kscarbel2

The Financial Times / May 30, 2016 Campaigners say industry strongly resisted attempts to cut fuel consumption and emissions EU parliamentarians and environmental campaigners have long had suspicions about Europe’s truckmakers. For 20 years, lorries seemed strangely impervious to market forces that were supposed to make them more fuel efficient and reduce hazardous emissions. Some clues to the mystery emerged in November 2014, when Brussels levelled formal cartel charges against the continent’s biggest truck manufacturers: DAF, Daimler, Iveco, MAN, Volvo/Renault and Scania. Accused of widespread price-fixing between 1997 and 2011 and delaying the introduction of new emissions technologies, the companies are expected to receive the highest cartel fine in EU history in the coming months — running to several billion euros. But the cartel investigation is only one strand of a far broader pattern of alleged collusive behaviour by lorry makers and the governments that lobby for them. Environmental campaigners argue that the cartel relates to the pricing and timing of technologies intended to reduce toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx), which exacerbate lung and heart ailments. However, beyond the scope of the cartel inquiry, they also allege that the truck industry has strongly resisted attempts to improve fuel consumption and slash emissions of carbon dioxide, the most significant greenhouse gas. Emissions from lorries are a subject of intense concern because they produce about 25 per cent of the CO2 from road transport, while representing fewer than 5 per cent of vehicles on the roads. Despite new, greener technologies being available, the European Commission reported in 2014 that heavy vehicles’ fuel efficiency had stagnated since the mid-1990s and estimated that their CO2 emissions increased 36 per cent between 1990 and 2010. One of the most conspicuous cases of lorry makers flexing their muscles to resist technological change came in December 2014. The commission and European Parliament had pushed to introduce rules by 2017 that would enable truckmakers to replace their brick-shaped cabs with more aerodynamic and fuel efficient designs. Countries such as France and Sweden lobbied hard to push the start-date to 2025 to protect their domestic producers. Finally, the parties struck a compromise of 2022. Michael Cramer, chairman of the European Parliament’s transport committee, complained that member states’ protection of their truck manufacturers lay in stark contrast to Europe’s other main industries, which had cleaned up their businesses dramatically since 1990. “Transport is nullifying efforts in other sectors,” he told the Financial Times. William Todts from the Transport and Environment campaign group accused the truckmakers of squandering a “unique opportunity” to produce a new generation of smooth-nosed, fuel efficient vehicles. “Instead of making the most of it, truckmakers got together and made a deal among themselves to block new designs for another decade. It’s this attitude that helps explaining 20 years of very little progress on truck fuel efficiency,” he said. The motor industry says that its performance in CO2 emissions should be rated over a longer timeframe, noting big improvements since the mid-1960s. Lorry manufacturers have also argued that they have made very significant steps to slice NOx emissions after the introduction of the so-called Euro 6 standards in 2014. Scania launched a Euro 6 truck as early as 2011 and Iveco insists it is embracing the “challenge of sustainability”. Daimler invested €2.8bn into improving environmental standards in vehicles of all types last year. However, Transport and Environment has conducted recent surveys that provide further evidence of a lack of competition on fuel efficiency. Research published this month has found that only 3 per cent of French and German hauliers had ever switched brands to improve fuel efficiency. Of 180 small and medium-sized hauliers across five big EU countries — France, Germany, Britain, Spain and Poland — only 12 per cent had ever changed brand. Mr Todts said that the difference in fuel efficiency between the main truck models on offer was only about 5 per cent, although the vehicles were far from having reached maximum efficiency. Stressing that the “market alone cannot do the job”, Mr Todts called for the EU to legislate on binding standards for CO2 emissions as the US, Canada, Japan and China have done. ACEA, the European Motor Manufacturers’ Association, declined to comment specifically on the alleged cartel involving its members. However, it has played down the impact of Europe’s heavy-duty vehicles, saying that they represent only 5 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions., while transporting 75 per cent of all land-based freight. “Since 1965, the fuel consumption of European trucks — and with that CO2 emissions — has come down by 60 per cent,” ACEA said in a statement this year. “At the same time, truckmakers have delivered enormous advances in air quality. Pollutant emissions have been slashed to near-zero levels, down 98 per cent since 1990.” .

I agree, this is an experimental stepping stone. But it's still valuable from a knowledge-building perspective. I do like the Jost KKS system though.

TNT Deal Raises FedEx Employment to Almost 400,000 Transport Topics / May 29, 2016 In one fell swoop, FedEx ballooned to nearly 400,000 employees worldwide and close to $58 billion in annual revenues. The jewel of FedEx's acquisition of TNT Express last week is a European road network linking 40 countries, but the heart of FedEx remains in Memphis, Tennessee. No immediate impact was foreseen on FedEx's Memphis area workforce of more than 30,000, but the company's continued growth as a force in world commerce would have a ripple effect. FedEx is the that area's largest private employer. TNT and FedEx, the Nos. 3 and 4 players in the $60 billion European express delivery market, on May 25 consummated a $4.9 billion deal that had been brewing since early 2015. The combination promises to make FedEx a bigger player in Europe by building on TNT's road network and improving international connections. FedEx ranks No. 2 on the Transport Topics list of the 50 largest global freight carriers; TNT had been No. 22. UPS is No. 1. FedEx also moved into a virtual dead heat with chief U.S. rival UPS in total revenues, although it still trails the Atlanta-based company's workforce of 444,000. A decade ago, FedEx had two-thirds of UPS' annual revenues. FedEx chief spokesman Patrick Fitzgerald discussed the integration, which is expected to take four years, and potential impact in Memphis. He acknowledged that in the short term, "I wouldn't have anything to point to tangibly that people would see." FedEx is moving European headquarters from Brussels, Belgium, into TNT's home base in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands. FedEx Express is adding TNT's airfreight hub in Liege, Belgium, to principal European hubs Paris-Charles De Gaulle and Cologne, Germany. FedEx's pattern in the past has been to leave newly acquired companies' headquarters where they are. FedEx Ground, which grew out of a 1998 purchase of Caliber System/Roadway Package Service, is based in Moon Township outside Pittsburgh. FedEx Office, rooted in the acquisition of Kinko's in 2004, moved into a new world headquarters in Plano, Texas, last year. FedEx declined to break down employee numbers in the Memphis area, including the FedEx Express World Headquarters on Hacks Cross, the hub at Memphis International Airport and FedEx World Technology Center in Collierville. Memphis airport officials have pegged hub employment at "more than 11,000," and a 2015 FedEx report to Collierville said the tech center employed 2,709. FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight have service centers and sorting facilities. Fitzgerald is senior vice president of integrated marketing and communications. His responses have been edited for brevity. Commercial Appeal: Will a growing market share in Europe and other countries served by TNT feed more volume into the hub? Fitzgerald: There's significant potential for growth, which would affect all of our operations, and obviously the hub here in Memphis is at the heart of FedEx Express and FedEx Express operations. It should be very positive for all our employees. CA: Will this acquisition have an impact on the big operations that are already here, the hub, world headquarters? Fitzgerald: Our team members will certainly be aware of being on a larger team. We're moving to approximately 400,000 team members around the world. It's just the latest step in the evolution and growth of FedEx. We're a growing, successful organization that continues to be very proud to be headquartered here in Memphis. Just in terms of our success as a company and a growth engine or driving engine is the growth of e-commerce, which I think everybody feels in just day-to-day retail and business patterns. We play a key role in that, and the acquisition of TNT will help us continue to grow that. You may notice some things that way. CA: How quickly will FedEx move to rebrand the combined operation? Fitzgerald: The TNT brand is very strong, so it's really something that we want to make sure we pursue in the most effective course for the brand and not lose any of the strength of either brand. The combined brand together will be stronger, but specific considerations, the vehicles and aircraft, country by country, that's all going to be part of the integration process. It's not to say we in any way want to diminish the strength of the TNT brand. We've done some significant acquisitions in the past and that includes Flying Tigers and RPS, FedEx Ground, Kinko's and FedEx Office. We do have some experience in this and each one's a bit different. In this case, because this is such a large international integration, we do have to consider country by country, so it may vary by territory in terms of brand transitions.

