnings to this day. The first – and rainy – day of the home fixture on the Ring turned out to be one of mixed fortunes for the Bullen of IVECO Magirus: in qualifying, Jochen Hahn settled down into pole position, but soon faced pressure from behind and finished the race in third place, while Gerd Körber crossed the line in eighth position. In the second race, starting with inverted starting grids, collisions were non-stop right from the first bend. Thrilling clashes and a wealth of shredded plastic kept the spectators on the edge of their seats. After a well-fought race, Gerd Körber beat teammate Hahn to the third spot on the podium by a whisker – and was ecstatic with the result. After qualification, Sunday’s starting grid saw Hahn take his place in the first row. Körber was in eighth position and was able to hold it all the way to the finish line, while Hahn, after a number of skirmishes, slid into seventh place. As a result, both needed to be in the first starting row in the next and final race of the day. Due to an oil spill from an accident (during an interim race in another class), the track would have to be cleaned, but it proved impossible to manage this in good time. The decision was therefore taken at 17:00 to cancel the last race. One of the main attractions at the IVECO stand was a Stralis XP Limited Edition – one of only 124 in the whole of Europe – that was developed to celebrate a collaboration with the Abarth-Scorpion team. The New Stralis XP with its traditional red and grey Scorpion colour scheme was a reminder of the successes of the legendary Fiat Spider 124 rally vehicles and the newly released "Abarth 124 Rally Selenia". A Stralis and a Eurocargo will be responsible for the racing team's logistics across Europe for the next three years. .

Truckers who carry your favorite goods to market are being cheated to save you money The Los Angeles Times / June 3, 2017 Juan Lara was headed back to the Port of Los Angeles two weeks ago from his daily pickup in the Mojave Desert when his truck erupted with engine trouble. He managed to bring the truck and its 50,000-pound load of borax limping into the port. There the 63-year-old driver says he faced a bill for $10,500 in repairs for a truck he doesn’t even own. That will take a big chunk out of his pretax pay of about $2,500 a week, which is reduced by more than half by his expenses for fuel, insurance and the truck lease itself. Subtract federal, payroll and state taxes, and Lara may be working for less than $18 an hour, with no benefits. Lara is classified at his trucking company, California Cartage Express, as an “independent contractor,” not an employee, even though he says he drives exclusively for the company and operates under the control of its dispatchers. The vast majority of the roughly 12,000 regular truck drivers at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach are classified by their bosses as independent contractors. But as federal and state judges and labor regulators have consistently ruled, they’re employees in all but name. They just don’t get the benefits — access to employer-owned equipment, workers compensation and unemployment insurance, employer contributions to Social Security and minimum wage protection. They don’t get retirement or healthcare coverage, or reimbursement for their work expenses. Typically, they work on 90-day renewable contracts, which means they can effectively be fired at will, with no recourse to the protection against arbitrary treatment enjoyed by employees. The misclassification of workers as independent contractors is a national scandal. But the port may be the single most concentrated example of this race to the bottom in the American workplace. Port trucking “really is a case study in the bigger economic trends we have seen since the 1980s,” says Jessica Durrum, head of the clean & safe ports campaign for LAANE, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. “This is not about one or two bad apples.” There’s no mystery why shipping firms at the port prefer the independent contractor model: It saves them about 30% compared to the cost of operating with employee drivers. That’s the estimate of Fred Potter, director of the port division of the Teamsters, which represents about 500 drivers at the port and is trying to expand its representation. The Teamsters’ goal is to get the drivers as much as 30% more in pay over the average $28,000 that the union says the “independent contractors” can pull down after expenses, but resistance by the firms has been ferocious. As long as the misclassification continues, Potter says, “the employers who break the law have an advantage.” The drivers haul not only industrial cargoes, but merchandise for leading retail chains, including Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Wal-Mart as well as merchandise bearing some of the world’s most familiar brand names. Those chains and brands are the customers that shipping companies try to please by undercutting each other’s rates, and they have the power to require the shippers to comply with the law. We reached out to the four big retailers; Target said it expects all its vendors “to comply with our vendor standards and all applicable laws and regulations around labor, wages, overtime and more,” including “the appropriate classification of their workers.” Home Depot said, “we're investigating the issue and we're exploring ways to ensure drivers are aware of available channels to raise concerns with us.” Lowe’s said it had “no information to share” and Wal-Mart didn’t respond. We also reached out to California Cartage, Lara’s company, but they didn’t respond. Shipping companies claim that truckers prefer to be independent contractors. “The market is telling us that independent contracting is where the talent pool is,” says a spokesperson for XPO Logistics, a big port shipping firm. “For them it’s about pay and flexibility, and that’s important for us, too.” “Of drivers offered the opportunity to be employees or independent contractors,” says Weston LaBar, executive director of the Harbor Trucking Assn., “more than 90% choose to be independent contractors.” But that choice is really a sham because opportunities to be employees are limited; the few employee-only companies at the port face “a significant economic disadvantage,” says an industry insider who asked to remain unidentified because he serves in port management. Legal rulings have almost uniformly found that the truckers meet all the markers of employees and almost none of independent business operators; LaBar concedes that “99% of the cases” have been ruled in favor of the drivers. As a National Labor Relations Board judge found in 2015 in a case involving Green Fleet Systems, the company dictated each driver’s shifts, set payments unilaterally, effectively prevented them from working for other companies and required the drivers to park the trucks on company property between shifts — and charged them up to $15 a week for the parking. “In every real sense, they were neither independent nor businesses,” ruled the judge, Jeffrey D. Wedekind. “Rather, they were dependent drivers.” As the rulings pile up, so do the liabilities. The port firm Shippers Transport Express settled a federal court suit over the misclassification of more than 500 truck drivers for $11 million in 2015, while agreeing to convert the drivers to employee status. Of about 900 complaints filed with the California labor commissioner since 2011, rulings have been issued in more than 375 — every one finding that the drivers are employees and ordering back pay totaling nearly $40 million, according to Julie Gutman Dickinson, a Los Angeles-based lawyer for the Teamsters. About 350 cases have been settled or sent to arbitration, and 150 are pending. In May, U.S. Judge William D. Keller of Los Angeles ordered Pacer Cartage, a unit of XPO, to pay five drivers a total of $958,657 in unlawfully deducted wages, lease payments, expenses and interest. XPO is appealing the order. During the trial Keller warned Pacer that case law had moved inexorably toward the conclusion that the drivers had been improperly classified as independent contractors.“That isn’t a storm cloud for you,” he said. “That is an absolute tornado coming at you at about a hundred miles an hour. And you better scatter.” The industry attributes its string of losses to “politically tilted” judges and regulators and the influence of “plaintiffs’ attorneys and organized labor,” as Greg M. Feary, the head of a law firm that represents the shippers, wrote in response to a recent USA Today investigation into lease abuses at the Port of Los Angeles. The classification of drivers as independent contractors dates back to federal deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980. Companies that mostly employed Teamster members on fixed wages were soon supplanted by nonunion companies that sold their trucks to their drivers and paid them by the load. Established Teamster companies, including California Cartage, shifted to the new model. A vigorous trade in used trucks developed among drivers. But the economics for drivers took a drastic turn for the worse in 2008, when the port instituted an initiative to get old, polluting diesel trucks scrapped and replaced with fuel-efficient, lower-emission — and much more expensive — new models. The goal was to quell local residents’ complaints about filthy air, paving the way for a port expansion to relieve congestion. As a federal appeals court later observed, port officials believed that the conversion to clean trucks would be “prohibitively expensive” for independent drivers. The city of Los Angeles issued a mandate that all trucking firms at the port, which had better access to the capital needed to convert the fleet, would have to change back to the employee-only model. The shipping firms successfully sued to overturn the mandate in federal court. “Every day I come to work knowing I’ll have to cover $60 for the lease that day, plus fuel and insurance,” says Daniel Seko, 39, a driver for Intermodal Bridge Transport who gets paid by the load. In a good week, Seko says, he might earn $900 before expenses. “If it’s not a good week, $500.” There are signs that the industry is moving toward an employee-only model, but at a snail’s pace. One reason may be that the companies are hoping that the advent of the Trump administration heralds a more indulgent approach at the NLRB. A few weeks ago, XPO asked an NLRB judge to suspend two cases in which the Teamsters accuse the firm of illegally misclassifying drivers, to “see whether the new administration remains interested” in the cases. The judge rejected the motion and scheduled a hearing for July 24 in Los Angeles.

