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‘Parts Issue’ Slowed Launch of Ford’s F-Series Super Duty Truck The Wall Street Journal / October 13, 2016 Louisville factory union official tells workers it will be ‘impossible’ to build all of the lost units in third quarter Ford Motor Co. ’s shipments of its newest heavy pickups known as the F-Series Super Duty were hurt in late summer because of unspecified “parts issues,” a union official said, signaling a potential drag on the auto makers’ third-quarter earnings. Rodney Janes, the United Auto Workers union chairman at Ford’s Louisville, Ky., truck factory, said while the issues are being ironed out, it would be “impossible to build all the lost units” from this past quarter. The shortfall could mean overtime work for assemblers as the company races to meet demand for the redesigned truck, among the industry’s most profitable products. In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Janes said the production efforts now are “fabulous” and are ahead of plan. “There’s always a possibility of parts issues,” he said. “When launching a new truck, you don’t come out of the gate going 1,000 miles per hour. If there is a problem, you stop right there.” Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker declined to comment on the component problem, but said “we continue ramping up production on the all-new Super Duty. We are working closely with our suppliers to meet customer demand for the truck, which has been outstanding.” Company executives earlier this year said Ford was counting on the rollout of the Super Duty truck to lift earnings in the back half of the year, but in July warned higher costs associated with the launch could hurt its prospects of meeting 2016 guidance. In a note to union members, the UAW’s Mr. Janes said parts issues have led to shortened workweeks and canceled weekends of planned overtime at the plant. The UAW and the company haven’t disclosed what parts were involved in the production delays. “The launch has created situations that are way out of the norm for [the Kentucky truck plant],” the official wrote in the union newsletter, noting that because of the downtime many employees will be working “excessive overtime” for up to a year from the launch date. Ford made waves when it re-engineered its F-Series trucks with fuel-efficient aluminum body panels instead of steel. It introduced a redesigned version of the lighter-duty F-150 in late 2014 and then moved to its heavier Super Duty version last month. The Super Duty is priced starting at $32,500 and rising to nearly $80,000. The truck has been a strong contributor to Ford’s earnings in recent years because tooling costs of the older model were written off long ago. Auto makers book revenue on wholesale shipments, not sales on dealer lots. Major hiccups in production schedules can have an impact on quarterly profits. Ford is expected to report results for its third quarter on Oct. 27. Last year, as Ford was ramping up production of its new F-150, the company also struggled with parts problems that forced it to cancel planned overtime and halt the assembly line during regular shifts. That left dealers short on pickups and ultimately dented profit and market share during 2015.

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US modifies plans to crack down on inversions The Financial Times / October 13, 2016 The Obama administration has revised a proposed crackdown on US companies moving overseas to cut their tax bills in an effort to stop other businesses from suffering collateral damage. Jack Lew, the US Treasury secretary, announced on Thursday that he was modifying the plans designed to deter deals known as inversions, which scuppered Pfizer’s $160bn takeover of Allergan when they were unveiled in April. The administration had been struggling to stop US companies merging with smaller foreign rivals to shift their domicile to low-tax jurisdictions — often in Europe — and therefore reduce their American tax bills. The aggressive measures announced in April triggered an outcry from businesses that had nothing to do with inversions and which complained that their ability to manage their finances via internal loans would be impaired. Mr Lew told reporters on Thursday that the Treasury had been told by companies that its proposals “could unduly constrain ordinary business practices”. “After carefully considering this feedback, we have addressed stakeholder concerns by more narrowly focusing the final regulations on aggressive tax avoidance tactics and providing certain limited exemptions,” he said. At issue is the way companies lend money between their subsidiaries using what are known as intra-company loans or related-party debt. The Treasury wanted to make inversions less profitable by stopping companies from making loans from foreign subsidiaries to the US and deducting the interest payments from their US tax bills, a practice known as earnings stripping. But American businesses and foreign companies with US subsidiaries said the proposed rules — which restricted the types of financial instruments that could be classified as debt — would interfere with their day-to-day financial management. One corporate lobbyist recently told the Financial Times that some companies feared that their subsidiaries in emerging markets would have to resort to borrowing from local banks because access to intra-company loans would be cut off. There were signs that corporate America was not entirely happy with the Treasury’s revisions on Thursday. The American Chemistry Council, which represents chemical companies, said: “We are deeply concerned by [the] rushed review of Treasury’s debt-equity regulations. The proposed rules touched many segments of the American economy, and we are disappointed that the administration moved too quickly to conduct a meaningful review of the rules’ impacts.” The Treasury’s revisions include exempting from its crackdown the “cash pools” that companies use to manage cash. It is also exempting transactions where it deems the risk of earnings stripping is low and transactions between banks that use related-party loans in their roles as financial intermediaries. Kevin Brady, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, which oversees tax issues, said: “It appears that the Obama administration has ignored the real concerns of people who will be most impacted by these far-reaching rules.”

