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(The story begins at 2:07 ) Also, note how similar the Bedford TK/KM cab looks to the International Harvester CO Loadstar and Cargostar. The TK was introduced in 1959, the first CO Loadstars in 1962.

Transport Engineer / April 21, 2016 A&F Haulage of Bolton has taken delivery of 20 new Volvo trucks – 14 FM models and six FMX 8x4 tippers. Supplied by dealer Thomas Hardie Commercials, of Manchester, the Bolton-based haulier’s new additions increase its fleet to 85. All are powered by 11-litre Volvo D11K engines, producing 410bhp and up to 1,950 Nm of torque. The vehicles’ I-Shift automated gearboxes are equipped with software to enhance off-road and construction capabilities. The FMX eight-wheelers are fitted with Day cabs and feature Bulkrite insulated bodies with Edbro tipping gear and Easysheet systems. The 14 sleeper-cabbed FMs are fitted with Wilcox Wilcolite bodies, Edbro tipping gear and Easysheets. The new trucks also incorporate a five-way recording camera system, covering front, rear, left and right, as well as one camera to give an overview of the body. A&F’s managing director Ali Majeed says: “Volvo represents good, strong and reliable trucks and with the B-Ride high suspension option offering excellent chassis ground clearance on both the FMX and the FM, these new trucks are ideally suited to the type of construction work with which we’re involved.” The drivers have praised the vehicles as well, he adds, in particular the improved interiors and, with the FMX, the lighter steering. “The majority of our fleet is Volvo FM trucks, although with this latest delivery we now have 10 FMX, too,” says Majeed, adding that the dealer support is “nothing short of great”. .

Transport Engineer / April 20, 2016 Savilles Freights has added eight DAF XF 460 FTG tractors, with Super Space Cabs, and a 26-tonne CF 330 FAS with a Space Cab to its general haulage operations. The Bristol-based operator runs a mixed fleet of 30 trucks spanning four marques, all of which have been good, according to Darren Saville, a director of the family-owned business. “We have now dropped one manufacturer and refreshed the line-up with these new DAFs,” he says. “Right now, the feeling is that we will try to rationalise further and finish the year with just two marques in the fleet,” he continues. “That will happen as we work through a rolling replacement programme based on either contract hire term ends, or a five-year life cycle on our wholly owned vehicles.” Supplied through Imperial Commercials Western Region, the new XFs are on three-year contract hire packages through Paccar Financial, with the CF rigid being acquired under a two-year R&M deal on outright purchase. Saville says he was tempted to look again at DAF trucks following an abortive negotiation to take over the management of transport operations for an own-account operator running an all-DAF fleet. “While we were not able to reach a positive conclusion on that opportunity, the good thing that came out of it was our exposure to today’s DAF range and the meetings it required us to have with Imperial Commercials,” states Saville. “They have been on top of every little detail for us since we expressed an interest in DAF in our own right, and came up with solutions to our used asset disposal that allowed us to focus on the new trucks we needed,” he adds. Savilles Freights is monitoring fuel on the new DAFs through its own telematics system, as well as receiving weekly reports direct from DAF. “It’s reassuring to see the two systems tally with fuel reports,” cmments Saville. “These new trucks are already matching other Euro 6 vehicles in the fleet and have yet to get properly bedded in.” .

SvD Naringsliv / April 19, 2016 This week, several of the Stockholm Stock Exchange's heavyweights including Volvo will release their quarterly reports. On Friday, the market will among other things give weight to whether Volvo can show positive margins from the merger with Chinese truckmaker Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles. “If it can find success, the joint venture with Dongfeng would make Volvo one of the world's largest truckmakers by volume. But so far, there has been no meaningful development. Now it is up to Volvo to show some evidence of progress,” says Jonas Olavi, equity strategist at Alfred Berg. Lars Söderfjell, chief strategist at Swedbank, believes that the market’s focus regarding Volvo will be on existing businesses, such as North America, Brazil and the EU and how the company is managed with the relatively new CEO Martin Lundstedt at the helm. “Lundstedt will do great things with the company, but it will take time and it will not appear in the first quarter. One bright spot, however should be a decent cash flow”, says Söderfjell.

Today’s Trucking / April 20, 2016 Three western Canadian trucking associations are calling on their respective ministers of environment and transportation to adjust weight regulations to allow fuel-saving, wide-base single tires that would reduce harmful emissions and save trucking firms’ money. The proposal from the Alberta Motor Transport Association, British Columbia Trucking Association and Saskatchewan Trucking Association aims to harmonize regulatory standards, which have been at a standstill out West since the single-tire technology debuted some 16 years ago. While Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec have made exceptions for the new generation tires, the Western provinces say they’re missing out on fuel savings of up to 10% compared to single tires, and GHG emissions reductions of about 8.5 tonnes per truck per year when using wide-base single tires. While fleets can load up to 9,000 kgs (19,842 lb) per axle in Ontario and Quebec, the limit is just 7,700 kgs (16,976 lb) in Western Canada. Potential damage to weaker pavements has been the main argument against the new generation tires. The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) has also been championing for harmonization, having written to federal and provincial officials to work together to amend the weight restrictions. “Constraining compliance options in such a way limits our industry’s ability to easily apply new technologies to existing equipment,” wrote the CTA in March. “It is in all parties’ best interest if trucking companies from across Canada have access to the same carbon reducing technologies that the federal government has deemed necessary for compliance.”