FORD: Lower fleet sales drive June down 5% Automotive News / July 3, 2017 Ford Motor Co.'s June sales fell 5 percent as fleet sales declined. The automaker's sales to daily rental companies fell 2.4 percentage points to 13 percent of its overall U.S. light-vehicle sales, as companies such as Avis and Hertz take a more cautionary approach amid a plateauing market. Sales to commercial businesses dropped 0.6 percentage points of overall volume and sales to government agencies fell 0.5 percentage points. Total fleet volume fell 14 percent, Ford said. Fleet volume represented a third of Ford's U.S. sales in June. Ford has said the fluctuations in its fleet business -- those sales increased 8.4 percent in May -- is timing-related, and are tough comparisons to last year, when most of its fleet orders were front-loaded. The automaker still plans to finish the year with about the same fleet sales as 2016. Ford's retail sales were flat -- off just 36 vehicles -- compared with last year. The company was again driven by pickup/van and SUV/crossover sales, up 1.4 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. Car sales plummeted 23 percent. Through the first six months of the year, Ford sold more SUVs/crossovers than it ever has. "Customers drove a record 406,464 Ford brand SUV sales in the first half of this year," Mark LaNeve, Ford's vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service, said in a statement. "F-series continues expanding its sales and share this year, with customers opting for high-series pickups and investing in class-exclusive features that only Ford trucks offer." Ford's F-series sales rose 9.8 percent last month, as average transaction prices rose $3,100 to $45,600. It was Ford's fourth month in a row selling over 70,000 pickups. Ford's SUV/crossover sales were driven by the Explorer, up 19 percent, and the Edge, up 20 percent. Ford blamed a 6.4 percent decline in Escape sales on fleet orders. Escape retail sales rose 5 percent and Ford is shortening its summer shutdown at its Escape plant in Kentucky because it expects continued strong demand. Sales of Ford's Lincoln luxury brand rose 5.3 percent; it was the brand's 17th consecutive month of retail sales gains. MKC sales increased 16 percent, and Lincoln's car sales were again propped up by sales of the new Continental, with 973 deliveries.

2004 Bronco concept hits street -- sort of Automotive News / July 3, 2017 Ford Motor Co.'s 2004 Bronco concept is finally hitting the streets — sort of. The SUV, unveiled at the 2004 Detroit auto show, will be seen in the upcoming movie Rampage, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The wrestler-turned-actor recently posted an Instagram photo that featured the Bronco in a scene from the movie, which is based on the 1980s arcade game of the same name. The Rock is a spokesman for Ford's service centers and earlier this year helped unveil the freshened 2018 Mustang, but the automaker quickly pointed out that the concept's cameo wasn't a tease of what the new Bronco — due in 2020 — will look like. "The Ford Bronco seen in Dwayne Johnson's upcoming movie, 'Rampage,' is the 2004 Bronco concept," a Ford spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. "It does not represent the future Bronco beyond sharing the iconic Bronco name." .

America's broken healthcare system – in one simple chart The Guardian / July 2, 2017 The US spends more money on healthcare than any other wealthy nation. But it hasn’t resulted in better health Healthcare in America is more expensive than in any other rich country. In 2016, the average American spent $4,571 on their health – a figure five times higher than the average out-of-pocket spending of other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). That fact hasn’t changed much over the years: compared to 35 other countries, Americans have spent more on their health every year since 2000. Even once you factor in government spending, healthcare in the US is still more expensive than elsewhere. Total health spending last year, including private out-of-pocket and government spending, was $8,985 per person in the US while the OECD average was just $3,633. And yet all that health spending hasn’t resulted in better health. The life expectancy of the average American is 78.8 years, putting the US a fraction ahead of the CzechRepublic, where out of pocket spending was just $236 last year. .