Green Car Congress / May 30, 2016 Furrer + Frey, a provider of rail electrification and rapid charging systems for transport, is proposing tractor swapping as a solution for the electrification of long-haul trucking. Furrer + Frey is a long-time partner of Opbrid, the provider of the overhead pantograph-based ultra-fast charging Opbrid Bůsbaar for buses (earlier post). At IAA 2014, Opbrid introduced the Trůkbaar for heavy-duty trucks; the Trůkbaar is one element for the Furrer + Frey tractor swapping solution. Furrer + Frey has also acquired Opbrid, and folded it into its operations. (Earlier post.) http://www.opbrid.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79&Itemid=73&lang=en http://www.opbrid.com/~opbridco/images/ff_opbrid_en_low.pdf In a presentation outlining the concept, Roger Bedell (founder of Opbrid and now onboard with Furrer + Frey), notes that numerous studies suggest that in 2020-2030, heavy-duty vehicles may overtake passenger cars as the largest global contributor to fuel consumption and GHG emissions in the transport sector. A variety of solutions have been suggested for shifting long-haul trucking to electric drive, including the use of overhead catenaries (earlier post); in-road inductive charging; ultra-fast battery recharging; and battery swapping. The first two require major investments in infrastructure; the third relies on heavier, lower energy density LTO batteries and ultra-high charging rates; and the fourth is technically difficult, given the size of the battery packs and the need for expensive, dedicated stations, Bedell observes. Under the proposed tractor swapping model, a tractor-trailer with a low battery charge would pull into a station where a fully charged tractor is waiting. The driver switches tractors, and departs with a full pack. The first tractor then recharges. Several enabling technologies can streamline the process: Jost KKS automated coupling system. This is a fully automatic driver assistance system that controls all functions of the coupling and decoupling process that have previously been performed manually. This also includes the first automated interface for pneumatic and electric connections. Furrer + Frey Opbrid Trůkbaar. The Opbrid Trůkbaar is designed for ultra high power mode 4 DC charging, up to 650 kW. This amount of power transfer uses the conductive technology transferred from the European electric rail industry by Furrer + Frey. This amount of power transfer enables scenarios such as super short charge stops and 24-hour operation. Although the advantages are clear (simple and fast, without the need for large infrastructure projects), there are a number of disadvantages that need to be addressed Bedell points out: Need for precise scheduling to avoid idle tractors. Installation on the KKS system on participating tractors and trailers. Delays can propagate through the system—similar to delays in air travel. The business model favors large shippers. Bedell estimates that the range required per tractor will be about 200 km (124 miles), plus a buffer for wind, hills, etc. Tractor-trailer electricity consumption is approximately the same as a 12 m bus, or about 1kWh/km. Doubling that (2kWh/km) would result in a pack of about 400 kWh.

Going Electric: The Next Phase in Forced Induction Not long ago, the only info about electric supercharging in these pages was in the classified section next to a male-enhancement ad. Only one of those products actually worked. Electric supercharging, long rumored but never fully realized, is finally happening. Audi’s upcoming SQ7 TDI pairs an electric supercharger with sequential turbos on the SUV’s 4.0-liter diesel V-8. It’s a first for a production vehicle. As with a conventional centrifugal supercharger, an e-supercharger uses a traditional compressor wheel but drives it with an electric motor rather than a crank-driven belt. E-superchargers draw their power from batteries or capacitors, which can be charged via regenerative braking or, in the case of the SQ7, a beefy generator and a 48-volt sub-system. The biggest benefits of e-supercharging are power and response, particularly at low engine speeds. Because an e-supercharger’s ability to create boost is not coupled to exhaust energy or engine rpm, it offers flexibility not found in alternatives. Though traditional turbocharging remains a more efficient means of adding power, it has drawbacks such as lag. As engines downsize and pressurize, e-supercharging offers the ability to size a compressor for a power target without sacrificing low-rpm drivability. It does so by filling in the torque-less void below the turbo’s threshold for creating boost. This is exactly how Audi is using the Valeo-supplied electric supercharger in the SQ7 TDI. Electric superchargers won’t replace turbos, but they allow for the optimization of turbos and other technologies. For example, deactivated cylinders can remain dormant longer when supported by e-supercharging. And in Miller-cycle engines, which have a longer-than-normal expansion ratio, an electric blower can replace a traditional supercharger to reduce parasitic losses. Valeo describes its e-supercharger as an enabling technology, which gives it at least one thing in common with those male-enhancement products. .