Engines: Is smaller the next big thing? Fleet Owner / April 7, 2016 Rightsized—not oversized—engines are getting the job done for fleets seeking efficiency and performance If you’ve ever heard the saying “go big or go home” and shook your head thinking there are many situations where it really doesn’t apply, welcome to the evolution of heavy-duty trucking in North America. Engine and power­train technology has progressed to a point where more is possible with less, and there are a number of other factors also coming into play. It’s all helping drive a move by more trucking companies away from a 14-15L engine standard toward a 13L sweet spot, and increasingly to the 9-12L range. “The old bread and butter isn’t the bread and butter anymore,” says Frank Trzaska, director of maintenance support at third-party logistics company NFI Industries, one of three fleets Fleet Owner spoke with on the topic. In an industry where companies have been finding ways to shave off little slices of excess and chase down incremental gains in efficiency, particularly when it comes to fuel consumption and mpg, is it any surprise fleets are considering smaller-displacement engines? And you don’t have to look far for options: Cummins Inc. calls its 11L ISM “one of the flagship engines” of its heavy-duty product line; Paccar launched its MX-11 of that same displacement in North America last fall; Mack says its MP7 11L is “the light engine that packs a punch”; and Volvo notes that its D11 can minimize costs of operation, to name several heavy-duty powerplants south of the 12L mark. All four of those, incidentally, can be spec’d with upwards of 400 hp. and 1,500 lbs.-ft. of torque. More than meets the eye “We call it ‘powertrain downsizing’ or ‘engine downsizing,’ if you may,” notes Sandeep Kar, global director of commercial vehicle research at economic consulting group Frost & Sullivan. With technology advancements, he tells Fleet Owner, “what’s happening is we’re creating a foundation where engines will be smaller in displacement yet will not compromise on power output, which means power density is increasing.” Kar is quick to point out, however, that 15L engines aren’t going anywhere. “On the contrary, 15L engines will remain the industry leader in terms of installations, but the share they hold will decline.” And why is that? First, smaller engines can offer higher fuel efficiency, lower acquisition cost, and essentially the same power bandwidth as larger engines, Kar contends, especially when paired with today’s automated manual transmissions. But beyond that, what “doesn’t meet the eye” is that OEMs like Daimler, Volvo and Paccar are introducing engines in ranges like 12-13.5L in efforts toward vertical integration, he says. In other words, they’re looking to gain market share with their own products against Cummins’ widely popular ISX15. “So fleets can carry more freight and more payload because of the light weight, and the trucks are more fuel-efficient because of the OEM proprietary engines married with OEM proprietary transmissions that give interesting fuel economy benefits,” says Kar. “And fleets love that.” Frost & Sullivan has also found that more fleet managers of the nation’s top 100 fleets say they’re “okay with the idea” of same-sized trucks with smaller-sized engines—that was 20% of fleet managers surveyed in 2012 and 33% in 2014. “But had I asked this question 10 years ago, the figure probably would’ve been 2-3%,” Kar says. Another factor is the Panama Canal expansion project, which started in 2007 but is now mostly complete. “All those mega container ships that used to come to the Western Seaboard will now come to the Eastern Seaboard; hence, we will not need to rely on long haul as much,” Kar explains. “We’re looking at the rise of regional haul at the expense of long haul,” he adds. “So the long-term outlook for smaller-sized engines is definitely promising.” One size doesn’t fit all Start with a less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier fleet operating in the Northeast like A. Duie Pyle, where all you’ll find are 11L and 13L diesels in single- and tandem-axle tractors, respectively. The 11L tractors are used primarily in a pickup-and-delivery operation and occasionally in line haul, says director of fleet maintenance Dan Carrano, while the larger-engine tractors are used both for line haul and pickup-and-delivery operations. “Aside from being an LTL carrier, we also have a liquid bulk operation where we must achieve a precise load capacity,” he notes. In that operation, the Pyle trucks have a gross combination weight (GCW) of about 100,000 lbs., Carrano says, “and we’re more than able to move that load with a 13L engine. “But we have not had one experience where we’re underpowered, even with our 11Ls,” he continues. The 11L trucks run a GCW up to 66,000 lbs., “and that 11L is more than powerful enough to meet our expectations. Our goal is to spec the right equipment for the right application—it’s not a 'one size fits all' in our eyes.” NFI Industries, on the other hand, operates nationally and has found more of a sweet spot with 13L engines, which you’ll find in nearly all the fleet’s tractors along with “a handful” of 9L CNG-powered engines. “Everything we could think of, for every avenue we went down, a 13L worked for us, and it worked well,” says NFI’s Trzaska. “We have a 450-hp. 13L, where 20 years ago we were running 350-hp. 15Ls,” he points out. “Today, there’s plenty of horsepower and torque in those 13Ls, and it’s in the low rpms—it’s in a great range—to power 80,000-lb. gross vehicle weight down the road all day,” Tzaska explains. NFI also specs direct-drive, automated manual transmissions, “and these 12-speeds can shift all day long, up and down, constantly, where a driver would be worn out come the end of the day from all that shifting. “So today we can have a smaller engine with a smaller powerband and less horsepower [compared with the latest 15Ls], and it does the exact same work,” Trzaska adds. “And our driver is just as fresh when he’s done with his day as when he started it. That transmission will keep that engine in that tight power­band he needs and operate the truck efficiently for mpg, engine life, and proper speed. For our fleet, there’s no sense in thinking about a larger engine for any of our operations anymore.” Or take a company with very diverse equipment like Ryder, where “we have every possible configuration of engine and chassis out there in our fleet,” according to Scott Perry, vice president of supply chain management. Among its heavy-duty trucks, Ryder has some 9L and 11L engine variants as “pretty rare exceptions,” he notes, with “the vast majority” sporting 13L, 14L and 15L configurations. “We’re seeing really good performance out of our 13L platforms, but we’re still very disciplined in making sure that we’re putting them into the right applications,” Perry says. “We generally don’t put a 13L engine in a sleeper tractor. We stick to a 14-15L heavier, higher-displacement engine in those just based on the types of duty cycles that those trucks could end up in. “We’re also very conscious of the GCW limits, and that probably applies more to our Canada operation,” he continues. “We make sure we don’t put a 13L engine in anything higher than an 80,000-lb. GCW application.” Pros and cons Geography and type of trucking application—e.g., the A. Duie Pyle LTL, Northeast-region model—are primary considerations when considering how to rightsize engines for your equipment, but there’s more to it than that. More heavy trucks are ending up having to go through local communities and neighborhoods, for instance. “A lot of areas we deliver in were designed for 40- and 45-ft. trailers,” Carrano notes. “So we always consider the length of the trailer and the size of the tractor. We’re looking for the right piece of equipment for the right application, and you have to consider things like infrastructure and roads; we’re always looking to help set our drivers up for success.” Smaller engines and the tractors to house them also are a factor at NFI, both in terms of agility and lighter weight of equipment, which means more freight/payload capacity and better mpg. “A shorter hood on a tractor also gives the driver better visibility and maneuverability when he’s parking behind a warehouse or pulling in to a storefront,” Trzaska tells Fleet Owner. “It’s just much easier and safer to drive around all the other things on the road.” Lighter, smaller-displacement heavy-duty engines in the 9-13L range today can have plenty of horsepower and torque —in some cases surpassing the larger-displacement engines of yesterday—thanks to things like better oils and the use of new materials like compacted graphite iron. They even have maintenance intervals and life expectancies similar to or equal to their bigger siblings. “Like the Paccar MX-13 engine, the MX-11 has a rated B10 life of 1 million mi.,” says Charles Cook, marketing manager for vocational products at Peterbilt. “This means the MX-11 engines are designed and tested that 90% of the engines produced will reach 1 million mi. without a major overhaul.” Those smaller engines may even offer a few maintenance advantages, points out Mario Sanchez-Lara, director of on-highway marketing communications at Cummins. With the company’s medium-bore, heavy-duty engines like the ISL9, ISM and ISX12, “in general, their maintenance intervals are shorter [vs. 13L and larger engines], but the cost of some aspects of it is more cost-effective. Smaller engines on a big chassis offer lots of space with great serviceability,” he says. However, smaller engines still don’t hold up quite as well in terms of residual value in the secondary market, Fleet Owner heard. That was once the case for 13L engines, though the market largely has warmed to those now, but it remains the situation for smaller engines like 11Ls, according to Trzaska. Owner-operators shopping the used-truck market once “didn’t believe that a 13L could do everything, because they had to have a truck that could do anything at any time—those guys were always looking for the high horsepower, big engine that would last forever.” “You get a 13L, and it’s 300 lbs. lighter than a 15L; an 11L could be 400 lbs. lighter than that,” he adds. “Owner-operators figured that out. They’re businessmen today. They figured out that by rightsizing their engine, they can shed hundreds of pounds that they can put into payload and charge somebody for.” The green argument The three fleets we spoke with all said a smart strategy is to know your application, location and duty cycle, and rightsize—not oversize—your engines for the job. Like Ryder does now, NFI and A. Duie Pyle said they wouldn’t hesitate to spec larger 14-16L engines if the job called for them. And while NFI’s Trzaska said that in its experience and real-world use, the company wasn’t able to get more fuel economy out of an 11L vs. a 13L engine, there’s also the argument of lower overall emissions. For some companies, Ryder’s Perry points out, smaller-displacement engines could be a differentiator in a highly competitive industry. “There’s organizations that will definitely leverage that and will focus on that to differentiate themselves with regard to how they’re designing their distribution networks and making sure they have the most efficient powertrain available,” Perry says. “So private fleets with their brand on the truck, for example, if that’s part of their messaging to the marketplace, they definitely will want to pay attention to that and make sure they’re making those good, informed decisions.” .

