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Australasian Transport News (ATN) / November 4, 2015 The Queensland trucking industry has joined a growing chorus demanding relief from exorbitant heavy vehicle registration and fuel charges. Queensland Trucking Association (QTA) president Ben Almond used his speech at the group’s 2015 annual dinner to criticise governments for sticking to the existing charging formula despite knowing it has led to trucking operators being overcharged. Like the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association (ALRTA), the QTA wants transport ministers to agree to a reduction in charges to make up for the years of overcharging. Transport ministers are due to meet this week to discuss the heavy vehicle charges to apply from July 1, 2016. The National Transport Commission (NTC) in 2014 recommended changes to the charging system to prevent overcharging. "My association has recently provided the Queensland Government with a detailed submission on the subject of heavy vehicle charging," Almond says. "Our message and that of the industry throughout Australia is that it is time to stop the overcharging of truck operators in this state and in this country. Minister’s accepted in 2014 that the overcharging was a reality. "The option of freezing government revenue will simply lead to a continuation of overcharging to the extent of $1.2 billion over the next six years. "We urge the Queensland Government to support the direct implementation of the NTC option which will deliver a reduction in heavy vehicle registration removing the current overcharging." The ALRTA and the South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA) have publicly voiced their concerns about heavy vehicle charges. ALRTA president Kevin Keenan says the trucking industry is being overcharged about $200 million annually under the existing system. Transport ministers put off implementing the NTC’s recommendations until July 1, 2016, but Keenan claims alternative options are now being considered. "We have already had a two year delay, which is more than enough time for governments to adjust to a fairer charging system," Keenan says. "Further delays would be nothing more than a blatant opportunistic tax grab".

In the days of the former Mack Trucks, warranty repairs represented a very small fraction of a Mack Trucks distributor's overall shop work. However today with the name under Volvo Group, warranty repairs represent the majority of Mack Trucks distributor's overall shop work. Volvo's tedious step-by-step warranty repair process is both frustrating and time consuming. You have to make numerous phone calls to Greensboro, speaking with Volvo engineers who don't know much more than you do.

No "correctly manufactured" replacement parts available for the world's leading brand truck (sarcasm, on my part). You pay a premium for a truck manufactured with cheap parts wearing a high quality paint finish. Where are the replacement parts coming from - Mexico, Brazil, India or China ???

Mack brand third quarter orders plunged 51 percent. (http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/42364-mack-third-quarter-deliveries-increase-6-percent/?hl=51) The Morning Call, the long-time Allentown (Lehigh Valley) newspaper, can't come across too harshly, or Volvo will shut them out from future interviews. But with orders off by more than half, the near future is bleak.

