kscarbel2

Volkswagen Taking 16.6% Stake in Navistar The Wall Street Journal / September 6, 2016 Purchase of truck company’s shares will cost the German auto maker $256 million Volkswagen AG ’s new development alliance with Navistar International Corp. fuels the German company’s ambition to chase rival Daimler AG into the about $30 billion a year North American heavy-duty truck market. Volkswagen’s shares of such truck sales are larger in Europe and Latin America and it has a joint venture with Sinotruk (Hong Kong) Ltd. in China. But Daimler entered the U.S. long ago, and has built a business that now accounts for about 40% of U.S. heavy-duty truck sales. Volkswagen sought to even the score on Tuesday with its $256 million investment in Navistar, a 16.6% stake that will give it two seats on the Lisle, Ill.-based truck maker’s board. The stake and related development-and-procurement alliance will broaden Volkswagen’s U.S. footprint and global truck-market operations. Behind the intensifying rivalry are two executives who have switched sides in the battle between the two German automotive giants. Andreas Renschler, chief executive of Volkswagen’s Trucks and Buses business, was the architect of Daimler’s U.S. strategy. Passed over as chief executive, he left Daimler at the end of 2014 and was tapped by Volkswagen patriarch Ferdinand Piech to mold the fragmented truck businesses into a global enterprise. Mr. Renschler’s former colleague and rival, Daimler Trucks Chief Executive Wolfgang Bernhard, is benefiting from the business that he built. But he wouldn’t compare Volkswagen and Daimler’s bids to grow in North America. “You can ask that question of somebody else in 10 years,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. Mr. Bernhard knows Volkswagen well. A decade ago he ran Volkswagen’s namesake car brand, pursuing an aggressive strategy to standardize components and streamline the business. At Daimler Trucks, he has driven efforts to create common truck platforms and develop new technology. Messrs. Renschler and Bernhard are approaching the U.S. and global truck business with similar strategies. Both are trying to bring the German auto industry’s obsession with standardization and common vehicle platforms to a U.S. market equally obsessed with freedom of choice. “We’re trying to do something that the passenger car guys started already decades ago, what they call the platform strategy,” Mr. Bernhard said. “You use components in one vehicle and try to disperse that in your lineup as much as possible and by that you create economies of scale.” Daimler owns truck maker Freightliner and engine supplier Detroit Diesel that have put its North American operations far ahead of Navistar. The parent company of Mercedes-Benz has quietly amassed 40% of heavy duty truck sales in North America in recent years. Detroit Diesel builds engines that are standardized enough to keep development costs down even while producing versions of the same engine for the U.S., European and Japanese markets. “These are the beginnings of a platform strategy. Now we are rolling it out to transmissions, we are rolling it out to axles and we are rolling it out to medium duty engines,” he said. Creating a global truck platform that can allow Volkswagen to share components across many different brands and models was a big driver of this week’s Navistar deal. Volkswagen’s investment in Navistar, at $15.76 a share, represents a 12% premium to Friday’s closing price. The two companies expect regulatory approvals of the deal by early next year. Navistar anticipates cost savings of $500 million within the first five years of the venture and annual savings of $200 million after that. Initially, those savings were expected to come in the form of cheaper raw materials and commodity components through Navistar’s wide-ranging procurement alliance with Volkswagen. Navistar CEO Troy Clarke said the alliance provides Navistar access to engine technology that should help it reclaim share lost to competitors a few years ago due to engine reliability problems. Navistar has about 11% of heavy-duty truck sales in North America, down about half from five years ago. “We want to get as much of that market as we can,” Mr. Clarke said on Tuesday. The alliance “will increase [customer] consideration of our products.” Volkswagen’s investment also provides a measure of stability for cash-strapped Navistar, which has battled worries from customers and investors that it would run out money. “It gives some of their customers a sigh of relief to know that [Navistar] is going to be around for the long haul,” said Eric Starks, CEO of transportation consultancy FTR in Indiana. The deal, details of which were first reported on Monday by The Wall Street Journal, comes as Navistar deals with the fallout from a run-in over emissions regulations and a declining market share that has left it trailing rivals in a North American commercial truck market wrestling with a slump. The bulk of potential savings from the venture aren’t expected to be realized until after 2019, when Volkswagen plans to launch a new global platform for its heavy-truck brands MAN and Scania and that it will now jointly develop with Navistar. Volkswagen’s MAN unit took a restructuring charge of more than €200 million last year as part of Mr. Renschler’s push to boost earnings and savings by more closely integrating the German truck maker with VW’s Swedish manufacturer Scania. Development of the new truck platform is still in the early stages and was one of the reasons why Volkswagen wanted to do the Navistar deal now. “We are working on common powertrain platforms with MAN and Scania and now Navistar is part of it and can be there from day one,” said Volkswagen’s Mr. Renschler. “We want to have a powertrain-based platform that will be used around the world.”