U.S. targets corporate tax-reduction strategy with new regulation Reuters / October 13, 2016 The Obama administration, in its latest bid to prevent American companies from minimizing U.S. taxes by rebasing abroad, issued final rules on Thursday to combat a key tax-reduction technique known as earnings stripping. Six months after proposing the regulations, the U.S. Treasury made good on its pledge to move swiftly against corporate tax inversions by rolling out the new final rule, despite opposition from business groups and from Republicans in Congress who demanded a delay only last week. "For years, this administration consistently has called for comprehensive business tax reform to fix our broken tax system," Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told reporters. "In the absence of congressional action, however, it is Treasury’s responsibility to use our authority to protect the tax base." Business lobbyists said the rules would likely be challenged in court. Tax inversions occur when a U.S. company is acquired by a smaller foreign business from a low-tax country and adopts its domicile to reduce the combined firm's overall U.S. tax burden. Inversions have occurred since the 1980s, but a new wave in recent years prompted the Treasury to take a series of actions including Thursday's final regulations, which were unveiled in April as part of a package that led to the collapse of a $160 billion merger deal between U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc and Ireland's Allergan Plc. Treasury also imposed a temporary rule in April to prevent foreign companies from engaging in serial inversions. That is expected to be finalized later this year. Earnings stripping occurs when the U.S. subsidiary of a newly inverted company avoids taxes on domestic operations by sending them overseas as tax-deductable interest payments. The newly finalized regulations would reclassify some forms of debt as equity, changing tax-exempt interest payments into dividends that are taxed. Business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have warned that the regulations could harm the cash management operations of U.S.-based multinationals and pose damaging unintended consequences for a range of businesses by creating mountains of red tape. But Treasury officials said the final rules addressed those concerns by granting exemptions for regulated financial and insurance firms, cash pooling, short-term debt, transactions between the foreign units of U.S. companies, stock acquisitions for employee compensation plans and other operations. The regulation also relaxed requirements for companies to document intercompany loans and delayed the documentation deadline for a year to Jan. 1, 2018.

Because it's an SX, I assumed it was built as a tipper, and then had the wheelbase shortened and a tractor package added for the Desert Storm requirement. At any rate, you own a real piece of history, and Mack history at that.

We only know what the media tells us.........we have no way to personally confirm it. Based on what we're told, neither of these individuals should be allowed to head the country. That the elections are weeks away and Americans have no qualified candidate to choose from, is damning of our system of government. The candidates behind doors number one and two are indescribably bad, and there is no door number three. In effect, for America's most important office, at a time when the world is in an extremely dangerous state, there's nobody to vote for. I can't describe how concerned I am. The average American has no idea how fractured the world is right now. And the world order is changing. Successfully maintaining our position in the new world order is of the utmost importance. It requires a professional, qualified and experienced individual. Frankly speaking, the elections must be delayed, and new nominees selected. Like anything in life, you don't make a decision until you have the right options before you.

It takes a smart individual to do parts right. But in today's world, smart people don't want to work in a heavy truck dealer's parts department. It's become a serious problem in the US market, as most of the old school career parts people have now retired. Call Watts Mack (1-888-304-6225) and identify yourself as a BMT member. They know how to look up your truck with the model and serial number of your truck's vehicle identification plate (RD822SX-1100), and will give you as fair a price as Volvo's pricing schedule permits. Whether your truck was built specifically for Operation Desert Storm, or repurchased from one of the dealers to meet the deployment deadline, it's in the Mack parts system. FYI for new readers: http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/42258-rd822sx/ http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/34637-mack-people-and-trucks-tackle-the-eye-of-a-‘storm’/

The first half of this quote is real, the second half is fake. "She will say anything and change nothing" is a quote from a campaign ad that was endorsed by President Obama and so even though he didn't say it himself, his endorsement of the ad carries with it that these are effectively his words. However, the second half of the quote is fake. The words "Hillary can't be trusted and isn't qualified to be President" do not appear in the campaign ad with the first half of the sentence and cannot be found in any other statements from Barack Obama at any time from 2008 until now. .

Thank you. I didn't realize they had launched a gasoline version of the 8.8-liter.

