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DAF Trucks Press Release / December 8, 2016 .

Commercial Carrier Journal / December 8, 2016 Navistar recently christened its Used Truck Reconditioning Center in Melrose Park, Ill., where the company also plans to relocate its nearby International Used Truck Sales Center in the new year. The Reconditioning Center examines International’s certified used truck reconditioning process to ensure a consistent product is available to all International Dealers and Navistar’s own 15 Used Truck Sales Centers. With the closure and sale of the Indianapolis Center, Navistar co-located the Melrose Park prototype and testing facility near Chicago. “One of the greatest advantages of a centralized Reconditioning Center is the ability to work hand-in-hand with the on-site product engineering and prototype team in order to fully understand product durability and use this knowledge to provide the highest level of service to our customers.” says Jeff Heichel, vice president, Used Truck Operations, Navistar. Navistar says the Reconditioning Center in Melrose Park is fully scalable and includes a wash bay, detailing and paint booth, welding room and a parts storage area. .

“Trump doesn't take kindly to anyone criticizing him -- not journalists (whom he refers to as "dishonest," "disgusting" and "scum" when they take him on), not corporate executives, not entertainers who satirize him, not local labor leaders, no one. The President-elect's tendency to go after people who criticize him by sending false and provocative statements to his 17 million twitter followers not only imperils those people and their organizations, it also poses a clear and present danger to our democracy. Democracy depends on the freedom to criticize those in power without fear of retribution. Presidents and President-elects throughout history have refrained from publicly condemning individual citizens for criticizing them. That occurs in two-bit dictatorships intent on stamping out dissent. No President or President-elect has ever before bypassed the media and spoken directly to large numbers of his followers to disparage individual citizens who criticize him. That occurred in the fascist rallies of the 1930s. America came closest to this in the 1950s when Sen. Joseph McCarthy wrecked the lives of thousands of American citizens whom he arbitrarily and carelessly claimed were communists. McCarthy's reign of terror ended when a single man asked him publicly, during the televised hearings McCarthy was conducting, "Have you no decency, sir?" In that moment, Americans began to see McCarthy for the tyrant he was. McCarthy's assistant was Roy Cohn, an attorney who perfected the art of character assassination. Roy Cohn was also one of Donald Trump's mentors. Trump's capricious use of power to denigrate and even endanger his critics must end. He is not yet our President. When he becomes so, and has far greater power, our freedom and our democracy could be gravely jeopardized. We must join together to condemn these acts. We must ask: Has Trump no decency?” Robert Reich, former secretary of labor .

Marine Le Pen: Illegal migrants' children 'should not get free schooling' CNN / December 8, 2016 France's far-right party leader, Marine Le Pen, said children of illegal immigrants should be refused a free education. Le Pen, who ran for the presidency in 2012 on an anti-immigration platform and plans to run again next year, said the hardline move -- which flouts French law and the European Convention on Human Rights, would discourage immigration. "I think free and compulsory schooling for the children of illegal parents encourages more immigration, which must be stopped," Le Pen told reporters on Thursday in Paris. Le Pen said that if elected president, she would also consider implementing a waiting period for foreigners to access certain public services or social benefits. "I think this is fair, as our social protection system and our public services are now overloaded, overwhelmed." Le Pen celebrated the surprise victory of US President-elect Donald Trump as a boost to her own cause, saying it showed people were "taking their future back." She said that if she were in power, the country [France] would be "nothing like you have seen in the last 30 years." "I am opposed to a multicultural France. I think that those who have a different culture and who arrive in France have to submit themselves to French culture. Like the old saying, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do.' I think that in France we should do like the French people," she said. Le Pen has said she wants to follow Britain's lead and take France out of the 28-member European Union.

Daimler grows market share in Mexico Truck News / December 8, 2016 Daimler continues to grow its share of the Mexican truck market, in large part due to a strengthening of the dealer network. The company now controls 36.2% of the Class 8 market in Mexico, up about 7.8% compared to last year, according to Stefan Kurschner, president of Daimler Trucks Mexico, who gave a business update here today. Daimler set out to become the industry leader in Mexico and has achieved its goal. “We feel that above 36%, we can claim market leadership,” Kurschner said. “I don’t want to be arrogant about those numbers. It is a lot of confidence a lot of new customers have put in us. It’s a journey. We are on a road to leadership and that’s what we are going to continue.” There is plenty of room for growth in the Mexican market, according to Kurschner. Today the Class 8 market represents about 30,000 trucks a year and is growing at a pace of about 18% annually. But that’s not enough, Kurschner said, given the size of the country and the age of the fleet. The average Class 8 truck in Mexico is 17.8 years old and there are 150,000 trucks in the country 20 years or older. “I think an economy of this size should have a market of at least 60,000 and not 30,000, as it is represented today,” Kurschner said. A scrapping program that provides incentives for replacing older trucks has been reasonably successful, Kurschner said, and needs to continue and expand. Daimler has sold about 1,000 new trucks through the program, which benefits the environment. One key differentiator for Daimler in Mexico is its strategy of peso pricing. Traditionally, all OEMs in Mexico priced their vehicles in US dollars, complicating the sales process and putting customers at the mercy of unpredictable swings in currency. Trucks are now priced in pesos and prices are guaranteed for six months. “It takes uncertainties from our customers away and we are going to continue that,” Kurschner said. “This is not an incentive program or a marketing gag.” Dealers representing Daimler’s dealer council said at the briefing that peso pricing has been well received by customers since its implementation last year. “Our customers can truly forget about the exchange rate and have certainty and standardization,” said Fernando Zapata, president of dealer Zapata Camiones. “The dealer network said we need to do something, uncertainty really hinders our customers to do business. So, we did a lot of customer interviews and after realizing a lot of our customers have their revenues in pesos, it was a clear decision if they bill in pesos, they want to pay in pesos,” Kurschner said. Zapata said other OEMs have attempted to copy the idea, but without success. Daimler has financial instruments at its disposal and the ability to hedge – tools that a fleet itself is unable to utilize. The Mexican dealer network has modernized its processes and now works together as a cohesive unit across the country to better service customers. A key element to this is the so-called Mutual Promise, which all dealers commit to. “It’s a document the dealer network and the OEM has signed that has a description on what we are going to deliver as a service experience to our customers,” Kurschner explained. “It’s a customer bill of rights, a promise of what we are going to do for the customer.” Traditionally, according to Zapata, dealers were focused on serving only their own customers. Now a customer can expect the same service levels at any dealer in the country. “The same service and same quality and same conditions negotiated with every single dealer, wherever he goes in the country,” Zapata said. “That is amazing.” Alejandro Rivera, president of the dealer council and head of Camiones Rivera, said dealers have implemented new platforms so they enjoy better communication between dealerships and with the OEM. An Evolucion Elite program has also been implemented, recognizing dealers that have taken steps to improve processes. Repair times was an issue in Mexico, with the average repair as recently as 2013 taking nine days to complete. Jaime Tamez, president and CEO of dealership Difrenosa, said that has been driven down to less than three days and in most months this year, his dealerships have completed repairs on average in about a day. “Our objective as a dealer network is to keep clients’ trucks on the road. We have done a lot of work behind the scenes to achieve this,” said Tamez. One enabler has been 24/7 parts delivery. In 2014, Tamez said, the parts distribution center would send out one shipment per week. That increased to three a week in 2015 and now, deliveries are made daily. “It means in many cases a huge difference for customers and also for dealers, because we have an opportunity to keep our inventories rotating and our customers much more satisfied,” Tamez said. “For every specialized part, we have a delivery 24 hours later. I can say this is a big accomplishment in the last few years.”