No murder charges??? This man should be summarily executed. Show the murdered child some respect and justice. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associated Press / September 6, 2016 A Minnesota man confessed Tuesday to abducting and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling nearly 27 years ago, recounting a crime that long haunted the state, and sharing chilling details that included a handcuffed Jacob asking him: "What did I do wrong?" Danny Heinrich, 53, of Annandale, made the admission as he pleaded guilty to a federal child pornography charge that will likely keep him locked up for 20 years, with civil commitment possible after that, meaning he could spend the rest of his life in custody. Asked whether he abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered Jacob, Heinrich said: "Yes, I did." In the years after Jacob's disappearance, his mother Patty became a nationally known advocate for missing children. A 1994 federal law named for Jacob requires states to establish sex offender registries. With Patty and Jacob's father, Jerry Wetterling, in a packed courtroom, Heinrich described seeing Jacob, Jacob's brother, and a friend bicycling down a rural road near Jacob's central Minnesota home in St. Joseph the night of Oct. 22, 1989. Heinrich laid in wait for the three boys to return, and when they did, he put on a mask and confronted them with a revolver. He said he ordered them into a ditch and asked their names and ages. Heinrich said he told the two other boys to run and not look back or he'd shoot. He said he then handcuffed Jacob and drove him to a gravel pit near Paynesville, where he molested him. Afterward, Jacob said he was cold, and Heinrich let him get dressed. Jacob then asked whether he was taking him home. "I said, 'I can't take you all the way home,'" Heinrich said. "He started to cry. I said, 'Don't cry.'" Heinrich said at some point a patrol car with siren and lights passing nearby caused him to panic. He said he pulled out his revolver, which had not been loaded, and put two rounds in the gun. He said he told Jacob to turn around. He held the gun to the boy's head and pulled the trigger. The gun didn't fire. Heinrich then fired two shots. After the second, Jacob fell to the ground. Some of Jacob's family members cried openly as Heinrich calmly described the crime. Heinrich said he went home for a couple of hours, then went back to the gravel pit and buried Jacob about 100 yards away. He said he returned to the site about a year later and saw that Jacob's jacket and some bones had become exposed. "I gathered up as much as I could and put it in the bag and transported it across the highway" to a field, and reburied the remains, he said. Heinrich led authorities to Jacob's buried remains in a central Minnesota field last week. His remains were identified Saturday. "It's incredibly painful to know his last days, last hours, last minutes," Patty Wetterling said after the guilty plea. "To us, Jacob was alive, until we found him." Prosecutors said the Wetterling family was consulted on and approved the plea agreement, which required Heinrich to give a detailed confession and tell investigators where to find Jacob. As part of the plea agreement, Heinrich will not face state murder charges. U.S. Attorney Andy Luger defended the deal, describing Heinrich as a volatile man. He said defense attorneys came to prosecutors 10 days ago with the possibility of a confession, and prosecutors feared he'd change his mind. "He's not getting away with anything. We got the truth. The Wetterling family will bring him home," Luger said. Heinrich's attorneys declined to comment after the hearing. Authorities named Heinrich as a person of interest in Jacob's disappearance last October when they announced the child pornography charges. Heinrich had long been under investigators' scrutiny. They first questioned him shortly after Jacob's abduction, but he maintained his innocence and they never had enough evidence to charge him. They turned a renewed spotlight on him as part of a fresh look into Jacob's abduction around its 25th anniversary. As part of that effort, investigators took another look at the sexual assault of 12-year-old Jared Scheierl, of Cold Spring, nine months before Jacob's disappearance. Investigators had long suspected the two cases were connected. Using technology that wasn't available in 1989, investigators found Heinrich's DNA on Scheierl's sweatshirt, and used that evidence to get a search warrant for Heinrich's home, where they found a large collection of child pornography. The statute of limitations had expired for charging him in the assault on Scheierl, but a grand jury indicted him on 25 child pornography counts. As part of Tuesday's plea deal, Heinrich also admitted to assaulting Scheierl. The AP typically doesn't identify victims of sexual assault, but Scheierl has spoken publicly for years about his case, saying it helped him cope with the trauma and that he hoped it could help investigators find his attacker and Jacob's kidnapper. Jacob's abduction shattered childhood innocence for many rural Minnesotans, changing the way parents let their kids roam. His smiling face was burned into Minnesota's psyche, appearing on countless posters and billboards over the years. Heinrich is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 21. .

VW buys 16.6% Navistar stake; full merger is possible Bloomberg / September 6, 2016 Volkswagen has agreed a wide-ranging technology and purchasing deal with U.S. truck maker Navistar International Corp. in exchange for a 16.6 percent stake, an alliance forged in part by the need to meet stringent emissions regulations. The deal should help both sides cut costs, give Volkswagen's trucks business a long-desired foothold in North America, and provide a source of new engines for Navistar, which has been looking for a partner since 2010 when it failed to get approval from U.S. regulators for its heavy-duty diesel truck engine. Volkswagen Trucks CEO Andreas Renschler said a full merger with Navistar is possible once a technology and procurement alliance between the two truck makers takes shape. In a call to discuss a technology and procurement partnership unveiled by the two companies today, Renschler was asked whether he could foresee a full merger with U.S.-based truck maker Navistar. "On our way to becoming a global champion all options are open," Renschler said. Renschler repeated the answer when he was asked whether Volkswagen's truck and buses businesses could be spun off from the German parent company. With few potential partners to choose from, Navistar is tying is fortunes to a company which, through its acquisition of MAN and Sweden's Scania, has amassed global truck engine expertise, but whose carmaking arm is grappling with a scandal over falsified diesel emissions tests. Volkswagen will pay $15.76 a share for 16.2 million new Navistar shares, a 12 percent premium to Navistar's closing price on Sept. 2, the two groups said today. Volkswagen Truck & Bus will hold Navistar shares for a minimum of three years and top-level executives from both parties will align product development and procurement processes, the companies said. The pact was welcomed by analysts who said it could also bolster VW's chances of spinning off its trucks arm. "A more global company with exposure to the profitable North American market will make for a better story should VW look to IPO its trucks business in the future," Arndt Ellinghorst, analyst at Evercore ISI said in a note. The alliance, first reported by Reuters on Monday, will see the creation of a joint venture for procurement, which Navistar said would help it reach synergies of at least $500 million over the first five years. Pooling VW and Navistar's procurement will create economies of scale from Volkswagen Truck & Bus's three major truck brands -- Scania, MAN and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus -- in addition to Navistar's own International and IC Bus brands. Navistar gains In a statement, Navistar CEO Troy Clarke said: "Over the longer term, it is intended to expand the technology options we are able to offer our customers by leveraging the best of both companies." Clarke was a 35-year GM executive before going to Navistar in 2010. He became CEO at Navistar in 2013. He last served GM in 2009 as president of GM North America. By year five, Navistar expects the VW alliance to generate annual savings of at least $200 million, which could rise further as the companies continue to introduce technologies from the collaboration. Navistar said savings will come from procurement and technology collaboration, rather than job cuts. Emissions standards U.S. regulators last month announced new environmental standards designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from medium and heavy-duty trucks by up to 25 percent by 2027, adding pressure on Lisle, Ill.-based Navistar to seek a technology partner. The financial burden of developing next generation engines to meet new emissions standards is forcing several vehicle makers to pursue partnerships and technology deals. In May, Nissan took a 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi, while in 2013, Aston Martin agreed to sell a 5 percent stake to Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler in exchange for delivering next generation engines and electronics that meet the latest emissions rules. Gaining traction in the U.S. heavy-truck market, dominated by Daimler, Volvo and Paccar, is key to VW’s plan to forge a global commercial-vehicle operation with higher profit margins than rivals. The marriage is not without risk given Navistar’s shrinking market share in the U.S., a country that has also confounded VW. Even before the diesel-cheating scandal, Volkswagen’s car sales were slipping behind competitors in the region. Working with Navistar will provide access to technology and designs targeting customers in the U.S., where model lines are wholly different from offerings in the rest of the world. Many U.S. truck drivers prefer vehicles with an elongated nose, while European operators buy trucks with a flat face due to length restrictions. Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, tapped Renschler in May 2014, who ran Daimler’s truck operations, to push a stalled plan to deepen cooperation between its MAN and Scania brands. Munich-based MAN and Swedish counterpart Scania don’t sell vehicles in the U.S., and the group’s only other large truck making operation is a VW-brand division in Brazil focused on Latin America. MAN has a Chinese joint venture with local affiliate Sinotruk Hong Kong Ltd. that sells models in Asia. Entering the U.S. will give VW access to a market a bit smaller than its current home region. Around 240,000 trucks will be sold this year in the U.S., while 290,000 will be bought in Europe, according to estimates from Volvo. Cost savings The Volkswagen Truck & Bus division has been largely unaffected by the diesel-emissions scandal that erupted at the group’s car operations a year ago. It’s targeting 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) in long-term cost savings through closer collaboration among its brands. Renschler has said VW is keeping all options open as part of his expansion strategy, including acquisitions and a possible share sale. Navistar is no stranger to dramatic consequences from emissions-related troubles. The company had to kill most versions of its so-called premium vocational trucks in 2010 because they lacked diesel engines that complied with U.S. federal air-pollution rules. Navistar’s market share has tanked since its pollution-control technology failed to meet industry standards and brought the company to the brink of collapse. Activist investors Carl Icahn and Mark Rachesky have accumulated a combined stake of almost 40 percent in Navistar since 2011. Declining demand for heavy trucks in North America, which led Daimler to cut the profit outlook for its truck unit earlier this year, has only added pressure on the U.S. manufacturer.