The story of the Ford Flex is very interesting indeed. It still sells well on the West Coast, and there's not another vehicle like it. I can imagine it being discontinued owing to low sales nationwide overall, but I can also imagine Ford evolving the concept forward to a second generation vehicle that could capture more interest. http://www.ford.com/suvs-crossovers/flex/2017/ Ford is a puzzling automaker at times. For example, tell me which Ford Edge looks better. In my view, one I would seriously consider if I didn't need the Explorer's 3-row capability. The other, the exterior appearance would stop me from any consideration. http://www.ford.com/suvs-crossovers/edge/2017/?gnav=header-all-vehicles https://www.ford.com.cn/suvs/edge/

Keith, recently relating to news events, I've limited myself almost entirely to posting news video from PBS* (Public Broadcasting Service) videos, because, to paraphrase DailyDiesel, I assumed they were still generally considered to be a trusted source of information. I myself still consider them to be reputable among news sources (my gut feeling.......I have no way to confirm. I'm always open to being wrong.) I don't understand why you take my post and attack another BMT member. Over my post, I'd rather you belittle me. * http://www.pbs.org/

Billy, the Ford Flex is a modern woody*, the perfect surf mobile. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/oct/19/business/la-fi-mo-auto-ford-flex-california-20121018 * http://www.carponents.com/content/surfs-up-with-the-woodie-one-of-americas-most-iconic-cars-176

Burns’s new 10-part, 18-hour epic film covers the conflict from all sides, and hopes to ‘shape more courageous conversations about what took place’ The Guardian / July 1, 2017 James Rogers and Renan Reyes, veterans of the Vietnam war, each made a trip to Washington on Wednesday to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial for the first time. “Very impressive,” said Rogers, who is from Madison, Alabama, as a river of parents and children flowed past in bright sunshine. “It looks like a black mark,” said Reyes, from near Charlotte, North Carolina, disapprovingly. Divergent opinions over the polished black granite memorial – which lists, chronologically, the names of more than 58,000 Americans who died in the war, from John H Anderson Jr to Jessie C Alba – are peculiarly apt for the Vietnam war itself, a politically and socially polarising episode that shattered the myth of American invincibility. The war in south-east Asia is now the subject of an epic 10-part, 18-hour series by Ken Burns, America’s premier documentary film-maker, renowned for his 1990 masterpiece on the civil war as well as series on jazz, baseball, the Roosevelts and the second world war. Ten years and millions of dollars in the making, covering the conflict from all sides, The Vietnam War could be the closest thing yet to a definitive account of what Burns believes is the most important event in American history in the second half of the 20th century. The time for a conversation “about a war we have consciously ignored” has come, Burns, 63, told the National Press Club in Washington earlier this month. “We have said: ‘We don’t want to talk about it. We’re not gonna teach it, we think it’s about this, or my own personal politics at this moment has actually determined what I should say about Vietnam regardless of what I felt when it was taking place.’ We have this dissonance going on. “We hope that the film will contribute in some way, shape or form to more courageous conversations about what took place, because let us also be very clear that the divisions that we face today, the lack of civil discourse, the inability to talk with each other but only at each other, had their seeds planted in the Vietnam war, so if we understand it then we also understand our present moment.” The origins of the conflict are now somewhat foggy in collective memory. A 1954 ceasefire agreement partitioned Vietnam into a communist north and anti-communist south. Trapped in the logic of the cold war, the US backed a series of corrupt regimes against the communist-led Vietcong in the south and their allies in the north who sought to reunite the country. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson sent in thousands of air and ground forces in what was initially a popular move. But as the draft expanded and casualties mounted, public opinion turned against him and anti-war protests erupted against a backdrop of social unrest, racial discord and assassinations. Bill Zimmerman, an anti-war activist, tells the documentary: “People who supported the war were fond of saying, ‘My country, right or wrong,’ [but protesters didn’t] want to live in a country that we’re going to support whether it’s right or wrong. So we began an era where two groups of Americans, both thinking that they were acting patriotically, went to war with each other.” In the early 1970s, under President Richard Nixon, the war expanded into Cambodia and Laos, but in 1973 US forces quit Vietnam, and in 1975 South Vietnam fell to the communists. The Vietnam war has gripped popular consciousness with images of Huey transports (helicopters) taking thousands of US troops into battle in thick jungles, river deltas, fields of elephant grass and hamlets of rice paddies and thatched-roof huts. It spawned a genre of movies including Apocalypse Now, Born on the Fourth of July, Coming Home, The Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket and Platoon. But Burns and his co-director, Lynn Novick, who made several trips to Vietnam, aim to strip away US-centric narratives and give a rounded portrait with 80 interviews from both sides. Gen Lo Khac Tam of the North Vietnamese army tells them: “The war was so horribly brutal. I don’t have words to describe it. How can we ever explain to the younger generation the price paid?” Speaking a a recent event hosted by the New York Times, Burns reflected: “If you think about The Deer Hunter, there’s not a Vietnamese character that’s real, and that’s our problem, and what we set out to do consciously in this was to say we wish to triangulate this story and understand that for many people [in Vietnam] it was an American war, and not just the Vietnam war.” Novick told the Guardian: “It was really profound to begin to appreciate the scale of tragedy there, the scale of loss. I think Americans understandably focus on the 58,000-plus Americans who lost their lives in the war, which was a tragedy for the families involved and there’s no way to make that up to them, but when you go to Vietnam you begin to understand that a country of 30 million lost as many as 3 million people; that’s 10% of the population. What that means is that everyone you meet knows somebody who died ... Every single person you ask says, ‘Oh, my uncle, my cousin, my neighbour, my niece’ – someone they knew personally died. So the weight of that for a country, for a people, is indescribable. Feeling it over time is a profound thing.” Was the war a needless waste, a terrible mistake that could have been avoided? Novick replied: “You will have to watch the film to find out. That is the central question, really, or one of them. There’s a lot of conflict between Americans and even within individual people about the answer to that very question. It’s a very deep one and a very important one but I cannot give you an easy answer because it’s not settled. It’s still very much an open question and our film is an exploration of that.” The series sweeps from the release of the leaked Department of Defense study about the war known as the Pentagon Papers to the Tet offensive to the anti-war activist Jane Fonda’s visit to Hanoi. Researchers consulted former secretary of state John Kerry, a veteran of the war, and Senator John McCain, who was taken prisoner, and the film tells their stories, although they are not interviewed. Donald Trump received five deferments from the draft: four for university and one for “heel spurs”. Burns and his research team found their fundamental preconceptions challenged, the film-maker said at the New York Times event. “At every intersection, there was the explosion of myth, there was the humiliation of being just dead wrong about what we thought had happened. And that, at some point, if it’s not about your own self-aggrandisement, is exhilarating and liberating.” The series, which premieres on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on 17 September in the US and will be released in full on DVD in the UK, includes rarely seen archival footage, photographs, TV broadcasts, home movies and secret audio recordings from the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations, as well as music of the period from the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Simon & Garfunkel. In a trailer, the army veteran Phil Gioia says: “The Vietnam war drove a stake right into the heart of America.” Speaking by phone this week from his home near San Francisco, Gioia, 71, told the Guardian: “It was a defining event in the history of the country. It radicalised components of our society and polarised our society in many ways. It affected our decisions in defence strategy ever since.” Gioia, who comes from a military family, served in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969 and was shot in the left wrist. “I fell like somebody had hit me with a baseball bat,” he recalled. “It was stunning but no pain because the nerves closed down.” He was also present in Huế to witness the Tet offensive launched by the communists, now seen as a crucial turning point. “That was like being at Gettysburg in the civil war.” By then the war was the target of growing protests at home. Gioia said: “When you’re a soldier you don’t get to pick your war. You go wherever the government sends you.” On his second tour of duty, he added, most of the soldiers were 18, 19 and 20-year-olds. “Even though the war was unpopular and they were mostly draftees, they were terrific soldiers. Most of them were vilified when they went home. A lot of the population transferred their anger to the soldiers. It was a very unfortunate time.” Two thirds of Americans who served in Vietnam are no longer alive, Gioia noted, while the majority of Vietnamese people were born after the war. “There has not been a Hollywood movie that really accurately portrays Vietnam and the effect of the war. Apocalypse Now, Platoon – it’s all Hollywood. Politics and the anti-war sentiment gets into every movie made by Hollywood. By getting Vietnamese voices, we’re going to see and hear their aspect of the war. They took huge losses; we bombed the hell out of them.” Gioia, a semi-retired technology and venture investor and student of military history, added: “It’s time the country took a good long look at what happened. This is probably going to be the keystone go to documentary for the Vietnam war. It’ll be, if you want to know what happened and why, watch the Burns film.” His image of a stake through the heart was echoed by visitors to Maya Lin’s war memorial, completed in 1982, in Washington this week. Reyes, 66, the veteran from North Carolina, accompanied by his three nine-year-old grandchildren, said: “It tears at my heart because some of my friends were killed. We recovered their bodies from a helicopter crash in 1970.” Amid deep social upheaval and protest, the homecoming was very different from the warmth that generally greets today’s returning veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq. “It was like I didn’t exist,” recalled Reyes, a retired police officer. “The only welcome I got was from my parents and sisters.” Rogers, 68, the veteran from Alabama who had come to find the names of two comrades, added: “When we came back, it was a different time. We were stoned. We didn’t get much respect and it was painful.” Burns and Novack are following in the footsteps of the journalist Stanley Karnow, whose award-winning, 13-part PBS series Vietnam: A Television History was one of the most-watched public television documentaries ever when first shown in 1983. But more than three decades later, veterans, historians and journalists welcome a fresh look. Arnold Isaacs, who covered the last three years of the war for the Baltimore Sun and wrote two books, Without Honor and Vietnam Shadows, said: “It was compelling for me but I think it’s pretty distant for 25-year-olds today. World war two was such a significant event in every respect everywhere in the world and continues to still shape the cultural concept of war – the good war myth remains powerful – whereas Vietnam was inconclusive.” Isaacs, 76, praised attempts to include Vietnamese voices. “Remembering this war as a part of American history is profoundly distorting of what happened. It’s a part of Vietnamese history we jumped in on. I was back in Vietnam in 1998 and it was obvious to me there were a lot of unhealed wounds. In this country you have a culture war that is still going on; Vietnam was part of that story, but not the whole story.” .