Fat Leonard: The man who seduced the Navy's 7th fleet and the sting that revealed the trail of corruption The Washington Post / May 30, 2016 For months, a small team of Navy investigators and federal prosecutors secretly devised options for a high-stakes international manhunt. Could the target be snatched from his home base in Asia and rendered to the United States? Or held captive aboard an American warship? Making the challenge even tougher was the fact that the man was a master of espionage. His moles had burrowed deep into the Navy hierarchy to leak him a stream of military secrets, thwarting previous efforts to bring him to justice. The target was not a terrorist, nor a spy for a foreign power, nor the kingpin of a drug cartel. But rather a 350-pound defense contractor nicknamed Fat Leonard, who had befriended a generation of Navy leaders with cigars and liquor whenever they made port calls in Asia. Leonard Glenn Francis was legendary on the high seas for his charm and his appetite for excess. For years, the Singapore-based businessman had showered Navy officers with gifts, epicurean dinners, prostitutes and, if necessary, cash bribes so they would look the other way while he swindled the Navy to refuel and resupply its ships. In the end, federal agents settled on a risky sting operation to try to nab Fat Leonard. They would lure him to California, dangling a meeting with admirals who hinted they had lucrative contracts to offer. He took the bait. On Sept. 16, 2013, Francis was arrested in his hotel suite overlooking San Diego's harbor. It was the opening strike in a sweep covering three states and seven countries, as hundreds of law enforcement agents arrested other suspects and seized incriminating files from Francis's business empire. A 51-year-old Malaysian citizen, Francis has since pleaded guilty to fraud and bribery charges. His firm, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, is financially ruined. But his arrest exposed something else that is still emerging three years later: a staggering degree of corruption within the Navy itself. Much more than a contracting scandal, the investigation has revealed how Francis seduced the Navy's storied 7th Fleet, long a proving ground for admirals given its strategic role in patrolling the Pacific and Indian oceans. In perhaps the worst national-security breach of its kind to hit the Navy since the end of the Cold War, Francis doled out sex and money to a shocking number of people in uniform who fed him classified material about U.S. warship and submarine movements. Some also leaked him confidential contracting information and even files about active law enforcement investigations into his company. He exploited the intelligence for illicit profit, brazenly ordering his moles to redirect aircraft carriers to ports he controlled in Southeast Asia so he could more easily bilk the Navy for fuel, tugboats, barges, food, water and sewage removal. Over at least a decade, according to documents filed by prosecutors, Glenn Defense ripped off the Navy with little fear of getting caught because Francis had so thoroughly infiltrated the ranks. The company forged invoices, falsified quotes and ran kickback schemes. It created ghost subcontractors and fake port authorities to fool the Navy into paying for services it never received. Francis and his firm have admitted to defrauding the Navy of $35 million, though investigators believe the real amount could be much greater. "I ask, when has something like this, bribery of this magnitude, ever happened in this district or in our country's history?" Robert Huie, an assistant U.S. attorney in San Diego, said during a court hearing last year. "Mr. Francis's conduct has passed from being merely exceptional to being the stuff of history and legend." Today, the Navy remains in the grip of overlapping civilian and military investigations that are slowly unraveling long skeins of misconduct. Four Navy officers, an enlisted sailor and a senior agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service have pleaded guilty to federal crimes and are already behind bars or are facing prison time. So have Francis and two other Glenn Defense executives. On Friday, three more current and former Navy officers were charged in federal court with corruption-related offenses. Charges are pending against two former Navy contracting officials who were arrested last year. Many others remain under investigation. Exactly how many is a mystery. When he pleaded guilty, Francis admitted to bribing "scores" of Navy officials with cash, sex and gifts worth millions of dollars – all so he could win more defense contracts and overcharge with impunity. A federal prosecutor hinted at the extent of the case last year when he said in court that more than 200 "subjects" were under investigation. A striking portion of the Navy's senior brass could be tarnished. In December, Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, summoned about 200 admirals to a special gathering in Washington. Without naming names, he revealed that about 30 of them were under criminal investigation by the Justice Department or ethical scrutiny by the Navy for their connections to Francis, according to two senior Navy officials with direct knowledge of the meeting. The damage to the Navy could match the toll from the Tailhook scandal of the early 1990s, when 14 admirals were reprimanded or forced to resign over an epic outbreak of sexual assault at a naval aviators' convention. Because all but five of the 14 defendants charged in the Fat Leonard case have pleaded guilty and no trials have taken place, only a small fraction of the evidence has been made public so far. This account of how Francis corrupted the Navy is based on interviews with more than two dozen current and former Navy officials, as well as hundreds of pages of court filings, contracting records and military documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Ethan Posner, an attorney for Francis, declined to comment. The Navy declined interview requests and referred questions to the Justice Department. The investigation has mushroomed partly because Glenn Defense was a pillar of U.S. maritime operations for a quarter-century. The 7th Fleet depended on the firm more than any other to refuel and resupply its vessels. "The Soviets couldn't have penetrated us better than Leonard Francis," said a retired Navy officer who worked closely with Francis and spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisal. "He's got people skills that are off the scale. He can hook you so fast that you don't see it coming. … At one time he had infiltrated the entire leadership line. The KGB could not have done what he did." In his dealings with the Americans, Francis went to great lengths to ingratiate himself with senior officers, recognizing that they often cared more about high-quality service than how the bill would be paid. Whenever a Navy vessel arrived in port, the odds were high that Francis would be waiting at the pier. Like a five-star concierge, he would arrange for shopping trips, sightseeing tours and concert tickets. A limousine and driver would be reserved for the ship's commander. Select sailors would be invited to an extravagant banquet, featuring cognac and whiskey, Cohiba cigars from Cuba, and platters of Spanish suckling pig and Kobe beef. Francis would sometimes fly in a band of pole dancers, which he called his Elite Thai SEAL Team, for X-rated shows, court records show. In another display of panache, he purchased an aging, decommissioned British warship, the RFA Sir Lancelot. He refurbished and renamed it the Glenn Braveheart. The vessel became the flagship of his fleet, and it would often deploy alongside the USS Blue Ridge, the 7th Fleet's flagship. When in port, Francis would sometimes turn the Braveheart into a giant party boat, with prostitutes in the wardroom to entertain U.S. officers, according to court records and interviews. Even when he didn't offer anything illicit, Francis earned a reputation as a reliable and responsive businessman who was eager to help the Navy in unfamiliar locales. Soon enough, senior officers were dashing off ebullient thank-you notes known as Bravo Zulus, a Navy term meaning "well done." Glenn Defense also would dispense its largesse under the guise of charity. The firm became a leading sponsor of the Navy League of the United States, a civilian nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of the Navy. Francis didn't hesitate to exploit his connections, especially when lower-ranking officers challenged his exorbitant bills, according to several current and former Navy officers and court documents. David Schaus, a junior officer assigned to the Navy's Ship Support Office in Hong Kong, became livid after receiving a huge invoice from Glenn Defense in 2004. Schaus said it charged the Navy for pumping 100,000 gallons of sewage from a destroyer that spent four days in port – an impossible amount, because the ship's tanks held just 12,000 gallons and were serviced only once a day. Schaus told The Post that he summoned Francis for an explanation. "He became furious, accusing me of calling him a liar. And I told him, 'I am calling you a liar.' He said, 'Lieutenants don't tell me what to do. Do you know who I am?' He was being profane and banging on the table." Afterward, Schaus said he was told by other Navy officials to back off, something that he said invariably happened when he raised questions about Glenn Defense. The company "was rotten from the first day I worked with them in 2004, and everyone knew they were rotten," Schaus said. "If you tried to rock the boat, you got squashed." Later that year, on Christmas Eve, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and three other warships arrived in Hong Kong. Francis threw a Christmas party for the visiting officers at the Island Shangri-La, a five-star hotel. They were treated to filet mignon, lobster and Dom Pérignon champagne, and they mingled with female escorts dressed as Santa's little helpers, according to Schaus and a second officer who was present in port. A handful of senior officers were invited to an after-party with the escorts, whom Francis had dubbed the "Santa Niñas," or Santa's girls, according to a third individual who was present. The next day, Francis boarded one of the warships and delivered a $600,000 sewage bill, according to the second officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he remains on active duty and wasn't authorized to speak to a reporter. Eighteen months later, the cycle repeated itself when another aircraft carrier visited Hong Kong. Rear Adm. Michael H. Miller, commander of the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group, knew Francis well. In early 2006, he emailed the contractor to say he'd be coming to Asia soon, that he looked forward to renewing their friendship and could use some shopping advice, according to Navy documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The Reagan and three other ships in the strike group docked in Hong Kong on June 10. The next day, at Miller's request, Francis arranged a splendid banquet for officers at the Island Shangri-La, this time at Petrus, a swanky French restaurant with views of Victoria Harbor. One week earlier, when the strike group had visited Malaysia, Francis took them to the Chalet Suisse restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. Before that, in Singapore, he arranged for dinner at Jaan, ranked as one of Asia's 50 best restaurants. To comply with ethics rules, Miller and two other senior officers wrote personal checks to reimburse Francis. They estimated the fair market value at between $50 and $70 per meal. In fact, the dinners actually cost more than 10 times that much: about $750 per person, according to the findings of a Navy disciplinary investigation that was completed last year. After the meals, Miller and other officers showered Francis with Bravo Zulu messages. "You are as much a member of the U.S. Navy team as any of us, and we are all proud to call you 'Shipmate,' " Miller wrote to Francis two days after he left Hong Kong. The Navy investigation found Miller's note amounted to an official endorsement of Glenn Defense, a violation of ethics rules. He was formally censured by the Navy last year and retired soon after. He declined to comment. Schaus, the ship support officer, said he suspected at the time that Glenn Defense was overcharging the Navy for the Reagan's visit. He alerted NCIS and asked for a criminal inquiry. An NCIS agent assigned to the Reagan interviewed him, he said. But the case went nowhere and only provoked a backlash. "Everybody on the ship hated me," Schaus said. He resigned his Navy commission a few months later. He said he left for many reasons but "the endemic corruption I observed during my short tenure of working within the supply world was certainly a major factor." Around the same time, Francis planted a couple of moles in the Navy's regional contracting office in Singapore. Starting in 2006, Sharon Gursharan Kaur, a Singapore national who worked for the Navy, leaked confidential contract information to Francis for about $100,000 in cash and luxury vacations in Bali and Dubai, according to the Singapore Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau. Kaur has been charged with corruption and money-laundering offenses in Singapore. Her case is pending. Her attorney did not respond to emails seeking comment. Also in 2006, Francis began a relationship with Paul Simpkins, an American civilian who worked in Singapore as a Navy contract supervisor. Over the course of several surreptitious meetings in a Singapore hotel bar, Francis offered Simpkins $50,000 to rig the bidding for Navy contracts in Thailand and the Philippines, according to a federal indictment of Simpkins. Prosecutors allege Simpkins demanded more and ultimately received $450,000 in cash and payments wired to foreign bank accounts controlled by his wife. In addition to allegedly rigging the Navy contracts for Francis, Simpkins served as a secret fixer in other matters for Glenn Defense, according to the indictment. For example, when a Navy official in Singapore flagged questionable bills from the company related to a port visit by the USS Decatur, a guided missile destroyer, Simpkins nipped the inquiry in the bud, prosecutors said. "Do not request any invoices from this ship," Simpkins ordered his colleague in an email, according to court records. "Do not violate this instruction. Contact the ship and rescind your request." Prosecutors also allege that in 2007, Simpkins ordered the Navy's Hong Kong office to stop using flow meters to measure the amount of sewage that Glenn Defense pumped from ships, making it easier for the firm to gouge the Navy for the service. Simpkins has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment. Francis's most audacious achievement was his penetration of 7th Fleet headquarters in Japan. Four officers and an enlisted sailor who worked there have pleaded guilty to taking bribes. In each case, court records show, Francis or his executives carefully groomed their targets, befriending them while searching for weak points: money or marital problems, alcohol, loneliness, lust, low self-esteem. Lt. Cmdr. Todd Malaki, a logistics planner for the 7th Fleet, said he was introduced by his commander to Francis in 2004 at one of the contractor's famous parties. "He was charming, personable and incredibly influential," Malaki recalled in a confessional letter to a federal judge. "As we drank together, he convinced me into believing that we were friends and he was a mentor. I'm ashamed to admit that I wanted to believe we were equals." Before long, Malaki was handing over classified ship schedules and proprietary information about Glenn Defense's competitors. In turn, Francis gave him about $3,000 in cash, paid for him to stay in hotels around Asia and provided him with a prostitute after a night at a Malaysian karaoke club. Malaki was sentenced in January to a 40-month prison term. In 2010, Glenn Defense executives hooked Dan Layug, a petty officer who worked in logistics for 7th Fleet, initially by bribing him with a free cellphone, court records show. Over the next three years, as Layug leaked competitors' secrets and classified ship schedules to the firm, it rewarded him with more electronic gadgets, including video-game consoles, cameras and tablet computers. The company also provided free hotel rooms in ports across Asia to him and his friends. Eventually, Layug worked his way up to an allowance of $1,000 a month. According to prosecutors, he'd drive to the Glenn Defense offices in Japan, roll down his window in the parking lot and exchange classified material for a cash-filled envelope. He was sentenced to 27 months in prison. Capt. Daniel Dusek, who served as deputy director of operations for the 7th Fleet, said in court papers that a mentor introduced Francis to him in 2010 as "a great friend of the Navy." Within months, Glenn Defense began supplying him with prostitutes, alcohol and stays at luxury hotels. In turn, Dusek handed over classified ship schedules and steered aircraft carriers to "fat revenue ports" controlled by Glenn Defense. Dusek was sentenced in March to 46 months in prison. He declined to comment for this article. Perhaps the most effective bribe Francis offered was sex. He was choosy about his prostitutes and worked with trusted escort agencies in several countries. He kept meticulous notes about the physical desires of Navy officials, such as who liked Thai girls, or group sex. Sometimes, he would debrief the hookers afterward, looking for scraps of information he could exploit, according to court records and an individual familiar with his methods. Once, he personally videotaped a Navy officer having sex with twin Vietnamese prostitutes in a hotel room in Singapore, according to two people familiar with the incident. In 2010, Glenn Defense executives began targeting Cmdr. Michael Misiewicz, another married officer who was moving to 7th Fleet headquarters. Edmond Aruffo, a retired Navy officer who headed Glenn Defense’s operations in Japan, took Misiewicz out to dinner. Then he paid for the commander and his family to attend a production of “The Lion King” in Tokyo. “We gotta get him hooked on something,” Francis told Aruffo in an email entered into court records. Within weeks, Aruffo discovered that Misiewicz had a fondness for Japanese prostitutes, liked fancy hotels and needed to pay for international travel for his extended family. The contractor obliged repeatedly on all counts, and soon Misiewicz was funneling classified material to the company. “We got him!!:)” Aruffo emailed Francis. Misiewicz and Francis emailed, phoned and texted each other thousands of times, according to prosecutors. In a court filing, they said the officer became Francis’s “trained bulldog” in 7th Fleet headquarters and fed him highly sensitive military secrets, including information about ballistic missile defense operations in the Pacific. Misiewicz was sentenced in April to 6½ years in prison. In 2010, Glenn Defense's fraudulent tactics finally began to draw serious attention from the Navy. NCIS opened two separate criminal investigations into the company for its billing practices in Thailand and Japan. But Francis had another ace in the hole: a turncoat law enforcement agent. John Beliveau II, an NCIS agent based in Singapore and later at Quantico, Va., had known Francis for at least two years. In exchange for prostitutes, cash and other favors, he tapped into an NCIS database as the cases unfolded and fed Francis raw material from investigators' notes and interviews. According to prosecutors, the information enabled Francis to cover his tracks and intimidate witnesses. His NCIS spy proved so reliable and so valuable that Francis became giddy. "I have inside Intel from NCIS and read all the reports," Francis boasted in a 2011 email to another one of his moles. "I will show you a copy of a Classified Command File on me from NCIS ha ha." In the end, Francis's overconfidence led to his downfall. Navy officials eventually realized that Francis had infiltrated NCIS. Cybersecurity teams discovered that Beliveau had been downloading hundreds of files about Francis from the law enforcement database, even though the NCIS agent wasn't assigned to the case. In July 2013, they planted false information in the database, stating that all investigations against Glenn Defense had been closed and no charges would be filed. Two months later, thinking he was in the clear, Francis flew to San Diego to attend another change-of-command ceremony and to drum up business from the Navy's Global Logistics Support Command. Instead, he fell into the Navy's trap. After giving a PowerPoint briefing to two admirals about ways that he said Glenn Defense could save the Navy money, he returned to his hotel and was arrested. Beliveau was arrested the same day in Washington. He has pleaded guilty to bribery charges and is awaiting sentencing. Francis has been locked up in San Diego since his 2013 arrest. He is awaiting sentencing and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. When he pleaded guilty last year, court papers show he promised to cooperate in a bid for leniency. Authorities have identified only a few of the 30 admirals under investigation. The Navy announced in November 2013 that two admirals in charge of the service's secrets – Vice Adm. Ted "Twig" Branch, the director of naval intelligence, and a deputy, Rear Adm. Bruce Loveless – were under criminal investigation by the Justice Department. Since then, the two officers have been mired in limbo, neither charged nor cleared. Navy and Justice officials have disclosed no other details. Branch and Loveless declined to comment. In a previously undisclosed case, NCIS agents are also investigating Rear Adm. Robert Gilbeau, a supply and logistics officer, according to a senior Navy official and two people who have been questioned. Reached by phone, Gilbeau confirmed he was under investigation but declined to comment further.