House passes bill directing future of 34-hour restart Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) / December 8, 2016 The House has passed the bill referenced in this story. For the bill to become law and the 34-hour restart issue to be resolved, the Senate must still pass the bill and President Obama must sign it. Below is the original story. A year after inadvertently putting the 34-hour restart at risk of being removed from federal hours of service regulations, Congress has unveiled legislation to fix the issue. Lawmakers in the House and Senate will this week take up the bill to clarify the future of truckers’ use of the 34-hour restart, likely putting the issue to rest. For the time being, truckers can continue to operate as they have since December 2014, meaning 34-hour restarts do not need to include two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods and the 34-hour restart option can be used as often as truck operators like. However, should a pending study by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration find rules in place between July 1, 2013, and December 2014 promote better rest for truck operators, those rules would go back into effect. Those provisions include the requirement that a 34-hour restart contain two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods and a once-per-week limit to the restart’s use. If the study does not conclusively determine the July 1, 2013-effective rules to be safer, then no changes will be made and truckers can use the restart as they do now: No 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods and no limit on the use of a restart. Congress included the hours of service clarifications in a 2017 Continuing Resolution appropriations bill that funds the government through April. The hours of service language appears to be the only trucking-related measure in the legislation. The bill will likely pass both chambers of Congress this week. The reenactment of 2013 hours of service rules hinges on whether FMCSA’s restart study finds that truckers abiding by those regs “demonstrate statistically significant improvement in all outcomes related to safety, operator fatigue, driver health and longevity, and work schedules, in comparison to…drivers who operated under the restart provisions in effect on June 30, 2013,” according to the bill, which was released late Tuesday. Simply, Congress calls for the statistically safer rules — as determined by a study to be conducted of hundreds of drivers operating under various work schedules — to be the rules that become permanent. This was the intent of Congress in December 2014 when lawmakers rolled back the 2013-implemented changes to hours of service rules. Congress in that bill also required FMCSA to study drivers operating under both sets of rules to determine which were safer. However, lawmakers failed to clarify which rules would go back into effect based on the study’s results. In an attempt to fix this issue, Congress accidentally included language in a December 2015-passed bill that could have cut the 34-hour restart option from the books, based on the study’s outcome. This week’s legislation clarifies Congress’ original 2014 intent and cancels out 2015’s mix-up. Both chambers of Congress this year floated separate plans to fix the issue, but Congress ultimately settled on the language unveiled late Tuesday. FMCSA announced earlier this year it had completed the data gathering phase of its 34-hour restart study. It has not said when it plans to release the results of its findings.

Rollback of truck safety rules may be just the beginning Associated Press / December 8, 2016 The trucking industry scored a victory this week when Republican lawmakers effectively blocked Obama administration safety rules aimed at keeping tired truckers off the highway. But there's more coming down the road. The American Trucking Associations is pledging to come back next month, when Republicans will control the White House and Congress, and try to block state laws that require additional rest breaks for truckers beyond what federal rules require. The group says there should be one uniform national rule on work hours for interstate truckers and that the extra breaks aren't necessary for safety. The trucking industry's latest triumph has caused concern among safety advocates that it may signal the start of a broad rollback of transportation safety regulations once there's no longer a Democratic president to check the tendency of Republican lawmakers to side with industry. "Unfortunately, it's going to be an open season on safety in this coming Congress," said Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board during the Clinton administration. Shippers and some segments of the trucking industry probably will also push for long-sought goals of increasing the weight limit on trucks to more than 90,000 pounds and increasing the length of individual trailers in double-trailer combinations from 28 feet to 33 feet, safety advocates said. The trailers in single-trailer trucks can be up to 53 feet, but trailers in trucks with two trailers currently can't be more than 28 feet. "It's going to be very tough because the companies really care about the cost. They don't care about the safety no matter what they say," said safety advocate Joan Claybrook. The provision Republicans added to a must-pass government spending bill this week suspends regulations issued by the Obama administration requiring truckers to take two nights off to rest if they take only the minimum break before starting a new work week. Drivers for companies that operate on a seven-day schedule can work as many as 80 hours in a work week through a combination of driving and other work, like loading and unloading. Truckers are required to take at least a minimum 34-hour break before starting a new work week. But the trucking industry objected to requirements that the 34 hours include two periods from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Sleep scientists say rest during the early morning hours is critical for people to feel refreshed. The suspension means truckers can head out on the road again during those hours if the 34-hour break has elapsed. Another regulation that prevents truckers from using the 34-hour break to start a new work week twice within a seven-day period was also suspended. Truck driver Bill Varnado, 66, of Dallas, Georgia, said he likes the sleep requirement because it ensures that drivers are well-rested. He said it's hard to find places to sleep in one's rig on the road, so drivers sometimes keep going. "Sometimes you're forced to drive fatigued because you can't find anywhere to park," said Varnado, who drives for Pro Trucking Inc. of Acworth, Georgia, during a truck-stop break along Interstate 81. But self-employed trucker George Lafferty, 61, of Henry, Illinois, said Congress should repeal the rule. "I don't see how the government can tell you when to sleep and when not to," Lafferty said during a truck-stop interview along Interstate 81 after dropping off a load of yeast at a livestock-feed plant. "A driver should know when he's fatigued or not," he said. "If you're fatigued, take a half-hour, hour nap." Besides truck safety, Congress is also likely to be asked to deal with a wide range of other transportation safety concerns. The auto and technology industries, for example, are telling Congress that they fear a "patchwork" of state safety laws will hinder the deployment of self-driving cars. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials have developed voluntary guidelines for the safe design, development, testing and deployment of self-driving cars that they want automakers to follow. But California's Department of Motor Vehicles wants to make the guidelines mandatory. Some industry officials have complained the guidelines go too far and may stifle innovation. Safety advocates say they don't go far enough. "We think it would be completely inappropriate for Congress to pre-empt the states without strong federal safety standards in place for automated vehicles," said William Wallace, a policy analyst for Consumers Union, the policy and mobilization arm of Consumer Reports. "States are the ones that make the final call on whether automated vehicles should be allowed on the roads," he said. "We think citizens of those states have the right to take action to keep their roads safe."

Fleet Owner / December 7, 2016 The American Trucking Assns. is lauding a congressional “fix” to the 34-hour restart rule. The hours-of-service issue is one of a number of items included in a Continuing Resolution that would keep the federal government operating past Friday, when current funding expires. “ATA thanks Congress for including what should be a permanent fix to the hours-of-service restart in this Continuing Resolution, and we look forward to its final passage into law to resolve this issue,” ATA President and CEO Chris Spear said in a statement. “Reverting back to the pre-July 2013 restart shifts the emphasis back to safety by removing flawed data from the rulemaking process. The entire industry will now be able to comply with this rule thanks to a common sense approach championed by a bipartisan group of legislators.” “While ATA sought the same for preempting states that have added redundant rest break requirements on top of the existing federal standard, ATA will continue to push hard for federal preemption of specific state laws when the 115th Congress convenes next month,” Spear added. According to a report in The Hill, the House Appropriations Committee released the CR Tuesday evening, which funds the government through April 28. According to the report, last year’s omnibus spending bill suspended President Obama’s proposed changes to the hours-of-service rule until the DOT can prove the regulation would actually improve driver health and safety. Back in April, the Senate Appropriations committee approved a Dept. of Transportation budget bill that includes language to correct a potential problem with the 34-hour restart. In an appropriations package two years ago, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) included language that initially rolled back the restart provisions on hours of service limits, pending further study of 2013 changes by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. But the current budget appropriation, passed by Congress in the previous government funding bill, contains an apparent legislative error in a clause meant to preserve the restart status quo until the study is complete. So, the funding bill for the 2017 fiscal year contains a correction. Specifically, if the study shows that the 2013 restart changes have resulted in “demonstrated statistically significant improvement” in highway safety and driver health, then those changes—which included two consecutive overnight off-duty periods—would be reinstated. However, if the study does not support the 2013 restart changes, then the previous restart rules would be restored with this addition: “A driver who uses that restart rule may not drive after being on duty more than 73 hours in any period of 7 consecutive days.”