With diesel twice as expensive as the US, Australian operators care a great deal about fuel economy, while they at the same time care about performance, reliability and durability.

Australian-spec Western Stars still look like respectable trucks. Whereas in North America, they're promoting the hideous looking 5700 XE (below). .

No, not at all Billy. And this method of weight distribution is far better than auxiliary axles.

Snapshots of 2017 Brisbane Truck Show Steve Brooks, Trade Trucks AU / June 29, 2017 BORN AGAIN Previewed in Australia for the first time at the 2015 Brisbane Truck Show where it won the Truck of the Show award, International ProStar has finally found a home Down Under. After long-winded negotiations with Navistar in the US, Iveco is now the distributor of the versatile American truck which was showcased alongside Iveco’s Stralis flagship. Under ProStar’s sloping snout is an industry-standard driveline punched by a 15 litre X15 Cummins coupled to manual or automated versions of Eaton’s ever-reliable 18-speeder, feeding through a Dana driveline into Meritor diffs mounted on Hendrickson Primaax air suspension. Cabs come in three forms – day cab, extended cab and full-size integrated sleeper. Word has it that Iveco dealers are excited to again have International on the books but the big hope is that this relationship between the two entities survives longer than the last. From what we’ve found after several stints behind the wheel of ProStar – admittedly, some time back – the truck has what it takes to forge a sound future in our part of the world. GROUP TACTICS UD may be the baby of the Volvo Group triumvirate but it certainly had the biggest news at Brisbane with its vastly revamped Quon flagship. Even a quick squiz reveals a strong Volvo influence inside and out but there are significant changes underneath as well. For starters, the Volvo-designed GH11 engine has been pushed up to 460 hp to cope with a gross mass increase to 60 tonnes. The standard shifter is what UD strangely calls ‘Escot VI’, essentially Volvo’s slick I-shift automated 12-speeder. We hear it’ll soon be rebranded ‘U-drive’ but the important thing is that it’s just as advanced and intuitive as its Swedish counterpart. Many opinions – including this one – rate Quon the best Japanese prime mover on the market and from what we’ve already seen, it’s an opinion set to grow even stronger. Standing alongside the new UD, an upbeat Volvo was obviously intent on reminding everyone of its Swedish heritage with ‘Performance Edition’ versions of its supremely popular FH and FM models dressed in national colours. Whatever the colour though, there’s no question Volvo is enjoying the most successful era in its Australian history. And it’s an era likely to grow even stronger with news at the truck show of the overdue return of the significantly larger XXL sleeper cab for the flagship FH. BABY BENZ Following on from the successful introduction of its new generation prime mover range, Mercedes-Benz unveiled the second phase of its complete model makeover with the launch of a dedicated rigid line-up. The newcomers will go on sale within the next few months and predictably, come in 4x2, 6x2, 6x4 and eight-wheeler configurations for both distribution and specialist vocational work. There’s a mix of cab sizes in slimline and sleeper layout while power comes from either a lively 7.7 litre in-line six rated at 299 or 354 hp, or an 11 litre six available at 394, 428 or 455 hp. All models stir through Mercedes-Benz’s PowerShift automated transmission, an eight-speed in 4x2 and 6x2 models, and 12-speed in 6x4 and 8x4 versions. The third and final phase of the new Benz breed will come towards the end of this year with the introduction of purpose-designed construction and all-wheel-drive rigids. BEST YET So what’s there left to say about Kenworth’s new T610 and T610 SAR models that hasn’t been already said? With a completely new and wider cab, these are without doubt the most exciting new conventionals to come out of the Kenworth camp in decades and after more than $20 million spent on development, there’s little wonder Kenworth Australia is hailing the new models ‘Our Best Truck Yet’. This year’s Brisbane show was the first public appearance of these classy conventionals and for the vast majority of the show crowd, this was their first close-up look at Kenworth’s latest and potentially greatest trucks. "Like bees to honey," was how one observer put the constant stream of visitors to the Kenworth stand. X FACTOR On the engine front, none had bigger news than Cummins and there were plenty of willing listeners when Mike Fowler, Cummins South Pacific director of engine business, announced that both the 15 litre X15 and 12 litre X12 engines will meet the proposed Euro 6 emissions standard WITHOUT any EGR input. While the Euro 6 standard may be still several years away from being mandated in Australia, Cummins used the Brisbane show to ease customer fears of increased complexity. "We are giving customers confidence that the X15 they have now will be very similar to the X15 they will have for Euro 6," Mike Fowler explained, citing SCR (AdBlue) technology and a new single module after-treatment system as the keys to Cummins’ strategy for Euro 6. As for the X12, formerly known as the ISG12 and said by Cummins to have the best power-to-weight ratio of any engine in the 10 to 16 litre class, it will also rely on SCR and advanced after-treatment to counter the need for any EGR input. Rated up to 500 hp and 1700 lb ft, the X12 is a highly promising engine which has yet to find a chassis to call home in Australia. However, the quiet word at Brisbane was that one truck brand is close to signing up. Meantime, there’s much to be gained by the announcement of closer technological ties between Cummins and transmission giant Eaton. In a smart move for the two brands, it’s an arrangement which mirrors the successful European strategy of looking at engine and automated transmission development as a collective exercise rather than separate functions. FIRST PEEK It won’t officially join Hino’s ranks until later this year but the ‘world first’ preview of a 300-series 817 4x4 model at the Brisbane Truck Show left no doubt that much will be expected of this off-road specialist. For the moment, Hino is keeping the full specification close to the chest but the 817 numerals at least indicate that gross vehicle weight will be around eight tonnes and maximum power up to 170 hp. According to a statement issued immediately prior to the show, selected Hino customers have been evaluating prototype versions on and off-road since 2014, from Australia’s interior to Cape York. "It’s a model customers and dealers have been asking for," said Hino product manager Daniel Petrovski, indicating the truck’s potential to tackle the success of Isuzu and Fuso in a wide range of off-road applications. The new model will follow in the wake of Hino’s