The mystery of weak US productivity Edward Luce, The Financial Times / May 29, 2016 Economic output is the ultimate test of our ability to create wealth Look around you. From your drone home delivery to that oncoming driverless car, change seems to be accelerating. Warren Buffett, the great investor, promises that our children’s generation will be the “luckiest crop in history”. Everywhere the world is speeding up except, that is, in the productivity numbers. This year, for the first time in more than 30 years, US productivity growth will almost certainly turn negative following a decade of sharp slowdown. Yet our Fitbits seem to be telling us otherwise. Which should we trust — the economic statistics or our own lying eyes? A lot hinges on the answer. Productivity is the ultimate test of our ability to create wealth. In the short term you can boost growth by working longer hours, for example, or importing more people. Or you could lift the retirement age. After a while these options lose steam. Unless we become smarter at how we work, growth will start to exhaust itself too. Other measures bear out the pessimists. At just over 2 per cent, US trend growth is barely half the level it was a generation ago. As Paul Krugman put it: “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything.” It is possible we are simply mismeasuring things. Some economists believe the statistics fail to capture the utility of setting up a Facebook profile, for example, or downloading free information from Wikipedia. The gig economy has yet to be properly valued. Yet this argument cuts both ways. Productivity is calculated by dividing the value of what we produce by how many hours we work — data provided by employers. But recent studies — and common sense — say our iPhones chain us to our employers even when we are at leisure. We may thus be exaggerating productivity growth by undercounting how much we work. The latter certainly fits with the experience of most of the US labour force. It is no coincidence that since 2004 a majority of Americans began to tell pollsters they expected their children to be worse off — the same year in which the internet-fuelled productivity leaps of the 1990s started to vanish. Most Americans have suffered from indifferent or declining wages in the past 15 years or so. A college graduate’s starting salary today is in real terms well below where it was in 2000. For the first time the next generation of US workers will be less educated than the previous, according to the OECD, which means worse is probably yet to come. Last week’s US productivity report bears that out. It is also possible we are on the cusp of a renaissance — we just don’t yet see it. The economist, Robert Solow, quipped: “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics”. That was in 1987. A few years later the computer age showed up in big numbers. By the same token, we may be on the cusp of reaping the benefit of artificial intelligence, personalised medicine or take your pick. This may better fit our own fevered imaginations. Or it could be a chimera. Until then, the US and most of the west are stuck with a deepening productivity crisis. The slowdown has one manifest effect and a seductive remedy. The first, an embittered backlash against business as usual, is already upon us. Witness Donald Trump’s ascent. Most of his proposed cures for middle America’s anguish are worse than the disease. Shutting down immigration and erecting trade barriers would subtract from US growth. Likewise, it is hard to think of a bigger waste of resources than another budget-busting tax cut for the highest earners. Yet his popularity is clearly fuelled by economic frustration. One or two of Mr Trump’s ideas, such as investing heavily in US infrastructure, would be helpful. Indeed, at a time like this, it is all but a given — and a rare point of agreement with Hillary Clinton. Research shows that a growing share of US growth is created in small number of hyper-connected, urban hubs, such as Los Angeles and the corridor between Boston and New York. Steps that would better link America’s urban boomlands to the large economic backwaters around them would help spread growth more widely. Such projects would take time to bear fruit. Yet it is worth sticking to that “hunger games” image for a moment. Imagine the US takes much the same course in the next ten years as it has over the last. That would mean a further corrosion of US infrastructure, continued relative decline in the quality of public education, and atrophying middle workforce skills. It would also hasten the breakaway of urban America’s most gilded enclaves, further enriching the educated elites. It could also, quite possibly, trigger a breakdown in democratic order. If you think Mr Trump’s rise is ominous, picture America after another decade like the last. Which brings me to the remedy: a universal basic income. UBI has several plus points. It draws support from all parts of the ideological spectrum: libertarian and socialist alike. It would replace today’s messy overlap of benefits and do away with the humiliation of proving your eligibility to federal bureaucrats. Most important of all, however, it would buy a measure of social peace. Today’s stagnation may be temporary or lasting. We have no way of telling. Common sense dictates we must act as though it is here to stay.