Navistar is doing great. They're coming out of the hole and making smart decisions. They've ridden themselves of all the senseless acquisitions that Ustian made, leaned the company out without the layoffs like Volvo/Mack and Freightliner, and have new product coming out of the pipeline. Troy Clarke has been identifying meaningful partnerships, such as the two projects with General Motors. NAV is already using MAN 11L and 13L engines anyway, produced under license in Huntsville, Alabama. A little history here, the relationship with MAN soured around 2010 when Ustian announced he was going to ship NAV-built MAN engines to China for heavy truck production there with JAC. MAN was justifiably upset because their agreement didn't allow that. Such an act would interfere with MAN's activities in China. In the end, NAV never built any trucks in China, and Ustian was ousted. Now, NAV and MAN have put the past behind them, and are seeking to work together again on engines. If they only buy a minority 16.6 percent stake, given MAN is one of their engine suppliers, I've no problem with that. If MAN (VW) acquired NAV, I would have a big problem with that. Troy says he has no plan to sell out.

A 425/65R22.5 tire runs a 12.25 inch wide rim. I assume your Super-Liner was built with 8.0, 8.25 or 8.5 inch wide rims. Had the truck been ordered that way from Mack, the steering arms that mount to the knuckles would be different, as well as the tie rod tube. As is, you're not going to have needed clearance for 425/65R22.5 tires with what you have. I don't know what Volvo does today. But in the days of Mack Trucks, your dealer could submit a changeover request for your exact model and serial number truck with Mack's legendary specifications department (within Parts Operations), and they would advise your dealer what parts (mounting arrangements) would have applied had the truck originally been ordered that way. The dealer could then order you the correct needed parts. If you are "serious" about doing the changeover, you can ask the folks at Watts Mack, or your local dealer, if Volvo's Mack Trucks still processes changeover requests.

Truckstop TV / September 5, 2016 .

CAT Trucks Australia / Navistar Auspac Press Release / September 6, 2016 WAYNE & GARY CROFT – Croft Transport Owners An Adelaide company runs a successful business running 20 Cat Trucks specialising in lifting freight that most transport companies are not interested in. Croft Transport, based in Adelaide’s industrial heart, found a niche in hauling one-off lifts and ‘you-call-we-carry’ type work. “We are essentially a taxi truck company,” says Gary Croft. Not the stereotypical taxi company, however with 50 heavy duty trucks, 70 employees and ‘taxi’ runs across the nation, the latest being a series of road train hauls to Alice Springs. While most transport companies strive for regularity in scheduled freight to give cashflow predictability, the Croft business model embraces irregularity and has developed flexibility to handle on-call jobs at short notice. Gary Croft and his brother Wayne run the family business from its Wingfield headquarters, a no frills yard and office that buzzes with activity with a continual flow of trucks swapping trailers, parking up and drivers delivering paperwork. The 20 Cat Trucks were selected by the Croft brothers from a lifetime love of the International brand. “We have always had a lot of International trucks so as they progressed we eventually came to looking at Cat Trucks with the Cat driveline. We have had Cat engines in other trucks so they are well known to us. We have always respected the Cat product,” Gary Croft says. Croft Transport runs 35 semitrailers in the fleet along with a dozen tray tops and crane trucks. Eight in-house mechanics keep wheels turning. Crofts could be described as a mix of old school management with the latest tech in equipment. Because most work is urban or intra-state, Gary and Wayne have not yet seen the need to move towards electronic tracking of trucks and drivers. With mobile phones ringing non stop, you get the feeling that between them, the Crofts know where every one of their trucks is and whether they are running on time. The variety of truck and trailer operations accommodate a great variety of workloads. “Sometimes we might need one truck on a job, other times eight or 10 trucks on a bigger lift. We are on call for our customers and other transport companies. We do overflow work. Our freight is not scheduled, it is flexible on-call work.” Both Croft brothers have a high regard for the Cat Truck dealership, Cavpower, in Adelaide. A long association with the Cat Trucks salesman, Mervyn Jamieson, led to the investment in the brand. “Cavpower have been very good to us,” says Gary, “supporting us when ever necessary.” The Cat Trucks in the Croft fleet CT630s and CT610s. “We have C12s in our older Internationals and the C13 (in the CT610s) is a progression of those and they have all been doing a good job in different applications.” The most recent Cat purchase is a CT630SC. “We have configured that truck so we can use it in B-double applications, road train work when necessary or single trailer work.” Most trucks are purchased with sleeper cabs, however there are eight Cat Trucks with day cabs. Gary Croft says the sleeper option is more versatile if a truck has to go interstate. “If we get stuck we will send a day cab and put the driver up in a motel, but mostly we buy trucks with sleepers that we can send anywhere.” Another benefit of the Cat Trucks for urban work is their size and ability to get into tight spots. “The vision for the driver is also a big plus, easy entry and exit is a major consideration in our operation so as an all-round package they are very good!” .