Mexico truck market keeps growing Fleet Owner / December 8, 2016 Showing double-digit growth for the third year in a row, heavy-duty sales up 20% For the third year in a row, the Mexican Class 8 truck market will show double digit growth, beating 2015 sales by 20% if it hits the projected 26,000 units, according to Stefan Kurschner, president and CEO of Daimler Commercial Vehicles Mexico. Overall Class 4-8 truck sales are expected to near 33,000 units for an 18% increase over last year. Forecasting similar growth in 2017, Kurschner said the domestic market here is strong enough to continue growing well beyond 30,000 trucks even following annual sales growth of 12% to 14% over the last three years. “The [truck]market is not as big as it should be for the size of the overall domestic market,” he said at a press briefing for U.S. and Mexican journalists. Renewal of the Mexican truck fleet, which currently has an average age of 17.2 years and more than 150,000 units over 20 years old, along with continued steady GDP growth and a strengthening of oil prices should support a normal annual Class 4 to 8 sales of around 60,000, according to Kurschner. “We’ve seen three years of good growth and see the same to come. No matter what, we will see growth.” Questioned about possible trade disruptions between Mexico and the U.S. under the new Trump Administration, a Daimler Trucks North America spokesperson declined comment, saying “it is not our policy to comment on political speculation.” He added that DTNA “as any good corporate citizen, will continue to engage in constructive dialog with governments in all countries in which it operates.” A second company spokesperson pointed out that Daimler has deep roots in both countries, operating in Mexico for 30 years and in the U.S. for 75 years, where it currently has over 22,000 employees. Daimler has two truck plants in Mexico including a 6-year-old facility in Saltillo building the current Freightliner Cascadia for both domestic and international markets. In other Mexican truck market news, Kurschner welcomed the release of draft emissions regulations just three weeks ago. Known as Regulation 044, it calls for new trucks to meet U.S EPA 2013 emissions levels by 2018 with a two-year transition period that would allow OEMs to also sell trucks meeting EPA 2007 levels. Currently new trucks sold in Mexico must meet EPA 2004 emissions standards. With local Mexican states and municipalities often creating their own emissions standards, “the lack of clear definition makes it a bit difficult, but at least we have a draft on the table and a timeline to work with,” Kurschner said. Daimler is also actively expanding its Select Truck dealership network in Mexico, seeing it as part of the solution to bringing down the national fleet’s average age. While 2014 and 2015 saw a spike in illegally imported trucks that did not meet Mexico’s emissions standards for used equipment, that problem is now largely under control, and Kurschner believes there is an annual market for 15,000 to 20,000 newer used trucks. A current effort offering incentives to scrap older trucks “has had some success” in modernizing the Mexican fleet, he added, pointing to about 1,000 Daimler sales through the program. “It has some limitation, but we believe we still need the incentive program to help renew the fleet,” Kurschner said.

Today’s Trucking / December 8, 2016 In a year when dealers in Canada and the U.S. face a dramatic downturn in truck sales, Mexico is a world apart. As of November the market for Class 4-8 vehicles was up 18.5%, and Daimler Trucks North America accounted for 36% of it -- up 7.8% over last year. But Stefan Kurschner, president and Chief Executive Officer of Daimler Vehiculos Comerciales Mexico, says there’s room for more. “It’s a country which has its problems, but it is a land of opportunity as well,” he said today in a briefing to media from across North America. The year-to-date sales of 30,190 Class 4-8 trucks – 26,890 of which were Class 8 models – is still a fraction of what the country should require, he said, suggesting the market could handle double those volumes. The average age for a truck in Mexico is also 17.8 years; more than 150,000 vehicles on the road today are still over 20 years old. There are undeniable economic challenges, though. The Gross Domestic Product will grow by just over 2% this year. And the peso continues to struggle in the face of low oil prices. The national currency is worth about 6.5 cents against its Canadian counterpart, and has fluctuated wildly. Daimler is offsetting the currency challenge by setting prices in pesos, unlike other manufacturers in the market, and guaranteeing the prices for six months at a time. Prices had been set in U.S. dollars until as recently as 2015, leaving dealers to account for shifting exchange rates in quotes and when filing taxes. “It was very, very complicated,” said Fernando Zapata of Zapata Camiones, a dealership group with 558 employees. But the peso pricing has simplified the issue, and is playing a role in Daimler’s growing market share, he added. Many customers collect their revenue in pesos, Kurschner says. “If they earn pesos, they want to pay in pesos.” Daimler, meanwhile, has access to financial instruments that can help to hedge against currency shifts. But there are other challenges ahead. Mexico is also preparing to move from EPA 04 emissions standards to EPA 13 technology. The draft rules were unveiled only weeks ago, but could take hold as early as 2018. And there is still work to do before that happens. Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel, widely available in Canada and the U.S., is not available everywhere in Mexico. Local governments also set up their own emission-related rules, Kurschner said. Some larger cities have restricted truck access in a bid to tackle pollution. Drivers and mechanics alike will need to be educated about the new standards, Kurschner said. The change could also lead to a “pre-buy” if fleets rush to buy EPA 04 equipment to delay the higher costs associated with the newer generation of equipment. “That’s obvious with every emission change,” he said. Mexico does have an incentive program for those who want to scrap old trucks, but it is very bureaucratic, Kurschner added, noting how Daimler has applied it to about 1,000 vehicles. Refined systems The country’s dealers are clearly taking steps to eliminate red tape on their own, adopting programs that streamline processes and establish best practices. The recently adopted Promesa Mutua – essentially a customer bill of rights – commits to optimizing operations, simplifying processes, effectively communicating, and establishing the same level of service from one dealer to the next. A new Dealer Management System more seamlessly shares data between dealers and the Original Equipment Manufacturer, said dealer council president Alejandro Rivera, offering the example of one change that has emerged. His own dealership, Camiones Rivera, was also one of the first to be certified through the Evolucion Elite program, which commits to measures such as better service times. “We are measuring the time the customer spends in the workshops, trying to make it shorter every day,” he said. And gains are being realized. The country’s 56 Freightliner shops completed about 65,000 service orders last year, but saw 110,000 of them in 2016. Where service and repairs took an average of 9.8 days in 2013, they now average 2.7 days. Spare parts, which were delivered just once a week in 2014, now arrive every single day. Jose Luis Gonzales of Euro Centro Camionero refers to a Joint Action Development Group that has helped reduce warranty-related paperwork by about 70%. “Everyone in the headquarters gets the chance to work a couple of days with the dealer,” Kurschner said. It’s where finance teams have the chance to see issues like invoice-related challenges first hand. “Turning a table has created a much easier conversation with the dealer network … Everybody sells in our company.”