The 4x2 FTR has a GVW of 25,950lb, not 50,000lb. The 215hp/520lb/ft 4HK1-TC will be fine, much like the 5.1-liter Detroit DD5 (Mercedes-Benz OM934). Remember, the MIDR 06.02.12 engine in the MS200P and MS250P Mid-Liners was rated at 175hp/395 lb/ft horsepower (165hp/385 lb/ft in California) and it was a spirited performer. I question whether GM's small block 6.0-liter LQ4 gasoline engine would be appropriate for the 4x2 FTR. Ford has a monopoly on such an engine, the 6.8-liter V-10. But even though we think volumes are strong for gasoline F-650s, Ford's accountants think V-10 production numbers are impractically small (spoiled by light vehicle engine volumes). Chevrolet sold the big block to PSI (http://www.psiengines.com/) who now offers it as an 8.8-liter for natural gas or propane. With the upcoming tandem, if it's a standard duty FV-Series, it'll have a 7.79-liter 296 horsepower 6HK1-DCS. If the tandem is a heavy-duty FX-Series for vocational applications, it'll have a 9.84-liter 345 horsepower 6UZ1-TCN. I'm guessing that GM doesn't see a large medium-duty COE market, even though COE is superior to a conventional cab, particularly in medium duty applications. They see Paccar isn't selling a lot of US market DAF LFs, and they have the all-new Navistar-built conventional cab medium duties coming on line in 2018. It's easy for GM since production will be at Navistar's Springfield, Ohio plant. All GM has to do is sell them, which they will. Of course if the US medium-duty market trend ever shifts to COE, GM could sign an additional deal with Isuzu overnight. Funny you ask if Chevrolet commercial truck dealers will get a rebadged version of the medium-duty Isuzu FTR. As a result of the new cooperation with VW Group, Navistar has had preliminary talks with VW Brazil on bringing medium-duty versions of the COE Constellation to the US market (https://www.man-la.com/produtos-volkswagen/modelos/constellation-7/chassi-rigido-7). Terrific truck. Paccar of course sold the "Worker" in the US years ago, but the company and its dealers were clueless on selling medium-duty, where as Mack dealers sold thousands and thousands of Mid-Liners to the point that it became the number one selling medium-duty COE in America. Ryder and Penske loved them.

MAN is very good at chassis packaging, as can be seen on this 4x2 tractor. Again, note an integral AdBlue (DEF) tank. .

While I don't care for the chosen color scheme of the Australian Penske promotional trucks above, the D38-powered TGX is cutting edge truck. All the TGXs at the IAA show were normal colors. I took a day off to take a few pictures for BMT. Note the integral AdBlue (aka. DEF, AUS-32, ARLA 32) tank, and proper drive axle fenders. .

MAN brings 15-litre TGX D38 to Australia Big Rigs / October 13, 2016 MAN Trucks released its new 15-litre TGX D38 in Brisbane on Tuesday, where Penske Corporation chairman Roger Penske introduced the flagship truck and discussed the brand's future aspirations within the Australian market. The TGX model is positioned at Australia's B-double segment, and MAN spent 18 months down under developing the all-new truck to suit the unique operating conditions we face. The D38 features a new powertrain designed for the most demanding transport tasks, and its 15.2-litre six-cylinder inline engine produces 560HP and 2,700Nm, achieving maximum torque from a low 930 rpm. This engine will lug and thanks to its broad torque spread works well with a B-double combination as tested at the launch day. MAN has managed to make the D38 one of the lightest engines in its class, coming in at 160kg less than its V8 predecessor, in part thanks to an aluminium flywheel housing, compacted graphite iron engine block and cylinder head, and a plastic sump and rocker cover. Despite the high output of this new engine, operators can take advantage of oil drain intervals of up to 70,000 kilometres in heavy B-double applications and up to 100,000 kilometres in single trailer set-ups. MAN has also developed a "Top Down" system that pumps coolant from engine top to bottom, minimising cylinder head stress while protecting the injectors and exhaust valves, which adds to the longevity of this powertrain. The 12-speed Traxion Transmission AMT gearbox comes standard in the TGX D38 and features three new fuel saving modes and GPS-controlled cruise control as part of the MAN EfficientCruise system. While test drives on the launch day were fairly short, the gearbox did a fantastic job of taking a loaded B-double combination up and down hills without any noticeable lag in shifting, and it always seemed to be smack bang in the torque band. One feature that works a treat alongside the intuitive gearbox and torquey engine, is the Brake Matic system - which will brake for you and hold a set speed with just a touch of the brake pedal to initiate it. The interior was another highlight, featuring high-quality finish and a complete array of driver-facing controls and steering wheel controls to do most of what you'll need to on the fly. MAN Truck and Bus Australia general manager Mark Mello spoke about the D38's long distance focus at the launch event. "Given our reliance on truck transportation in Australia and the distances between cities, efficiency and productivity are the key factors that dictate business success today,” Mr Mello said. "The MAN TGX D38 strikes an excellent balance of capacity and cost efficiency, and is built specifically for customers who transport high-gross combination weights. "We believe these qualities stand operators requiring B-double and heavy-duty applications in Australia in good stead.” Mr Mello says MAN expects strong sales year-on-year for the D38 and expects to see a good number hit the road in 2017. "We're looking at the D38 providing us a segment of the market we've not had before, we're also realists, we understand that we're now providing a product to customers they haven't necessarily tried or had in their fleets before. "I have an expectation we'll get 80 or 100 of these things into the traffic, and we would expect this will continue year-on-year. "We'll certainly start to take a decent chunk of that market space.” Penske chairman Roger Penske reiterated these comments, saying the D38 offers customers a real competitive edge. "The MAN D38 has been engineered for local customers, and with their needs of economy at the fore,” Mr Penske said. "I believe that the MAN D38 package from Penske Commercial Vehicles will quickly become an attractive and viable business option, giving our customers the edge they need." Mr Penkse also spoke in detail about a shift in focus for MAN, in particular a greater emphasis on dealer commitment which makes the new flagship even more enticing. "We've got to be sure that we've got the best dealers and where we can, we can't wait, we don't have five years to wait. "We've got to do it ourselves and we're willing to invest that capital immediately. "I think that what we want to do as a next step would be to have more company-owned locations so we have more consistency from the standpoint of customer expectations and customer service.” The MAN TGX D38 is now available through Penske Commercial Vehicles, and its authorised dealer network. .