Transpo Online Brazil / September 5, 2016 One of Brazil’s leaders in the heavy haul segment, Megatranz Transportes, has purchased two new Kenworth C500 prime movers equipped with Allison 6000 Series automatic transmissions. The 600 horsepower Kenworth C500 6x4s are rated at 500 tons in the U.S. with three percent slope. In Brazil, the flat ground rating is 1,000 tons. Including the ballast box, the trucks have a curb weight of 72 tons. The truck has a maximum speed of 40 km/h and a cruising speed of 20 km/h. "The adoption of the Allison automatic transmission was essential," said Renato Zuppardo, director of Megatranz operations. "It is important in our type of transport by providing a continuous acceleration with no loss of power in gear changes of exchange manual. It will also be of great value to move on uneven terrain, as will be the case in his debut, carrying more than 300 tons on dirt roads." The truck’s first assignment will be carrying a rotor and a transformer for the power plant of São Manoel, located on the border of Mato Grosso and Pará states. For this assignment, the 192-tire trailer will be drawn by three prime movers connected by push-pull system. From there the three trucks will be replaced by the new Kenworth which will pull the trailer for the remaining 100 kilometers of dirt road to the plant. Under ideal conditions, it is estimated that this distance will be traveled over two days over grades ranging between 15% and 17%. .