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Autoblog / April 20, 2016 Just in time for Ford to start accepting applications from prospective Ford GT customers, company leaders like Bill Ford and Raj Nair are discussing the challenges of creating a successor to the famous GT. The team conceived of the GT as a racecar and a production supercar from the beginning, which brought major hurdles to the project. In terms of engineering, the road-going version needed to connect with the wealthy clientele behind the wheel, but quick lap times are the only thing that matters when the GT arrives at Le Mans. Ford's bosses admit using a turbocharged V6 is risky for a roughly $450,000 supercar, but they say the powerplant allows them to take the GT to the racetrack, and then market the technology's successes to the public. The same concept applies to the GT's cutting-edge aerodynamics and extensive use of carbon fiber. Bill Ford apparently already has an order on the first GT and promises to drive it as often as possible. We hope he does. With just 250 of the supercars coming from the company each year, they will remain a rare sight on the road.

Autoblog / April 20, 2016 Icon's Derelict one-offs are impressive for the way they take classic vehicles and invisibly incorporate modern amenities. The recently finished 1960 Willys Overland Wagon in this video shows this design ethos perfectly by looking original in all the important places but packing the latest tech to hit the road everyday with no problem. Plus, Icon founder Jonathan Ward once again shows his painstaking eye for even the smallest details. Willys made these wagons for work, and this one originally served for hauling around kids at a summer camp. The owners really took care of it, though, so Ward was able to use the original body, upholstery, glass, and headliner for this build. Some of the parts, like the seats, just needed refurbishing. Modern utility makes it easy to live with the vintage looks. The Willys now has a custom chassis and uses a General Motors E-Rod V8 crate engine. Power goes to the rear through a five-speed manual, and there's a locking differential in case the owner gets caught out in the snow. Inside, Icon hides an air conditioning unit under the dashboard and adds an iPhone-based stereo system. Let Ward take you on a complete tour of the Wagon in this clip. Driving it looks like a ton of fun. The interior still rattles like you would expect from a vintage vehicle, but there are all the modern conveniences inside.