Neil Irwin, The New York Times / April 28, 2016 More than 151 million Americans count themselves employed, a number that has risen sharply in the last few years. The question is this: What are they doing all day? Because whatever it is, it barely seems to be registering in economic output. The number of hours Americans worked rose 1.9 percent in the year ended in March. New data released Thursday showed that gross domestic product in the first quarter was up 1.9 percent over the previous year. Despite constant advances in software, equipment and management practices to try to make corporate America more efficient, actual economic output is merely moving in lock step with the number of hours people put in, rather than rising as it has throughout modern history. We could chalk that up to a statistical blip if it were a single year; productivity data are notoriously volatile. But this has been going on for some time. From 2011 through 2015, the government’s official labor productivity measure shows only 0.4 percent annual growth in output per hour of work. That’s the lowest for a five-year span since the 1977-to-1982 period, and far below the 2.3 percent average since the 1950s. Productivity is one of the most important yet least understood areas of economics. Over long periods, it is the only pathway toward higher levels of prosperity; the reason an American worker makes much more today than a century ago is that each hour of labor produces much more in goods and services. Put bluntly, if the kind of productivity growth implied by the new data published Thursday were to persist indefinitely, your grandchildren would be no richer than you. But it is also really hard to measure, particularly for service firms. (How productive were employees at Facebook, or your local bank, last quarter? Have fun trying to figure it out.) And even with years of hindsight, economists are never quite sure why productivity rises or falls. During the 2008 recession, labor productivity soared. Was this because employers laid off their least productive workers first? Because everybody worked harder, fearful for their jobs? Or was it a measurement problem as government statistics-takers struggled to capture fast-moving changes in the economy? We don’t know for sure. (Here’s one analysis that emphasizes the first explanation.) That is a long way of saying we don’t know for sure what is going on right now, or how long it will last. But the possible answers range from utterly depressing to downright optimistic. The Depressing Scenario The productivity slowdown is real, and it’s not going away. Earlier waves of innovation in technology (a computer on every office worker’s desk, for example) and management strategies (like outsourcing noncore functions) have been fully put into place across corporate America, and so are no longer increasing productivity. Add to that a slowdown in capital spending by businesses since the 2008 recession, which means workers aren’t getting better equipment or software that might help them do their jobs more efficiently. Moreover, if you believe the theory mentioned above about low-productivity workers being more likely to lose their jobs during the recession, the people returning to the labor force now may be less effective at boosting economic output for each hour they put in. In the depressing scenario, Americans’ standards of living are just going to grow more slowly in the future, and there’s not much we can do about it. Fortunately, this isn’t the only possible one. The Neutral Scenario Maybe we just aren’t counting things right — or, to use the economists’ preferred term, there is measurement error. After all, entire industries are being transformed in ways hard to account for in data on gross domestic product, particularly in technology and services. Having a high-powered computer in our pockets and social networks that let us stay in touch with friends may make us better off than the narrow math of gross domestic product — which counts only what we pay for — would suggest. Still, it’s not clear why these nonmarket gains in quality of life would be so different now than they were in earlier generations when, for example, videocassette recorders became widespread or the air became cleaner thanks to environmental regulation. “The issue is not whether there’s bias,” wrote the economists David M. Byrne, John G. Fernald and Marshall B. Reinsdorf in a paper on measurement issues in productivity at the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity this spring. “The question is whether it’s larger than it used to be.” Their conclusion, after examining tech and other measurement issues, is that it isn’t. That said, the tools that statistics-keepers use to measure the economy are never perfect, so there could be problems not yet understood that are creating a false impression of a productivity drought. The Happy Scenario Think about a business that is investing for the future. It hires a bunch of people and opens new offices and builds new factories. But while it is doing all that stuff, its actual productivity is quite low. It has a lot of people working a lot of hours, but very low economic output until its operations are fully up to speed. Maybe, just maybe, that is happening with the United States economy writ large. Businesses are adding workers in preparation for the future, but it will take time for their investments to pay off in terms of gross domestic product. There’s a recent precedent for that pattern. In the late 1990s, the stock market was booming and companies were making huge investments in staff, equipment and information technology. But reported productivity growth was actually below the long-term trend — only about 1.7 percent a year from 1993 to 1998, for example. Then it began soaring in the years that followed, particularly in the early 2000s. But here’s one piece of evidence that the pattern of the 1990s is not what is afoot today: Business investment spending on equipment, intellectual property and structures is low relative to the size of the economy. You’d expect those numbers to be higher if this was just a productivity lull as the economy waits for big investments in the future to pay off. Still, there could be enough going on below the surface of those overall numbers that the optimistic case remains plausible. To use one example, engineers at several companies are hard at work trying to perfect driverless cars. At present, they are a sap on productivity — they put in many thousands of hours of work with no economic output to show for it. But if successful, their work could radically increase the nation’s productivity in the decades ahead. Apply the same across a wide range of fields — industrial goods, pharmaceuticals and medicine, financial technology firms — and optimism becomes more plausible. That’s the scenario we should all hope is occurring: Slow productivity growth now is just a down payment on a much brighter future. .