Inside Bill Clinton’s nearly $18 million job as ‘honorary chancellor’ of a for-profit college The Washington Post / September 5, 2016 The guest list for a private State Department dinner on higher-education policy was taking shape when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered a suggestion. In addition to recommending invitations for leaders from a community college and a church-funded institution, Clinton wanted a representative from a for-profit college company called Laureate International Universities, which, she explained in an email to her chief of staff that was released last year, was “the fastest growing college network in the world.” There was another reason Clinton favored setting a seat aside for Laureate at the August 2009 event: The company was started by a businessman, Doug Becker, “who Bill likes a lot,” the secretary wrote, referring to her husband, the former president. Nine months later, Laureate signed Bill Clinton to a lucrative deal as a consultant and “honorary chancellor,” paying him $17.6 million over five years until the contract ended in 2015 as Hillary Clinton launched her campaign for president. There is no evidence that Laureate received special favors from the State Department in direct exchange for hiring Bill Clinton, but the Baltimore-based company had much to gain from an association with a globally connected ex-president and, indirectly, the United States’ chief diplomat. Being included at the 2009 dinner, shoulder to shoulder with leaders from internationally renowned universities for a discussion about the role of higher education in global diplomacy, provided an added level of credibility for the business as it pursued an aggressive expansion strategy overseas, occasionally tangling with foreign regulators. “A lot of these private-education guys, they’re looking to get into events like this one,” said Sam Pitroda, a higher-education expert who was representing a policy commission from India at the State Department dinner. “The discussion itself is irrelevant. . . . It gets you very high-level contacts, and it gets you to the right people.” While much of the controversy about Hillary Clinton’s State Department tenure has involved donations to her family’s charity, the Clinton Foundation, a close examination of the Laureate deal reveals how Bill Clinton leveraged the couple’s connections during that time to enhance their personal wealth — potentially providing another avenue for supporters to gain access to the family. In addition to his well-established career as a paid speaker, which began soon after he left the Oval Office, Bill Clinton took on new consulting work starting in 2009, at the same time Hillary Clinton assumed her post at the State Department. Laureate was the highest-paying client, but Bill Clinton signed contracts worth millions with GEMS Education, a secondary-education chain based in Dubai, as well as Shangri-La Industries and Wasserman Investment, two companies run by longtime Democratic donors. All told, with his consulting, writing and speaking fees, Bill Clinton was paid $65.4 million during Hillary Clinton’s four years as secretary of state. [For Clintons, speech income shows how their wealth intertwines with charity] Details of Bill Clinton’s compensation are found in the couple’s tax returns, which were made public by his wife’s presidential campaign and provide an unusual glimpse into the way a former president can make millions in the private sector. Bill Clinton has proved particularly marketable because of his global celebrity, enhanced by his foundation, his continued visibility on the political scene and his wife’s stature as a senator, Cabinet official and potential president. The Laureate arrangement illustrates the extent to which the Clintons mixed their charitable work with their private and political lives. Many of those who paid Bill Clinton to consult or speak were also foundation donors and, in some cases, supporters of political campaigns for one or both Clintons. Becker, for example, donated to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and last year donated $2,700 to her current effort. Laureate has given between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to the charity’s website, and made millions of dollars of charitable commitments through the Clinton Global Initiative, an arm of the foundation that arranged for corporations to make public pledges to their own philanthropic projects. Meanwhile, Laureate portrayed its association with the Clintons as a symbol of its legitimacy rather than the result of a business deal. “People know that somebody like President Clinton, the most important thing to him is his reputation,” Becker said in a 2010 appearance at a Laureate campus in Malaysia. “And to attach himself to an organization that he doesn’t believe in, he would never do it. It wouldn’t make sense — not just with his own legacy and history but, in his case, being the spouse of the U.S. secretary of state, for example.” When Becker introduced Clinton at an event at the same campus the next year, he read a statement from Malaysia’s education minister declaring that “there must be something very special about Laureate that has inspired President Clinton to devote his energy to such an endeavor.” Aides to Clinton and representatives of Laureate characterized the arrangement as one that advanced global access to education. Angel Urena, a Clinton spokesman, said the former president “engaged with students at Laureate’s campuses worldwide and advised Laureate’s leadership on social responsibility and increasing access to higher education.” Adam Smith, a Laureate spokesman, said Clinton “was paid to advise Laureate, inspire students and visit the campuses and communities they serve, and that’s what he did, with great conviction and energy.” Becker declined to be interviewed for this report. Laureate officials said that the Baltimore businessman first met through Laureate Vice President Joseph Duffey, a former Clinton administration official, at a 2007 Clinton Global Initiative event in Hong Kong. [How Clintons went from ‘dead broke’ to rich: Bill’s $105 million for speeches] Clinton became familiar with the company after giving a few unpaid speeches on its international campuses and then grew closer with Becker when they traveled to Haiti together in 2009 to explore education issues in the troubled nation, a Clinton aide said. Laureate had grown rapidly under Becker, a college dropout who became wealthy in the 1980s after inventing a card that could store personal medical information. He launched Laureate in 2003, transforming an old tutoring company called Sylvan Learning Systems into a network of for-profit college campuses. The company has been intertwined over the years with the global financial elite. Once publicly traded, it was bought out for $3.8 billion in 2007 with investments from, among others, a private-equity firm founded by liberal philanthropist George Soros, as well as the investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Laureate, which is taking steps to become publicly traded again, has in recent years been largely focused on growing internationally. Typically, it has purchased financially struggling colleges and vocational schools and improved management while boosting profits through expanding enrollment. The company has said in regulatory filings that it enrolls more than 1 million students on 87 campuses in 28 countries. It has five U.S. campuses. Laureate hired Clinton as scrutiny of private colleges was increasing in the United States and internationally. Congress in 2010 launched an investigation into for-profit schools, which critics say profit from needy students while making often grand but unfulfilled promises of valuable degrees. Laureate has clashed at times with regulators in other countries, such as Chile, where the law forbids for-profit education and Laureate operates by acting as a contractor to local nonprofit institutions. Clinton at times mingled with foreign government leaders during his appearances on Laureate campuses, such as a 2013 Laureate-hosted conference on youth unemployment in Madrid featuring top European officials. Urena said the former president “never sought to influence any foreign or U.S. official on Laureate’s behalf.” Smith said Clinton played an active role as honorary chancellor, visiting 19 locations, meeting with students and delivering speeches that were broadcast to tens of thousands of students around the world. He said Clinton’s role was not related to the company’s business prospects. Clinton’s contract with Laureate was approved by the State Department’s ethics office, in keeping with an Obama administration agreement with Hillary Clinton that gave the agency the right to review her husband’s outside work during her tenure. An ethics official wrote that he saw “no conflict of interest with Laureate or any of their partners,” according to a letter recently released by the conservative group Citizens United, which received it through a public-records request. The contract itself became public through a records request by a different conservative group, Judicial Watch, but descriptions of Clinton’s exact consulting role were blacked out in the publicly released document and labeled as trade secrets. Laureate and Clinton aides declined to release an unredacted copy of the contract. Based on appearances on Laureate’s behalf by Clinton and public statements by the company, it seems that part of the strategy in hiring the former president was to bolster Laureate’s image by aligning it with the former president’s famous charitable efforts — thereby portraying the company as a force for good in the world. News releases about Clinton’s paid campus appearances often invoked his work on education issues with the Clinton Foundation. And every news release during Clinton’s time with the company carried his name and his title of honorary chancellor. In 2013, Clinton recorded a message to Laureate students and, without mentioning his financial ties to the company, said he joined Laureate because he admired its “dedication to helping the next generation of leaders be truly educated and well prepared for your future.” [The inside story of how the Clintons built a $2 billion global empire] Also that year, Laureate prominently featured its association with Clinton as part of its effort to purchase the Thunderbird School of Global Management, a 70-year old private business school in Arizona that was struggling financially. Karen Longo, a graduate of the school who was on the board of directors at the time, recalled that Becker specifically referenced the Clinton tie when he pitched the board on the deal. She provided The Washington Post with brochures Laureate gave out at the time, featuring a letter from Clinton praising Laureate students for working to improve the world and declaring himself “proud to be a part of their efforts.” Clinton’s picture was included on multiple pages. “His face, his name was in all their brochures,” Longo recalled. “It was a very big sell for them.” She and other alumni were concerned that Laureate would lower the school’s admissions standards to expand its enrollment in an effort to make more money from the campus. “The more students they got, the more money they got from student-loan funds,” she said. “It would have been a dilution of the Thunderbird brand.” Longo and four other alumni on the school’s board protested the purchase to the school’s accrediting agency, the Higher Learning Commission. In 2014, the commission refused to sign off on the purchase. Thunderbird has since merged with Arizona State University. Laureate, meanwhile, pursued close ties with the Clinton Foundation. The company paid to send a group of international students each year to the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York, where they conducted video interviews with CGI attendees such as actor Ted Danson and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright for broadcast to fellow Laureate students around the world. “We’re here with one of the most remarkable world leaders. We’re here with Chelsea Clinton,” said Daniel Rubio Sánchez, a student on a Laureate campus in Madrid, as he began a video interview with the former first daughter at the September 2015 CGI gathering — a few months after Bill Clinton’s contract ended — sitting in front of a glass wall inscribed with the logos of Laureate and CGI. Sánchez, 20, in an interview with The Post, called his CGI experience “really, really enriching” and one that has opened doors for him at European think tanks. “My personal profile changed greatly,” he said. The Clintons’ Laureate connection emerged as a campaign issue earlier this summer, when Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump charged that Hillary Clinton “laundered money” to her husband by funneling tens of millions of dollars in federal grants to Laureate while she was secretary of state. By all accounts, Trump’s claim was false, and his campaign did not respond to requests for documentation. The company says its campuses have received about $1.4 million total over the years in grants from the State Department and its international aid arm, USAID. Of that amount, only $15,000 came while Clinton was secretary of state — student scholarships funded by USAID, Laureate said. Publicly available grant records are not detailed enough to corroborate Laureate’s exact numbers. But the records do show that neither Laureate nor any of its campuses has received any individual grant larger than $25,000 from the State Department or USAID. Trump appeared to be drawing on — and misrepresenting — a report in the 2015 book “Clinton Cash” that grants from USAID to a separate charity chaired by Becker, the Laureate founder, increased during the Clinton years. Founded in 1989, the International Youth Foundation has partnered with Laureate campuses in some of its charitable education work. The group has received USAID funding since 1999, and its president said the increase in USAID funding under Clinton was largely the result of the receipt of multi-year grants awarded before she entered office. There is no evidence Hillary Clinton played a role in the grants, and the group’s president, William Reese, said no government money went to Laureate or Becker. Though some Republicans tried to draw parallels between Laureate and Trump University, the real estate seminar company founded by Trump that faces multiple fraud investigations, Laureate is a different sort of business. Unlike Trump University, Laureate’s campuses are fully accredited and offer graduating students valid diplomas. Compared with other universities, including its for-profit competitors, Laureate has a relatively low percentage of students who default on their loans, seen as an indicator of student financial success after graduation. A 2012 Senate report on for-profit colleges said that Laureate’s flagship U.S. school, Walden University, was the best of 30 campuses studied and that students there generally “fared well.” Still, the company has faced some complaints. A group of students at Walden, a Minneapolis-based online school, sued Laureate in 2015, arguing the institution unnecessarily dragged out their education so they would have to pay more. Laureate denied the allegation, and the lawsuit was settled out of court. As of July, three of Laureate’s five U.S. schools were included on a government list of 500 schools that receive additional financial oversight after being found out of compliance with the requirements of federal student aid programs. Outside the State Department, Laureate’s ties extended into the world of the Clintons’ in other ways. Politico has reported that Laureate and GEMS Education were both clients of Teneo Holdings, a public-relations group founded by longtime Bill Clinton aide Doug Band that also paid Clinton a $100,000 consulting fee in 2011. Band declined to comment, as did Laureate. The Clintons were also close to Duffey, a top Laureate official who has been friends with Bill and Hillary Clinton since the two worked as young staffers for his unsuccessful campaign for the Senate in Connecticut in 1970. When Hillary Clinton requested that her staff invite a Laureate official to her 2009 State Department policy dinner, it was Duffey whom she recommended, according to emails released by the State Department. People who participated in the dinner said they remember a high-level conversation about using education to boost diplomacy, held amid antique furniture in the State Department’s elegant James Monroe room. Duffey spoke positively of Laureate’s approach to overseas expansion, according to one participant. Kevin Kinser, who studies for-profit colleges at Pennsylvania State University, said that given Laureate’s rapid growth, it was not unreasonable to include a company representative in that setting. But he said Laureate’s inclusion just months before Bill Clinton began being paid by the company does not look good. “They were clearly a legitimate participant in this sort of event,” he said. “But knowing what we know now, it does seem unseemly.”