You're welcome. I aim to please, and also enjoy following his restoration work. Good guy.

Govt Must Provide Specialist Log Truck Driver Training New Zealand First Party Press Release / April 20, 2016 The spate of log truck accidents in Northland highlight the need for the government to have a balanced transport policy that includes rail, and in addition provides specialist training for local drivers and a much greater allocation of funding to improve the roads, New Zealand First says. “There’s a chronic shortage of drivers and it is disappointing that Northland firms are bringing drivers in from Fiji and the Philippines,” says New Zealand First Leader and Northland Member of Parliament Rt Hon Winston Peters. “Several training courses are available in Northland but specialist training for driving big logging rigs is urgently needed. “What is required from the government is a real understanding of Northland’s needs. “For example, why didn’t Minister of Economic Development Steven Joyce make provision for this training in his Northland Regional Action Plan earlier this year? “It’s practical measures like this that will get and keep Northlanders in jobs, and that’s what Northland families want. “The shortage of skilled drivers is made worse by the horrendous state of many of the roads on which the log trucks travel. “Since 2009 the government has cut funding for rural roads. “They should provide rural roading support subsidies and ensure specialist log truck driver training is available in Northland,” says Mr Peters.

Radio New Zealand / April 20, 2016 A spate of log truck crashes in Northland is causing alarm in the community and the road freight industry. Since last Monday, three log truck and trailer units have come to grief on bends, according to the police, with no other vehicles involved. Since Northland forests planted 30 years ago began reaching harvest age, there have been regular reports of log trucks rolling with sometimes fatal consequences. But three in a week spilling their logs across the highways is thought to be a record. One of the region's most experienced road transport operators Stan Semenoff said there was only one reason - drivers were going too fast. Mr Semenoff, a former Whangarei mayor, owns the region's biggest trucking firm Stan Semenoff Transport, said such crashes were usually avoidable. "A log truck doesn't tip over for the sake of it," he said. "It's speed. Speed and a lack of attention to the road causes most of those single accidents where no cars are involved." An Aztec Forestry Transport spokesperson said Northland's atrocious roads were part of the problem. Its Whangarei manager Ian Newey said narrow, winding, and often rutted roads were unforgiving of even small errors of judgement. "With the lack of road width and design, there is a very small margin for error,' he said. "A slight bit of lack of concentration and it can be all over. It doesn't take much when the margin for error is so small." Road Transport Forum chief executive Ken Shirley said the Northland roads were difficult, but ultimately there was a responsibility for the drivers to drive to the conditions. However, there was also a responsibility for the transport operator to make sure the drivers were properly trained, he said. "We actually have a seminar in rollover preventions, we're running this with NZTA, it's a very serious matter and the industry is taking it very seriously. Mr Semenoff said an experienced log truck driver would take a bend at 10km/h lower than road signs recommended, to be on the safe side. But he said growth in the industry meant it was becoming harder to find experienced New Zealand drivers and he was now bringing them in from Fiji and the Philippines. Mr Semenoff said many had gained their experience driving for the military in places like Afghanistan, and they were steady and hard-working. "We've been running 28 to 30 drivers short for the last eleven to twelve months," he said. "And it got painful, so we've gone outside [New Zealand]. "I don't like it, but on the same token we're still taking people in from polytech or Salvation Army training courses ... any locals who come in and are willing to give it a go. But they're not there in numbers." Of those young drivers fresh out of their training courses, Mr Semenoff said about 12 percent would fail the compulsory pre-work drug test. He had been forced to let others go because they were over-confident and prone to dinging fenders, or worse. "We have put people off - and then they've joined other companies." he said. "And they've just gone on and good on them, but they'll probably get caught with drug-testing there too." Times they are a-changin' Mr Semenoff said the current training system for drivers was worlds away from how he learned, riding in a truck with his father in Hokianga in the 1950s, and he was not sure it was better. By the age of 10, he was driving an old Bedford for his Dad - doing freight deliveries, his feet barely reaching the pedals. And according to him - he has never once rolled a truck. "The old man used to say to me, 'make sure you throw some dirty water from a puddle over the windscreen and give it a half wipe, so they can't see who you are." "You'd get sconed if you tried something like that today, but that's how it was in the old days and they got away with it." Log trucks are not the only ones having accidents in the north. On Tuesday a cement truck was forced off the road south of Whangarei by a car whose driver botched a passing manoeuvre. Roadsafe Northland said the rollovers in particular were frightening, but car drivers could reduce their risk by staying six seconds behind a truck, keeping the truck driver's wing mirror in sight and being extremely careful with overtaking. "Passing means not getting past no matter what and cutting in quickly in front of them. Because the truck cannot slow down and respond quickly if you cut that distance too short," said education manager Gillian Archer. Fewer steps for big-rig licence tests Meanwhile, the national body for truckers welcomed a proposal to make it faster and cheaper to get a licence to drive the biggest vehicles. Drivers must go through a system of four classes of licence before they can drive the heaviest truck and trailer units. The Transport Ministry said that was too slow, and it suggested removing one category as well as the six-month learner period for the bigger vehicles. But drivers would have to sit a tougher practical test. Road Transport Forum had been lobbying for a change for 15 years, Mr Shirley said. "What's happened is over the years it's gotten more and more complicated, with unnecessary steps there, and it's more expensive and it's actually a barrier to recruiting drivers. Submissions on the proposals are open until 2 June. Audio -http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201797736/chronic-shortage-of-qualified-truck-drivers

