kscarbel2

I had expected a significant amount of discussion here about these revelations. Clinton has never denied the accuracy of the Wikileaks leaked emails. Actual emails.......how can she? Never before in history have the American people had such shocking and massive "behind the veil" information. And yet, if you believe the elections show is real, roughly half of the country wants to vote for her anyway. That's a discussion in itself.

‘Clinton made FBI look weak, now there is anger’ John Pilger:What's the significance of the FBI's intervention in this last week of the US election campaign in the case against Hillary Clinton? Julian Assange: If you go to the history of the FBI, it has become effectively America's political police. And the FBI demonstrated with taking down the former head of the CIA over classified information given to his mistress [that] almost no one was untouchable. The FBI is always trying to demonstrate that, "No one can resist us." But Hillary Clinton very conspicuously resisted the FBI's investigation. So, there is anger within the FBI because it made the FBI look weak. Well, we have published quite a number of different sets of emails, so, about 33,000 of Clinton's emails while she was Secretary of State. They come from a batch of just over 60,000 emails. In those 60,000 emails, Clinton has kept about half, 30,000, to herself, and we have published about half. And then there are the Podesta emails we've been publishing. Podesta is Hillary Clinton's primary campaign manager. So, there's a thread that runs through all of these emails. There is quite a lot of "pay for play," as they call it – taking… giving access in exchange for money for many individual states, individuals and corporations – combined with the cover-up of Hillary Clinton's emails while she was Secretary of State has led to an environment where the pressure on the FBI increases. ‘Russian government not the source of Clinton leaks’ JP: But the Clinton campaign has said that Russia is behind all of this. It says that Russia has manipulated the campaign and is the source for WikiLeaks and its emails. JA: The Clinton camp has been able to project that kind of neo-McCarthyist hysteria that Russia is responsible for everything. JP:Yeah. JA: Hillary Clinton stated multiple times – falsely – that 17 US intelligence agencies had assessed that Russia was the source of our publications. OK. That's false. We can say that the Russian government is not the source, yes. WikiLeaks has been publishing for 10 years. In that 10 years, we've published 10 million documents. Several thousand individual publications, several thousand different sources. And we have never got it wrong. ‘Saudi Arabia & Qatar funding ISIS and Clinton’ JP:All the emails that give evidence of access for money and how Hillary Clinton herself benefitted from this and how she is benefitting politically are quite extraordinary. I'm thinking of where the Qatari representative was given five minutes with Bill Clinton for a million-dollar check and many other examples. Can you…? JA: …Or $12 million from Morocco. JP:...$12 million from Morocco... yeah. JA: ... for Hillary Clinton to attend. JP:In terms of the foreign policy of the United States, that's where – for me, anyway – where the emails are most revealing, where they show the direct connection Hillary Clinton and the foundation of jihadism, of ISIL in the Middle East. Can you talk something about that? What the… how the emails demonstrate this connection between... those who are meant to be fighting the jihadist ISIL are actually those who have helped create it. JA: There's an early 2014 email from Hillary Clinton, so not so long after she left [her job as] Secretary of State, to her campaign manager John Podesta. That email, it states that ISIL, ISIS is funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar – the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Now, this is a… I actually think this is the most significant email in the whole collection... JP:Mmm. JA: …And perhaps because Saudi and Qatari money is spread all over the place, including into many media institutions, all serious analysts know, even the US government has mentioned or agreed with that some Saudi figures have been supporting ISIS, funding ISIS. But the dodge has always been, that's… what… it's just some rogue princes using their cut of the oil money to do what they like but actually the government disapproves. But that email says that no, it is the governments of Saudi and the government of Qatar that have been funding ISIS. JP:The Saudis, the Qataris, the Moroccans, the Bahrainis – particularly the Saudis and the Qataris giving all this money to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and the State Department is approving massive arms sales, particularly to Saudi Arabia. JA: Under Hillary Clinton, and Clinton emails reveal significant discussion about it, the largest ever arms deal in the world was made with Saudi Arabia – more than $80 billion. In fact, during her tenure as Secretary of State, total arms exports from United States in terms of the dollar value doubled. JP:Doubled. And of course, the consequence of that is that this notorious terrorist jihadist group called ISIL, or ISIS, is created largely with money from the very people who are giving money to the Clinton Foundation. JA: Yes. JP:That's extraordinary. ‘Clinton has been eaten alive by her ambition’ JA: Look. Hillary Clinton is just a person. I actually feel quite sorry for Hillary Clinton as a person because I see someone who is eaten alive by their ambitions, tormented literally to the point where they become sick. You know, they faint as a result of going on and going on with their ambitions. But she represents a whole network of people, and a network of relationships also with particular states. The