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U.S. Joins Suit against Navistar Defense LLC Alleging False Claims under Marine Corps Contract Homeland Security Today / December 4, 2019 The United States has intervened in a whistleblower suit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against Navistar Defense LLC. Navistar Defense manufactured armored vehicles for the United States military and is a subsidiary of Navistar International LLC, headquartered in Melrose Park, Illinois. The suit alleges that Navistar Defense violated the False Claims Act by submitting fraudulent invoices to support inflated prices for commercial parts under its contract to supply Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. “The Department of Justice will hold accountable those contractors who falsify information and thereby cause the military to pay inflated prices,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt for the Civil Division. “We will take steps necessary to protect the military’s procurement process from abuse.” “Through rigorous enforcement of the False Claims Act, we protect taxpayer dollars from waste, fraud, and abuse,” said U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu for the District of Columbia. “We expect the utmost integrity and reliability from the contractors that design and build equipment that is meant to ensure that our men and women in uniform are adequately protected as they serve our country.” In 2007, the United States Marine Corps awarded Navistar Defense a contract to build several hundred MRAP vehicles to replace the Humvee, which proved to be vulnerable to roadside explosive devices. Navistar Defense ultimately provided nearly 4,000 MRAPs under the contract. In 2009, as the focus of the war effort transitioned from the paved roads and flat terrain of the Iraqi deserts to Afghanistan’s rocky terrain, the Marine Corps sought to upgrade its MRAP vehicles with a modified Independent Suspension System (ISS). During the course of negotiations for the ISS, the Marine Corps asked Navistar Defense to provide evidence of prior commercial sales of the various parts that made up the ISS to ensure that the prices paid were fair and reasonable. The lawsuit alleges that Navistar Defense knowingly submitted fraudulent invoices that falsely purported to show prior, comparable commercial sales to conceal the inflated prices it was charging the Marine Corps. In reality, the lawsuit alleges, those sales never occurred. The lawsuit was originally filed under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Duquoin Burgess, a former government contracts manager for Navistar Defense. Under the acts, a private party, known as a relator, can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of the recovery. The act permits the United States to intervene in and take over the action, as it has done here. If a defendant is found liable for violating the act, the United States may recover three times the amount of its losses plus applicable penalties. The lawsuit is being handled by the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Investigative support is being provided by the Defense Contract Audit Agency, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Army Criminal Investigation Command, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is captioned United States ex rel. Burgess v. Navistar Defense, LLC (D.D.C). The claims alleged in the lawsuit are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.

Bloomberg / December 3, 2019 Navistar International Inc. and its defense unit are accused of bilking almost $1.3 billion from the U.S. government in connection with a contract for military vehicles used by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Filed in 2013, the whistle-blower suit was made public Tuesday by the U.S. District Court in Washington. The federal government elected to join part of the suit in September, according to an earlier court filing that also was just made available. The false-claims case “arises out of defendants’ pervasive and long-running scheme to charge the U.S. government wildly inflated prices for components of Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected (“MRAP”) vehicles, which were critical to the government’s military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan,” according to the U.S.-filed complaint. The companies are accused of submitting to the government misleading documents — including forged invoices and fabricated, inflated catalog prices for components — to induce the U.S. to award the company a multi-billion-dollar contract. Top Navistar Defense officials are alleged to have been aware of the scheme. Lyndi McMillan, a Navistar spokeswoman, said the complaint wasn’t well-founded in fact or law. “We believe our pricing was fair, reasonable and competitive, and we are disappointed the government has chosen to intervene in this matter,” McMillan said in an email. “The company intends to defend itself as necessary and appropriate.” According to the complaint, the whistle-blower was Washington resident Duquoin Burgess, who worked in the Navistar Defense contract management department first in Warrenville and later in Lisle, Illinois.

Ford Trucks International Press Release / December 4, 2019 The Ford Trucks F-MAX Charity Mission Convoy is on its way to join the “Children Help Children” convoy in Romania! Sharing the Christmas spirit with needy children all across Europe! Seasons greetings to all! #FordTrucks #SharingTheLoad #InternationalVolunteerDay #ivd2019 #DE #RO .

http://www.transedgetruck.com/modification-center-location/ http://www.transedgetruck.com/new-truck-modification-center/

Ford Trucks International Press Release / November 30, 2019 Ford Trucks loves you too, Romania! We delivered our 1,000th vehicle to its new owner in Romania! #SharingTheLoad .

Ford Trucks International Press Release / December 3, 2019 We are going forward on our way in Western Europe. Our next destination is Italy! 🇮🇹 📢 #FordTrucks #SharingTheLoad #Italy .