The Morning Call (Allentown) / November 3, 2015 Mack Trucks' assembly plant in the Lehigh Valley likely will be hit with layoffs, though the extent of the planned reduction is not yet known. Stephen J. Marzen Sr., chairman of United Auto Workers Local 677's Mack unit, said in a letter dated Monday that a layoff is likely in the coming months due to an "anticipated daily build rate reduction." The reduction, he wrote, would trigger "voluntary layoff" opportunities, and workers should review their union-contract language and prepare proper paperwork to initiate or revoke their decision to be let go. Neither Marzen nor Ed Balukas, Local 677 president, responded Tuesday to interview requests. Mack [Volvo Group] expects the heavy truck market to decline about 10 percent in 2016 and needs to adapt production at its Lehigh Valley operations to meet market demands, Mack spokeswoman Kim Pupillo said in an email. "It's too soon to say how many employees will be affected, but as soon as we do quantify the impact, we'll be communicating it to our employees first," she said. Several industry analysts expect heavy truck production to peak this year. In a recent report, Stifel Financial Corp. estimates North American heavy-duty truck production will decline about 15 percent next year. Fluctuations in Mack's workforce are not uncommon as the company monitors the market and adjusts employment needs accordingly. For example, the company's Lower Macungie Township facility, where all Mack trucks built for the North American market are assembled, employed about 1,950 as recently as late May. Then, in mid-October, Mack officials said the figure was approximately 1,870. Mack is Lower Macungie's largest employer. In a separate example, Mack added 200 people in 2012 due to increased demand for heavy-duty trucks. But the boost was short-lived, as the company started laying off 175 production workers in January 2013 because of an industry-wide slowdown. While the state Department of Labor and Industry has not received a WARN notice tied to the possible layoff this time around, state officials said the regional Rapid Response Coordination Services field representative is aware of the potential for layoffs at Mack. Pupillo said Mack will meet with employees this week at regularly scheduled quarterly meetings to discuss business results of the quarter. Through the first nine months of this year, Mack has delivered 18,749 trucks in North America, a 9 percent increase from the 17,136 delivered during the same period in 2014, according to a report released last month by the Sweden-based Volvo Group, Mack's corporate parent. The company's orders in North America, however, are headed in the opposite direction. Mack orders declined 51 percent in the third quarter, the result of "dealers focusing on reducing their inventories and the comparison with a good quarter last year," Volvo Group said. Similarly, in the second quarter, Mack orders were down 50 percent, mainly "a result of cancellations of some of the large quantities of dealer orders placed in the fourth quarter of 2014 combined with a softening in demand in some of Mack's core market segments," such as energy, the company said. While Volvo said it expects the total North American retail market for heavy-duty trucks to approach 310,000 trucks in 2015, the company is anticipating lower demand, about 280,000 trucks, in 2016. Despite the lower forecast for next year, local officials last month believed Mack had room to grow in the Lehigh Valley. The Lower Macungie plant, they said, is pumping out 116 trucks a day. In mid-October, Lower Macungie's Board of Commissioners unanimously adopted a resolution of support for Mack's local operations. In the resolution, the board agreed to facilitate and execute permits and approvals related to construction and renovations of Mack's local operations in a "prompt and efficient manner." In addition, to further the development and growth of Mack's operations, the board agreed to encourage and advocate, to the fullest extent permitted by law, for economic support from local and state government entities. At that time, Wade Watson, vice president and general manager of the Lower Macungie plant, issued a statement saying the company had no major expansion plans but is looking to make site improvements designed for efficiency. He also said the facility, now in its 40th year, requires some updates, including sufficient employee parking. In addition, Watson said, Mack is looking to develop space to be more efficient in how it handles trucks that are ready for delivery. "These sorts of renovations require the support of local government through the permitting process," Watson said in October. "The resolution passed by the Lower Macungie board is simply a commitment from the board to work closely with us as we look to improve our facilities."

Commercial Carrier Journal / November 3, 2015 Volvo Trucks North America has issued two recalls recently, affecting approximately 8,200 trucks total. One of the recalls affects approximately 8,103 model year 2009-2015 Volvo VN trucks manufactured between April 14, 2008, and Dec. 23, 2014. The affected trucks could experience corrosion of the ball joints due to the seals being compromised, which could result in faster wear and failure of the ball joints. Failure of the ball joint could cause separation of the socket and a complete loss of steering, increasing crash risk. Volvo will notify owners, and dealers will inspect and replace the drag links for free, the recall notice says. Volvo says parts are not currently available, so owners will be sent a second notification when the parts are available. The second recall affects 101 model year 2012-2014 Volvo VNL trucks manufactured between Dec. 1, 2011, and Sept. 1, 2013, equipped with certain Electric Auxiliary Power Units, part number BA600, manufactured by Idle Free Systems (IFS). Volvo says the affected APUs have metal housings with mounting points that could crack and tear, and the mounting bolts of the power units could loosen or fail. If this were to happen, the APU could fall off the truck into the road, creating a road hazard. Volvo will notify owners, and IFS dealers will inspect the APU for damage and fix the problem if necessary.

Transport Topics / November 3, 2015 The House on Nov. 3 rejected an effort by Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) aimed at allowing states to increase weight limits for trucks. By a vote of 187 to 236, Ribble’s amendment to a multiyear highway bill on the House floor was not adopted. Under Ribble's proposal, states would have been authorized to determine whether to allow weight limits for trucks to increase to 91,000 pounds. The current standard weight limit for interstate highways is 80,000 pounds. Ribble’s amendment was co-sponsored by Reps. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), David Rouzer (R-N.C.) and Collin Peterson (D-Minn.). Since pushing his provision in September, Ribble did not garner significant backing from the chamber's Republican leaders. The proposal also had been criticized by key members. During the highway bill’s floor debate on Nov. 3, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said such a provision did not belong in a bill seeking bipartisan support. The House will continue to take up amendments to the highway reauthorizing bill on Nov. 4. Passage is expected by the end of the week, the bill’s floor managers say.