Australasian Transport News (ATN) / April 20, 2016 NSW traffic congestion trial will allow trucks to extend green light times The New South Wales is set to trial a technology solution to congestion by connecting trucks with traffic lights. The system, which will feature at 100 intersections across Sydney, aims to smooth the flow of traffic and reduce the number of times a truck has to stop at traffic lights throughout the day. NSW roads, maritime and freight minister Duncan Gay says trucks take longer to stop and accelerate compared to smaller vehicles, a congestion-creating situation at times, so the trial will see truck drivers receive more green lights. "This trial will detect a heavy vehicle approaching traffic lights and provide more green time, which will hopefully show us how we can ease delays for all motorists across the whole network in the future," he says. "We could potentially expand the use of this kind of technology to emergency vehicles and buses which could improve daily commutes – the opportunities are vast." To accommodate the trial, smart infrastructure will be fitted on 110 trucks and on key freight corridors, such as the intersections on Pennant Hills Road, Parramatta Road, and King Georges Road. The technology comes from local company Codha Wireless, which will fit the Cooperative Intelligent Transport System (CITS) technology in the trucks and open communication between truck and infrastructure. "The results of this project will inform the way we look at incorporating connected vehicle technology on other vehicles and is a key step towards making Sydney infrastructure-ready for connected and automated vehicles in the future," Gay says. To cover any fears of traffic accidents, the intersections will be monitored by the Transport Management Centre, which can override the wireless technology if required.

Reuters / April 19, 2016 EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc said road charging could be very useful in the EU executive's efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of the transport sector The European Commission wants to link road tolls to the CO2 emissions of trucks in proposals for reform of the European road-charging scheme next year to encourage more fuel-efficient vehicles, the bloc's transport chief said on Tuesday. Heavy duty vehicles (HDVs) account for a small fraction of vehicles on the road but are responsible for one-third of CO2 emissions in the European Union. EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc said road charging could be very useful in the EU executive's efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of the transport sector. "If road charges were properly designed to reward the cleanest trucks, then road operators would undoubtedly be encouraged to buy these to remain competitive," she said at a conference. However, linking road tolls to CO2 emissions could face opposition from the industry, which has pointed to the difficulty of measuring emissions from HDVs. The Commission is preparing a package of measures on road transport for early next year, including a reform of its "Eurovignette" time-based charging scheme for road tolls. One idea would be to promote vehicles with low CO2 emissions by reviewing the differentiation of road tolls and looking at exemptions or rebates for innovative solutions, an EU official said. In addition the Commission has long stated it wants to move from a time-based toll system to a distance-based one. "If you want to achieve something in terms of incentivising greener or less-congested transport then go for distance-based or smart tolling," the official said. Industry group the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), which includes Volvo, Daimler and Volkswagen, said road charging systems should promote the use of cleaner vehicles by encouraging fleet renewal. In a position paper, ACEA said that adding greenhouse gas emissions as an external cost would amount to double taxation since these were already accounted for in fuel tax.

Spartan Motors breaks ground for new Isuzu F-Series plant 12 News / April 19, 2016 Spartan Motors held a groundbreaking ceremony today at its Charlotte, Michigan headquarters for its new $5.5 million 85,000-square-foot truck assembly plant that will manufacture Isuzu's new F-Series trucks. Isuzu North America recently expanded its relationship with Spartan by selecting the Company to produce the new line of Isuzu trucks. The F-Series trucks will extend Isuzu's product offering into Class 6 on-highway commercial trucks. Spartan has assembled Isuzu N-Series light trucks since 2011. "Today's groundbreaking ceremony represents a significant milestone for Spartan, as we expand our manufacturing footprint and bring new jobs to Michigan," said Daryl Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer, Spartan Motors. "Measurable growth in our relationships with existing clients, such as Isuzu, further confirms our multi-year strategic plan is driving improved performance and will continue to pay dividends for Spartan over the long-term." Adams added, "We also want to thank our State and local officials for their collaboration and continued support of Spartan's growth initiatives." The new plant will be part of Spartan's Charlotte manufacturing campus, and it will be dedicated solely to the production of Isuzu vehicles. This new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will have a flexible production line that can be easily reconfigured to accommodate the assembly of multiple product lines. Further, the production of the F-Series trucks by Spartan at this new plant will bring new jobs to the Michigan workforce.

Daimler Trucks unveils sweeping, $150 million Swan Island headquarters The Oregonian/OregonLive / April 19, 2016 It has all the trappings of a contemporary high-tech office: Open collaboration spaces, bright, sun-lit windows, video walls streaming social media, an expansive lawn overlooking the Willamette River – even bocce ball and ping pong. And a massive Freightliner truck in the lobby. The new, $150 million headquarters for Daimler Trucks North America bring some of the city's new tech ethos to its industrial heart on Swan Island. "We are a high-tech company," said Daimler' Trucks' chief executive Martin Daum. "A truck these days has more technology than many gadgets." The company traces roots to the 1940s, when Consolidated Freightways started making its own trucks in Portland. Daimler bought Freightliner in 1981 and now oversees that brand and three other lines of commercial vehicles. Daimler Trucks' new, nine-story office will house 1,000 employees when it opens Monday, consolidating operations that had been spread around Swan Island and other parts of the city (though a few hundred remain just across the Willamette at an auxiliary site in Montgomery Park). "It was overdue," Daum said. "We have so many people here, all over the place." The new office is designed to bring the company's Portland staff together in a building that serves both as a recruitment tool and a productivity generator, encouraging employees to work together around living-room style coaches in front of tall windows that gaze out across a sweeping lawn, the river and Forest Park. Oregon and the city of Portland, eager to hold onto a major employer and corporate headquarters, provided up to $20 million in incentives to finance the new facility and help train workers. Daimler's Portland manufacturing has ebbed over the years (it now makes the Freightliner brand in North Carolina and Mexico), and the company agreed to pay $2.4 million last year over allegations of racial and sexual sexual harassment at its remaining Western Star truck factory on Swan Island. Employment has continued to grow in the corporate office, though, which Daum attributes to growth in the business as Daimler gains market share. He cited the addition of services to maintain vehicles for their first 500,000 miles and to sell "connected trucks" that spot mechanical problems before a breakdown and have parts ready the moment a truck arrives in the shop. Daimler's former headquarters, which dates to the 1970s, will continue to house workers adjacent to the new building. Daum said the goal with the new building was to include timeless features and amenities that will make it attractive at least as long as the last building. "For us, the vision was always that we have a building 40 years down the road," he said, "which is still a great building where you want to be." Video - http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2016/04/daimler_trucks_unveils_sweepin.html