question is, how does Hillary Clinton fit in this broader network? She's this centralizing cog, so that you've got a lot of different gears in operation from the big banks like Goldman Sachs, and major elements of Wall Street, and intelligence, and people in the State Department, and the Saudis, and so on. She's is the, if you like, the centralizer that interconnects all these different cogs. She's smooth central representation of all that, and all that is more or less what is in power now in the United States. It's what you call the establishment, or the DC consensus, and its influences. In fact, one of the most significant Podesta emails that we released was about how the Obama cabinet was formed – and half the Obama cabinet was basically nominated by a representative from Citibank. It is quite amazing. JP:Well, it is… Didn’t Citibank supply a list? JA: Yes. JP:…Which turned out to be... JA: Which turned out to be... JP:…to be mostly the Obama cabinet. JA: Yes. JP:So, Wall Street decides the cabinet of the president of the United States. JA: If you were following the Obama campaign back then closely, you could see it had become very close to banking interests. It wasn't so close to oil interests but it was very close to banking interests. JP:Yeah. Yeah. JA: So, I think you can't properly understand Hillary Clinton's foreign policy without understanding Saudi Arabia. The connections with Saudi Arabia are so intimate. ‘Libya is Hillary Clinton’s war’ JP:Why was she so demonstrably enthusiastic about the destruction of Libya? Can you talk a little about just what the emails have told us – told you – about what happened there? Because Libya is such a source for so much of the mayhem now in Syria: the ISIL, jihadism, and so on. And it was almost Hillary Clinton's invasion. What do the emails tell us about that? JA: Libya more that anyone else's war was Hillary Clinton's war. Barack Obama initially opposed it. Who was the person who was championing it? Hillary Clinton. That's documented throughout her emails. She had… She put her favored agent in effect, Sidney Blumenthal, onto that. There's more than 1,700 emails out of the 33 thousand of Hillary Clinton's emails we published just about Libya. It's not about that Libya has cheap oil. She perceived the removal of Gaddafi and the overthrow of the Libyan state something that she would use to run in the general election for president. So late 2011, there's an internal document called the "Libya Tick Tock" that is produced for Hillary Clinton, and it's all the... it's a chronological description of how Hillary Clinton was the central figure in the destruction of the Libyan state. As a result, there are around 40,000 deaths within Libya. Jihadists moved in, ISIS moved in. That led to the European refugee and migrant crisis, because not only did you have people fleeing Libya, people then fleeing Syria, destabilization of other African countries as a result of arms flows. The Libyan state itself was no longer able to control movement of people through it. So, Libya faces on to the Mediterranean. So, it had been effectively the cork in the bottle of Africa. So, all problems, all economic problems, the civil war in Africa... Previously, the people fleeing those problems didn’t end up in Europe because Libya policed the Mediterranean. And that was said explicitly at the time, back in 2011, by Gaddafi: what do these Europeans think they are doing, trying to bomb and destroy the Libyan state? There’s going to be floods of migrants out of Africa, and jihadists into Europe. And that is exactly what happened. ‘Trump won’t be permitted to win’ JP:You get a lot of complaints from people saying, “What is WikiLeaks doing, are they trying to put Trump into White House?” JA: My analysis is that Trump would not be permitted to win. Why do I say that? Because he’s had every establishment offside. Trump doesn’t have one establishment – maybe with the exception of the Evangelicals, if you can call them an establishment. But banks, intelligence, arms companies, big foreign money, etc. – it’s all united behind Hillary Clinton. And the media as well: so, media owners and even journalists themselves. JP:The accusations that WikiLeaks is in league with the Russians and you hear people saying, “Well, why doesn’t WikiLeaks investigate and publish emails on Russia?” JA: We have published over 800,000 documents of various kinds that relate to Russia. Most of those are critical. And… a great many books have come out of our publications about Russia, most of which are critical. And our documents have gone on to be used in quite a number of court cases, refugee cases of people fleeing some kinds of claimed political persecution in Russia, which they use our documents to back up. JP:Do you take yourself a view of the US election? Do you have a preference for Clinton or Trump? JA: Donald Trump – what does he represent in the American mind and in the European mind? He represents American “white trash,” deplorable and irredeemable. Basically, the same thing. It means, from a… establishment or educated, cosmopolitan, urbane perspective, these people are, you know, like the rednecks, and you can’t… like, they are just… you can never deal with them. And because he so clearly – through his words and actions and the type of people that turns up at his rallies – represents the people who are not the upper-middle-class-educated, there is a fear of seeming to be associated in any way with that, a social fear that lowers the class status of anyone who can be accused of somehow assisting in any way Trump, including criticizing Clinton. And if you look at how the middle class gains its economic and social power, it makes absolute sense. ‘US attempting to squeeze WikiLeaks through my refugee status’ JP:I’d like to talk about Ecuador, a small country that has given you refuge