MAN on a mission: Roger Penske Launches 15-litre D38 Engine Trade Trucks AU / October 13, 2016 In his first address to the Australian truck media since taking control of Western Star, MAN and Dennis Eagle operations in Australia and New Zealand more than three years ago, business and motor racing mogul Roger Penske has confirmed MAN’s critical part in the future plans of Penske Commercial Vehicles. Speaking this week during the launch of MAN’s new TGX D38 flagship model powered by the 15.2-litre D38 engine at Brisbane’s Mt Cotton Training Centre, Roger Penske said, "We expect MAN to be a powerful business for us." Asked if MAN’s inconsistent history in the Australian market was a negative for the brand, Penske said simply, "I’m not looking back, I’m looking forward. "We wanted this (D38) model 18 months ago but two years from now we expect it to be successful. "There is a trend to this type of truck," he emphasised, adding that brands such as MAN with a fully integrated engine, automated transmission and driveline package are fast becoming the preferred choice of truck operators at all levels but most notably with major fleets. Penske operations in the US run 244,000 trucks and it was an adamant Roger Penske who remarked, "We only buy AMTs (automated mechanical transmission) in the US now. They just have so many advantages." Service and support are, however, the main focus of his Australian operations and the key to the growth of Penske Commercial Vehicles, he continued. "This is a very competitive market and things like fuel economy and service are the big ongoing issues today. "We have to get better in our own business. We’re going to ask a lot more of our dealers and if they don’t stand up, then we’ll do it with our own dealerships." On the downward spiral of Western Star sales in Australia over the past three years, Roger Penske commented, "There are no excuses but this is a highly competitive market with low sales volumes, but we will build on the business. "When we came to this market the exchange rate (with the US dollar) was 97 cents to the dollar. Today it’s around 74 cents to the dollar, so we haven’t had it easy in that respect. "But we certainly won’t give trucks away," he said in reference to the fierce price competition that exists among some competitors. With third quarter sales results for this year showing MAN at just 2.1 per cent of the heavy-duty market and Western Star a poor 3.8 percent, Roger Penske said his expectations are for both brands to grow their shares. "The buying trends are changing," he asserted, further suggesting that he sees significant potential for MAN to grow its share of the heavy-duty market, particularly with the entry of the TGX D38 model. Engine Details First launched in Europe more than two years ago and previewed in Australia at the 2015 Brisbane Truck Show, the D38 is an in-line six cylinder engine using a single overhead camshaft, twin sequential turbochargers and common-rail fuel injection to produce peak outputs of 411kW (560hp) and 2700Nm (1,991 lb-ft) of torque. Euro VI (near EPA2010) emissions levels are achieved with the combination of EGR and SCR systems and what MAN explains is a ‘closed particulate filter system’, or CRT – continuous regeneration trap – to significantly reduce particulate filter service demands. Other innovative features of the engine according to MAN include a ‘Top Down’ cooling system that pumps coolant from engine top to bottom, minimising cylinder head stress while protecting the injectors and exhaust valves. Domed valves are also used, with additional convex shaping to prevent deformity, strengthen the valve disk and increase service life of the valve seating ring. This is particularly important, says MAN, for maintaining stringent emission standards over a prolonged period. Furthermore, the German maker says a turbo exhaust valve brake (TEVB) has been developed to provide high engine braking capacity up to 600kW (804.6 horsepower). In another first for MAN, all cable routing is encased in foam-filled harnesses to dramatically reduce wear caused by rubbing and vibration. The D38 is also claimed to use up to three percent less fuel than an equivalent Euro V engine due to a third generation common-rail system injecting fuel at up to 2,500 bar, or more than 36,000 psi. A particularly notable performance aspect of the engine according to MAN is the low rpm torque delivery, with peak torque on tap from 930 to 1,350rpm due in large part to two-stage sequential turbocharging. Aftercooling is provided by twin air-to-water intercoolers. There’s also an engine-powered, twin-cylinder air compressor designed to disengage whenever the charging of the air system is not needed, increasing operating efficiency by up to 90 per cent compared with a constantly running compressor. Also said to be one of the lightest engines in the 15-litre class, the D38 uses an aluminium flywheel housing, an engine block and cylinder head made of lightweight compacted graphite iron (CGI), and a plastic sump and rocker cover. MAN emphasises that the wide use of lightweight, high-strength materials throughout the design of the TGX D38 model not only provides tare weight advantages over competitors but also delivers "a near perfect balance of weight in a B-double application with an even distribution of load across the steer and drive axle sets". Yet while it’s the newest engine in MAN’s line-up, the D38 is also said to share a high degree of parts commonality with the current D20 and D26 engines used in Australian models. Meanwhile, oil drain intervals are certainly generous at up to 70,000 km (112,654 miles) in B-double applications and up to 100,000 km (160,934 miles) in single trailer roles. With the introduction of the D38, MAN has also introduced an updated version of its automated TipMatic 12-speed automated manual transmission and a GPS-based cruise control system. From all appearances, it seems MAN is on the move. Video - https://www.tradetrucks.com.au/product-news/1610/tgx-d38-man-on-a-mission .