Caught Black-Handed: Why Did Volkswagen Cheat? Car & Driver / December 2015 It’s amusing to watch the mainstream press sink its fangs into an auto scandal. Business-page reporters hurriedly scan the releases and the statements—quickly now, the home page needs updating every 17 seconds—and distill a basic, highly superficial narrative. Press agents for experts in all manner of non-automotive subjects, from business ethics to crisis management to consumer advocacy, flood the email inboxes of the news outlets, their clients desperate for the exposure that comes from getting a rote observation into quotes. The flames of public outrage get fanned for a few days with hyperbolic and often-inaccurate punditry. Granted, Volkswagen’s diesel doomsday is not a simple story, rife as it is with technical inside-baseball. Basically, VW programmed an algorithmic routine into the controllers of its model-year 2009–2015 2.0-liter turbo-diesel engines that recognized the protocols of the EPA’s FTP-75 test, including the US06 and SC03 cycles, and altered the engine calibrations to selectively reduce oxides of nitrogen to make the engine compliant with U.S. EPA Tier 2, Bin 5 limits, all in violation of sections 203(a)(3)(and 203(a)(1) of the Clean Air Act. Got it? Legions of TDI owners who thought they bought a “Clean Diesel” (in spite of the slip-slap sound of the stinky, carbon-rich fuel going into their tanks) howled in indignation. Were they victims of a greedy corporate evil, or of ordinary people in the trenches trying to wriggle out of a difficult spot? Here’s a theory on why a carmaker that seemed to have the world conquered made such a heinously bad, unethical, and trust-eroding decision that equally battered both its reputation and its market value. While other automakers pursued hybrids and electric cars, VW long ago bet its green-tech chips on diesels. The decision was emblematic of VW’s prioritization of Europe, where diesels are popular, over diesel-averse North America, a market the carmaker has traditionally dismissed as secondary. The pressure on VW engineers to deliver a clean diesel, or one delivering both good fuel economy and low emissions, was titanic, but the effort ran headlong into U.S. regulations. The decision to cheat must have happened sometime before 2009, two years after the EPA’s Tier 2 emissions standards were in full effect. Tier 2 sets extremely difficult requirements for ­diesels, cutting allowable oxides of nitrogen by 83 percent over Tier 1 regs, to 0.07 gram per mile (fleet average). NO and NO2 (NOx), the strange chemical compounds formed by the high temperature and pressure of an internal-combustion engine, especially diesels, contribute to ground-level ozone, or smog. Tier 2 established by far the toughest NOx standard in the world. It came at a bad time for VW. The most effective technology to cut NOx is called selective catalytic reduction (SCR), which involves spritzing small amounts of urea and water into the exhaust stream to facilitate the breakdown of NOx into nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The problem is that SCR requires a tank, a pump, and plumbing—not easy things to package on a small vehicle platform such as the PQ35, the aging component set comprising the fifth-generation Golf and Jetta. There’s more to putting a urea tank on a car than just lashing it down with zip ties. The floorpan will likely change, the addition of a secondary filler can mean retooling a quarter-panel, and the reengineered car has to go through full crash certification. Golf V owners liked their multilink rear suspensions, a feature that probably would have to be scrapped in favor of a more compact torsion beam to leave room for the tank. (The larger Passat got a urea system in 2012, but VW programmed it so that, apart from the emissions test, it would be stingier with the urea injections, meaning that the owner wouldn’t be inconvenienced with refilling the tank as often.) With Tier 2 looming, VW faced spending millions on an aging product to make its diesel engines legal in the U.S., one of the smallest diesel-passenger-car markets in the world. In 2007, diesel passenger cars represented only about 0.2 percent of the American market. Factor in the contemporaneous collapse of the world economy and the plunge in U.S. vehicle sales, and VW’s engineers were painted into a corner. But a new, totally compliant Jetta TDI appeared as a 2009 model. Its supposed silver bullet was an underfloor Lean NOx Trap (LNT), in which NOx is captured, then converted to nitrogen and carbon dioxide via occasional spurts of diesel fuel. Maybe it didn’t work quite as well as SCR, but it was a lot easier and cheaper to retrofit. And there didn’t seem to be a fuel-economy penalty. The companion 2010 Golf TDI advertised stellar city and highway figures of 30 and 41–42 mpg (depending on the transmission), and owners in forums claimed even higher mileage. What nobody knew then was that the engine was programmed to squirt less fuel into the exhaust when the car was off the test dyno, allowing more NOx out of the tailpipe and raising mileage. Given the choice of reducing the global problem of CO2 or the local problem of smog, VW’s engineers chose a middle path with a cheat that would give U.S. regulators the low NOx they demanded and TDI buyers the high mileage they wanted. As it happened, the fudge would only be needed for six years, until 2014, when Europe, the market that dominates VW’s decision-making, implemented its own tough NOx standards with the so-called Euro 6 regs. By then, the engineers may have figured, VW could phase in better NOx-eating technology through normal platform updating. Why VW continued to include the software cheat in engines built in 2014 and afterward is anyone’s guess. The perpetrators likely believed they wouldn’t be caught, as self-certification is the norm under the EPA, which is too cash-strapped to test but 15 percent of the powertrains on the market and is perennially threatened with extinction by Congress. (Independent researchers discovered the ploy.) And if they were caught, VW probably figured, the penalty and market fallout would be small. Perhaps it was an easy choice to cheat. The European competitive environment is rife with deception. Just look at FIFA soccer, where officials are under indictment by U.S. prosecutors. Europeans have a win-by-any-means streak that sometimes emerges under intense pressure. There certainly was pressure. Then-CEO Martin Winterkorn, who took over Volkswagen AG in 2007 determined to make VW the world leader in volume and profit, ordered his staff to deliver a clean diesel that could be sold worldwide and could carry VW’s diesel religion to the New World to convert nonbelievers. And they did deliver. Did Winterkorn know the details? Maybe he didn’t want to. He has denied any knowledge of the deceit. From a moral and legal standpoint, the fraud was a colossally bad decision. Whether it was a bad financial decision remains to be seen. A half-million cheater diesels were sold in the U.S., with 11 million sold worldwide. Meanwhile, the costs of the scam will take years to measure. It took four years for the federal government to slap a $1.2 billion penalty on Toyota for hiding evidence in its sudden-acceleration investigation, so it’ll be a while before we know how many pounds of VW’s flesh are in play. It almost certainly will be a fraction of the $18 billion widely speculated upon in the press. The rules allow Uncle Sam a lot of wiggle room. This was an emissions issue, after all, not a safety defect involving crashes and fatalities. If you look at the settlement pattern—$935 million for GM, $1.2 billion for Toyota—the fines tend to be starkly punitive but not crushing. Then again, European regulators will likely demand something and there will be civil suits to settle. Once all the shouting is over, VW’s decision to break the rules may prove hugely damaging, a shattering of its recent momentum that distracts and dispirits the company, opens a crack in its armor for competitors, and scuttles demand for the diesel technology upon which VW has staked so much. Or it might just be a break-even, forcing both VW and government regulators into some uncomfortable but necessary changes while being a financial wash against the sales it generated. Or it may even prove to have saved the company some money over the alternatives available to the engineers at the time. Only VW’s accountants will ever know the whole truth. .