Carrier consensus on speed limiter mandate: 65 mph and retroactive; truckers remain ‘vehemently’ opposed Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) / December 8, 2016 Though the majority of commenters who filed formal feedback with the U.S. DOT on its proposal to mandate speed governor use in the trucking industry adamantly oppose such a rule, most comments from fleets — albeit large ones — offer support for the mandate and provided regulators constructive guidance on what a final rule should look like. The 90-day public comment period on the September-issued Notice of Proposed Rulemaking closed late Wednesday. The proposed rule was developed and published jointly by the DOT agencies the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. See CCJ’s coverage of the rule and its contents at this link. Several prominent commenters said the DOT’s September-issued proposal was too incomplete and requires another iteration before being made a final rule. But most commenters, as noted above, stated strong opposition to any form of speed limiter mandate. The American Trucking Associations, the Truckload Carriers Association and the newer Trucking Alliance — trade groups that represent fleets large and small — all proposed a 65 mph speed limit for the rule. ATA, however, says it can’t support the DOT’s proposed rule until regulators produce more data. “ATA cannot support the proposed rulemaking, absent additional data and research demonstrating that it would not create new safety hazards that might outweigh any safety benefits anticipated by the agencies. In addition, the agencies failed to adequately explore alternative emerging technologies that may soon render speed limiters obsolete, by addressing the same concerns without creating the potential risks of the proposed rule,” ATA wrote in its comments. “In short, the NPRM leaves too many important questions unanswered—questions that the agencies cannot simply shrug their collective shoulders at.” TCA says its also advocates for a 65 mph limit. “We recognize that traveling too fast for conditions is one of the most prominent reasons for accidents/safety events on our roads today. However, we would be remiss if we did not recognize that over ninety five percent of the hours driven are on our nation’s highways, thus concluding that the majority of our industry is operating at speeds consistent with highway/interstate travel,” the group said. “In recognizing that, we must conclude that we, as an industry, have a safety obligation to responsibly operate our vehicles at speeds in which we can effectively control and limit the opportunity for accidents.” Most carriers who commented agreed the DOT should adopt a 65 mph speed limit, and the mandate should retroactively apply to trucks already in use, not just new trucks rolling out of factories, they said. “It is unfortunate that there is not more science to support a specific speed recommendation contained within the NPRM. As a result, CTG recommends a maximum speed of 65 mph,” wrote Covenant Transportation Group (No. 41 in the CCJ Top 250). “Theoretically, consistent speeds of 65 mph may reduce congestion caused by one truck passing another with a minimal speed difference of just a few miles per hour, or less.” “We truly believe the benefits achieved in saving lives and reducing injuries by controlling the maximum speed of commercial motor vehicles far outweigh any argument against the rule,” wrote J.B. Hunt (No. 6 in the CCJ Top 250). Werner Enterprises (No. 11) says while it supports an industry-wide mandate for maximum truck speeds, the proposed rule presents several “deficiencies,” the carrier says, that need to be addressed before a permanent rule is issued. “Beyond the consideration of interactions between cars and speed-limited trucks, the proposed rule only applies to newly manufactured trucks and therefore, neglects to calculate the safety risk between non-limited trucks and newly manufactured speed-limited trucks driving on our roadways,” the carrier said in its comment. “If the rule moves forward, the agencies will need to consider all aspects to achieve compliance of the final rule speed standard with the significant majority of operating trucks to reduce the safety risk of speed differentials.” C.R. England, meanwhile, urged NHTSA and FMCSA to adopt the rule as quickly as it can. It also wrote that since most trucks built since the early 1990s are manufacturer-equipped with the ability to have their speeds electronically limited, the mandate should cover all vehicles, says C.R. England (No. 19) in its comment. “C.R. England urges FMCSA and NHTSA to impose the rule on all existing heavy vehicles either through activation of ECM technology already available on most vehicles or through the installation of approved retrofitted speed limiting devices,” the Salt Lake City-based carrier said. “There is a strong correlation between speed and crash severity in truck accidents; the higher the speed of the truck, the more severe the injuries of those involved. Instituting the speed limiter rule will not only save lives and prevent catastrophic injury; it will also make significant contributions to safer driving and reduce collisions.” Many commenters posed questions for the two agencies responsible for the rule, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Such comments pressed the agencies on the scant nature of the proposal, which failed to not only specify a mandated speed but to propose a concrete scope for the rule. The enforcer community’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, for instance, called for the agency to flesh out the rule further and publish a so-called Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to give the industry a look at a more complete rule proposal and to provide feedback. “This will allow stakeholders to fully evaluate the proposal and provide constructive input, ensuring more effective deployment and enforcement of speed limiters,” CVSA writes. The group said it supports a speed limiter mandate overall. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), a vocal and staunch critic of the speed limiter mandate from the onset, filed a 41-page comment tearing down the rule and regulators’ intentions. OOIDA “vehemently” opposes the rule, it says, calling it damaging to owner-operators’ and independents’ ability to compete in the marketplace against larger carriers. The group also says the rule’s initiation is illegal, given new stipulations passed last year by Congress in the FAST Act highway bill. Rules classified as “major rules,” as the limiter mandate is, have to be initiated as an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking or a Negotiated Rulemaking, says OOIDA. OOIDA contends a speed limiter mandate would also damage highway safety efforts, rather than bolster them. As noted in prior CCJ coverage, OOIDA says the speed differential created between trucks and other vehicles on the highway poses a much greater safety risk than higher truck speeds. “Instead of relying upon concrete evidence and data about actual motor carrier and driver experience associated with speed limiters, the agencies have resorted to postulating a theoretical reduction in crash severity and environmental benefits.” The Western States Trucking Association also said neither NHTSA nor FMCSA have the legal authority to promulgate a rule to mandate speed limiters. “Contrary to the statements made in the preamble, the joint proposed rules are not based on any safety need but, rather, on a misguided effort to use federal traffic safety laws to govern emissions of greenhouse gases from trucks. Neither NHTSA nor FMCSA has the legal authority to misuse federal law in that manner. Accordingly, the commenters believe the joint proposed rules are misguided, counterproductive, illegal and dangerous,” writes the Texas Public Policy Foundation, who developed and filed comments on behalf of Western States, a Texas-based trucker and a Texas-based carrier. Comments from hundreds, if not thousands, of truckers show they agree with OOIDA’s and WSTA’s assertions. The docket, which contains nearly 4,500 comments total, is brimming with comments from truck operators framing the rule as unsafe, overly intrusive and unnecessary. CCJ sister site Overdrive has published a roundup of comments from owner-operator and truck driver commenters. See that story at this link. Purported safety groups like Advocates for Auto and Highway Safety and the Truck Safety Coalition both asked the DOT to limit speeds to 60 mph and make the mandate industry-wide.

Trump meets with Mulally The Detroit News / December 8, 2016 President-elect Donald Trump met with former Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally on Thursday as he builds the cabinet for his incoming administration. Mulally is a candidate for secretary of state. After serving as head of the commercial aircraft business at Boeing Co., Mulally earned adulation for his time as Ford’s CEO from 2006-2014. He steered the company through the 2008 and 2009 collapse of new vehicle sales without a government bailout or a Chapter 11 reorganization, as was needed by General Motors and then-Chrysler. He oversaw a massive restructuring of Ford to reinvigorate the automaker in part through better-aligned global operations and a crystallized focus on Ford and Lincoln cars and trucks, positioning the company to reap heady profits during the industry’s recovery. Trump spokesman Jason Miller refused to describe the nature of the meeting, but said “Mr. Mulally is certainly someone who knows a lot about trade issues and the economy and what we need to do get our manufacturing sector going again.” The pool of potential candidates for secretary of state includes 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman [superb individual], former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker and former CIA Director David Petraeus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ex-Ford boss Mulally in mix for secretary of state Bloomberg / December 9, 2016 President-elect Donald Trump’s short list for secretary of state has grown, with former Ford CEO Alan Mulally now under consideration for the job as the nation’s top diplomat, a top adviser said today. Mulally, 71, met with Trump Thursday in New York to discuss the position, campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said. Mulally helped engineer a turnaround at the automaker while avoiding the bankruptcies that befell its crosstown rivals, General Motors and Chrysler, now part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV. He previously served as head of Boeing Co.’s commercial airline business division. “This is an important process,” Conway said. Trump “is welcoming in a number of men and women who have very diverse backgrounds.” Conway said Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Rex Tillerson, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former CIA Director David Petraeus, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, and Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, were also among the names under consideration. Trump’s vision Conway has publicly warned that the selection of Romney could upset Trump voters who see the former Massachusetts governor as too aligned with the political establishment. She said today that whoever was selected would need to hew to the president-elect’s foreign policy vision. “You have to be able to adhere to what will be the Trump doctrine worldwide and be able to execute it,” she said. While Conway didn’t indicate who was Trump’s leading contender, she did praise some of the candidates. She said Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, would likely “face easy confirmation” by his colleagues. And she praised Giuliani as “a very close and loyal adviser throughout the campaign” who remains “still in the mix.” She acknowledged that Mulally would be an interesting choice considering that Trump has targeted two firms he helped lead. Earlier this week, Trump tweeted that Boeing’s contract to build the next Air Force One plane was too expensive. He has said he wants to keep Ford from moving manufacturing plants from the U.S. to Mexico. Staved off bankruptcy Mulally, who retired as CEO of Ford in 2014, earned bipartisan praise for his efforts at the iconic automaker, staving off bankruptcy by globalizing new models, cutting costs, boosting technology and overhauling the lineup with fuel-efficient vehicles such as the aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup. After leaving Ford, Mulally joined the board of Google just as the tech giant was stepping up research into self-driving cars. Before leaving Ford, Mulally had been considered for the top job at Microsoft Corp. that ultimately went to Satya Nadella. There was also speculation that he could join the Obama administration because he sat on Barack Obama’s Export Council, formed in 2010 to advise the president on trade.