and has given you asylum in this embassy in London. Now, Ecuador cut off the Internet from here, where we’re doing this interview, in the embassy for the clearly obvious reason that they were concerned about appearing to intervene in the US election campaign. Can you talk about why they would take that action and your own views on Ecuador’s support for you? JA: Let’s go back four years ago. I made an asylum application to Ecuador in this embassy because of the US extradition case. And the result was after a month, I was successful in my application, and then the embassy has been surrounded by the police. Quite an expensive police operation, which the British government admits they’re spending more than 12.6 million pounds – they’ve admitted that over a year ago. And now there’s undercover police and there’s robot surveillance cameras of various kinds. So, there has been a quite serious conflict right here in the heart of London between Ecuador – a country of 16 million people – and the United Kingdom. And the Americans, who’ve been helping on the side. So, that was a brave and principled thing for Ecuador to do. Now we have the US election afoot. The Ecuadorian election is in February next year. You have the White House feeling the political heat as a result of the true information that we have been publishing. WikiLeaks does not publish from the jurisdiction of Ecuador, from its embassy or the territory of Ecuador. We publish from France, we publish from Germany, we publish from the Netherlands and a number of other countries. So, the attempted squeeze on WikiLeaks is through my refugee status. And this is really intolerable: When you try and get at a publishing organization, to try and prevent it publishing true information that is of intense interest to the American people and others about an election. JP:Tell us what would happen if you walked out of this embassy. JA: So, I would be immediately arrested by the British police, and I would then be extradited, either immediately to the United States, or to Sweden. In Sweden, I am not charged, I’ve already been previously cleared, etc. So, we’re not certain exactly what would happen there, but then we know that the Swedish government has refused to say that they will not extradite me to the United States. And they have extradited 100 percent of people that the US has requested since at least 2000. So, over the last 15 years, every single person that the US has tried to extradite from Sweden has been extradited. And they refuse to provide the guarantees. So, it’s… yeah. JP:People often ask how you cope with the isolation here. JA: Look, one of the best attributes of human beings is that they are adaptable. One of the worst attributes of human beings is that they are adaptable. They adapt and start to tolerate abuses. They adapt to being involved themselves in abuses. They adapt to adversity and continue on. So, in my situation… frankly, I’m a bit institutionalized. This is the world – visually, this is the world. JP:It’s a world without sunlight, for one thing… JA: It’s a world without sunlight, but I haven’t seen sunlight in so long like I don’t remember it. So, yeah, you adapt. The one real irritant is that my young children – they also adapt. They adapt to being without their father. That’s a hard adaptation, which they didn’t ask for. JP:Do you worry about them? JA: Yeah, I worry about them, I worry about their mother. ‘I am innocent and in arbitrary detention’ JP:Some people would say, “Well, why don’t you end it and simply walk out the door and allow yourself to be extradited to Sweden?” JA: The UN has looked into this whole situation. They spent 18 months in formal adversarial litigation: me, at the UN, versus Sweden and the UK – who is right? The UN made a conclusion – I’m being arbitrarily detained, illegally, deprived of my freedom. What has been… occurred, has not occurred within the laws that the United Kingdom and Sweden must obey. It is an illegal abuse. I mean, the United Nations formally asking what’s going on here, what’s your legal explanation for this. He says you should be… you should recognize his asylum. Sweden formally writing back to United Nations, says “No, we’re not going to,” leaving open their ability to extradite. I just find it absolutely amazing that the narrative about this situation is not put out publicly and in the press. Because it doesn’t suit the Western establishment narrative that, “Yes, the West has political prisoners.” It’s a reality. It’s not just me, there’s a bunch of other people as well. The West has political prisoners. No state accepts to call the people it is imprisoning or detaining for political reasons “political prisoners.” They don’t call them political prisoners in China, they don’t call them political prisoners in Azerbaijan, and they don’t call them political prisoners in the United States, the UK or Sweden. It’s absolutely intolerable to have that kind of self-perception. But here we have a case. Talking about the Swedish case, where I have never been charged with a crime, where I have already been cleared and found to be innocent, where the woman herself said that the police made it up, where the United Nations formally said the whole thing is illegal, where the state of Ecuador also investigated and found that I should be given asylum. Those are the facts. But what is the rhetoric? JP: Different. JA: The rhetoric is pretending, constantly pretending that I have been charged with a crime, never mentioning that I have been already previously cleared, never mentioning that the woman herself says that the police made it up, trying to avoid that the UN formally found that the whole thing is illegal. Never even mentioning that Ecuador made a formal assessment through its formal processes and found that yes, I am subject to persecution by the United States.