Big Rigs / May 29, 2016 The Heritage truck movement in Australia is alive and well, if the successful bi-annual running of Crawlin' the Hume, held in mid-March, is anything to go by. A convoy of 235 vehicles travelled from Melbourne to Albury along the old Hume Highway on 16 April, passing through towns including Wallan, Euroa and Chiltern, all of which have long been bypassed by the modern Hume Freeway. With trucks over 25 years old being eligible for the historic run, vehicles spanning over 60 years of transport heritage made the run north, with many truck brands no longer regularly seen on Australia's highways being represented. These included Deutz, Foden, Commer, Diamond T and Atkinson, with a number of prime movers hooked up to bogie and spread-axle trailers and loaded with historic cars and machinery. Some old transport names were also represented by participants with rigs sporting signage and paint schemes from Post's Transport, Ansett Freight Lines and Vaughan Transport. Crawlin' the Hume is intended as a casual friendly event, with participants making the 300-odd kilometre trek at a steady pace. After assembling at the Ford factory on Sydney Road in Campbellfield the convoy made its way out of the Victorian capital and up over Pretty Sally at Wallan on to Kilmore and up to Seymour. Participants stopped at the Winton Motor Raceway just out of Benalla for a lunch stop, which drew plenty of interested onlookers. Continuing north the group made its way up through Springhurst, Chiltern and Barnawartha to the Albury Racecourse for the overnight stop. Early on the Sunday the morning air was disturbed by the brutal sound of air-starters firing up the trucks as participants made their way home, with almost half coming from Sydney, along with other participants as far afield as Brisbane and Tasmania. Kelvin and Rodney Boyle, from Western Victoria, ran their Cummins Big-Cam powered Atkinson and they enjoyed the run up Highway 31. The refurbished Atkinson has not long been back on the road and were making their first Crawlin' the Hume run with the father and son team hauling a Massey tractor and 1953 Bedford on a trailer, both of which have also been restored in their workshop in Mepunga. "We thought we would put the truck and the tractor on the back to give her a bit of traction!" grinned Rodney Boyle. Historic truck enthusiast Rob French, who owns a 1964 Peterbilt, along with Roger Marchetti and Trevor Davis put together the 2016 event, the third such one held, and was delighted with the turnout, with over 100 more participants than the last run in 2014. Whilst not affiliated with any particular truck club, celebrating transport heritage and the old days of the Hume Highway is one of the aims of the organisers - "The whole idea originally was to unite the truck clubs" Rob said. We try to get every club's colours here, it doesn't matter what truck you have, it's just to get together and have some fun. "The Crawlin The Hume team work closely with the New South Wales based Haulin' The Hume group, who stage a similar run from Sydney to Yass every other year, whilst a new event being organised by the Wauchope Yesteryear Truck and Machinery Club, from Beresfield to Wauchope, Pacin' The Pacific is scheduled for later this year. After the success of the 2016 event, the next Crawlin' the Hume event is scheduled for April 2018 and planning has already begun. "We're planning now…it began last night!" smiled Rob French on the Sunday morning, as a B-Model Mack growled its way past out of the Albury Racecourse on its way home.

The pitfalls of importing a Peterbilt Owner/Driver / May 28, 2016 A truck show regular, Ron Kirk explains how his 1964 281 Peterbilt come to Australia From a young age, Ron Kirk was into old cars and classic car shows. These days he’d much prefer truck shows, such as the Harden Truck and Tractor Show, especially with his 1964 281 Peterbilt he bought nearly 10 years ago. "I’ve been in the old car movement since I was about 12 or 13, and it was probably 15 or 16 years ago when I got involved in the trucks," Ron recalls. "I found I was having more fun with them than I ever was with the cars. It just became too competitive and too ego driven." Ron bought the old Pete direct from the United States. He’d been across around five times, and he had a good mate who knew all there was to know about shipping vehicles back to Australia. However, just as Ron was boarding the plane, tragedy struck. His friend’s wife had passed away and Ron was left to his own devices. "So I made some hasty phone calls to mates, and then rang Lynch’s in Newcastle," he says. "They’d bought a fair few Petes in and basically they talked me through it and gave me some phone numbers, right at the 11th hour. "I didn’t realise what was involved — it was an absolute nightmare. It’s not something I would recommend for the faint hearted. "There’s a fair bit of work getting one of these into a container." The Peterbilt is right-hand drive, but as it’s more than 30 years old, it’s able to registered in Australia as is. Ron is happy to have it on club rego only, especially now that the NSW Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight Duncan Gay brought in a conditional registration trial. "We get to go to an event like this without having to fill out any paperwork as long as it’s a sanctioned event," he says. "With this truck now I can fill out a logbook sheet and drive it anywhere and do anything I want for 60 days. The standard conditions still apply, you can’t use it for commercial purposes." Since its arrival in Australia, Ron has taken the Peterbilt on tour to a number of historic truck events, including the first Haulin’ The Hume, where he was one of the organisers. It has also appeared at the American Truck Historic Society’s show in Echuca. And it’s the casual atmosphere, such as at Harden, which he enjoys. "That’s what I like about the old trucks compared to the cars; there’s no competition," he smiles. "You can get as many looks with something you’ve spent a fortune on as you can with something you’ve just pulled out of the barn that you’ve made mechanically right." Photo gallery - http://www.ownerdriver.com.au/events-news/1605/the-pitfalls-of-importing-a-peterbilt/