2017 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel Car & Driver / December 8, 2016 Chevrolet did a pretty poor job keeping the 2017 Cruze diesel a secret. Details surrounding the second edition of a diesel-powered Cruze have been trickling into the public sphere for a couple of months. First it was the news about the six-speed manual and nine-speed automatic transmissions; then came word that the diesel engine would be offered in both sedan and hatchback body styles. Now Chevrolet has started the make-it-official process by announcing a key element: the pricing. The sedan with a manual transmission starts at $24,670, and the sedan with a nine-speed automatic is $26,270. The base diesel comes standard with the LT trim and the Convenience package, typically an $850 add-on that includes an eight-way power driver’s seat, push-button ignition, keyless entry, and heated front seats. The Leather package is an option on both models for an extra $1125. A combination of that package and the Sun, Sound, and Confidence package is available for $3680 on sedans but only with the nine-speed. Prices for the hatchback have not been released yet. The price undercuts the previous-generation Cruze diesel, which started at $25,695 when it was introduced for 2014. For 2017, the diesel will start at $4056 more than the gasoline-powered automatic Cruze LT with the Convenience package and $3345 more than the six-speed manual Cruze LT with the Convenience package and the $695 RS package. Every 2017 Cruze diesel include Chevy’s 24/7 Promise: two years of SiriusXM satellite radio and OnStar plus two years or 24 GB of 4G LTE data. The next big pieces of news we’ll be waiting for on the 2017 Cruze diesel are the 1.6-liter turbo-diesel’s engine output figures and, even more critically, its fuel-economy numbers.

VW’s Lost, Destroyed Phones Are 'a Bright Red Flag,' FTC Says Bloomberg / December 8, 2016 The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to further question Volkswagen AG’s U.S. officials about whether evidence including mobile phones was destroyed amid the probe of diesel vehicles rigged to cheat emissions tests. “In the context of the massive scandal at the center of this case, 23 lost or bricked phones is a bright red flag, especially when they include phones that belonged to important individuals,’’ FTC attorneys said in a court filing Thursday. The agency “should not have to accept VW’s assurance that there is nothing to see and that we should just move along.’’ The FTC asked the San Francisco judge overseeing most of the consumer and government claims against the carmaker to order further questioning of a company witness. While Volkswagen Group of America contends its “designated corporate witness” has already answered thousands of questions during a deposition, the FTC said the person provided “nonsensical or evasive responses” when questioned about whether the company intentionally destroyed evidence. The witness, Manuel Sanchez, “was either unprepared or otherwise unable to provide responsive information,’’ the FTC said. Sanchez “answered ‘I don’t know’ or some variation thereof over 250 times, including in response to questions he should have been able to answer,’’ the FTC said. This included questions about the 23 phones that had been lost or had been “wiped,” the FTC said. The FTC request comes amid criminal investigations of the company in the U.S. and Germany spurred by VW’s admission last year to systematically rigging cars to evade environmental laws. VW has repeatedly alleged its top management was unaware of the decision to install software, so called defeat devices, to cheat emissions tests. (A lie......there’s little doubt that board chairman Ferdinand Piech have final approval)

Heroin deaths surpass gun homicides for the first time The Wall Street Journal / December 8, 2016 Opioid deaths continued to surge in 2015, surpassing 30,000 for the first time in recent history, according to CDC data released Thursday. That marks an increase of nearly 5,000 deaths from 2014. Deaths involving powerful synthetic opiates, like fentanyl, rose by nearly 75 percent from 2014 to 2015. Heroin deaths spiked too, rising by more than 2,000 cases. For the first time since at least the late 1990s, there were more deaths due to heroin than to traditional opioid painkillers, like hydrocodone and oxycodone. "The epidemic of deaths involving opioids continues to worsen," said CDC Director Tom Frieden in a statement. "Prescription opioid misuse and use of heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl are intertwined and deeply troubling problems." In the CDC's opioid death data, deaths may involve more than one individual drug category, so numbers in the chart above aren't mutually exclusive. Many opioid fatalities involve a combination of drugs, often multiple types of opioids, or opioids in conjunction with other sedative substances like alcohol. In a grim milestone, more people died from heroin-related causes than from gun homicides in 2015. As recently as 2007, gun homicides outnumbered heroin deaths by more than 5 to 1. These increases come amid a year-over-year increase in mortality across the board, resulting in the first decline in American life expectancy since 1993. Congress recently passed a spending bill containing $1 billion to combat the opioid epidemic, including money for addiction treatment and prevention. "The prescription opioid and heroin epidemic continues to devastate communities and families across the country—in large part because too many people still do not get effective substance use disorder treatment,” said Michael Botticelli, Director of National Drug Control Policy, in a statement. "That is why the President has called since February for $1 billion in new funding to expand access to treatment." Much of the current opioid predicament stems from the explosion of prescription painkiller use in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Widespread painkiller use led to many Americans developing dependencies on the drugs. When various authorities at the state and federal levels began issuing tighter restrictions on painkillers in the late 2000s, much of that demand shifted over to the illicit market, feeding the heroin boom of the past several years. Drug policy reformers say the criminalization of illicit and off-label drug use is a barrier to reversing the growing epidemic. “Criminalization drives people to the margins and dissuades them from getting help,” said Grant Smith, deputy director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance. “It drives a wedge between people who need help and the services they need. Because of criminalization and stigma, people hide their addictions from others.” .

Trump puts new spotlight on Long Island gang killings Associated Press / December 8, 2016 As he sat down for an interview with Time magazine for his "person of the year" profile, Donald Trump explained his tough view on illegal immigration by retrieving a copy of the Long Island newspaper Newsday and pointing to a blaring headline: "Extremely Violent Gang Faction." The article focused on the killings of five teenagers from the same New York City suburb and suspicions that the slayings were the work of a street gang, MS-13, that has roots in El Salvador and has been linked to at least 30 killings on Long Island since 2010. "They come from Central America. They're tougher than any people you've ever met," Trump said. "They're killing and raping everybody out there. They're illegal. And they are finished." That tough talk was welcomed — and created new worries — in the suburban community plagued by the gang violence. Just months ago, advocates for immigrants were lamenting publicly that a string of disappearances of Hispanic high school students in Brentwood, New York, hadn't gotten enough attention from authorities while they were happening. Now, they are worried that the president-elect's attention will mean a crackdown that goes far beyond gangs. "It's not a good thing," said Maryann Sinclair Slutsky, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group Long Island Wins. "I don't know why he's picking Long Island. The entire immigrant community is terrified. All immigrants in that community feel uncomfortable. There's profiling going on and whether they are totally upstanding citizens, they are going to feel targeted in some way." Gang-related violence in Brentwood got renewed attention in September when best friends Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, were found beaten to death in a residential neighborhood near an elementary school. Within a few weeks, the skeletal remains of three other Brentwood teens were found hidden in secluded areas of the hamlet. Miguel Garcia-Moran, 15, disappeared in February. Oscar Acosta, 19, was reported missing in May. Jose Pena-Hernandez, 18, vanished in June. Police suspect all the killings were committed by members of local offshoots of the MS-13 street gang, which has already left a trail of corpses on Long Island. Some of the people accused in those crimes were in the U.S. illegally. In one of the most heinous killings, in 2010, three teenage MS-13 members shot a 19-year-old woman and her 2-year-old son in the woods over an imagined slight of the gang's honor. Two were El Salvadoran citizens who were illegally in the U.S. at the time they killed the pair, as was Heriberto Martinez, the MS-13 leader convicted of authorizing the murders. Another of the killers was a U.S. citizen. In July, four MS-13 members were charged with killing four men in Brentwood and neighboring Central Islip between 2013 and 2015. Two of them were citizens of El Salvador. One had illegally re-entered the U.S. after previously being departed. A second was in proceedings to be deported. Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco, whose office is involved in the probe of this year's killings in Brentwood, said there is "no question" that gangs were recruiting young [illegal] immigrants who had crossed into the U.S. without authorization. Brentwood, he said, "is becoming a border town." "I don't think anyone would argue with the president-elect and Homeland Security removing criminal alien gang members from the streets of Brentwood. I think the residents of Brentwood deserve it," DeMarco said. Trump has called for increased border security and deportations of undocumented [illegal] immigrants with criminal records. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Tim Sini said as part of a local law enforcement crackdown on the gang, six MS-13 members have been taken into federal custody and are expected to be charged under racketeering statutes. More than 50 others have been charged in state courts. Sini refused to identify any of the more than four dozen suspects, or say what they did.