This is the full interview, I very much suspect this is a rare glimpse behind the veil. Take the time to watch it, and we'll discuss afterwards. .

What really happened ? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three U.S. trainers shot dead at Jordan base Reuters / November 4, 2016 Three U.S. military trainers were shot dead in Jordan on Friday when their car [allegedly] failed to stop at the gate of a military base and was fired on by Jordanian security forces, a Jordanian military source said. The incident occurred at the Prince Faisal air base in the south of Jordan, which is a close strategic ally of the United States. Two trainers died immediately and the third later in hospital. [Oddly] A Jordanian army guard was also shot and wounded. "There was an exchange of fire at the entrance to the base after an attempt by the trainers' vehicle to enter the gate without heeding orders of the guards to stop," the military source said. "An investigation is now under way to know exactly what happened." [they already know] Another Jordanian security source said it was not possible to rule out political motives in the incident at an air base, where dozens of U.S. trainers work alongside Jordanians. A third Jordanian source who requested anonymity said authorities were examining reports of friction among the U.S. trainers and Jordanian army officers that might offer clues helping to explain the shooting. He did not elaborate. The base where the incident occurred is in the heart of the traditional Bedouin region of Jordanwhere radical Sunni Muslim influence has grown over the last decade. Several incidents over the past year have jolted the Arab kingdom, which has been relatively unscathed by the uprisings, civil wars and Islamist militancy that have swept the Middle East since 2011. In November 2015, a Jordanian army officer shot dead two U.S. government security contractors and a South African at a U.S.-funded police training facility near Amman before being gunned down. The incident embarrassed Jordanian authorities, who did not publicly disclose the motive of the assassin. The gunman was later said by security sources to have been a sympathizer of ISIS with strong anti-Western feelings. "What is worrying is that if this (Friday's shooting) turns out to be deliberate, it would be much more damaging than if this was a suicide or terror attack on a base because it was perpetrated by someone within the Jordanian military," another security source said on condition of anonymity. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity [why???], said they were reviewing the incident and could not rule out the possibility of a deliberate attack. Many ordinary Jordanians harbor strong anti-American sentiment over Washington's strong support for Israel and its military interventions in the Middle East. Jordan is among a few Arab states that have taken part in a U.S.-led air campaign against Islamic State (IS) militants holding territory in Syria. But many Jordanians oppose their country's involvement, saying it has caused violent deaths of fellow Muslims and raised security threats inside Jordan. U.S. officials worry about radical Islam's growing profile in Jordan and support in impoverished areas for militant groups. Six Jordanian border guards were killed in June by an IS suicide bomber who drove a car at speed across the border from Syria and rammed it into a U.S.-funded military post. Jordan hosts several hundred U.S. contractors in a military cooperation program which includes the stationing of U.S. F-16 fighter jets that use Jordanian airfields to hit Islamic State positions in neighboring Syria. Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Washington has spent millions of [taxpayer] dollars to help Jordan set up an elaborate surveillance system known as the Border Security Programme to stem infiltration by militants from Syria and Iraq. U.S. officials say that aid to Jordan, one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign military assistance, is expected to rise to [an acknowledged] $800 million in 2016 and grow in future years.

$850................my gosh. Doesn't Volvo have a high opinion of legacy Mack parts. That's over four times what it used to sell for. And they want to be your partner in trucking...........hard to figure.

U.S. warns about possible al Qaeda attacks in Virginia, Texas, New York Reuters / November 4, 2016 U.S. intelligence officials are warning local authorities in New York, Texas and Virginia about possible attacks by al Qaeda on Monday, a day before the U.S. presidential election. No specific locations were mentioned, but U.S. intelligence officials alerted joint terrorism task forces about the possible threat.

"If" I remember correctly, there's a Mack service bulletin about that. Have you contacted Watt's Mack? (1-888-304-6225)