Pride and joy: Rudd's Kenworth classics Owner/Driver / May 27, 2016 With one Kenworth on top of another, retired truck driver Ian Rudd arrived at the Harden Truck and Tractor Show Ian Rudd arrived in Harden with two old Kenworths, notably a 1986 K120 hauling a trailer laden with a ’78 K121. Ian, aged 77 and now retired, refers to himself as "an old truckie". He’s also quick to point out that he’s no relation to the former Australian Prime Minister. The words ‘Classic 92’ feature on the rear of the K120’s cab, with Ian explaining that it still has the old Detroit 8-92 silver series engine. "It’s a two-stroke engine, the original engine that came with the truck," Ian enthuses. "It was sold to Roadmaster Haulage in 1986 and it’s still all original, even with the torsion bar suspension, just as it came out of the factory." Ian brought the K120 four years ago, already in a restored state. As per the age of his pride and joy, his liking for the Kenworth brand stretches back to 1986 when he bought his first. That was in Queanbeyan, when he would haul fuel tankers to Sydney, trading as Rudd Haul. "We used to run on two shifts, and kept going like most of them do these days," he recalls. "We started off in a Diamond Reo, then White Road Commanders, then a Mack Cruiseliner. Then we got into Kenworths, and that was it." His K121 has an even more interesting history, being one of three slimline cab Kenworth test trucks that Camden-based company Clutha trialled in 1978. "This one’s got a 692 GM two-stroke, one had an 871, and the other had a 250 Cummins in it," Ian says. "All the test trucks were single drives, but Clutha didn’t buy any of them. They ended up buying 80 Road Bosses." Ian says he’s put a halt to buying any more classic trucks, although he’s keen to continue on the show circuit. He’s attended three of the previous Haulin’ The Hume convoys out of Sydney and, like a few others at the Harden Truck & Tractor Show, his next stop was Crawlin’ The Hume in Victoria. Photo gallery - http://www.ownerdriver.com.au/events-news/1605/pride-and-joy-rudds-kenworth-classics/

Prime Mover Magazine / May 27, 2016 New South Wales (NSW) based bulk materials supplier, RB Haulage, has invested in a new Iveco 7200 Powerstar tipper and quad-ale dog for a recently recruited young driver. RB Haulage’s latest recruit, 25-year-old Dwain Saunders, uses the Powerstar Tipper and Dog to haul quarry materials in Western Sydney. “The Iveco is fantastic, it’s easy-to-drive, it’s comfortable and quiet – at 100 kilometres per hour on the highway, you can barely hear it,” he said. “For someone learning to drive it would be excellent – there’s plenty of vision, it’s easy to manoeuvre, it turns on a dime and you get all the comfort benefits of a European cabin with a high quality American driveline. “I think these features all make it more attractive for young drivers.” Dwain said he appreciates the comfort features of the Powerstar after long days behind the wheel. “I get out of the vehicle at the end of the day and still feel good, the space in the cabin also makes a difference, you don’t feel cramped up the way you do in some other bonneted trucks,” he said. Related reading: http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/38544-ivecos-7800-powerstar-for-roadtrains-up-to-307000lb/#comment-275347 http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/30961-the-new-for-2012-iveco-powerstar-range-the-new-dodge-truck-class-8-line-up/#comment-180283 http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/39694-iveco-strator-%E2%80%93-how-trucks-are-meant-to-be/#comment-286755 .

Signs of progress at Ford Motor Company’s JH476 heavy truck project in China, JMC Heavy-Duty Vehicle Company, continue to be illusive. Despite having signed a heavy truck joint venture agreement with JMC* long ago on January 8, 2013, no Ford trucks have yet gone into production. On October 23, 2015, Ford and JMC displayed 4x2 and 6x4 prototypes which resemble the global market Cargo tractor produced in Turkey at Ford-Otosan. The two prototypes are rarely seen. JMC has no previous experience in heavy trucks. Ford Otosan, Ford Motor Company and Ford Global Technologies LLC (Licensors) signed a technology licensing agreement on July 25, 2014, with Jiangling Motors Corporation (JMC). Ford Motor Company holds a 32 percent stake in the heavy truck joint venture. The agreement granted JMC a non-exclusive license relating to Ford Cargo product technology, know-how and technical documentation relating to the design, manufacture and service of the Cargo chassis, cab and related components of Ford branded heavy trucks. The agreement stipulates that the sale of licensed Ford products and JMC-branded trucks containing these products will be limited to China. JMC agreed to pay Ford-Otosan an entry licensing fee of 8 million Euros, an average 390 Euro licensing fee per unit for each chassis produces, and 39 Euros for each cab produced. The terms of the agreement are 12 years starting from mass production (which was originally predicted to be the 2016 model year......they missed that), followed by three year extensions.. A new full-size Cargo cab is expected by 2018 (H62X Global Cargo Truck Program). * Ford joint-ventured with Jiangling Motors Corp. (JMC) in 1997 to build European Ford “Transit” full-size vans. Ford increased its stake in JMC to 31.5 percent in 2013. Located in East China's Jiangxi Province, the JMC-Ford joint venture also builds JMC-branded SUVs, pickups, vans and light trucks (Ford also has a passenger car joint venture with Changan Automobile Co. in Chongqing). Related reading: http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/44764-china-market-ford-cargo-edging-closer-to-production/#comment-330091 http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/38795-fords-china-heavy-truck-joint-venture-plans-take-off-in-2016/ .

Trump calls for higher ethanol mandate The Hill / January 19, 2016 Donald Trump said Tuesday that federal regulators should increase the amount of ethanol blended into the nation’s gasoline supply. Speaking at an event hosted by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, Trump, a real estate mogul and the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ought to follow the ethanol volumes Congress set in 2007. “The EPA should ensure that biofuel ... blend levels match the statutory level set by Congress under the [renewable fuel standard],” Trump said. The mandate is popular in Iowa, which hosts the nation's first caucuses. In setting the ethanol blending mandate for 2016 last year, the EPA used a provision in the law that allows it to waive the specific volumes Congress set out, citing lower than expected gasoline demand, among other factors. Trump spoke very briefly about the ethanol mandate at the beginning of his speech, reading from notes in a straightforward fashion, before continuing onto other subjects in the more lively manner he usually shows in stump speeches. The event came hours after Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) told voters in the first state to choose presidential candidates that they shouldn’t vote for Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), one of Trump’s most potent challengers. Branstad cited Cruz’s opposition to continuing the ethanol mandate after 2022, saying Cruz is “heavily financed by Big Oil.” Trump welcomed Branstad’s comment. Cruz has “been mixed in the subject, he goes wherever the votes are, so he all of the sudden went over here, and then all of the sudden, he got slapped,” Trump said. “So it’s very interesting to see.” Trump was generally very supportive of the ethanol law, saying he is “100 percent” behind the ethanol industry, a powerful force in Iowa. “As president, I will encourage Congress to be cautious in attempting to charge and change any part of the RFS,” he said. Trump tied ethanol to his campaign slogan “Make America Great Again,” saying ethanol reduces dependence on imported oil, which helps energy independence. “Energy independence is a requirement if America is to become great again. My theme is ‘Make America Great Again.’ It’s an important part of it,” he said.

Rather embarrassing spot. Clearly, Volvo Group executive vice president and global Volvo Trucks unit president Claes Nilsson, and Volvo Trucks North America (VTNA) president Gӧran Nyberg, were both completely wrong in their U.S. market assessment earlier this month. It was just the other day (May 12) when they said US truck sales should remain steady. Amazing how much a situation can change in 13 days. http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/45190-volvo’s-nilsson-and-nyberg-say-us-truck-sales-should-remain-steady/#comment-333115

Volvo confirms more layoffs for late summer The Southwest Times / May 27, 2016 A reduction in projections for the North American truck market has Volvo planning additional layoffs later this summer. John Mies, vice president of communications for Volvo Group North America, said the company is further reducing production around early August to keep in track with market projections. As such, jobs will be affected. Employees were notified Wednesday. Mies said the number of employees to be laid off and the exact timeframe for letting them go has not yet been determined. “We regret having to take this action, but we operate in a cyclical market, and we have to adapt to market demand,” he said. “Outplacement support meetings led by the company and UAW representatives will be provided for all affected employees when we do.”