Transport Engineer / April 19, 2016 Chilled and frozen food distributor Brakes has carried out a five-week trial of Frigoblock’s refrigeration system and found it could save almost 17 tonnes of carbon per vehicle over a year. Brakes ran 22 trucks with identical chassis, insulated body and equipment: half were equipped with conventional independent diesel-powered refrigeration units and the rest with Frigoblock’s electric alternator-driven refrigeration system, powered from the truck engine. The operator analysed various parameters, including mileage, fuel consumption of the vehicles and refrigeration units, temperature control and door openings. In five weeks with Frigoblock, Brakes saved 641 litres of diesel – or 1,692 kg CO2 emissions per vehicle. On an annual basis, it found, CO2 emissions could be reduced by around 17 tonnes per vehicle. Despite the Frigoblock units delivering almost twice the refrigeration cooling and heating performance, they only affected the vehicles’ mpg by on average just under 10%. This compared with the independent and unregulated diesel engines powering the much smaller refrigeration units, which consumed an additional 768 litres of fuel per vehicle to achieve its cooling effect. What’s more, since the cleaner (Euro 6) truck engine powers the energy supply to the refrigeration unit with Frigoblock, air quality is improved dramatically – with these vehicles cutting diesel particulates by 93% and NOx and hydrocarbon emissions by 98%. Brakes has calculated that, based on the 641-litre fuel saving during the test period, the cost saving of diesel alone during the vehicle’s operating life would pay for the Frigoblock unit. It therefore remains the preferred refrigeration equipment for the fleet. Note: Essen, Germany-based Frigoblock (http://www.frigoblock.com/en/home.html) was acquired by Davidson, North Carolina-based Ingersoll-Rand in March 2015. .

News Hub / April 18, 2016 Seventy-five-thousand trucks move goods across New Zealand every day, but we're short on people to drive them. The unions put the 2400-person shortage down to low pay and long hours. The Government's calculated the average wage for a truck driver at around $16-$25 per hour. Ken Shirley, Road Transport Forum Chief Executive, says the lengthy and expensive licensing process doesn't help. He says it can take two and a half years and thousands of dollars to complete. Mr Shirley says big clients are "trying to screw down the freight rates", but "there's no more juice in the lemon." Lower Hutt driver Harley Tripae works four days on, two days off. Each shift is 12- to 14-hours long. He drives a fuel tanker, and says those carrying dangerous goods can earn close to a six-figure salary. He says like any industry, you start at the bottom and make your way up. "Once you're at the top, you can't beat it. The freedom; the open roads. It's great. It really is." .