Andrew Puzder Post: Secretary of Labor Previous government experience in labor: None Age: 66 (Born July 11, 1950) Schooling: Puzder has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cleveland State University, and a Juris Doctor from Washington University. Background: Puzder was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Puzder is a vocal critic of government regulation and opposes a $15 minimum wage, broader overtime pay and the Affordable Care Act. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed in March, Puzder said a $15 minimum wage, mandatory paid sick leave laws and the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, raise costs for employers and force them to rely more on automated technology. "While the technology is becoming much cheaper, government mandates have been making labor much more expensive," he wrote. Puzder told the Los Angeles Times in March that he's not opposed to raising the federal minimum wage above $7.25 or pegging it to inflation, though he said a jump to $15 an hour will cost workers their jobs. Puzder has also been one of the harshest critics of an Obama administration rule that would require workers who make less than $47,500 and work 40 hours per week be paid overtime. The rule was put on hold by a federal judge in November. "The real world is far different than the Labor Department's Excel spreadsheet," Puzder wrote in a Forbes guest column in May. "This new rule will simply add to the extensive regulatory maze the Obama Administration has imposed on employers, forcing many to offset increased labor expense by cutting costs elsewhere." In 2004, CKE agreed to pay $9 million to settle three class-action lawsuits involving overtime pay. Puzder told the Orange County Register in 2014 that CKE had spent $20 million on overtime lawsuits in California over the previous eight years, and that the company had reclassified managers as hourly workers as a result. Puzder is anti-abortion. While practicing law in St. Louis, Puzder authored a Missouri abortion law upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services in 1989. Following the Webster decision, Puzder was a founding member of the Common Ground Network for Life and Choice. In 1984, Pudzer and another lawyer had written an article for the Stetson Law Journal proposing a Missouri law that would define life as beginning at conception in the broad context of contract or property law. Puzder reasoned that if fetuses were recognized as having rights in other contexts, it would establish a foundation for challenging Roe v. Wade later on. In St. Louis, Puzder met Carl Karcher, the founder of the Carl's Jr. fast food restaurant chain. Karcher was embroiled in serious financial difficulties and asked Puzder to move to California as his personal attorney. In 1991, Puzder relocated to Orange County, California. Puzder has been credited with resolving Karcher’s financial dilemma, allowing Karcher to avoid bankruptcy and retain a significant ownership interest in the company he founded, CKE Restaurants, Inc. Puzder solved Karcher’s financial problems by putting together a transaction with William P. Foley, the Chairman and CEO of Fidelity National Financial. In 1994, Foley became Chairman and CEO of CKE and Karcher became Chairman Emeritus. In 1995, Puzder went on to become Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Fidelity, managing one of the largest corporate legal departments in the country. Puzder also worked with Foley to create the Santa Barbara Restaurant Group, and served as the company’s CEO. In 1997, Puzder was also named Executive Vice President and General Counsel for CKE. Also in 1997, CKE purchased Hardee’s Food Systems, Inc.. Hardee's was a distressed brand and CKE was burdened by over $700 million in debt following the acquisition. The company underperformed and its market capitalization dropped to about $200,000. Faced with serious financial and operational issues, CKE’s Board of Directors named Puzder as president and CEO of Hardee’s Food Systems in June 2000 and named him president and CEO of CKE Restaurants, Inc. in September of that year. Puzder is credited with turning around both Hardee’s and CKE. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Financial Times / December 8, 2016 Donald Trump’s pick for labor secretary, a fast-food company CEO who is an outspoken opponent of raising the minimum wage, setting the stage for a fight with US unions. Andrew Puzder, head of CKE, the California-based owner of the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr chains, has been a longtime campaigner against efforts to raise the minimum wage and the reach of government into business. Trump says the ex-lawyer will “save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations that are stunting job growth and suppressing wages”. “Andy Puzder has created and boosted the careers of thousands of Americans,” he said. The move fits the Republican’s pledge to help create a business-friendly environment and help the economy through a combination of tax cuts and deregulation. The decision marks another major departure from the Obama administration, which has been advocating an increase in the minimum wage despite opposition from many business groups. This year the Obama administration also introduced new overtime rules meant to secure better pay for middle-managers and other salaried workers often forced to work long hours without extra pay. Earlier this year, Puzder said his first move, were he president, would be to cut 10% of all government regulations and force departments to justify why they needed to keep others. “I think our country has really gone in a very bad direction over the past seven years,” he said. “We’ve been a country traditionally where consumers drive the economy [but] we’ve now become one where the government is more and more involved in driving the economy and taking the power away from consumers.” Puzder has expressed other more provocative views related to work and business. In one interview this year, Puzder spoke of replacing workers with robots in his company’s fast-food stores. “They’re always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case,” he said. News of Mr Trump’s pick immediately drew outrage from Democrats and labour groups. “The Labor secretary should be someone who wakes up every day thinking about how they can raise American wages and fight for American workers. Mr Puzder’s career has shown exactly the opposite,” said Charles Schumer, the Democrats’ incoming leader in the Senate. Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a union-affiliated think-tank that Trump often cited on the campaign trail, said: “Donald Trump ran a campaign that was long on rhetoric about helping working people. But will his actual policies enrich business at the expense of workers? “There is nothing in his record or his public statements to indicate that he would lead in developing policies and enforcement strategies to generate higher wages and better quality jobs for America’s workers.”

Associated Press / December 8, 2016 Did anyone see it coming, the apparent new rapport between President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump? Just a few months ago they were regularly flinging insults back and forth. Today they're trading phone calls and pleasantries. Apparently, membership in one of the world's most exclusive clubs, the club of U.S. presidents, has a way of changing things. On Wednesday, Trump talked about letting bygones be bygones. "I've now gotten to know President Obama. I really like him," Trump said on NBC's "Today". "We have, I think I can say, at least for myself, I can't speak for him, but we have a really good chemistry together. We talk." Trump continued: "He loves the country. He wants to do right by the country and for the country, and I will tell you, we obviously very much disagree on certain policies and certain things but, you know, I really like him as a president." Obama hasn't been quite as effusive in his comments about Trump since the Nov. 8 election. But he has repeatedly urged the public and world leaders concerned about a Trump presidency to adopt a "wait-and-see" approach. His argument is that campaigning is different than governing, and that the reality of holding office will lead Trump to alter his thinking in some cases. "That's just the way this office works," Obama said. It's not the tone many expected just a few months ago. Obama spent much of the campaign almost gleefully denouncing the showy New York businessman as "temperamentally unfit" and "uniquely unqualified" to lead the world's most powerful nation. Trump wasn't shy about responding, tweeting at one point that Obama "will go down as perhaps the worst president in the history of the United States!" Trump also spent years fomenting the "birther" issue and trying to undermine Obama with false claims that he was not a U.S. citizen, and therefore an illegitimate president. White House press secretary Josh Earnest has acknowledged that Obama and Trump have had "at least a handful" of telephone conversations since their 90-minute Oval Office meeting on Nov. 10. Trump had said at the White House that he would likely be calling on Obama for his "counsel." Turns out it wasn't just bluster.

MAZ Trucks Press Release / December 6, 2016 .