Supermarkets pull Marmite over plunging pound – Prime Minister silent The Financial Times / October 12, 2016 The plummeting pound is threatening UK households’ supplies of Marmite* spread, as Tesco, the country’s biggest supermarket, pulled dozens of products from sale online in a row over who should bear the cost of the weakening currency. Unilever has demanded steep price increases to offset the higher cost of imported commodities, which are priced in Euros and dollars, according to executives at multiple supermarket groups. But Tesco signaled it would fight the rises, removing Unilever products like Marmite from its website and warning that some of the items could disappear from shelves if the dispute dragged on. Other supermarkets have warned that they could follow suit. The pound has fallen 17 per cent since Britain voted to leave the EU. Officials cautioned ahead of the June 23 referendum that a vote for Brexit would cause food prices to rise, a warning that Eurosceptic MPs have dismissed as “scaremongering”. Tesco head Dave Lewis signaled last week that it he was limbering up for a fight with suppliers that tried to use the fall in sterling to push through price increases. He said many of them had failed to pass on currency benefits to consumers when sterling was on the way up, and that he was “uncomfortable” with efforts to raise prices on the way down. An executive at another British supermarket group said Unilever had threatened to cut off its entire supply unless it agreed to an across-the-board price increase of 10 per cent. He said the retailer would consider banishing Unilever products from its stores rather than comply with the ultimatum. Unilever refused to comment on its negotiations with supermarkets. Tesco said in a statement: “We are currently experiencing availability issues on a number of Unilever products including Marmite. We always work to ensure customers get the best possible prices and we hope to have this issue resolved soon.” * Unilever Marmite is the UK equivalent of Australia’s Vegemite and New Zealand’s Sanitarium brand Marmite.

A 6x4 F-Series tandem axle rigid (straight truck) is also on the way to the US market.

Freightliner Offers FlowBelow AeroKit on Cascadia Heavy Duty Trucking / October 12, 2016 FlowBelow Aero, a manufacturer of tractor-mounted aerodynamic products, will have its complete Tractor AeroKit system offered as a factory-iinstalled option on the most fuel efficient Freightliner Cascadia Evolution equipment package. The new partnership between Daimler Trucks North America and FlowBelow expands an earlier supplier agreement to offer FlowBelow’s Quick-Release aerodynamic wheel covers as a factory installed or aftermarket option. As part of the new supplier agreement, the complete Tractor AeroKit system will be paired with the new Cascadia Evolution trucks built at Daimler’s truck plants as well as made available for aftermarket purchase and installation through all Freightliner dealers in North America. The Tractor AeroKit reduces aerodynamic turbulence and drag on the truck by streamlining airflow past the drive wheels. When optioned, each 6x2 or 6x4 truck is outfitted with Quick-Release wheel covers, center fairings located between the wheels, and rear fairings behind the wheels. The system improves fuel efficiency by controlling the air flow along the side of a vehicle. “With the addition of the FlowBelow Tractor AeroKit system to the Cascadia Evolution truck, we are providing increased value while also laying the groundwork for further aerodynamic enhancements,” said Josh Butler, founder and CEO of Aero. FlowBelow has also announced a partnership with a Mexican distributor to expand its business into that country. The company has partnered with major Mexican distributor Andromeda Business Solutions to distribute the company’s Tractor AeroKit technology. .

Isuzu returns to U.S. Class 6 segment for 2018 Isuzu Commercial Truck of America highlighted key specifications of its all-new Class 6 medium-duty truck, the 2018 Isuzu FTR, following a series of “whistle stops” at several dealerships the OEM made while taking the vehicle on a nationwide tour over the last two weeks. Isuzu originally unveiled the 2018 FT model at the National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA) Work Truck Show back in March of this year. Some of the specs being announced for the dock-height 2018 Isuzu FTR include: • A 25,950 pounds gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). • Eight wheelbase lengths ranging from 152 to 248 inches, accommodating bodies from 14 to 30 feet long. • The 2018 FTR will come standard with an 4-cylinder Isuzu 5.2-liter 4HK1-TC engine that generates 215 hp and 520 lbs.-ft. of torque, mated to an Allison six-speed automatic transmission with power take-off (PTO) capability. • The truck’s Dana-supplied axles will have capacities of 12,000 lbs. up front with a 19,000 lbs. rear suspension. • Bridgestone or Continental 11R22.5 tires will be the standard offering on the 2018 FTR; fitted onto 22.5-in. × 8.25-in. steel wheels. Isuzu added that FTR is slated to go into production at a new manufacturing facility in Charlotte, Michigan in mid-2017 [i.e. contract assembler Spartan Motors]. Isuzu FTR website - http://www.isuzucv.com/en/fseries/models Isuzu FTR brochure - http://www.isuzucv.com/en/app/site/pdf?file=ftr_brochure.pdf .