Bloomberg / April 17, 2016 Three decades of borderless travel at risk with new checks — permanent curbs could cost 470 billion euros over 10 years. Peering through his rain-lashed windshield, Zoltan Unczorg alternates edgily between the brake and the gas pedal of his 18-wheeler. "It’s very tiring," the sturdy Hungarian complains as he crawls along in a line of vehicles approaching the Austria-Germany border. After more than eight hours carrying fan parts, Unczorg has no more patience for delays. And this day was better than usual. He’s had to endure waits of about four hours at this checkpoint, set up last September to hunt for migrants on the A3 highway near the German city of Passau. It’s a route he plies daily for electric-motor maker EBM-Papst Group. "The worst was last summer, when migrants were walking on the highway heading for Germany,” he says. “It was too dangerous to drive quickly, you could hit them by accident." What infuriates Unczorg may herald a sea change for Europe’s economy, business and even society: the erosion of a decades-old system that has allowed borderless travel across 26 countries. Bringing back widespread controls would be a blow for the most visible - or invisible - victory in the 60-year quest for a united Europe, conceived in the rubble of World War II. Free movement in what is called the Schengen area, for the town in Luxembourg where the treaty was signed, took over where bunkers and artillery stood on the Franco-German border and guard towers and barbed wire defined the Iron Curtain between eastern and western Europe. Now, Germany, Austria, France and Sweden, among others, have reintroduced border checkpoints in some places. They are pressured by Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since World War II - about 1 million migrants arrived in Greece and Italy in 2015 - terrorist attacks, and the growth of anti-immigration movements. But the economic cost of dumping Schengen, at a time when growth across the continent is still weak, would be massive. A permanent return to border controls could lop 470 billion euros ($530 billion) of gross domestic product growth from the European economy over the next 10 years, based on a relatively conservative assumption of costs, according to research published by Germany’s Bertelsmann Foundation. That’s like losing a company almost the size of BMW AG every year for a decade. The open borders power an economy of more than 400 million people, with 24 million business trips and 57 million cross-border freight transfers happening every year, the European Parliament says. Firms in Germany’s industrial heartland rely on elaborate, just-in-time supply chains that take advantage of lower costs in Hungary and Poland. French supermarket chains are supplied with fresh produce that speeds north from Spain and Portugal. And trans-national commutes have become commonplace since Europeans can easily choose to, say, live in Belgium and work in France. For many Europeans, passport-free travel is part of being, simply, European. For the company hiring driver Unczorg, the security checks increase costs in terms of delays, storage and inventory. Permanent controls would destroy the business model of German industry, says Rainer Hundsdoerfer, chairman of EBM-Papst. "You get the products you need for assembly here in Germany just in time," he said by phone. "That’s why the trucks go nonstop. They come here, they unload, they load, and off they go. The cost isn’t the only prime issue” in reinstating border checks. “It’s that we couldn’t even do it." Nor could anyone else, he adds: "Nothing in German industry, regardless of whether it’s automotives or appliances or ventilators, could exist without the extended workbenches in eastern Europe." Based in Mulfingen in central Germany, Hundsdoerfer’s company has been making electric motors and fans since it was founded in 1963, and has factories in countries including Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The parts Unczorg was carrying originated in Tapolca and Celldomolk, Hungary, and traveled more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) before being offloaded in Mulfingen for further manufacturing. Whether controls are here to stay depends on migrant flows. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said earlier this month that his country may end passport monitoring on the Austrian border by May 12 if the number of refugees trying to cross remains low, following closer scrutiny along the western Balkans route. But Austria is considering new checks on the Brenner Pass, a key highway link with northern Italy. Such a barrier would have serious economic and symbolic consequences for Europe, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Monday, according to Italian news wire Ansa. Thousands of migrants are expected to cross the Mediterranean, especially from Libya, in coming months. The European Union on March 18 reached a deal with Turkey in which some refugees will be sent back to there across the Aegean Sea - although European Union President Donald Tusk says he’s hearing concerns about the accord and the new border controls. "The deal with Turkey and closing the western Balkans route raised doubts of an ethical nature and also legal as in the case of Turkey," Tusk told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on April 13. Tusk warned that the bloc would be "unable to prevent political catastrophes" if it failed to stem irregular migration to Europe or restore authority over migration policy. "Here I mean the collapse of Schengen, loss of control over our external borders with all its implications for our security, political chaos in the EU, a widespread feeling of insecurity, and ultimately the triumph of populism and extremism.” The impact of refugee migration is visible at the Austria-Germany checkpoint near Passau. A hut squats in the middle of the two-lane highway and a line of trucks stretches back some six kilometers, exhaust fumes mixing with the stench of manure spread on nearby fields. Under a large white canvas tent, four police officers search a large gray van. Two are armed with machine guns in addition to their service pistols, under orders issued following the terror attacks on Brussels in March. "You have no idea how many ways I’ve seen the smugglers hide people," says Karsten Eberhardt, a police commissioner, as he sits at a picnic table. "If you carve out a hollow space under the seat and put a board in front, you can hide a pretty large person." The flow of migrants has dwindled since January, when as many as 12,000 reached the checkpoint daily. On the last weekend in March, police in the region found 70 migrants who were being smuggled. Peter Sonnleitner, head of foreign trade at the chamber of industry and commerce for Lower Bavaria, based in Passau, says several firms in the region have complained about delays but they have so far been "understanding" because transport companies have absorbed most of the extra cost. Also threatened are the companies whose goods or supplies are being shipped. German auto-parts manufacturer Continental AG, for instance, has 15 to 20 trucks running across Europe on a typical day. Their longest trips take about 1 1/2 to 2 days and cross multiple borders. If full customs and immigration checks were restored, leading to average waits of four hours at each frontier, that could mean another 160 hours of extra journey time a day across 20 trucks, said supply-chain head Juergen Braunstetter: "Over a year, you can imagine the cost.” The economic costs of more controls might ultimately be manageable, says Michala Marcussen, global head of economics at Societe Generale SA in Paris. Political costs are another matter. "We’ve just been through the euro crisis and rebuilding institutions," she said. "It’s better to fix Schengen as it shows the capacity to do things. If we were really able to have well-coordinated borders, that would give people confidence we could deal with shocks in the future." It would certainly ease Unczorg’s daily journey through Europe’s industrial heartland. "Today isn’t too bad," he says as he sluggishly passes the checkpoint, with two more hours to go before another driver takes over to bring the truckload to Mulfingen. “It’s rarely like this.” .

Dagens Industri / March 21, 2016 Consulting giant is again under fire. McKinsey was behind Volvo's costly and unsuccessful reorganization. It has previously been criticized for charging for more hours than necessary, pulling out of the project and setting the prices - now it has also done a poor job. The merger of the truck units became a fiasco when the new Volvo CEO Martin Lundstedt chose to return immediately to the previous business model with independent truck business units. As a result, Volvo shareholders have taken steps to reduce the use of consulting firms after the failure of the group’s truck brands merger attributed to New York-based consulting company McKinsey & Company. The U.S. consulting giant had advised former Volvo CEO Olof Persson on merging its four truck units, including Volvo, Renault, Mack and UD, hitherto independent, and assembling them into three geographical areas. The centralization strategy was supposed to result in faster decisions. Subsequently, the three zones have themselves been merged so that there is only one sales head. This hyper-centralization resulted in a reduced the chain of command that prevented the brands from quickly adapting to their specific markets. Now four years on, the failed merger of Volvo Group’s truck brands is viewed by shareholders as an expensive and time-wasting disaster for the company. McKinsey caused Volvo to lose market share and led to major and unplanned restructuring costs.