VW affair with Navistar challenges Volvo Anders Hagerstrand, Dagens Industri / September 5, 2016 After years of speculation, it seems to be clear now how Volkswagen's truck unit, VW Trucks & Bus, will break into the heavy truck market in North America. This means new challenges for the Volvo Group. Reuters reported on Monday, citing several sources, that Volkswagen Trucks & Bus is set to announce cooperation with North American truckmaker Navistar in which VW will supply engines to Navistar in exchange for a stake in the American company. The news could be presented as early as Tuesday. The deal is logical and fits both companies. Navistar has in recent years had major problems with its engine development and lost significant market share in North America. VW Truck & Bus is prepared to take a step-by-step approach into the North American truck market without being forced to pay billions for a whole company. This at a time when VW Group is suffering financially from its passenger car emissions scandal. However, there is little doubt that the long-term aim for the head of VW's truck operations, Andreas Renschler, is to take full control of the Navistar just as VW has gradually taken control of Scania and MAN in Europe. And, no need to doubt that VW's goal is to restore Navistar to being a strong truck manufacturers in North America. For Sweden's Volvo Group, the development means VW's foray into North America creates tougher competition and new challenges in both the short and the long term. Volvo Trucks is one of the brands which in recent years have gained market share in North America at Navistar's expense. With VW’s backing, Navistar will do everything to win back lost ground and today is impressively becoming a truckmaker with a market share of well over 20 percent in North America. That compares with the company's market share of 12 percent in 2015. History indicates there is a great likelihood that VW will succeed. During his time as head of Daimler Trucks, Andreas Renschler managed well by acquiring problem companies and making them successful again. VW Trucks with its Scania and MAN units, is already Europe's largest manufacturer of heavy trucks. By realizing cooperation with Navistar, VW is taking a big step towards becoming the world's largest manufacturer of both passenger cars and heavy trucks. To be greatest in both passenger cars and commercial vehicles, VW has huge economies of scale in areas such as research and development. The same economies of scale of both light and heavy vehicles presently rank Daimler as the world's largest truckmaker. Standing up to these competitors in the long-term will be a major challenge for Volvo Group, which in this context appears to be a small player. For Volvo's shareholders, it would have been better of the deal between Navistar and VW had lingered a few more years.

Scania Group Press Release / September 6, 2016

Scania Group Press Release / September 5, 2016

Scania Group Press Release / September 5, 2016

Scania Group Press Release / September 5, 2016

Scania Group Press Release / September 5, 2016 The launch of Scania’s new ­generation of trucks marks the company’s biggest ­industrial investment of the past two ­decades. The world’s most modern cab factory is manned by 283 new, high-tech robots plucked straight out of a science fiction film. Extending and ­renovating Scania’s cab factory in Oskars­hamn, Sweden, is a multi-billion kronor investment aimed at doubling production capacity and increasing quality over the coming years. But the technology used is also taking a major step into the future. Intelligent robots and their operators are part of the team in both the body works line and the new base painting works. The light grey robots are highly articulated and nimble, but also smart, and can basically learn to execute just about any operation. The overall impression is of a giant, futuristic ballet performance. “It’s completely clear to me that a premium product needs to be built in a premium plant,” says Marcus Holm, Site Manager within Cab Body Production. So, we have built the most modern factory in the world. We have used all the latest technologies and brought in a high degree of automation with the aim of obtaining a high degree of quality, but also to create the best conceivable working environment and ergonomics for our operators.” A cornerstone for the new Scania Johan Uhlin, Site Manager for Cab Assembly and Logistics also believes that the upgraded cab plant is a cornerstone for the new Scania. “If you go around the factory you can see that it’s all world class, from the ergonomics to the level of quality,” he says. Robots have long been used for so-called 3D-tasks, work that is ‘dirty, dull, and dangerous’. But in line with technological development, they are becoming increasingly advanced and interactive with help from sensors, and can be used within several more advanced areas. Investing in the most up-to-date robot technology has opened the way for a range of new exciting work tasks for staff within the Oskarshamn plant. Operators work in tight teams, together with their robots. Improved noise levels In the assembly workshop, Tom Petersson works together with two robots gluing and fastening windscreens to the cabs. One of Tom’s two robots picks up and moves around the heavy glass windscreens. The other robot fetches a camera, takes photographs, takes readings, and then says exactly how the windscreen should be glued, down to the millimetre. “I sometimes think of them as smart, agile cats, because they are so flexible and nimble. At the same time, they feel almost human and always do whatever they’re asked to do. Then, I think of them as two brothers. But mostly, I feel a big sense of pride at being able to be a part of this and at working in this futuristic plant”, says Petersson. When you slam the door on one of Scania’s new truck cabs, the sound is reminiscent of the elegant, bank vault-like sound you get when the close the door on a premium-class passenger car. One explanation for this quality improvement is Thomas Berg’s new colleague on the new door production lines in Oskars­hamn. Scania is the first truck manufacturer to automate the application of the cab door linings. The new technique, which is carried out by robots, has also made it possible to further improve noise levels for professional drivers. “At the same time, the working environment has also been improved for those of us who previously did these heavy jobs manually,” says Berg. Today, he oversees one of the robots working in door seal application, continually feeding his hungry colleague more lining. “None of the old door lining assemblers can match us working with these robots when it comes to precision,” says Berg. “It’s almost a little scary.” From sheet metal roll to finished cab Scania Oskarshamn produces truck cabs for the whole of Scania’s European production output. The advanced process is divided up into five workshops: the press shop, the bodyworks workshop, the base-painting workshop, the paint shop and the assembly workshop. Every day some 160 tonnes of galvanised plate arrives at the press workshop on big, heavy rollers. Here it’s trimmed and pressed into close to 200 different articles. A cab consists of about 310 different metal plate items. The parts are welded together into sub-components which, in turn, are placed together to create the body of the cab. The body of the cab is painted, after which the interior and exterior is assembled. The completed and quality controlled cabs are delivered to Scania’s chassis plants at Södertälje in Sweden, Zwolle in the Netherlands and Angers in France. There, the trucks undergo final assembly with engines, axles, gearboxes and other parts from Scania’s various component plants. .