impressively revamped 500-series wide cab range launched earlier this year and will similarly offer a formidable array of standard features including vehicle stability control and reversing camera. HELLO GOODBYE In truck terms, the standout attraction on the Scania stand was the first Australian preview of the Swedish brand’s ‘New Truck Generation’, recently crowned Europe’s ‘International Truck of the Year’. Known as the S 500 model, the righthand-drive Pommie spec 6x2 was shipped from the UK to Australia specifically for the Brisbane Truck Show and according to Scania, was headed straight back to the UK after the show. Also heading back to the UK, however, is Scania Australia managing director Roger McCarthy (pictured). After an eight-year stint guiding Scania to its best performances in the brand’s history here, it will be imperative for his (Swedish) successor to maintain the considerable momentum produced by McCarthy’s extensive experience and commercial initiatives. As for the new truck, even Roger McCarthy concedes its Australian introduction is "still some considerable way off" but of all the attributes that separate it from Scania’s current range there are possibly none more positive than the driver’s layout. A cut-way cab highlighted a vastly improved and far more stylish interior design. PACK ‘n’ GO With Penske Commercial Vehicles (Western Star, MAN and Dennis Eagle) strangely opting out of this year’s truck show, market leader Isuzu wasted no time securing the site and filling it with examples of its hugely diverse model range. In fact, if anyone ever wanted visual proof of why Isuzu has commanded leadership of the total Australian truck market for almost three decades on the trot, they wouldn’t need to have looked any further than the Brisbane Truck Show where there seemed to be something for almost everyone. Isuzu’s inherent ability to fill almost every niche with a purpose-built truck is no more evident than in the much publicised ‘Ready to Work’ range which continues to carve an extraordinary following. From the Traypack to the Tradepack, Servicepack and now Vanpack, it seems there’s no end to Isuzu’s determination to fill every void. Continuing the theme is a new tri-tipper NLR model fitted with a factory-built three-way tipper body. And it’s not as if it’s a basic spec, either. Standard features include electronic stability control, ABS anti-lock braking, ASR anti-skid function and hill-start assist. Meanwhile, at the heavier end of the Isuzu stable, the F-series eight-wheeler agitator continues to win business from more traditional brands. Even so, it’s the heavy end where Isuzu seems to suffer its only void with the lack of an acceptable and efficient prime mover model. In our estimation it won’t happen anytime soon, but there’s little doubt it WILL happen, eventually! As for Isuzu giving up its newfound premier position if and when Penske chooses to come back to the Brisbane show, one Isuzu insider summed it up succinctly. "No chance!" CLEANIN’ UP Arguably the biggest revelation from Iveco was the surprisingly brief mention of plans to later this year start building some Stralis models at Iveco’s Dandenong (Vic) plant. Strangely, that’s as much as Iveco had to say on a crucial development concerning the factory’s ongoing viability. There was, however, certainly no lack of diversity on the stand, from the flagship Stralis cab-over to the evergreen ACCO and of course, the arrival of International ProStar as part of the Iveco stable. Down the weight scale, there were new Euro 6 versions of its medium-duty EuroCargo 4x2 and a high-volume Daily van making their first public appearance. The van is particularly interesting, not least because it comes with a gross vehicle mass (GVM) rating of seven tonnes on a long 4100 mm wheelbase, and is available with load volumes ranging from 16 to 18 and a cavernous 19.6 cubic metres. With such expansive credentials, Iveco is in no doubt the van provides a viable alternative to pantech-bodied light trucks. On the completely restyled Euro 6 version of EuroCargo, it’s a truck which comes with GVM ratings from 12 to 18 tonnes and cabs in slimline, low and hi-roof sleeper, and crew cab forms. Underneath is Iveco’s responsive ‘Tector 7’ engine in outputs ranging from 185 kW (250 hp) to 206 kW (280 hp) coupled to the choice of either a nine-speed ZF manual transmission or a five-speed Allison automatic. As Iveco likes to point out though, the Tector achieves Euro 6 compliance without any EGR input, relying instead on a system comprising what it calls Hi-SCR and a single diesel particulate filter. No matter where you look these days, EGR seems to be increasingly on the nose with suppliers and customers alike. LONE VOICE With most truck and engine suppliers these days distancing themselves from EGR technology for one reason or another, Detroit seems to be something of a lone voice as it continues to promote the efficiency and reliability credentials of its DD15 EGR engine. The time is sure to come, however, when Detroit’s Australian distributor Penske Power Systems will employ the same BlueTec SCR technology used by its US counterparts. In the meantime, DD15 continues to be the only Detroit engine making headway in Australia as its smaller and larger siblings continue to sit in the shadows. On a brighter note, at least Penske Power Systems chose to be at Brisbane, unlike its Penske Commercial Vehicles partner, and enjoyed the patronage of what seemed a small army of Detroit devotees. Equally bright, Penske Power Systems is now headed by Sean McLean, the former Cummins executive widely regarded for both his technical and professional prowess. LEGENDS Of all the displays at this year’s Brisbane Truck Show, none drew greater passion or emotion than the first of Kenworth’s T900 Legend series. Scrolled on the back wall of the sleeper is the single word ‘Steady’, a simple yet fitting epitaph to Allan Stead, a mentor to many and true legend of Kenworth’s Australian history. Retired since 2004 and passing away recently, ‘Steady’ spent 39 years of relentless, indomitable devotion to Kenworth and its customers across the length and breadth of Australia and beyond. Meantime, Kenworth announced it would open its books for just one day for operators to order a limited run of ‘Legend’ specials, marking the venerable T900’s remarkable resilience and appeal since its launch in 1991. Yet while there are perhaps many among the Kenworth faithful who would pay handsomely for this first T900 Legend, the likelihood is that the show truck will be put on permanent display in Kenworth’s edifice at the National Road Transport Hall of Fame in Alice Springs. EVOLUTION on SHOW Trucks have certainly come a long way since Freightliner founder Leland James first designed a cab-over model for the US market and nowhere was the evolution more starkly evident than Freightliner’s stand where a rare 1950 ‘Bubblenose’ model stood alongside the latest