In a 2014 email made public by Assange’s WikiLeaks last month, Hillary Clinton, who had served as secretary of state until the year before, urges John Podesta, then an advisor to Barack Obama, to “bring pressure” on Qatar and Saudi Arabia, “which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL [Islamic State, IS, ISIS] and other radical Sunni groups.” “I think this is the most significant email in the whole collection,” Assange, whose whistleblowing site Wikileaks released three tranches of Clinton-related emails over the past year, told Pilger in an exclusive interview, courtesy of Dartmouth Films. “All serious analysts know, and even the US government has agreed, that some Saudi figures have been supporting ISIS and funding ISIS, but the dodge has always been that it is some “rogue” princes using their oil money to do whatever they like, but actually the government disapproves. But that email says that it is the government of Saudi Arabia, and the government of Qatar that have been funding ISIS.” Assange and Pilger, who sat down for their 25-minute interview at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where the whistleblower has been a refugee since 2012, then talk about the conflict of interest between Clinton’s official post, which held throughout Obama’s first term, her husband’s nonprofit, and the Middle East officials, whose stated desire to fight terrorism may not have been sincere John Pilger: The Saudis, the Qataris, the Moroccans, the Bahrainis, particularly the first two, are giving all this money to the Clinton Foundation, while Hillary Clinton is secretary of state, and the State Department is approving massive arms sales, particularly Saudi Arabia. Julian Assange: Under Hillary Clinton – and the Clinton emails reveal a significant discussion of it – the biggest-ever arms deal in the world was made with Saudi Arabia: more than $80 billion. During her tenure, the total arms exports from the US doubled in dollar value. John Pilger: Of course, the consequence of that is that this notorious jihadist group, called ISIL or ISIS, is created largely with money from people who are giving money to the Clinton Foundation? Julian Assange: Yes. . . .

VW says defeat device conforms with European law Reuters / November 4, 2016 Volkswagen Group says the software allowing its diesel vehicles to evade emissions rules does not violate European law, as the automaker aims to toughen its legal defenses in view of a possible rise in compensation claims in its home region. The European Commission (EC) has been raising the pressure on VW to compensate owners of rigged cars in Europe, where the majority of affected vehicles are registered. VW has rejected such calls but is offering cash payouts to drivers in the U.S. where it admitted to manipulating diesel emissions tests more than a year ago. Last month, a Spanish court for the first time ruled in favor of a VW customer and imposed a fine on VW's local units, leading Spanish consumer lobbies to urge other people with affected cars to join a class-action lawsuit against VW. After fending off suggestions that it may have breached European consumer rules in connection with the scandal, VW says the very technology which led it to incur up to $16.5 billion in U.S. settlement costs is compliant with European rules. "The software contained in vehicles with a EA-189 engine in the view of Volkswagen represents no unlawful defeat device under European law," VW said on Thursday. "The efficiency of the emissions cleanup system will not be reduced in those vehicles which however would be a prerequisite for the existence of an unlawful defeat device in the legal sense." Although VW believes the software complies with European law, it will continue to follow the order of Germany's KBA motor vehicle authority and refit the affected cars for reasons of goodwill. "Volkswagen wants to - in the special interest of customers - cooperate constructively and cooperatively hand in hand with the regulators as well as with the Federal Motor Vehicle Authority," VW said. "This intensive cooperation should not be burdened by a contentious dispute." Separately, VW denied views held by Germany's Federal Environmental Agency and other health lobbies that nitrogen oxides are harmful to human health and the environment. "A reliable determination of morbidity or even fatalities for certain demographic groups based on our level of knowledge is not possible from a scientific point of view," VW said.

Isuzu Australia Press Release / November 3, 2016 .

Australasian Transport News (ATN) / November 4, 2016 Current focus of point-to-point cameras in NSW called into question by trucking body The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has urged the New South Wales government to extend the use of point-to-point speed cameras to all on the road. Currently only targeting heavy duty operators, the point-to-point camera monitoring program in the state isn’t being used to improve safety as effectively as it could be, the industry body insists. "The principal aim of installing point-to-point speed cameras is to improve road safety for all, yet NSW remains the only state that does not apply this technology on cars as well as trucks," ATA chair Noelene Watson says. "The current system only targets drivers of heavy vehicles when the bulk of the traffic in NSW comes from drivers of cars." Appealing to the NSW premier Mike Baird in writing ahead of a gathering of transport ministers in Perth today, where road safety is high on the agenda, Watson says with accidents often caused by those not driving the heavy vehicle, an overall road toll decrease could be found with an even playing field. "Independent research and statistical evidence shows more than eighty percent of fatal multi-vehicle crashes that involve heavy vehicles, are the fault of the other driver," she adds. "The ATA believes the most effective implementation for this technology would be to expand the point-to-point speed checking program to target every motorist for not complying with the posted speed limits. "Applying the point-to-point speed checks to all motor vehicles could potentially lift road safety for vulnerable road users such as motor cyclists, pedestrians and cyclists too." Should the role of point-to-point speed cameras be to save lives rather than raise revenue, Watson believes "the general public will accept the extension of this technology". .