In both the China and the US (the world's 1st and 2nd largest car markets), VW is many years late to the SUV party. The VW brand has lost billions in potential sales because they had nothing to offer except the poorly design Tiguan and over-priced mediocre Touareg. I honestly don't think they know how to design a good VW brand SUV. I've only ever seen one, a concept SUV based on the Amarok pickup. That would have been affordable and spacious (practical), perfect for the US market. .

Navistar International Corporation / March 23, 2015 .

Casaba Csere, Car & Driver / September 5, 2016 This new 10-speed rear-drive transmission is the result of collaboration between Ford and General Motors, although Ford had the engineering lead on it. The companies also are jointly developing a nine-speed transverse automatic for front-drive cars and crossovers; GM is leading the engineering on that effort. Not long after Ford starts cranking out F-150s with these transmissions, Chevrolet will launch it in the 2017 Camaro ZL1, coupled to the 650-hp, supercharged 6.2-liter LT4 engine from the Corvette Z06. With a torque capacity of at least 650 lb-ft, this first version of the transmission is plenty beefy to handle that track-ready machine, as well as the Ford Raptor, with its uprated 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 making upwards of 450 horsepower—maybe more. We would expect that soon afterward, we will see this design spawn a family of 10-speed automatics that are smaller and lighter to suit less-hunky rear-drive machines in the Ford and GM families. 10 Speeds Is Not All About a Wide Ratio Spread As you’d expect, Ford’s new 10R80 10-speed automatic has a wide spread of ratios between first and tenth gear. However, the overall span of 7.384 is not the widest in the business—not by a long shot. There are at least five conventional automatics, including some eight-speeds, with a wider spread. The widest is the front-drive ZF 9HP series with nine gears, as found in the Jeep Cherokee, with a total spread of 9.819. Porsche’s PDK seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox used in the Panamera goes even further with a maximum spread of 10.119. According to Kevin Norris, Ford’s manager of the 10R programs, in the applications planned for this transmission, extensive simulations indicated that there was no benefit in a span wider than 7.4. And with a top gear that isn’t excessively tall, it’s possible to stay in that gear more often at highway speeds, something that we’ve found nearly impossible to achieve with the Jeep Cherokee’s tall ninth gear. 10 Speeds Means Close Ratios and Small Gear Steps Arithmetic dictates that if the 10-speed transmission does not have a particularly wide overall ratio spread, than the individual gear spacing must be fairly close. Sure enough, with the 10R80, the average rpm drop during a shift is only 20 percent, while it’s 25 percent in the ZF eight-speed found in cars across the industry, and 32 percent in Porsche’s seven-speed PDK. This new 10-speed has closer ratios, on average, than the version of the seven-speed PDK in the latest 911 GT3. The tight ratios keep the engine closer to peak power during full-throttle acceleration and, according to Norris, provide for smoother operation when towing a trailer, a matter of some importance in the F-150 world. 10 Speeds Allow the Two Top Gears to be Very Close Tenth gear in the 10R80 transmission has an overdrive ratio of 0.636. Ninth is 0.689. That’s a drop of only eight percent, making for a nearly imperceptible 10-to-9 downshift when needed. While Norris promises that tenth gear is a genuinely useful gear in the F-150 and the transmission will stay in that gear over a wide range of highway conditions, the close ninth ratio helps when the truck is heavily loaded or towing a substantial amount. The transmission also offers “Tow/Haul” and “Sport” modes, which also usefully employ the ninth gear—almost as an alternative top gear. Eighth gear also is an overdrive, with a ratio of 0.854. Standard with the EcoBoost V-6 Though much of the initial hype about this transmission centers on its installation in Ford’s upcoming new Raptor and the Camaro ZL1, it will first go on sale in the 2017 F-150 that's coupled to the upgraded version of the Ford 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6, which now makes 375 horsepower and 470 lb-ft of torque. The 10R80 will be standard equipment with that engine and its close ratios nicely match the engine’s copious low-rpm torque. On the EPA city cycle, the F-150 with this powertrain never sees engine rpm exceed 1450 rpm. In other words, plan to get much worse real-world fuel economy. Although, when you step into it, Ford claims the transmission and engine controls coordinate carefully to avoid situations where the engine comes onto boost exactly when the transmission downshifts, thereby providing a larger jolt of acceleration than the driver wanted. The 10-Speed is Barely Larger and Heavier than the 6-Speed Thanks to the use of four simple planetary gearsets, controlled by six clutches, the 10R80 is only about an inch longer and four pounds heavier than the 6F55 transmission currently used with the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6. This required very careful attention to detail in the design of each component. For example, the torque converter in the transmission (pictured above) is about 0.4 inch thinner and two pounds lighter than the one in its predecessor. Part of the weight reduction comes from an aluminum stator support, a formerly cast-iron part. In fact, the new transmission has no cast-iron parts whatsoever. Sophisticated Hydraulic Pumps The clutches in an automatic transmission are hydraulically actuated and controlled, so the new transmission relies on two special pumps to provide the necessary hydraulic muscle. The main pump is an off-axis design with variable displacement. Removing the pump from the transmission’s main shaft reduces overall length; the variable-displacement capability means that the pump’s output can be adjusted to the transmission’s needs, reducing the power that the pump absorbs. A second, electrically driven hydraulic pump allows idle-stop capability. The electrically driven pump is both more reliable and more compact than a hydraulic accumulator, while using very little power. Transmission Fluid is Critical Just as engine oil seems to get thinner every year, so does transmission fluid, in search of reduced friction. Back when four-speed automatics were the norm, transmission fluid had a viscosity of around 7.5 centistokes. The Ford six-speed uses fluid with a viscosity of 6.0 centistokes. The new 10-speed drops that to about 4.5 centistokes, reducing both friction and the workload of the hydraulic pumps. The new fluid is called Mercon ULV, and is planned to last the lifetime of the transmission, aided by a new filter that has two levels of high-efficiency media and a pleated design with much greater area than the filter in the current six-speed transmission. It also helps that the transmissions are assembled in factories that set new industry standards for cleanliness. Clean, Crisp, and Fast Shifts With a low first-gear ratio of 4.696, the torque converter basically aids in a smooth launch, then quickly locks up and stays that way. Shifting is controlled by the six clutches, which engage and disengage two at a time to swap cogs swiftly and smoothly. These shifts do not require the torque converter to unlock, which would decrease efficiency. These clutches are controlled by integrated solenoid valves, which respond more quickly than the usual two-piece designs. The system has also been designed to minimize the length of the hydraulic passages and optimize the clutch designs for quick fill times—all in the interest of faster and more responsive clutch operation. Although we’re skeptical, and these kinds of claims are heavily dependent on exactly what constitutes the start and end of a shift, Ford claims transmission shifts 26 percent–36 percent more quickly than Porsche’s PDK, at least through fourth gear. The transmission can also perform large, multi-gear downshifts—directly from tenth to fifth, or ninth to fourth—smoothly and rapidly. There’s also a one-way clutch, which smoothly and cleanly disengages the transmission when rolling to a stop, avoiding a potentially jarring 3-1 downshift. Low-Friction Shifts In addition to the efficient hydraulic pumps and the low-viscosity fluid, there are other measures to reduce the transmission’s mechanical friction. For example, instead of flat thrust washers, the 10R80 uses ones fitted with radial needle bearings, replacing sliding friction with the lower rolling variety. Even the multi-plate clutches get tiny springs which push the plates apart to minimize their drag when they are not engaged. As a result, the new transmission is more efficient in each of its gears than the six-speed it replaces. Not a Huge Fuel-Economy Improvement For all of these improvements in friction reduction, low-viscosity fluid, and the multiplicity of gears, Ford is only claiming very modest fuel economy improvements for the new transmission. Compared with the existing six-speed automatic, Ford suggests a 3-percent-to-4-percent gain—barely a single mpg in the case of the F-150. That’s very odd, because when ZF introduced its eight-speed automatic, the company claimed an 11-percent fuel-economy improvement over its existing six-speed automatic. Aisin claimed a 6.6-percent-to–7.0 percent improvement with its eight-speed automatics, while Mercedes suggests a gain of up to six percent when going from the 7G-Tronic to the 9G-Tronic. Ford is adding four gears rather than two, yet only expecting half as much benefit. Perhaps Ford is engaging in a serious bit of under-promising here. We would be shocked to see less than 2-mpg-to–3 mpg of improvement once the ’17 F-150 is certified—especially because the truck also gets that improved version of the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6. .