KrAZ Trucks / December 2, 2016 KrAZ Trucks intends to boost its market share in the light and medium truck segments with new products. Following the launch of the model 5401, available in both 4x2 and 4x4 configurations and rated at 9, 10 and 12 metric tons, Kraz is now introducing the 6 metric ton-rated model 5401Н2 in a variety of wheelbases. For the first time, KrAZ is offering a four-cylinder engine. The 170 horsepower Euro-5 emissions rated powerplant is paired with a 6-speed model 6J70 manual transmission. The 5401H2’s low-cab-forward design allows for superior maneuverability on congested city street and better load distribution, while making entry and exit safer and easier. .

Ford releases for sale half of 10-speed F-150 stockpiled trucks Reuters / December 7, 2016 Ford by Wednesday had released for sale more than half of the 15,000 F-150 pickup trucks with 10-speed transmissions that were held to ensure quality, a company spokeswoman said. Reuters reported on Tuesday that shipment of some of the 2017 models of the F-150 were being delayed to keep from having quality issues during the first application of a 10-speed transmission. In an interview with Reuters earlier this week, Joe Hinrichs, head of Ford in the Americas, said holding the trucks was the prudent thing to do. "In the normal course of business, when we have a new product launch – this is a new product launch for that transmission – we wanted to be extra sure, to do extra testing,” Hinrichs said. Ford designed the 10-speed transmission jointly with Detroit rival General Motors. The 2017 model F-150s equipped with a 3.5-liter, six-cylinder engine and the 10-speed automatic gearbox get a one-mile-per-gallon improvement in fuel economy over comparable 2016 models with six-speed transmissions, according to federal fuel economy data. The delayed shipments of 2017 model year F-150 trucks occurred as rival General Motors is aggressively trying to cut into Ford's lead in U.S. pickup sales. This year will be the 40th straight year that the F-Series pickup trucks from Ford are the best-selling truck in the United States and the 35th consecutive year of it being the top-selling model of any kind. Hinrichs said the delayed shipments will not affect the company's fourth-quarter profit picture because they will all be shipped by year's end.

WIDE APPEAL Power Torque Magazine / December 2016 Dave Whyte and Chris Mullett find the Kenworth T610 brings in the long-awaited appeal of a wide cab for conventional operators It’s not exactly been the best kept secret in Australian trucking, but when production kicks off finally in February and the wide cab versions start entering fleets there are going to be a lot of extremely satisfied drivers out on the road. Eagle-eyed readers of PowerTorque have spotted the five trucks seeded into major fleets as they’ve been racking up the kilometres under the most extensive product testing Kenworth has completed in our market to date. One such example used on linehaul with driver changes is currently covering 14000 km each week. But there’s much more to the development of the T610 than just producing five prime movers and running them up and down the highway. Brad May, director of sales and marketing for PACCAR Australia, gave PowerTorque an exclusive insight into the T610 development programme that started back in 2012, at the same time that PACCAR in the United States showcased the Kenworth T680 and Peterbilt 579 at the Mid-America Truck Show. “The T610 is the result of a $400 million investment programme that has been built around the decision to increase the width of the cab from the previous 1.83 metres measured between the B-pillars to 2.1 metres,” said Brad. “It may sound a simple idea, but the development programme to substantiate the increase in width also resulted in a new design of floor plan and a totally new method of assembling the cab structure during manufacturing. The work also included a wide range of changes to the interior design and dashboard layout that has produced a more modern visual appearance and improved ergonomics,” he added. The initial development work was a combined programme between the two PACCAR brands of Kenworth and Peterbilt in the United States, in conjunction with the R&D team at Bayswater in Victoria. The Kenworth development team concentrated on the bonnet and cab changes, while Peterbilt developed the interior dashboard layout and trim requirements. Building a larger cab meant changing the construction method from a reliance on Huck bolts to using Henrob self-piercing rivets for the alloy framed and sheeted cab. The roof for the sleeper versions is manufactured in composite material. The larger width of 2.1 m has provided an increase in interior space in many areas of up to 30 percent, but has been achieved with virtually no additional weight penalty, with the new cab tipping the scales at just a 20 kg difference. The bumper to back-of-cab (BBC) measurement of the T610 has moved from the 116-inch dimension of the T409 it replaces, to 112 inches, and, with noise intrusion significantly reduced, there’s also additional strength in the firewall that is now 60 percent thicker at 4.0 mm compared to the T409 at 2.4 mm. Drivers will appreciate the additional space between the seats when moving around the cab interior and also how the forward vision has been improved. The traditional West Coast style of mirrors has been replaced by aerodynamic power adjustable mirror heads mounted on extended arms from the A-pillar. This new location enables forward vision over the top of the mirror housing, and between the mirror housing and the A-pillar, removing previous blind spots. The injection moulded dashboard is now much more car-like in appearance and features digital display screens showing driver information and engine data such as fuel economy and performance. With a completely new floor design there’s now much more room in the footwell around the pedals, with extra space for the driver’s left footrest. A lot of development work has also taken place in the redesign of the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) system, which is now a full climate-control unit. In past designs, where a right-hand-drive version has been the result of modifications to an original left-hand-drive design, there have always been issues occurring through routing the steering column past components such as turbochargers. Often the solution has been to incorporate a series of universal joints. Because of the close collaboration of the three design teams between America and Australia, it was possible to create a straight path for the steering column, right through from the wheel to the steering box. This results in probably the best steering precision yet achieved for an on-highway truck of this category. The electrical system retains the normal US choice of 12 volts, but is now based on a multiplex system, with the new cab frame constructed in the US and shipped direct to the Bayswater factory in Victoria. The cooling system has also come in for close attention, with the radiator on the T610 now based on aluminium cores, replacing the previous copper and brass construction. The durability of the new designs has been verified by extensive finite element analysis and then further confirmed by physical shakedown testing on continuous activity rigs that reproduced highly destructive road conditions. The shake-down testing programmes were repeated three times more than any previous test programme in order to validate the durability by simulating over 10 million kilometres of real-time experience. As well as the single-cab version, the T609 is available as a sleeper cab SAR with a set forward front axle. This features the traditional Aerodyne style sleeper but without the roof mounted windows that featured in previous versions. The bed size has been maintained at 860 mm, the same spec as used in the previous 36-inch sleeper design to maintain compatibility for 19 m and 26 m B-double application. “We looked at how to improve headroom and spaciousness inside the cab and the input we had into the final designs enabled us to move the high roof slope forwards in the roof line,” said Brad. “Mike Dozier, Kenworth Australia’s chief executive at the time of the T610 development programme, came from a product background with Peterbilt. Being tall himself, he was a strong supporter of ensuring sufficient headroom to promote the feeling of interior spaciousness with excellent walk-around access. “This attention to visibility for tall drivers also resulted in the window line of the doors being styled to provide clear vision, without having to stoop to improve line of sight. “The doors themselves have triple seals to prevent noise and dust intrusion, and no longer have to carry the mirror mounts, which, as mentioned previously, are now fixed to the A-pillar framing. Conventional hinges now replace the older-style piano hinges, providing a more positive and refined door closure,” added Brad. The T610 is the culmination of many years of extensive product development and cooperation between Paccar in Australia and the United States. Although currently confined to one model in two configurations, there’s little doubt that over the next couple of years we will be seeing the innovation of the T610 influencing other models throughout the Kenworth Australia product range. .