Prime Mover Magazine / November 3, 2016 Australian truck industry icon, Lindsay Fox, has reportedly urged Australia’s political leaders to take greater risks and adopt a science-based approach to alleviating road congestion. According to The Australian, the Linfox founder recently likened Australia’s road systems to a critically ill patient in need of emergency surgery. “Having just watched the Hollywood adaptation of Moneyball – the story of a cash-strapped Major League Baseball manager who uses business ­analytics to squeeze more wins out of unfashionable players – Mr Fox called on both sides of politics to take a similarly radical approach towards improving traffic flow on our roads,” reported The Australian’s Chip Le Grand. “Over the past 20 years we haven’t had a politician who was prepared to have a go,” Fox told Le Grand. “They are totally risk-averse and because of that it is easier for them to stay doing what they are doing. If I had stayed with my first truck I’d still be driving it instead of employing 36,000 people.’’ According to The Australian, Fox said just as Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane made radical use of available data on baseball to shape a winning line-up, governments needed to make better use of information and technology to get the best return from city roads. “City infrastructure hasn’t changed with the exception of more people and congestion,” the told the newspaper. “As long as you eat and as long as you drink and as long as you drive you have got to have trucks to move it all. Instead of roads being used as roads they are being used as bicycle paths, tram stops and car parks. It can’t go on.”

Transport Engineer / November 3, 2016 London-based construction services firm Walsh has taken delivery of the its first Volvo tipper trucks, part of an order for 40 410bhp FMX 8x4s bodied with Fruehauf Load-Lites, from MC Truck & Bus, Thurrock. Value for money, robustness, total cost of ownership, safety and on-site R&M (repair and maintenance) were key reasons for choosing these 32-tonne gvw trucks, according to Walsh director Tim Wheeler. “We are FORS Gold accredited and CLOCS champions,” states Wheeler, explaining that all these FMX tippers have been specified with Brigade five-camera systems, as well as low-level nearside windows, side scan kits and audible left turn alerts. “We take safety extremely seriously and these new Volvo tippers represent another advance in safe operation, with their superb all-round visibility that’s only enhanced by the innovative mirror system.” As for total cost of ownership, Wheeler says the organisation is planning to growing its fleet to 200 trucks while also adding new operating centres to support HS2, Crossrail 2, the Thames Tideway Tunnel. “With any investment we always conduct a total cost of ownership analysis and in this case, if you consider the whole life of the truck, Volvo stands out as offering best value.” And he adds that the Load-Lite bodies with Hyva tipping gear are also part of that calculation. “With these particular bodies we’ve worked [with Fruehauf] in their development, altering the wheel arches to give clearance when tipping and upgrading the side lights to make them more resilient to the rigours of the job,” explains Wheeler. “We have also had twist locks fitted to the tailgates for those occasions that we carry particularly loose material. Thanks to the Hardox steel, we’ve found some 500kg weight saving, without any loss of integrity or strength.” As for R&M support, Wheeler says that Volvo dealer MC Truck & Bus was the only organisation contacted that showed enthusiasm for providing R&M at Walsh’s purpose-built five-acre facility in Rainham, Essex. “MC Truck & Bus showed itself to be very forward thinking and open to our ideas: this proactive approach will enable us to meet our business goals while giving us confidence in terms of compliance. “It also has benefits in terms of driver hours as our headquarters will, in effect, also be our dealer workshop, so no time or resource will be required to travel to or from Thurrock.” .

RHA calls for patience over Cartel compensation Commercial Motor / November 3, 2016 The Road Haulage Association (RHA) said operators should not expect immediate results from its pursuit of compensation from truck manufacturers that acted as a cartel and co-ordinated factory prices between 1997 and 2011. Giving details for the first time about the nature of the action, the RHA said it has applied to act on behalf of UK hauliers as a representative bringing collective proceedings to the Competition Appeal Tribunal under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Speaking exclusively to Commercialmotor.com, RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said that since the European Commission (EC) had issued a €2.9bn (£2.61bn) fine it had been “exploring and understanding more about the approach we needed to take as an association” in regards to seeking compensation, and it was only now that it was ready to discuss the matter further. Burnett said: “It will be a long, drawn-out process and it’s fair to say that hauliers are not going to get an immediate pay-out; or indeed that there will be a guarantee of any pay-out at all. However, it would appear that based on the high-level evidence received that the prospects for compensation look encouraging. “We understand there is an enormous amount of detail behind this and working through this detail will take 
the largest amount of time.” He said it could be in excess of two years before operators saw any form of compensation, depending on how the case progressed through the Competition Appeal Tribunal, settlement discussions or a trial. The RHA is seeking legal counsel from competition law experts Exchange Chambers. Barrister David Went told 
Commercialmotor.com that it would appoint an economist who was a specialist in competition law to see how co-ordinating on gross list prices has filtered down to hauliers via dealers. “We need to understand that and see what harm has been suffered. That is vital,” he said. On 19 July the EC issued a record €2.9bn fine to five major truck manufacturers after it was found that they co-ordinated truck pricing and colluded on passing on the costs of compliance with emissions rules in the late 1990s and early 2000s. MAN, Volvo Group (comprising Volvo Trucks and Renault Trucks), Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler, Iveco and Daf were all found to have broken EU competition rules. MAN avoided a fine, having alerted the EC to the cartel. Daf, Daimler, Iveco and Volvo Group all received reductions in fines for co-operating with the investigation. Scania remains under investigation.