Trailer/Body Builders / November 3, 2015 Peterbilt has announced the availability of the lightweight, fuel-efficient DAF MX-11 engine for its flagship on-highway Model 579 and vocational Model 567. The new 10.8-liter engine – introduced by Paccar to North American markets earlier this month – will be available for order through Peterbilt dealerships beginning on November 13 and production begins in January. “The DAF MX-11 engine is a great addition to Peterbilt’s lineup of technologically advanced solutions focused on delivering the highest levels of quality, durability, performance, reliability, efficiency and overall return,” said Darrin Siver, Peterbilt General Manager and PACCAR Vice President. “The DAF MX-11 engine provides outstanding value in a lightweight and fuel efficient design, and will continue to exceed our high standards and our customers’ expectations.” The DAF MX-11 engine has an output of up to 430 horsepower and 1,550 lb.-ft. of torque. It is ideal for a wide range of applications, including regional haul, tanker, bulk haul, construction and refuse. DAF launched the MX-11 engine in Europe in 2013 and has manufactured and installed over 10,000 of the engines in vehicles built by self-branded DAF truck range. DAF has over 50 years of engine development and manufacturing expertise. The DAF MX-11 engine has six inline cylinders and a double overhead camshaft design. DAF MX engines are the only commercial diesel engines to use Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI) in both the engine block and cylinder head. CGI is approximately 20 percent lighter and 75 percent stronger than traditional gray iron. The DAF MX-11 engine is designed to achieve an industry-leading B10 life of one million miles. It also utilizes a common rail fuel system with injection pressures of 2,500 bar to optimize combustion for low fuel consumption and noise levels. “In addition to the weight and fuel savings, drivers will appreciate the responsiveness, performance and quiet operation of the DAF MX-11 engine running in their Peterbilt truck,” Siver said. All Peterbilt dealer locations will provide full support of the DAF MX-11 engine. The US market DAF MX-11 engine will be produced at the state-of-the-art Paccar engine manufacturing facility in Columbus, Mississippi, where the DAF MX-13 is produced.