Argosy. To mark Freightliner’s 75th anniversary, the beautifully restored ‘Bubblenose’ was flown in from the US specifically for the Brisbane show. Yet as fascinating as this old classic was, it took only a quick look around the old and new to be grateful for the passage of time and engineering evolution. Argosy has certainly come a long way since its first arrival on the Australian market and Freightliner was intent on showcasing the recent addition of the Cummins X15 engine as a powerful addition to the cab-over’s list of assets. The other notable player in the Freightliner family is the Coronado conventional and there appeared no shortage of interest in a 122 model built for gross weights up to 140 tonnes, and highlighting the addition of dual exhaust stacks as standard equipment on the long-nose Coronada. DOG BITES In the modern history of Mack trucks in this country, there are two indisputable facts. One, Mack has undergone a life-saving cultural revolution since Volvo rescued the famous bulldog from the edge of extinction. And two, the resurgence of the iconic Super-Liner is the greatest success story of all Mack models. Yet as Mack’s display at the Brisbane show highlighted, it is Super-Liner’s ability to be many things to many people which today consistently makes it one of the most popular models in the Mack range. Pride of place, for instance, was given to a heavy-duty spec reflecting the model’s heritage as a roadtrain and heavy haulage specialist. Right behind, however, was a slimline Super-Liner designed for 36-pallet B-double work with regular Mack buyer, Followmont Transport. This is a dog which has walked the comeback trail better than most. SMART SHIFTER When it comes to automated transmission technology, ZF has been at the cutting edge from the outset and with its new Traxon transmission, the German giant appears to have taken a further step down the evolutionary path. A cut-away display of the Traxon shifter certainly had some people wondering what it was all about but according to ZF it’s simply lighter, stronger and more intelligent than anything that has gone before it. The fundamentals are that it comes in 12 and 16-speed versions and will cope with input torque capacities up to 3400 Nm, or 2500 lb ft, which means it’ll handle the outputs of the most powerful truck engines on the market today. Along with a broad range of modern features and claims for being substantially quieter and smoother, one of the stand-out attractions is what ZF calls ‘Prevision GPS’. Simply explained, Traxon has the capacity to use satellite information to track any changes in topography and continually determine the best operating mode for the truck. Beam me up Scotty. GOIN’ DUTCH Predictably, the centre-piece of DAF’s display was the CF85 model now available with a 510 hp MX-13 engine. We’ve spent some time in this truck recently and in our estimation, it’s definitely the truck DAF needs to help raise awareness and lift the brand out of the doldrums. The star attraction was a six-wheeler sleeper version sitting alongside DAF’s XF flagship but in the background was a CF eight-wheeler also available with the 510 rating. Somewhat tucked away, however, was the newest member of DAF’s expanding stable, a 6x2 version of the LF280 rigid. Competing in a market where Japanese brands are fiercely dominant, the three-axle LF won’t find it easy to crack big numbers but with reported benefits in tare weight and driver comfort, it at least provides another much needed string to the DAF bow. VIRTUALLY FUSO Whether Daimler’s local leaders like to admit it or not, Fuso continues to be the star performer in the group when it comes to overall sales. The ever-popular Canter, for example, ranks second only to Isuzu in the light-duty category and recently underwent a significant update across the range. Adding to Canter’s coverage is a new low-roof model which made its debut at the Brisbane show. With an unladen height of just 2.01 metres, Fuso says it is the only Japanese truck in the Australian market that can safely move under a 2.1 metre ceiling. Clever! Also clever was an innovative, high-tech Virtual Reality experience for show-goers. Much more than just another marketing gimmick, eight virtual reality booths allowed visitors to don the special goggles and as Fuso put it, ‘immerse themselves in a virtual Fuso showroom, sit inside a range of virtual Fuso trucks, or experience a thrill-ride, all of which showcase the lifelike nature of cutting edge virtual reality technology.’ Fuso Australia chief Justin Whitford reckons virtual reality could well be part of truck showrooms of the future and after donning the goggles and being suitably awestruck by the ‘virtual trip’, it’s hard to argue. AIR CRAFT Suspension specialist Hendrickson has been promoting the operational virtues of its Airtek steer axle air suspension for a long time but the stakes appeared to go up a notch in Brisbane with pride of place on the Hendrickon stand going to its Airtek HCS assembly. Airtek HCS is, according to Hendrickson, the industry’s first integrated front air suspension and steer axle system. Quoting from the Hendrickson spec sheet, the superior design of the Airtek HCS layout improves roll stability over standard spring suspensions while the airbags provide notably better ride quality. It’s also lighter, with Hendrickson saying the combination of the Airtek suspension and its Steertek fabricated axle saves up to 30 kg over a traditional forged axle and steel spring assembly. Another thing about the fabricated (rather than forged) axle is a two-piece knuckle assembly allowing removal of the knuckle without having to remove the kingpin. BIG RED Tatra’s eight-wheel-drive tipper was certainly an imposing exhibit and attracted plenty of wide-eyed visitors. But who is Tatra and what exactly was that truck at the Brisbane Truck Show? Tatra hails from the Czech Republic, has been producing trucks in one form or another for over 100 years, and for the majority of those years has specialised in heavy-duty off-road models. At the core of the design is a unique single tube chassis from which sprout independently suspended, swinging driven half-axles. The Australian distributor for 20 years is the family-owned Offroad Trucks Australia, based in Perth and which has obviously enough found plenty of opportunities for Tatra in the Western Australia mining industry and beyond. There are three distinct models in the range and as the flagship Phoenix model in Brisbane showed, the specification has a strong connection to Paccar. Power, for example, comes from an MX 13 engine rated up to 510 hp and the cab which comes in day, sleeper and crew-cab forms is derived from DAF. The Phoenix ranges from 4x4 right up to 12x12 configurations driving through ZF or Allison transmissions. Impressive, from any angle. Photo gallery and VIDEO - https://www.tradetrucks.com.au/product-news/1706/snapshots-of-2017-brisbane-truck-show