Transport Topics / October 12, 2016 Commercial vehicle supplier Dana Inc. said it has a definitive agreement to purchase strategic assets of Sifco S.A., a leading Brazilian producer of forged and machined components, such as those used in commercial vehicle drivelines and suspensions. Under the terms of the proposed purchase, it would acquire manufacturing and other assets of Sifco, Dana said. “For nearly 70 years, Dana has operated in Brazil, which has long been one of the top ten economies in the world,” said Dana CEO James Kamsickas. “This is an opportune time to invest in strategic and selective assets in Brazil that will further strengthen our position as one of the most trusted, top-tier suppliers to the mobility industry — thus positioning us for future profitable growth throughout the region.” Also, by expanding manufacturing capabilities in Brazil, the acquisition will also enable Dana to help vehicle manufacturers better accommodate local content requirements, which reduce import and other region-specific costs, the Maumee, Ohio-based company said. “Dana has worked with Sifco for 40 years as a supplier of key components used in vehicle drivelines,” said Mark Wallace, president of Dana Commercial Vehicle Driveline Technologies. “This acquisition will add the talent and capabilities needed to help us meet the requirements of our commercial-vehicle customers and provide value for our light-vehicle and off-highway customers, as well.” Sifco has operated under judicial restructuring since 2014, and the transaction is subject to closing conditions, including bankruptcy court and regulatory approvals. Final financial terms of the agreement are subject to the outcome of closing conditions, and the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2016.

Daimler had a Freightliner Inspiration at the IAA show with aero fenders. Unsure of the supplier. .

Transport Topics / October 12, 2016 FlowBelow Aero Inc. said Daimler Trucks North America will offer its fuel-saving Tractor AeroKit system as an option on its most fuel-efficient Freightliner Cascadia Evolution equipment package, effective immediately. The AeroKit system improves truck fuel efficiency by more than 2% and consists of aerodynamic quick-release wheel covers, center fairings located between the wheels and rear fairings installed behind the tractor's wheels. As part of the supplier agreement, all its products will also be available for aftermarket purchase and installation through all Freightliner dealers in North America network, Austin, Texas-based FlowBelow said. “With the addition of the Tractor AeroKit system to the Cascadia Evolution truck, we are providing increased value while also laying the groundwork for further aerodynamic enhancements,” says FlowBelow Aero CEO Josh Butler. The announcement expands on its earlier supplier agreement with DTNA in February 2016 to offer fleet customers its quick-release aerodynamic wheel covers as a factory installed and aftermarket option. Related reading - http://www.flowbelow.com/ .

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No arrest.....just resign and walk away. And one of the accomplices takes over. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wells Fargo chief John Stumpf to step down The Financial Times / October 12, 2016 John Stumpf, the Wells Fargo chairman and CEO, is to leave with immediate effect after conceding that he had “become a distraction” as the bank tries to recover from its sham account scandal. However, Wells’ decision to replace Mr Stumpf with two longstanding insiders drew immediate political fire. Tim Sloan, a 29-year veteran of the bank and its president and chief operating officer, will become chief executive while Stephen Sanger, the board’s lead director, is to be chairman. Mr Stumpf caved in to pressure from Washington five weeks after regulators found that thousands of the bank’s employees, under pressure to meet sales targets, had fraudulently created as many as 2m accounts. However, the change at the top was not enough to mollify Maxine Waters, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives’ financial services committee. “Tim Sloan is also culpable in the recent scandal, serving in a central role in the chain of command that ought to have stopped this misconduct from happening,” she said. Mr Stumpf, who made cross-selling a central part of Wells’ strategy, had been lambasted over the episode, enduring hostile grillings from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. In an interview on Wednesday, Mr Sloan said his predecessor had decided to go “without any pressure from the board”. “He felt that he’d become a distraction. There was so much focus on John. That’s not what Wells is about. What Wells is about is servicing its customers … It’s an incredibly selfless act when you think about it.” With a background in the commercial and wholesale side of the business, Mr Sloan has not been dragged into the scandal, which took place at its community banking division. He emerged as heir apparent last November, when he took on the titles of president and chief operating officer while remaining head of wholesale banking. The bogus accounts debacle has accelerated a long-planned succession. Mr Stumpf, a 34-year veteran of the bank, had been expected to go before he turns 65, in two years. The new chairman, Mr Sanger, has sat on the Wells board since 2003 and been its lead director since 2012. He ran General Mills, the food producer and distributor, between 1995 and 2007 and is also on the board of Pfizer. Mr Stumpf has said he is “deeply sorry” for the bank’s conduct and forfeited more than $40m in pay over the row. In a statement on Wednesday he said he was “optimistic” about the bank’s future. “While I have been deeply committed and focused on managing the company through this period, I have decided it is best for the company that I step aside,” he said in a statement. “I know no better individual to lead this company forward than Tim Sloan.”