A demonstration of the GINAF HD5395TS with the “HydroAxle” steer axle drive system produced by Bosch-Rexroth. Note this GINAF is equipped with the Ford Cargo cab, rather than the DAF-supplied cabs they typically use. The system is similar to the “AddiDrive” hydraulically-actuated steer axle drive system developed by French hydrostatic transmission maker Poclain Hydraulics (http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/39998-volvo-unveils-automatic-all-wheel-drive-truck-tech/?hl=ginaf#entry289755). Related reading - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/37598-new-ginaf-has-ford-cab-and-cummins-power/?hl=hd5395ts

Website - http://www.bmc.com.tr/?lang=en Related reading - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/41744-those-turkish-bmcs/?hl=bmc

The Economic Times / November 2, 2015 The Volvo-Eicher joint venture in India, VE Commercial Vehicles (http://www.eicher.in/etb/trucks), saw sales rise 29.2 percent to 3,985 trucks, versus 3,084 units in same month last year. Year to date sales reached 38,790 units, an increase of 12.8 percent over the same period last year. Eicher brand truck and bus sales rose 26.3 percent to 3,854 units, versus 3,052 units in October 2014. Eicher Truck and Bus India domestic sales jumped 39 percent, while exports fell to 388 units from 558 units in October 2014. Volvo brand truck sales leaped 309 percent in October to 131 units, compared with 32 units in October 2014.

Press Release / November 1, 2015-11-03 The UD “Electric Demonstrator” is a pure electric medium truck. Silent and emissions-free, it features a full-sized body that maximizes transport efficiency. The truck’s pure electric drivetrain was developed in-house by UD parent Volvo Group. Emissions-Free Zones where noise and speed are limited are becoming more and more common, as are zero-emissions areas. The UD Electric Demonstrator Truck can cross all zones and go where conventional trucks can’t. Silent Running Because of its pure electric drivetrain, the UD Electric Demonstrator Truck provides a drivers with a significantly quieter and more comfortable experience. Large Cargo Space The UD Electric Demonstrator Truck is a fully functioning medium-sized truck. This allows for greater flexibility, and the ability to carry large payloads. Electrical Flow (http://cdn.udtrucks.com/media.axd/Tms/downloaded/54483-UD-ELECTRIC-DEMONSTRATOR-GRAPHIC-INNER-5996mmx2455mm.pdf?v=BweWw9M5AAA) Driving 1. Both batteries send power to the junction box 2. The junction box combines the power from both batteries and sends it to the electric motor driver 3. The electric motor driver controls the electricity and sends it to the electric motor 4. The electric motor sends the electricity to drive the wheels 5. The electric motor sends the electricity via the unique 2-speed AMT to drive the wheels Braking Regeneration 1. Brakes create a resistance to the electric motor 2. Resistance to electric motor begins to generate electricity 3. Regenerated electricity is distributed back to the two batteries 4. Batteries are charged with regenerated electricity Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9v7Y4mQozg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIDGN_VttIY

Fuso Press Release / November 2, 2015

Goteborgs-Posten / November 2, 2015 The committee chairman of Volvo’s joint-venture in China, Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles (DFCV), in which Volvo's holds a 45 percent stake, has been arrested on corruption charges. "We have taken note of the news in the Chinese media that the president of DFCV is under investigation by authorities. At this time, we don’t know more than what is being presented by the media. It is too early to draw any conclusions regarding the possible impact on our joint venture," says Volvo's press manager Kina Wileke. Dongfeng Group owns a 55 percent stake in the DFCV truckmaking joint-venture, where Swedish truck and bus manufacturer Volvo holds a 45 percent stake. ------------------------------------------------------------ Facts: Volvo completed its purchase of a 45 percent stake in Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles (DFCV) in January 2015, a deal that was announced two years prior. The shares cost 5.5 billion Chinese yuan (about 7 billion Krona). Dongfeng Motor Group holds the remaining 55 percent stake. DFCV has a leading position in the Chinese truck market, which in 2013 amounted to 774,000 heavy trucks. The corruption suspect, Mr. Zhu Fushou, is one of four Chinese members of DFCV's Board of Directors, appointed by the Dongfeng Motor Group. Volvo has three board members. http://www.gp.se/ekonomi/1.2883362-korruptionsutredning-i-volvo-partner