The Gazette Xtra / December 7, 2016 Larry Brown descended the steps of his Chevrolet oil tank truck in two small leaps and disappeared around the back, past the red-and-blue lettering on his truck that reads "Brown Oil Co." Brown unreeled a red fuel hose and hauled it across the snow, through the yard of a weathered farmhouse in the town of Avon. He linked the hose to a pipe on the side of the house and pumped red-dyed fuel oil into a holding tank in the basement. The whole time, Brown whistled a tune. It seemed less like a song and more a physical function—the way a power generator kicks on and off whenever it needs to. Brown has run Brown Oil in Janesville, Wisconsin, since 1986. And he has hauled diesel, gasoline and fuel oil to customers for 50 years this December—ever since he was 20 years old. Brown now is 70, yet his age doesn't quite show. He still delivers oil and fuel oil in one of his own trucks, even though he employs drivers who are much younger than he is. Brown Oil is one of only a few remaining independent oil haulers, and Brown has remained in business by continuing to find new customers outside the dwindling fuel oil home heating market. For years, home heating has been become more and more dominated by natural gas and LP gas, a trend that has put dozens of other oil haulers out of business. Brown Oil continues, and it continues to change, although Brown doesn't acknowledge he has changed much. He still runs dozens of deliveries a week in his tank truck, long after most in the business would leave the work to younger men. “I don't have a hobby, and I've never fished or hunted a lot,” Brown said. “This job is me, and I don't feel like closing up shop and dying. This job is my alternative, I guess.” In his 30 years running Brown Oil, Brown has marketed his services to an ever-broadening clientele, including road construction crews, quarry pits and local marinas, all while holding onto a shrinking base of fuel oil home heating customers. This week, Brown delivered fuel oil to several homes and farms throughout the county alongside commercial deliveries that included a semitrailer truck service garage on Bell Street in Janesville. One day this week, he delivered 250 gallons of kerosene to a Beloit business. Brown boiled down the 50 million gallons of oil he estimates he has delivered to customers over five decades, summing up his concept of business diversification: “There's always different things going on. A chance for new customers all the time. You've always got to find what's going on and figure out how to reach it.” The business of oil has become more complicated for independent haulers such as Brown, in part because of new federal regulations and in part because of the vagaries of the commodities market. Brown now is in a partnership with Cambeck Petroleum, another Janesville oil company. He shares space with Cambeck on South Pearl Street in Janesville, the same location where Brown Oil has been since Brown started it. Through an agreement, Brown gets fuel from an underground storage terminal Cambeck owns off Highway 14 on Janesville's north side. Brown says he stopped trying to outsmart the oil market years ago. He said his edge lies instead on the human side, and it's a major reason why he still delivers oil to customers, sometimes for 10 or 12 hours a day. As he wrapped up a stop at a truck fleet service shop in Janesville, Brown answered his phone. A local excavating contractor called to ask Brown if he could wait at the truck garage. The contractor needed to refill his truck's utility fuel tank. It would delay Brown's next stop, a farm on the other side of Rock County, but Brown didn't seem flustered. When the contractor pulled up, Brown slung his arm over the man's shoulder to greet him. As he worked up the bill for the refuel, he joked with the contractor and asked about his plans for the winter. “Prices and market pressures and all those things don't mean as much when you've got camaraderie with people, your customers,” Brown said. Brown's first business agreement was with his father, Arthur Brown, who had delivered oil for years as a contractor for Lein Oil in Janesville. Arthur died in his 50s after years of health problems linked to childhood tuberculosis, Brown said. Brown himself was just 20 at the time. Brown remembers the day in early December when he promised his father he'd take over the family oil trucking route. At the time, Brown had an infant son, and his dad's truck had 175,000 miles on it. The floorboards were so rusted that in winter, the cab stayed as cold as the air outside. It wasn't until 20 years later that Brown founded Brown Oil, but Brown had learned how to be an oil truck man from the age of 5, when he began riding with his father on weekends and helped pull the truck's heavy fuel hoses. “The rest is my history, the mark I've left on the road,” Brown said. “I think he'd be proud of me.” Video - http://www.gazettextra.com/20161207/shell_brown_oil_company_profile_shell

Scania Group Press Release / December 7, 2016 The Nordic region’s first bus service featuring wireless (inductive) bus stop charging is now starting. A newly developed electric hybrid bus from Scania will be operated in regular urban traffic in Södertälje, Sweden, as part of the efforts to identify new more sustainable solutions for public transport in urban environments. This is the first time the technology is being tested in the Nordic region and both the bus and bus stop solution are part of a research project where Scania, the public transport operator for the Stockholm region SL, Vattenfall, Södertälje Municipality and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) are cooperating to develop a silent and sustainable public transport system. The project is partly financed by the Swedish Energy Agency. Silent and invisible charging For the first time ever, this type of technology is also being tested for a more extreme climate, which this type of infrastructure must also cope with to be relevant in more northerly parts of the world. Wireless bus stop charging means that the bus parks over a charging segment located under the road surface at the charging station, where charging occurs automatically. The design of the inductive technology has been adapted so as not to disturb existing urban environments and is essentially invisible. Seven minutes of wireless charging is enough to cover the entire 10 km-long route, which the bus will operate in Södertälje. “The electric hybrid bus in this project demonstrates a technology track for a more sustainable transport solution. The inductive charging technology is both silent and invisible. The field test in Södertälje is important ahead of the choices facing both society and the automotive industry with regard to eliminating emissions and reducing noise from traffic in sensitive urban environments,” says Hedvig Paradis, who is a project manager at Scania and responsible for the company’s participation in the research project. Solutions for sustainable city transport solutions The cost of the Wireless bus stop charging project amounts to just over SEK 38 million, of which Scania is investing SEK 22 million. The Swedish Energy Agency has granted almost SEK 10 million in research funding, which will be divided among the Royal Institute of Technology, Scania and SL. “This is one of several projects Scania is conducting in order to find solutions for future sustainable transport services in cities,” says Anders Grundströmer, Head of recently started Scania Sustainable City Solutions. “We are working on identifying the needs of cities and on creating systems for eco-friendly, fast, secure and cost-effective transport solutions, which are based on locally-produced alternative fuels including electrification.” Several options for electrification Electrification of the transport sector will demand various technologies and solutions – both in terms of where and how vehicles are charged. Charging can either occur when vehicles are stationary at depots and bus stops or during operation. For charging during operation the alternatives are conductive charging via a pantograph or inductive charging – or a combination of these techniques. The choice of solution depends on what transport task will be performed. The size and weight of the batteries, which can be carried on board the vehicle, for example, determines how much of the charging must occur while in service. The bus that Scania will test in Södertälje’s urban traffic is a hybrid bus, i.e. featuring technology, which means that the bus’s batteries are also charged during operation by utilising braking power. Charging may also occur using the bus’s combustion engine, which operates on fossil-free fuel. Technical facts about the bus Model: Scania "Citywide" LE4x2 Powertrain: Parallel hybrid, integrated with the gearbox (GRS895) Electrical engine, capacity: 130 kW Battery: Li-Ion 56 kWh Combustion engine: 9-litre 320 hp diesel engine (operates on biodiesel) .

CNN / December 7, 2016 Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel met with Donald Trump in New York on Wednesday, urging him to continue the Deferred Action for [illegal immigrant] Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program until a modernized immigration system can be decided by Congress. Emanuel delivered a letter co-signed by 14 other mayors, including New York's Bill de Blasio, and two other local government officials on the issue. "Ensuring DREAMers can continue to live and work in their communities without fear of deportation is the foundation of sound, responsible immigration policy," Emanuel wrote. Trump has said he will terminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an executive action signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2012 that gives some undocumented [illegal] immigrants an exemption from deportation and a renewable two-year work permit. (DREAMers – Politically correct speak for criminal “illegal immigrants” in year 2016) More than 740,000 people have been approved to receive DACA status, according to Department of Homeland Security statistics. Among the guidelines, the policy states applicants must have come to the United States before they turned 16 years old, must have been in the States since June 15, 2007, and cannot have been convicted of certain crimes. "Those are students, those are also people who want to join the armed forces, they gave their name, their address, their phone number, where they are. ... They are something we should hold up and embrace," Emanuel said after meeting with Trump; his chief of staff, Reince Priebus; and his senior adviser, Steve Bannon. On his website, Trump calls Obama's DACA executive action "illegal and unconstitutional." But in an interview with Time magazine, which named Trump person of the year, he softened his stance [flip-flopping]. "We're going to work something out that's going to make people happy and proud," he said. "They got brought here at a very young age, they've worked here, they've gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they're in never-never land because they don't know what's going to happen." Emanuel, who was Obama's chief of staff from January 2009 to October 2010, said they also discussed how White House operations might run. They also had discussions on infrastructure investments, education programs and Chicago as a sanctuary city, the mayor said.