Associated Press / October 12, 2016 An American arms dealer says he was made a scapegoat for an Obama and Clinton-led 2011 plot to arm Libyan rebels that saw arms flowing to Al Qaeda, ISIS and the Benghazi attackers. Marc Turi faced trial for illegally selling arms, but charges in the five-year, $10 million case were dropped on October 5 because Democrats were worried about political blowback for Clinton if it emerged that the government had accidentally put weapons in the hands of America's enemies. 'I would say, 100 percent, I was victimized, to somehow discredit me, to throw me under the bus, to do whatever it took to protect their next presidential candidate,' says Turi. Turi, 48, says the Obama administration had wanted to arm Libyan rebels to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi during the Arab Spring uprising, but were stopped by a UN sanction on arms sales to the country. Turi proposed a plan to sell weapons to US allies in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates who would then pass them on to Libya, but was cut out of the deal by Clinton's State Department and the CIA, who transported the weapons themselves. Those weapons, Turi says, then went to just about everyone in Libya and Syria - friend and foe alike - after rebels got their hands on them. When asked whether Al Qaeda, Ansar al-Sharia (the group behind the Benghazi attack), or ISIS - which was formed in 1999 - got the weapons; Turi replied: 'All of them, all of them, all of them.' He says the Justice Department then attempted to scapegoat him, charging him with two counts of illegal arms dealing and two of lying on his State Department weapons application - despite him never actually selling anything. But taking the case to court would require them to publicly release transcripts acknowledging the secret weapons program, he says. 'Those transcripts, from current as well as former CIA officers, were classified,' he said. 'If any of these relationships had been revealed it would have opened up a can of worms. There wouldn't have been any good answer for the US government especially in this election year.' Instead, the government failed to meet an October 5 deadline to deliver discovery documents in the case and allowed it to be thrown out with prejudice - meaning it cannot be pursued again. Had the case gone forward, it would have begun on November 8 - Election Day. Turi says he emailed his idea about arming the rebels via the UAE and Qatar to Chris Stevens, then US envoy to the Libyan opposition on April 7, 2011. The following day, Clinton suggested to her aide in an email: 'FYI. the idea of using private security experts to arm the opposition should be considered.' That's not a coincidence, Turi says. And he believes Clinton's team deleted emails about the plan that 'would have gone to an organization within the Bureau of Political Military affairs within the State Department known as PM/RSAT (Office of Regional Security and Arms Transfers.)' He added that the incident might be linked to the 2012 Benghazi attack, in which Islamist militants killed 11 people - four of them Americans - when they attacked the US consulate in the Libyan city. He said that 'there’s a backstory to the actual buy-back program of the surface-to-air missiles that were shipped and mysteriously disappeared out of Benghazi.' 'The American public has the right to know that an injustice was committed against an innocent American,' says Turi. 'I still don't really know who the unjust actors were who launched this attack against me from the shadows. I just hope that someday there will be someone that will be held accountable.'