The Washington Post / Novermber 2, 2015 John Sopko’s team of investigators has uncovered all kinds of wasteful spending in Afghanistan through its work as a U.S. government watchdog. Now the group has uncovered a $43 million gas station, which Sopko calls “gratuitous and extreme”—and possibly criminal. In a scathing report, Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, wrote that a similar compressed natural gas station in Pakistan cost $500,000, or about $306,000 at current exchange rates, meaning the Afghanistan station cost 140 times as much. He wrote that the Pentagon’s program had “several troubling aspects,” including $30 million in overhead costs, and the lack of a feasibility study before the project began. Sopko said that that the Pentagon essentially shut down when pressed about the program, saying: “One of the most troubling aspects of this project is that the Department of Defense claims that it is unable to provide and explanation for the high cost of the project or to answer any other questions concerning its planning, implementation or outcome.” The department that was in charge of it, the Task Force for Stability and Business Operations, has closed and so the Pentagon said it couldn’t comment on its activities, Sopko’s letter said. He wrote that he found it “both shocking and incredible that DOD asserts that it no longer has any knowledge about TFBSO, an $800 million program that reported directly to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and only shut down a little over six months ago.” [U.S. spent $3 million on boats for Afghanistan that were never used, IG says] Despite the lack of cooperation, Sopko said he intended to continue to investigate the program to see “whether any conduct by TFBSO staff or contractors was criminal in nature.” The gas station was intended to help Afghanistan curb its dependence on foreign petroleum products and take advantage of domestic energy. But investigators found that Afghanistan does not have the natural gas transmission infrastructure to support a “viable market” for cars that used compressed natural gas. And the cost of converting gasoline-powered cars to run on natural gas “may be prohibitive for the average Afghan.” The cost to do so is estimated at about $700 per car, while the average annual income in Afghanistan is $690. “In sum, Sopko wrote, “it is not clear why [TFBSO] believed the CNG filling station should be undertaken.” The project also angered Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, who wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter demanding answers about the station. “There are few things in this job that literally make my jaw drop,” she said in a statement. “But of all the examples of wasteful projects in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Pentagon began prior to our wartime contracting reforms, this genuinely shocked me.” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) took aim at the Pentagon saying, “The lack of accountability and transparency is disgraceful. The Defense Department needs to come clean, drop the obfuscation, and hold people responsible for a colossal waste of tax dollars.”