Freightliner Australia / June 28, 2017 Australian Freightliner owners know the Freightliner name is not just a badge on the grille; it represents a total network of customer support Australia-wide that loves this industry. The only industry that takes you to places in Australia many have never been with beautiful changing landscapes all while getting the job done. The comradery and mateship is unlike any other all sharing the same passion. .

Big Rigs / June 30, 2017 Some celebrate a milestone with a cake, others do it with flowers, the Easters however marked their milestone with a brand new Western Star. More specifically Brisbane fleet family K.S Easter welcomed in their 200th truck, a classic Easter tangerine, 4800FXB Western Star fit with a Detroit DD15 and a Eaton 18 speed ultra shift gearbox under the hood. "We celebrate when the circumstances call for it," Ken Easter said in his dry tone, allowing a slight smile to escape from his lips. He was doing the Friday afternoon rounds of the depot on yet another busy afternoon, surveying the comings and goings. While Ken said he knows pretty much all that goes on around the yard, turns out the added extras on the 200th truck were left as a surprise. Thanks to the help of a few faithful suppliers and his sons Matt and Ken Jr. The Celebration "I looked after the pre-delivery on the finished and accessories, when we got her in I decided to do one or two things extra," son and Manager Matthew Easter said. "We did it all behind his back as a bit of a surprise." Unfortunately the team eventually had to reveal their secret, when the vehicle didn't arrive as promptly as the others usually did. "Only a few knew what the truck looked like. It wasn't turning up, people started to make the assumptions. "When we did tell him and he ended up getting pretty excited about it, he doesn't get excited too often so that was pretty cool," Matt said. Some of the additions that were included involved adding the company name the the bumper, custom pipes, tank wraps, one off steps and grill. The vehicle also comes equipped with hundreds of LED lights. "We also added the names of all the suppliers that backed us, I really want to thank them all for the amazing work they had put into it," Matt said. "They are products we stand by support, and in turn they stand by and support us. "As the 200th truck and with all the work put into it, it was worth a bit of attention," he said. As a family business the team saw it was a milestone that had to be shared with the next generation. "I took my kids out of school for the day when it arrived, its one of those moments I wanted my kids to come down and be part of, put their finger prints on it," Matt laughed. "My dad started business in 1976, my oldest brother Kenny is the general manager and in March my son Dylan (13) started working in the washbay. "You got to know the bad jobs before you know the good jobs." With a solid base of loyal customers and dedicated employees K.S Easter have continued to grow steadily over the past three to four years. "Ideally our growth continues in proportion to the growth of our customers, steadily," he said. The company growth has been behind the purchase of a section of land close to the depot, which they will develop. The Star A long‐standing customer of Penske Commercial Vehicles and the Brisbane Truck Centre, KS Easter has purchased 41 Western Star trucks over the last five years with more in the pipeline. "We have had a long relationship with Penske, the Brisbane Truck Centre and Western Star, and the 4800 and 5800 trucks have long been a winner for us," Eldest son and General Manager Ken Easter Jr (pictured above) said. "We have many Detroit‐powered Western Star trucks in our fleet which have covered millions of kilometres and we've always found them to be very reliable and fuel efficient, and have great driveability. "I have always had a soft spot for American equipment and have a real affinity for the brand so we are definitely looking to continue buying Western Star 4800 and 5800s." Penske Commercial Vehicles Managing Director, Kevin Dennis, said the long relationship with KS Easter was based on understanding the customer's business. "We have worked with Ken and his family for a long period and have taken the time to understand his requirements," said Mr Dennis. "As KS Easter celebrates their 40th year in the transport industry this year, we look forward to continuing to provide the trucks that keeps the business moving." Vehicle and engine supplier Brisbane Truck Centre Western Star Penske Detroit Diesel Accessories: Highway Lights Fleetmark Brisbane Briskair AJ's The Driver Still brand new, the Western Star has already attracted some major attention online and will no doubt be catching eyes for years to come. Driver Shane Warne, described as a good bloke and "OCD with the way he looks after his truck", was lucky enough to secure her as his regular drive. "I'm feeling pretty good about her, she looks great," Shane said. "Yeah I'm pretty proud to have been able to look after this one," he said. Big Rigs caught up with him just as he was headed off to the Grafton Show, but not before his favourite co-pilot, his three year old daughter Caitlyn, was able to give it her tick of approval. "Caitlyn loves her, she loves trucks especially the lights." The cheeky three year old happens to love trucks so much she talks to her dad about them any chance she gets. "I was out on the road a few weeks back and I got a call in the middle of the night," he said. "I picked it up and she must have taken gotten on her mums phone and managed to facetime me. "Turns out all she wanted to see was the lights," he laughed. "So I was out there in the middle of the night facetiming the truck for her to see." Unfortunately the Tangarine Machine missed on any of the Grafton Truck Show Gongs, with the K.S. Easter black Swede scoring a few. .