Scania Press Release / April 19, 2016 Scania’s order bookings for trucks reached the highest level for a first quarter since 2007 thanks to the continued strong demand in Europe. The growth is increasingly coming from the eastern and southern parts of Europe, where the recovery from the crisis years has now gained momentum. Order bookings for trucks in Europe remained strong during the first quarter of 2016 and reached the highest level in almost ten years. The replacement need, the oil price and access to financing means that European demand is still holding up well. “It is great to see that the southern parts of Europe have made a comeback from the crisis years and private consumption now has gained momentum, driving investments in vehicle fleets,” says Scania’s President and CEO Henrik Henriksson. Scania’s market share in Europe came in at a strong 17.4 percent for the first quarter of 2016, a slight increase compared to last year. “During the tougher years, we concentrated on strengthening our sales organisation and on entering new segments, in countries such as Spain, France, Portugal and Italy amongst others. We are now seeing the positive results of this,” says Henriksson. Another shining star in Europe is Poland. In just a few years, Poland’s total market for heavy trucks has grown dramatically and is now the fourth largest in Europe. Scania has managed to capture a large part of that growth and is today leading make with a market share of almost 22 percent. “For some years Poland has benefitted from increasing local establishment of manufacturing and logistics companies. In addition, major infrastructural investments have been completed, which makes Poland an important market for Scania. In addition to this, Scania’s products and service offering enjoy strong credibility in Poland,” says Bengt Thorsson, Senior Vice President and Executive Regional Director, European Region. The demand situation in Eurasia improved slightly during the first quarter of 2016 thanks to Russia. Asia also improved somewhat due to an upturn in the Middle East while demand in Latin America was still very weak because of Brazil. Scania’s total order bookings amounted to 19,363 (18,311) trucks during the first quarter of 2016.

Transport Topics / April 19, 2016 Truck maker Paccar Inc. shuffled the deck on the leadership of its subsidiaries, sending Preston Feight to the Netherlands to serve as president of DAF Trucks and bringing Mike Dozier home from Australia to succeed Feight as general manager of Kenworth Truck Co. The Feight and Dozier changes, both effective April 1, came about after other top executive changes going back to the start of the year. Feight, 48, had been GM of Kenworth since January 2015. He succeeds Harrie Schippers, 53, who had run DAF, based in Eindhoven, since 2010, according to the DAF website. Schippers is now senior vice president of Paccar at its Bellevue, Washington, headquarters. He succeeds Gary Moore, according to Paccar’s annual report filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Moore, 60, also a former Kenworth GM, is now Paccar’s executive vice president, succeeding Dan Sobic, 62, who retired the first week in January. Sobic is a former GM of Peterbilt Motors Co., another Paccar subsidiary. Dozier started with Paccar in 1988 and most recently was managing director in Australia. Prior to that, he was assistant general manager of operations for Peterbilt, and Kenworth’s chief engineer before that. Dozier also now serves as a Paccar vice president.

Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) / April 19, 2016 Belgium-based WABCO announced Tuesday morning the company has acquired Laydon Composites Ltd. (LCL), a manufacturer of aerodynamic devices for heavy-duty trucks and trailers Through the acquisition, WABCO becomes the only supplier that provides a full range of aerodynamic devices for commercial vehicles worldwide and expands its market access to North America through LCL’s sales network and customer relationships in the region. “Together, we offer commercial vehicle fleets in international markets the most comprehensive portfolio of aerodynamic products to help them improve operating efficiency and comply with stringent environmental regulations,” says Nick Rens, WABCO president, trailer, aftermarket and off-highway division. LCL pioneered and continues to advance aerodynamic technology that is standard equipment on leading brands of heavy-duty trucks in North America. The company says its collapsible air fairings improve air flow over tractor cabs, reducing fuel usage as much as 12 percent. For trailers, LCL says its patented, SmartWay Elite certified TrailerSkirt and nose fairings reduce air drag for a combined 9 percent fuel savings and lower CO2 emissions. .

Safety Groups Oppose Changing HOS in THUD Bill Heavy Duty Trucking / April 19, 2016 A broad coalition of interest groups, including highway-safety, law-enforcement and public-health advocates, is lobbying Congress “to oppose any special interest anti-truck safety riders including changes to the truck driver hours of service rules that would jeopardize the safety of truck drivers and the motoring public.” That’s per an April 18 letter sent by the chief executives of the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as well as the leaders of 13 other advocacy groups to the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has begun crafting the Fiscal Year 2017 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations funding bill. The coalition of groups wants no HOS-related policy riders — especially regarding the 34-hour restart reforms – to be attached to this latest THUD bill. Congress had suspended the 34-hour restart requirements pending submission of a study by the Department of Transportation on whether or not the more restrictive provisions provided “a greater net benefit for the operational, safety, health and fatigue impacts.” The requirements were to be suspended until DOT submits its final report to the House and Senate appropriations committees. However, the bill that forced the restart rollback law is silent on what will happen when the study is done. Presumably, if it shows that one restart version provides a greater net benefit than the other, then the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will adopt that provision as part of the rule. But suspending the more restrictive rules did not sit well with some. “The last two appropriations bills included special-interest riders opposed by safety groups, law enforcement, truck drivers, truck crash victims and the Office of Management and Budget that suspended two important safety provisions in the HOS rule,” the coalition states in its letter. “These political maneuvers evade the regulatory process, disregard the congressional committee of jurisdiction and ignore federal agency and public input,” the writers continue. “This attack on truck driver HOS rules is just the latest in the insatiable attempts of certain trucking interests to advance their economic agenda regardless of the human cost to public safety.” The coalition argues that the changes made to HOS rules in 2013 “required truck drivers with the most grueling schedules to take two consecutive nights off during the 34-hour restart and to use the 34-hour restart only once a week. These reforms were adopted because truck drivers were using the restart to work significantly more hours and truckers acknowledged that they were driving while fatigued.” While conceding that “the pre-2004 [HOS] rules were not perfect,” the coalition contends that “they did not promote greater driver fatigue to the same degree as the current rule, which suspends both the two consecutive nights of rest as well as the once-a-week use of the 34-hour restart.” Just last week, the same committee was admonished by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA),the influential Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, to not include any provision in the THUD bill that would prevent states from enacting their own meal and rest break rules for CDL drivers. Boxer went so far as to call such a measure “a poison pill,” which if included in the THUD bill, “would end any chance of the bill moving swiftly in the Senate.”