Volvo announces more layoffs for Dublin plant WDBJ7 / May 25, 2016 The Volvo plant in Dublin is cutting more jobs, the company confirmed Wednesday. A company spokesperson and a union source would not confirm exactly how many employees are being laid off. Volvo says the layoffs are needed because the company recently lowered its forecast for the North American market. Volvo will begin to reduce production at the plant in August. “We regret having to take this action, but we operate in a cyclical market, and we have to adapt to market demand,” a Volvo spokesperson said in a statement. Volvo employees were notified Wednesday. A union leader tells us the company is shifting from making 120 trucks a day to 92. In February, the company laid off around 500 employees. “As with the people affected earlier this year, outplacement support meetings led by the company and UAW representatives will be provided for all affected employees when we establish the exact timing and scope of the layoff. They will also be provided with information regarding the Virginia Employment Commission and the regional Rapid Response team,” a Volvo spokesperson said.

The Roanoke Times / May 26, 2016 Volvo’s only North American truck-making plant plans to enact more layoffs at some time in August, adding on to the hundreds of regional jobs the company already cut earlier this year. Volvo spokesman John Mies confirmed the latest rounds of layoffs via email Thursday, further explaining that the latest announced round of layoffs is tied to more expected drops in truck production. “We regret having to take this action, but we operate in a cyclical market, and we have to adapt to market demand,” he said. Volvo announced in December that it planned to lay off at least 730 of its Dublin plant workers. The company later reduced that number to roughly 600, but Mies said Thursday that it ended up in fact being about 500. “But a few weeks ago, we further reduced our forecast for the North American market, and unfortunately, it looks like we’ll need to reduce production in the early August time frame, which will affect employment,” he said. Mies added: “Outplacement support meetings led by the company and UAW [local union] representatives will be provided for all affected employees when we establish the exact timing and scope of the layoffs.” Mies said those employees will be given information about the Virginia Employment Commission and the regional Rapid Response team. The regional Rapid Response team operates locally through New River Community College to provide a variety of services to laid-off workers that include financial management seminars, skills training and assistance with job searches. Truck industry analysts told The Roanoke Times last year that plant layoffs are usually tied to a combination of the economy and whenever demand for the vehicles is lower than how many units are in stock. To maintain their profit margins, experts said, truck makers slash jobs. Barring a slight drop in 2013, North American Class 8 production — the commercial trucking category tractor trailers fall under — has increased every year since 118,000 units were made during the 2009 recession. It was anticipated that by the end of last year 327,000 units would be built, marking an increase of 30,000 from 2014. But those same forecasts also predicted production to drop to 251,000 in 2016 and barely rebound to 252,000 in 2017. Mies said last year that third -quarter orders were indeed down 30 percent from the same time in 2014. Prior to the layoffs earlier this year, the truck plant employed 2,800 workers, which was up from approximately 1,000 in early 2009. Last fall, Volvo announced plans to invest $38.1 million and add 32 jobs as part of a project to add a new 36,000-square-foot customer experience center, as well as other plant improvements. Mies said after the layoff announcement last year that the project — expected to be finished in 2017 — is still going forward. Just two years ago, Volvo made a similar announcement about a $69 million investment that promised to add 200 jobs. The news of the next round of layoffs comes several weeks after the local union, UAW Local 2069, approved a new labor contract with Volvo that will run until March 16, 2021. After Volvo and the union reached a previous agreement in 2011, the company rehired about 700 workers who had previously been laid off. Related reading: http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/43126-volvo-group-to-lay-off-200-at-hagerstown-plant/#comment-315959 http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/42949-union-authorizes-volvo-strike/#comment-314157 http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/42910-volvo-trucks-to-lay-off-734-workers-at-its-virginia-plant/#comment-313858 http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/43123-mack-trucks-laying-off-400-workers-at-macungie/#comment-315947

The Trucker News Services / May 25, 2016 Sen. Cory Gardner, D-Colo., has introduced a concurrent resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the Federal excise tax on heavy-duty trucks should not be increased. No text of the resolution was available early Wednesday, but the resolution drew immediate praise from the American Truck Dealers (ATD). The current 12-percent FET on the sale of most new heavy-duty trucks is by percentage the highest levied tax by Congress on any product, according to Steve Parker, ATD chairman [son of legendary Hansen-era Baltimore Mack factory branch head Ed Parker]. Companion legislation to Gardner’s resolution — H.Con.Res. 33 — was introduced in the House by Reps. Reid Ribble, R-Wis., and Tim Walz, D-Minn., last year and has 30 bipartisan cosponsors. It marked the second consecutive session that Ribble had introduced a resolution not to raise the tax on heavy trucks, but neither ever made it to committee discussion. “The existing 12-percent FET on heavy-duty trucks, which adds nearly $20,000 to the cost of a new truck, is already a severe detriment to businesses looking to replace aging fleets with newer, safer and more fuel-efficient vehicles,” said Parker, who is also the president of Baltimore Potomac Truck Centers. “An increase in the FET would only further deter these important investments – investments that help keep our roads safer.” Parker noted that the federal excise tax was originally imposed to help defray the cost of World War I. Since 1955, the excise tax rate on new heavy-duty trucks, tractors and trailers has increased by 300 percent, ballooning from 3 percent to its current rate of 12 percent. The American Trucking Associations said it supported efforts to mitigate the impacts of the federal excise tax on trucks, while recognizing the FET's importance to the Highway Trust Fund and the Trust Fund's value to the economy as a source of funding to improve the nation’s infrastructure. “The FET is a burden on an industry that wants to purchase the newest, cleanest, safest trucks to comply with environmental efficiency and safety regulations as those technological improvements add to the cost of a new truck and increase the tax,” said Sean McNally, vice president of communications and press secretary at ATA. “We look forward to working with interested stakeholders and lawmakers to create an environment where our members are able to purchase the newest, safest, most efficient trucks without penalty, while still maintaining the integrity of the Highway Trust Fund.” All of the heavy-duty trucks sold in the U.S. in 2015 were manufactured in North America, so any increase in the federal excise tax would depress new heavy-duty truck sales to the direct detriment of the American trucking industry and their more than 8 million U.S. employees. Parker said the Senate and House resolutions have garnered the support of American Highway Users Alliance; American Truck Dealers; Daimler Trucks North America; Mack Trucks, Inc.; Meritor WABCO; NAFA Fleet Management Association; National Trailer Dealers Association; Navistar, NTEA – The Association for the Work Truck Industry; Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association; Recreation Vehicle Industry Association; Truck & Engine Manufacturers Association; Truck Renting and Leasing Association; Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association; and Volvo Trucks North America.

Volvo Trucks Press Release / May 26, 2016 Meet Tim, the truck driver, and follow him during a day at work. You will also find out why we have trucks, how big they are and how to behave safely around them in traffic. This story is part of Stop, Look, Wave – a safety campaign carried out by Volvo and selected transport companies to children worldwide. .

Firstly, the European Commission is just as corrupted as our congress. Then you have the EU member countries allowing their vehicle makers to be corrupt, in support of their economies. When corruption benefits all, e.g. the automobile diesel emissions scandal in Europe, then they collectively allow cheating. Around the world, from behind the veil, big business determines the way forward, and governments subserviently execute the plan. NAFTA, the European Union, ect. were all the idea of big business.