I would never buy a Volkswagen today, particularly if it rested on the new cheaper-for-VW-to-build "MQB" platform. Ford of Europe builds superb cars, however when they're brought over to the North American market and homologated, they are also subtly decontented and you lose the quality and many powertrain options available on the continent. If Ford brings the diesel Everest to North America (allegedly to be rebadged as Bronco) and doesn't change it to death, you'll be standing behind me in line to order one. If I had to buy a "car", for example in the size range you have in mind........something with the flexibility of the Golf Sportwagen (or predecessor Jetta Sportwagen in the U.S. market) that's available in the US market, that's a very tough dilemma. There's really nothing out there. If you wanted a VW, you can't get the Touran, Sharan, Golf Sportsvan or Passat Estate here (http://en.volkswagen.com/en/models.html). If a wagen, you can't get the superb Octavia Combi (http://www.skoda-auto.com/en/models/new-octavia-combi/overview/). You can't get the Honda CRV diesel, or the Highlander with the advanced new fuel-saving direct injection D-4ST.

If you had come to the December 2015 BMT Investors meeting in St. Maarten (Barry never disappoints), you would have bought into NAV at $6 in January, and could sell tomorrow at $14. Why you pay the annual fee but rarely attend functions is beyond many of us. BMT Investors has never announced a buy recommendation on Cummins. That purchase was your call.

Navistar, union motor along at local plant The Springfield News-Sun / September 5, 2016 A local union representing more than 1,500 area residents is seeing growth just a few years after local officials feared Navistar’s Springfield facility might close. Instead, union leaders and company officials worked together and recently secured two major deals with GM expected to bring about 600 jobs to Springfield. Navistar has seen signs of success in Clark County after the company has faced struggles in recent years due to a failed engine technology. As recently as 2010, local officials have said the Springfield facility had as few as 300 workers. But the company has since changed its top management, cut hundreds of jobs at its corporate offices and sold off parts of its business. The Springfield facility has benefited, and had closer to 1,500 workers even before the company announced two separate joint agreements with GM. In part that’s because of the relationship union officials have forged with the company’s top management, said Jason Barlow, president of the UAW Local 402, which represents most of the facility’s workers. “At the end of the day, we have to keep our membership building quality products for our customers or we won’t have jobs,” Barlow said. Last year, the truckmaker announced a deal with GM to build medium-duty trucks in Springfield with a pledge to add as many as 300 jobs over three years. This summer, the company reached a second deal with GM to add an additional 300 jobs in which workers will build a cutaway model of GM’s G Van beginning early next year. The company has already begun to ramp up hiring, and will reopen a manufacturing line in Springfield that had been closed since about 2001 to build the vans. The company is now hiring between 20 and 25 people per week in preparation for new production, Barlow said. That means a boost for the union’s membership as well, many of whom joined the UAW since 2011. “We feel this is a much-needed boost and reassurance, and Navistar said they want to make this a flagship facility,” Barlow said of the Springfield plant. Another change could be on the horizon. Rueters reported Monday that Volkswagen will take a roughly 20 percent stake in Navistar International Corp for around $16 per share as part of a partnership deal. Reuters reported that Volkswagen’s trucks division is close to announcing a partnership with Navistar, in the latest example of a deal driven by emissions regulations. Navistar officials could not be reached for additional comments on Monday. In June, Navistar announced it turned a small profit for the first time since the third quarter of 2012. Analysts said the achievement was significant but should be kept in perspective because the company also lowered its estimate for future earnings. Navistar is expected to release its third quarter earnings report later this week.

Scania offers FAR alternative fuel options than Cummins, and they design them in-house. The Cummins-Westport engines are mediocre, and their exhaust aftertreatment technology (Cummins Filtration) is 2 steps behind the global leaders in the field. Cummins is sucking wind. Navistar is looking good. But having said that, engine options are limited. Some people don't like Cummins. Navistar must have at least two engine options (it's a shame one can no longer get a Detroit in an International, thanks to Daimler). The tie-up with VW will result in Navistar's current engine supplier, MAN, providing direct support the development of future engines to meet stricter emissions. And the Scania engines are at their disposal as well. This is going to save Navistar a lot of money and provide it with cutting edge engines far better than Cummins. NAV CEO Troy Clarke said that he wanted to form strategic partnerships.......not sell the farm. I can accept a 19.9% minority stake in return for access to MAN and Scania powertrains.