Bear in mind that only 12.5% to 15% of the news you read is complete and accurate (less on CNN since Ted Turner exited), but I long suspected that Qatar and Saudi Arabia, if not all six of the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries* were funding ISIS. * Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates Look at the date of her memo to Podesta, August 2014. And yet, you haven't heard a word from our government. Go figure. Now, during her tenure as Secretary of State, it is said that the Clinton Foundation received "donations" from both Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The plot thickens. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associated Press / October 12, 2016 The Clinton campaign today tried to tamp down a mounting controversy over a newly disclosed, and potentially explosive, email in which the former secretary of state accuses the Saudi and Qatari governments of secretly funding the Islamic State. On Aug. 17, 2014 — eight months before she declared her candidacy for president — Clinton sent a detailed strategy for combating the Islamic State, which she referred to as ISIL, in an email to John Podesta, then a White House counselor and now her campaign chairman. Along with a military campaign to roll back the terror group in Iraq, the Clinton email talks about confronting the Saudis and the Qataris, both key U.S. allies, over what she refers to as governmental backing of ISIL. The Clinton email states: “We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.” As a basis for the assertions, Clinton in the email cites “Western intelligence, U.S. intelligence and sources in the region.” The email was among thousands hacked from Podesta’s private Gmail account and released this week by WikiLeaks in what appears to be an attempt to embarrass the Clinton campaign. The campaign has struggled to respond to the contents of the emails, insisting it does not want to authenticate material that it and the U.S. government now believe came from a Russian state-sponsored cyberattack. The campaign would not say whether Clinton personally wrote the email, which reads like a position or policy paper, although it was sent from her private email account. “These are hacked, stolen documents by the Russian government, which has weaponized WikiLeaks to help elect Donald Trump,” Glen Caplin, a senior Clinton campaign spokesman, told Yahoo News. “We’re not going to confirm the authenticity of any specific alleged communication.” At the same time, a campaign aide also argued that the sentiment expressed in the email “isn’t new.” Clinton “has repeatedly called out the Saudis and Qataris for supporting terrorism,” said the aide, declining to be named. [Why ???] As evidence, the aide pointed to Clinton’s remarks in a speech last November. “And, once and for all, the Saudis, the Qataris, and others need to stop their citizens from directly funding extremist organizations, as well as schools and mosques around the world that have set too many young people on a path toward radicalization,” she said then. In yet another instance cited by the aide, Clinton asserted in a September 2015 speech at the Brookings Institution that “nobody can deny that much of the extremism in the world today is a direct result of policies and funding undertaken by the Saudi government and individuals. We would be foolish not to recognize that. “ But in that and other remarks, Clinton appeared to be referring to general Saudi support for Islamic mosques that have been accused of spreading extremist ideology while calling out its government for not cracking down on private citizens sending money to terror organizations. In her email to Podesta, she goes beyond this, saying the Saudi and Qatari governments themselves are funding ISIS — a far more serious allegation with potentially more dramatic diplomatic implications. And one that has riled up critics of Saudi Arabia here in the U.S. “Clearly, this Clinton email shows the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is continuing to covertly fund and logically support terrorist groups that kill Americans,” said Kristen Breitweiser, one of the leaders of the 9/11 family members who have been lobbying for recently enacted legislation — opposed by the Obama administration — that would allow them to sue the Saudis in federal court over their support for al-Qaeda. “Apparently, everybody in Washington knows that the Saudis are doing this, yet the White House and the State Department are against holding them accountable.” Breitweiser added about the contents of the email: “This is a clear example of the difference between how people speak to each other privately compared to what they say publicly.” Clinton broke with Obama over the legislation Breitweiser lobbied for; her campaign said she would have signed the bill allowing U.S. citizens to sue countries that sponsored terrorism into law. The Saudi government, through Qorvis Communications, one of its lobbying and public relations firms, responded to questions about the email Tuesday, saying it would not comment on “leaked documents,” but adding that the allegations of government funding are “preposterous and simply defy logic.” “Saudi Arabia is on the forefront of fighting terrorism in the region and around the world,” the Saudi statement said. “Daesh (an Arabic term for the Islamic State) is a sworn enemy of Saudi Arabia. It has called for the overthrow of the Saudi government and made the gulf kingdom its main target because it is the birthplace of Islam and home to the Two Holy Mosques.” Noting the military and other actions the Saudi government has taken to fight the Islamic State — including “an aggressive public education and ideological campaign” to discredit the group, the Saudi statement added: “Saudi Arabia has long-maintained that it will thoroughly investigate any reports of funding of terrorist organizations by Saudi citizens or institutions.” It’s unclear if Clinton actually wrote the email herself or was simply passing along a policy paper that was written by an aide or some other source. The lengthy document is in many respects unlike any of the mostly terse emails from her private email account that have been made public by the State Department. (Some former top U.S. national security experts last week warned that the Russians may seek to “doctor” leaked material, but the Clinton campaign has yet to offer evidence that any of the WikiLeaks emails were forged or tampered with.) And the rest of the positions outlined in the email — such as stepped-up air campaign and arming the Kurds — match closely with Clinton’s publicly stated positions on how to fight ISIS. Still, the email goes much further than Clinton or President Barack Obama have before in publicly pointing a finger at U.S. allies for funding ISIS. But it does appear to reflect views that have been shared privately by some in the White House. A few months after Clinton sent this email, Vice President Joe Biden was forced to apologize for similar remarks. He told a group of students at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government that “our allies” contributed to the rise of ISIS. “The Turks… the Saudis, the Emirates, etc., what were they doing? They were so determined to take down [Syrian President Bashar] Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens, thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad,” Biden said then. Asked about the content of the Clinton email, White House spokesman Edward Price said: “We’ll decline to comment on purportedly leaked emails.” Clinton sent the email to Podesta when he still worked for Obama as counselor. He became Clinton’s campaign chair in January of 2015. Adding to the potential awkwardness for her campaign, Podesta’s brother, Tony Podesta, runs one of Washington’s biggest lobbying firms, which in September 2015 signed a contract to lobby for the Saudi government. A few weeks later, Tony Podesta held a Clinton campaign fundraiser, attended by John Podesta, and has since been listed as one of the campaign’s chief “bundlers” or premier fundraisers. The Clinton campaign did not return a request for comment about whether the candidate believes it is appropriate to accept campaign donations from someone who has lobbied for a government she believes is sponsoring terrorism. Podesta refused a request for comment.