Where to Now for International in Australia? Diesel News AU / June 2017 With the reintroduction of the International brand, it probably time to ask the question, where to now for International? The first models unveiled this year are variations on the ProStar models. Let’s assume the ProStar hits the spot for International, the brand is welcomed back into the open arms of Australian truck buyers and proves to be an effective addition to the offering for the Iveco brands and its dealers. Of course, this is by no means a foregone conclusion, but it is also feasible. International does still have a loyal fan base among the trucking community, the brand remains strong. If this scenario does play out, the timing looks good; the heavy-duty truck market seems to be on a steady rise, International will look to expand the range over a series of steps. This would give Iveco/International dealers an opportunity to stock a full offering to market with both European and North American options. First up will probably be an extension to the ProStar range itself. An increased engine rating choice would be one area operators will look for. As will more choice in front and rear axles and suspension options. Along with this might come different GCM ratings, which are currently capped at 90 tonnes (with up to 110 available upon application). What about a smaller, lighter engine? The ProStar in the US has just begun to be offered with the International A26 engine. This is the latest iteration of the 13-litre, derived from the MAN D26 and a result of the increased co-operation and financial stake Volkswagen is taking in Navistar. This is a high-tech torquey engine which will perform well for ProStars running at lower masses. For the US market, International does offer a substantial range. The ProStar we are getting is a mixture of three US models. The ProStar is the basic platform, but we are getting the shorter bonnet from the Transtar and the bigger sleeper cab is more like the HX series long-distance hauler. All of which do come with the 13-litre A26 engine, at least as an option. Looking at heavier trucks, International has the LoneStar and the 9900 available in the US. The LoneStar is the truck many truckies here in Australia will aspire to drive. It has the aggressive grille and big cab, plus the Cummins X15 under the big long bonnet. It genuinely looks the business. Those aspiring truckies are likely to be disappointed. As it stands, the LoneStar could not be imported into Australia, it is too wide. It is very much a left-hand-drive truck and has been designed as such. The kind of engineering and development work required to reshape the truck into something which is legal and durable enough for Australia is going to be expensive and take some time. The potential sales numbers the truck would generate are likely to be relatively low – it is not a fleet truck and most owner drivers are looking for a practical, not a show, truck. The other heavy, the 9900, is a more traditional truck, it was assembled and sold here as the Eagle. There are still quite a few who would jump at the chance of owning a new 9900. However, again, the kind of development dollars needed compared to potential sales make it a non-goer. Looking down the range, there are some more practical possibilities. The most obvious one is the HX Series, a vocational truck sold into rigid tipper and similar applications. It is described in the US as being a ‘severe duty’ truck, but would probably need some beefing up to meet our demanding conditions. It can be fitted with the X15 and the A26, both of which would suit the kind of work it would need to do here. The smaller tipper chassis is the WorkStar, with a similar shape to the 9700 models sold in Australia over ten years ago. The biggest engine this can fit is the 13-litre but the age of its design may well count against it, when considering adapting it to Australia.