The Washington Post / November 2, 2015 A large segment of white middle-aged Americans has suffered a startling rise in its death rate since 1999, according to a review of statistics published Monday that shows a sharp reversal in decades of progress toward longer lives. The mortality rate for white men and women ages 45-54 with less than a college education increased markedly between 1999 and 2013, most likely because of problems with legal and illegal drugs, alcohol and suicide, the researchers concluded. Before then, death rates for that group dropped steadily, and at a faster pace. An increase in the mortality rate for any large demographic group in an advanced nation has been virtually unheard of in recent decades, with the exception of Russian men after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The rising death rate was accompanied by an increase in the rate of illness, the authors wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Drugs and alcohol, and suicide . . . are clearly the proximate cause,” said Angus Deaton, the 2015 Nobel laureate in economics, who co-authored the paper with his wife, Anne Case. Both are economics professors at Princeton University. “Half a million people are dead who should not be dead,” he added. “About 40 times the Ebola stats. You’re getting up there with HIV-AIDS.” Since at least 1970, Americans and residents of other wealthy countries have generally enjoyed longer and healthier lives, as smoking has declined, better treatments have been developed and preventive measures and lifestyle changes have had an impact. But Monday’s bleak findings could have far-reaching implications as the surviving members of this sizable segment of the population continue toward retirement and eligibility for Medicare, according to experts. A sicker population that has been less able to prepare for the costs associated with old age will place an increasing burden on society and federal programs, they said. “This is the first indicator that the plane has crashed,” said Jonathan Skinner, a professor of economics at Dartmouth College. “I don’t know what’s going on, but the plane has definitely crashed. “High school graduates and high school dropouts now make up 40 percent of the population,” he added. “It’s not just the 10 percent who didn’t finish high school. It’s a much bigger group.” Death rates for other developed nations examined by the two researchers, as well as rates for U.S. blacks and Hispanics, continued their steady decline of recent decades. Whites in other age groups between 30 and 64, and more educated whites also had lower death rates. But the other age groups also experienced substantially higher death rates from drug and alcohol overdoses, suicide, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis of the liver. While the death rate for African Americans is still greater than the rate for whites, the turnaround among whites is shocking because of the advantages they enjoy, said David Weir, director of the health and retirement study at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Typically, socioeconomic circumstances “gang up on African Americans, who have lower education, lower incomes and race all working against them,” said Weir, who also reviewed the study for the journal. “In this case, that’s not happening.” Weir said economic insecurity, the decay of communities and the breakdown of families probably have had some impact on death and illness rates, in addition to the nation’s opioid epidemic and the factors the authors identified. But the study clearly shows they are not the result of diseases such as lung cancer or diabetes, which are declining and increasing slowly, respectively. “I think it has to have something to do [with] the pain underlying it,” both physical and psychic, he said. “That is the age when people have their midlife crisis . . . I think it has to do with that stage of life, and physical ailments do start to accumulate at that age. “This paper really is a question, not an answer,” he added. Case and Deaton were examining government statistics on death rates and illness when they discovered the spike in mortality for people ages 45 to 54 in the period between 1999 and 2013. “We both were sort of blown off our chairs when looking at that,” Deaton said. He said they knew that most demographers would look at the numbers and say, “You’ve got to have made a mistake. That cannot possibly be true.” When they pored over the data, however, they found that mortality rates for this group had risen an average of a half percent per year since 1999, after falling an average of 2 percent annually for the 20 years before that. If mortality rates group had stayed on their steady downward course, a half-million more people would be alive today, they determined. When they looked at illness (morbidity), “there was a large and statistically significant decline in the fraction reporting excellent or very good health” that was matched by increased reports of physical pain, according to the study. The proportion of people who said they were in “serious psychological distress” also rose significantly, the research shows. Deaton, awarded the Nobel prize for his work on individual consumption choices, has long studied measures of well-being, health and pain. He and Case authored a paper in June that found reports of physical pain “are strongly predictive of suicide in many contexts” and that reports of pain are increasing among middle-aged Americans. Their findings have been corroborated by other research. A report from the National Heroin Task Force established by the Justice Department puts the number of overdose deaths from legal and illegal drugs at 110 every day. The heroin death toll has quadrupled in the decade that ended in 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A study in the journal JAMA Psychiatry last year reported that 90 percent of the people who tried heroin for the first time in the last decade were white. Three-quarters said they were introduced to heroin through the use of prescription drugs. In January, the CDC reported that an average of six people die every day because of alcohol poisoning and that 76 percent are ages 35 to 64. Three-quarters are men. But just last week, researchers reported that the U.S. death rate for all causes declined 43 percent between 1969 and 2013, from about 1,279 per 100,000 people to about 730. The rate of death caused by strokes, heart disease and cancer all declined significantly, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. .

Owner/Driver / November 2, 2015 Brian Shiner loves his 1990 V8 Mack Valueliner, which goes better than it looks. This old Mack might not look real flash, but its owner gives it plenty of TLC and says it goes like a train. Brian Shiner has been wanting to send his 1990 workhorse to a paint shop for a decade but, like a lot of owner-drivers, he says he hasn’t had both the necessary time and money at once. But he’ll get around to it one day and in the meantime there’s nothing wrong with what counts, which is underneath the skin. And the V8’s note is awesome. The old girl has done just over 2.5 million kilometres, with a reconditioning job at 1.4 million kilometres despite no major problems. "So it’s nearly due to be done again," Brian, 48, says. He bought the Brisbane-built Valueliner – which is the successor to the R model – in 1996 from a bloke at Esperance in Western Australia for $115,000 when it had already done 860,000km "It’s been brilliant. I’ve never had any trouble with it really," Brian says. He does all the servicing himself, but he doesn’t have much choice anyway because the population of his home hamlet of Pingrup is only about 60. Pingrup is about 50km south of Lake Grace on the way to Albany, in the mighty wheat-sheep belt several hours east of Perth. Brian’s bread and butter is local grain cartage as well as grain and wool to Perth, and hauling fertiliser out of Perth. He says the truck is very comfortable to drive, and no wonder with its long springs and 6.2m wheelbase. "It rides like a dream," Brian says. He has been in trucks all his life, following in the footsteps of his father Paul who was a small Pingrup trucking operator before going farming when Brian was a teenager. "I thought he sold me out," Brian laughs. "I already knew I wanted to be a truck driver." Photo gallery - http://www.ownerdriver.com.au/truck-reviews/1510/1990-mack-valueliner-truck/