Scania is a high successful bus manufacturer. And that success........has Mack roots.

Scania Group / November 3, 2016 Scania continues to reinforce its position in the Indonesian bus market. Transjakarta has now placed an order for 150 low-entry city buses in addition to the previously ordered 110 3-axle Scania buses that will be delivered later this year. The public transport operator in the Indonesian capital already has 108 articulated Euro 6 Scania gas buses in its network. The Transjakarta Bus Rapid Transport system is considered to be the world’s longest busway, serving more than 10 million passengers monthly. The forthcoming delivery of low-entry buses will replace the existing, highly polluting, old buses that operate outside the busway corridors. The new Scania buses, delivered by United Tractors and bodybuilt by Laksana, will feature wheelchair ramps. On announcing the order, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama particularly highlighted the greater accessibility and said, “this is the world-class bus we expect to have. Jakarta has never before had low-entry buses.” Scania, through its Indonesian partner United Tractors, has established the bus depot workshop facilities and parts supply systems in Jakarta needed to uphold an uptime of over 90 percent. United Tractors is the leading and the largest distributor of heavy equipment in Indonesia, providing products from world-renowned brands, including Scania. The partnership between United Tractors and Scania was established in 2004, initially focusing on heavy-duty trucks for the Indonesian mining industry. Scania is major supplier of buses for BRT systems throughout the world. “We are convinced that bus systems offer the quickest and most cost-effective solution for cities to increase urban mobility and alleviate traffic congestion,” says Karin Rådström, Head of Buses and Coaches. “The Jakarta BRT system serves as a model for many growing cities.” .

DAF Trucks / November 3, 2016 DAF in 2016 celebrates 50 years of truck production in Belgium. This is an impression of the festive family day for the DAF employees in Westerlo. .

Ron, the fleets used to like ASF, Holland and Simplex, and Fontaine sold a lot of wheels to everyone else. But the best 5th wheel ever made was, and still is, the Jost. Believe me.

Three states suspend hours of service regulations for gas haulers Overdrive / November 3, 2016 Governors in two other states have issued executive orders to suspend hours of service regulations for gas haulers. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed the order Nov. 1 to suspend the regulations for 14 days through midnight on Nov. 15 for drivers hauling gas into the state. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed an executive order to extend the state of emergency he issued during Hurricane Matthew. “The Colonial Pipeline disruption is a transportation challenge, not a production challenge,” McCrory said in a news release. “With my executive order, we are waiving certain state requirements to facilitate truck transport of gasoline and to protect consumers from price gouging.” Colonial Pipeline hasn’t said when gas will begin flowing through the ruptured line again, but initially said it could be down for up to a week. In the wake of the September spill that disrupted the Colonial line to the East Coast, Illinois-based fuel hauler Dave Marti (pictured), whose small fleet runs leased to Transport Service Inc., noted the pipeline disruption presented opportunities for tank haulers but that, in his case, getting away from primary work on short notice just wasn’t possible then given the farming community his trucks serve. “We just can’t get away,” he said in September. With harvests slowed significantly since then, opportunities might arise for haulers within the relative orbit of the explosion. Original story follows: Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley issued Tuesday an emergency declaration following an Oct. 31 explosion of a gasoline pipeline in Helena, Alabama, effectively relaxing hours-of-service regulations for gasoline haulers operating in the state. The pipeline that exploded is part of the same Colonial Pipeline that leaked in September that caused gas shortages in several states along the East Coast. The pipeline runs from Texas to New York and New Jersey. Several states issued emergency declarations as a result of that leak. Bentley’s State of Emergency declaration suspends hours regulations for any drivers or carriers providing aid through pipeline repair or fuel transportation for 30 days through Dec. 1, unless the order is canceled sooner. Colonial Pipeline representatives said the gasoline pipeline, Line 1, will likely remain shut down the rest of this week. Line 2, which transports diesel, jet fuel and other distillates, was restarted late Oct. 31 and is expected to remain in operation. Colonial says the incident occurred at approximately 3 p.m. local time Oct. 31, when a crew working on a permanent fix for the gasoline pipeline struck the pipeline with a trackhoe, sparking a fire and explosion that killed one worker and injured four others. The fire has since been contained.