Goteborgs-Posten / October 30, 2015 On Friday evening, Martin Lundstedt begins the weekend after his first full week as Volvo CEO. He will spend his weekend working on everything from the company's structure to the internal work and customer care. This week, Martin Lundstedt used the press meeting at a Volvo truck dealer repair shop to announce that business at Volvo will not continue as usual – the company will be heading into a new and different era. "We have a lot of hard work ahead of us,” he said. Not least, his work is about creating an all-new management culture very different from the just-ended Persson administration. Lundstedt was invited to head Volvo by a board and investors extremely dissatisfied with where the company is today. The Persson management team had from investment company Aktiebolaget Industrivärden’s headquarters in Stockholm (http://www.industrivarden.se/en-GB/Holdings/Investment-operation/). Owning up to a 30 percent stake in Volvo, the culture that characterized the Industrivärden world had deeply penetrated Volvo in the form of luxury yachts, mansions, extravagant use of private jets* and sponsorship of high-priced ocean sailing competitions. Signalling a new day at Volvo, the group is selling the Gothenburg villa of ousted CEO Olof Persson, which had been purchased for SEK 30 million (US$ 3.6 million). Now CEO Martin Lundstedt will reside in his own apartment in Gothenburg. With ex-Scania head Martin Lundstedt at the wheel of Volvo now, there is believe that Volvo’s days of provocative high-flying extravagances will end, as it has at other companies held by Industrivärden, since industrialist and financier Fredrik Lundberg became chairman of the investment company this past April. Martin Lundstedt is a person who speaks warmly of working on the front lines of the truck business, and the importance of good corporate governance. For example, top Industrivärden executives previously had the power to travel by private jet with their families on family trips at the company's expense to football games. It's always a gamble for an outsider to come in and transform a business. And it hardly gets any easier by Martin Lundstedt coming from Volvo’s toughest competitor, a career step that is extremely rare at the executive level in Swedish business. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Private jet scandal gives Swedish giant rough ride The Financial Times / January 22, 2015 The staid world of Swedish business was shaken on Thursday when a scandal over the use of private jets triggered one of the biggest corporate upheavals in the country’s recent history. Industrivärden, the owner of controlling stakes in companies including Volvo, Ericsson and Sandvik, and Handelsbanken, Sweden’s biggest bank and an Industrivärden holding, will both get new chairmen and chief executives under the shake-up. The jet scandal erupted after it emerged that wives and children accompanied directors on business trips abroad as well as to a hunting lodge owned by SCA, a paper and forestry company in which Industrivärden owns a large stake. Svenska Dagbladet, the newspaper which broke the story, reported that one unnamed person even sent a jet from the north of Sweden to Stockholm just to pick up his wallet, which he had forgotten. The affair has also shaken faith in the much-admired Swedish model of active ownership under which shareholders nominate board directors and help guide companies’ strategies. Industrivärden and the Wallenberg family foundations, Sweden’s two biggest holding companies, together control more than half of the market capitalisation of the Stockholm stock exchange. Sverker Martin-Löf, the chairman of Industrivärden and SCA, is the big loser of the scandal as he will resign from all his board posts, including as vice-chairman of Handelsbanken and Ericsson and a director of Skanska. He will be replaced as chairman of Industrivärden by Anders Nyrén, currently the holding company’s chief executive as well as the chairman of Handelsbanken. Mr Nyrén in turn will be replaced at Handelsbanken by Pär Boman, the bank’s well-respected chief executive who will also become chairman of SCA. “Once the dust has settled from the battleground, we can say Sweden is a very small country. We are a very close-knit sphere with a lot of influence and we were too thinly spread,” Mr Nyrén told the Financial Times. Swedish investors complained that power at Industrivärden was too concentrated between Messrs Martin-Löf and Nyrén, who sometimes signed off each others’ expenses. He said the move would bring in “new blood” as chief executives of Industrivärden and Handelsbanken, with both moves expected to be announced soon, and that the jet scandal had merely “forced us to accelerate” a succession plan that was already in place for next year. But group insiders spoke of a holding company that had at times lost touch with reality, led by Mr Martin-Löf, who had been chief executive or chairman at SCA for more than a quarter of a century. Mr Boman, who led Handelsbanken successfully through the financial crisis to become one of the European banks with the highest capital ratio, is expected to lead the clean up at SCA, which has already changed its company policy to ban family members from using private jets. Dagens Industri, Sweden’s main financial newspaper, compared the size of the affair leading to Mr Martin-Löf’s departure to previous scandals such as Percy Barnevik’s SFr148m ($172m) pay-off from ABB.

Daimler AG Press Release / October 30, 2015 For Stuttgart-based Auracher Moving's 1965 vintage LP911, retirement is out of the question. The truck is just getting broken in. Related reading - https://www.myvan.com/heritage-vans-between-the-barn-and-the-garage-with-oswald-and-felix-auracher/

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