Capitol Tree Is Cut, Loaded Onto Kenworth T680 for 4,000-Mile Journey Transport Topics / November 3, 2016 An 80-foot Englemann Spruce tree, chosen for its perfectly cylindrical shape, was loaded onto a Kenworth T680 truck Nov. 2 to begin its 4,000-mile journey to Washington, D.C., where it will serve as the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. The tree was harvested from the Payette National Forest in Idaho and is being driven across the country, with stops in 27 communities, by Gary Amoth, owner of Twin Falls, Idaho-based Gary Amoth Trucking. The Kenworth T680 features a 76-inch sleeper, 485-horsepower Paccar MX-13 engine and an Eaton Fuller Advantage 10-speed automated transmission. The tree is scheduled to arrive at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Nov. 27, and the lighting is expected to occur in early December. SkyBitz provides an interactive map that traces the tree’s journey; go to trackthetree.com. .

Early Class 8 Order Numbers Flat for the Month Heavy Duty Trucking / November 3, 2016 Class 8 truck orders are projected to be essentially flat in October when compared to September, according to preliminary numbers from analysts. Market analyst FTR is projecting net orders of 13,800 units for the month, similar to Sept. but subdued in what is usually a stronger order month. The reported net order number was negatively impacted by a significant cleanup of long-term excess orders by on OEM. With the backlog factored in, net orders would have been closer to 21,300 units. That would have made for the best monthly order activity since Dec. 2015. “The adjusted number of 21,300 was fueled by the big fleets placing their requirement orders for the first half of 2017,” said one analyst. “This indicates the freight markets are stabilizing and the fleets are confident enough to replace older trucks.” Medium-duty Class 5-7 are projected to be 18,400 units for the month, down 10% from Sept. and 18% compared to Oct. 2015. “That result was somewhat below our expectations, though not drastically out of line with our expectation that Class 5-7 production will be down slightly in 2017,” said another analyst.

Transport Topics / November 3, 2016 Orders for Class 8 trucks in October reached 13,900, according to analyst’s initial findings, which will be revised if necessary later in the month. The volume reflects a familiar a story — lingering overcapacity from too many Class 8 tractors being purchased relative to freight availability last year and into early 2016. One analyst called the orders weak. “Considering that October is a month when big fleets start placing orders, the number is very disappointing. To put that in perspective, the 13,900 order number compares to expectations that were in the 18,000 range,” Credit Suisse analyst Jamie Cook wrote in a note to investors. October's total was down from 19,500 in the same month last year and flat with September's 13,880 total. The research company FTR pegged preliminary Class 8 net orders for October at 13,800 units. The number for the month was negatively impacted by a significant cleanup of long-term, excess, orders by one OEM, it said. With this backlog adjustment factored out, FTR said net orders would have been closer to approximately 21,300 units, much above industry expectations and would have been the best monthly order activity since December 2015.

Nikola to Officially Unveil Hybrid-Electric Truck on Dec. 1 Heavy Duty Trucking / November 3, 2016 Upstart commercial vehicle maker Nikola Motor Company is on track to unveil its flagship product, the Nikola One electric Class 8 truck, at a launch event on Dec. 1st. In addition to the Nikola One, the company will also reveal its plans for its network of hydrogen fueling stations in the U.S. to support its hybrid-electric truck. “Over 300 planned stations are going to be announced at the Dec. 1 event,” said Trevor Milton, Nikola’s CEO. “Nikola will have the largest hydrogen network in the world. We are proud to be on the forefront of this clean energy revolution.” The Nikola One is a hydrogen-powered electric vehicle that is projected to have a range of 800 to 1,200 miles between fillups with an effective fuel economy of 15-20 mpg under full load. The vehicle will also produce zero emissions, according to Nikola, surpassing the government’s standards including the EPA’s new Phase 2 greenhouse gas standards. By using hydrogen to power its electric motor and batteries, the Nikola One can hoffer an extended range over a traditional plug-in electric vehicle while generating fewer emissions than a comparable diesel or alternative fueled hybrid, per the company. “Nikola will begin selling hydrogen to non-Nikola customers for around $3.50 per kg, nearly half the current market price,” said Milton. “We believe that hydrogen power generation is a better deal per mile than plugging in for electricity.” In a move that mirrors Tesla Motors, the company has been taking reservations for the unreleased Nikola One truck, which the company says has totaled nearly $3 billion in the first 30 days of availability. .