Hackett in it for long haul to steer Ford turnaround Michael Martinez, Automotive News / December 2, 2019 DETROIT — Jim Hackett has been CEO of Ford Motor Co. for nearly as long as his predecessor, Mark Fields, held the job. By some measures — Ford's languishing stock price, in particular — seemingly not much has changed from Fields' regime. But from Hackett's perspective, virtually everything has. And at a stage when his predecessor was under growing pressure from Wall Street and the board of directors, Hackett is digging in for a longer-term stay. "I see a dramatic improvement in the business," Hackett said in an interview last week at Ford's headquarters. "When I came in, it was my observation that it had been frozen a little bit, like caught in amber. Everything that was great about it was frozen. ... Ford needed to break the amber and start to transform." Hackett points to changes that have touched on "almost every aspect" of the business, from what vehicles Ford builds to how it designs them. He has revamped the company's organizational structure, cut excess manufacturing costs and instituted other structural changes he says are "not always obvious" to Wall Street analysts. There have been 19 changes to Ford's product plan — nameplates either crossed out or inserted — since his arrival, he said. Two and a half years in, Hackett finally can direct investors and employees to a sheet-metal embodiment of the philosophies he at times has struggled to convey: the Mustang Mach-E. The electric crossover, set to reach dealerships late next year, is the first vehicle Hackett and his team could significantly influence. They scrapped plans for a compliance car to instead emphasize performance and design, later taking the controversial step of expanding the Mustang brand to help boost sales and profitability. "We're hopeful the Mach-E is an exemplary story of the way we're trying to change Ford," Hackett told Automotive News. "It's an incredible turnaround in speed and quality and innovation, which is what we talked about 30 months ago that we want to bring to the company." And it's a strategy Hackett plans to bring to other products — including the long-awaited Bronco and the next-generation F-150. Next-gen F-150 Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas last year suggested the F-150 might be worth more than the entire company, punctuating the pickup's importance to Ford's lineup as well as its balance sheet. But it's facing more competition than ever. Fiat Chrysler's Ram has surged to second place in U.S. sales, in part because of a lavish interior that has won customers from its rivals. And a host of new players are set to enter the market as soon as 2021 with electric pickups, including Tesla and Ford partner Rivian. "The fitness of the kind of competition that comes at us gets better and better," Hackett said. "We can't stand on our laurels here, and we're not." While the current-generation F-150 upended the industry with its use of an aluminum body, Hackett said the next-gen pickup will focus on connectivity. He didn't divulge timing, but it's expected to go on sale next year as a 2021 model. "We take the advantages of [aluminum], and we now start to marry the intelligence — the emergence of the connectivity, the awareness of how people use the vehicles," he said. "The intensity of understanding what people do in our F-150s has probably never been higher. We have to keep changing the product for them in ways that they care about." That's likely to include the next-generation Sync infotainment system, which allows over-the-air software updates, that Ford showcased last month on the Mach-E. Like the Mach-E, the pickup is expected to get a much larger touch screen. The truck will also include a hybrid variant, which Ford says can double as a mobile generator. While Ford also has plans for a fully electric pickup down the road, Hackett said the flexibility afforded by a hybrid could appeal to more customers. "For certain jobs to be done, the gasoline engine and the diesel are better solutions," he said. "And so having that range of options for our customers is going to be a big advantage with that line." ‘So much to do' After a 33-year career at furniture-maker Steelcase and a stint as interim athletic director at the University of Michigan, some assumed Hackett, who turned 64 in April, would essentially be a transitional leader for Ford. He was on Ford's board when the body decided to oust Fields, and Executive Chairman Bill Ford abruptly asked Hackett to step in. Hackett, who initially didn't want the job but accepted after talking it over with family, said he never viewed it as a short-term move. "When you're the CEO of a company, you don't look at your job in 12-month increments or anything like that," he said. "You actually go out much further than that, because the emotional commitment, the physical commitment, the relationship commitment is long enough that you've got to put that date way out there and then you work back." Still on his to-do list? In addition to launching the Mach-E, Bronco, F-150 and a spate of other products, he still hopes to convince Wall Street that his methods really have changed the culture at Ford. Ford shares have fallen 18 percent during Hackett's tenure, and Moody's Investor Service recently downgraded Ford's credit rating to junk status. "I feel like I can still help in ways the transformation requires," he said. "When Bill and I sat down and made this decision ... we just said, 'What's it gonna take to get this turned around?' And we put ourselves out here, and we're working our way through it. I don't get up any day thinking that date's nearer because I still have so much to do."

With the most operator space, tallest & widest door openings, more glass, fewer blind spots & tightest turning radius, this dog fetches ROI. #AlwaysUp #Autocar #ACTT #yarddog #terminaltractor #yardtruck #spottertruck #returnoninvestment http://ow.ly/ihqZ50xq6Jv Always Up - Autocar Trucks

Closed-cell spray foam insulation.

Car & Driver / November 30, 2019 The Dale Jarrett UPS truck was built in 2006 by Mike Ryan, a stunt-vehicle builder, in less than three weeks. His team took a 23-foot-long 1990 UPS P-800 Package Car with more than 300,000 miles on the odometer, stripped it down completely, and transformed it with a fabricated roll cage, a TRD race engine, a custom transmission, racing suspension and shocks, a roll cage and racing gauges, and a racing harness, On December 4, that truck is going up for auction online by Iron Horse Auctions, with a minimum bid of $1 and a one-week period of bidding. UPS originally formulated the ad campaign featuring the truck to promote their NASCAR sponsorship, but as it caught on with fans, there was a push for the truck to appear on the track that became a running joke. UPS then shot another commercial of Dale Jarrett agreeing to race the truck to great acclaim, and he drove it around the track at the All-Star race, his final event before retiring in 2008. .

Renschler isn't because he realizes that Scania is the heart, the engineering prowess, of their global truck group.

Jim, I am not with Autocar. However, Autocar represents the kind of truckmaker I like, and that category includes the enthusiastic truck people at Ford International (Ford-Otosan), and of course the global benchmark Scania.

The X12 is NOT available from Paccar. The previous ISX12 was available.....and popular. But this year, when the X12 replaced the ISX12, Paccar did not sign a purchase agreement with Cummins for the X12, opting to only offer its own Paccar engines. Currently, only Autocar, Freightliner* and Western Star offer the X12 in the U.S. market. Paccar, I feel, shot themselves in the foot. Customers like choice, and the X12 is a great option. Their arrogant decision has already alienated a lot of Paccar customers. * https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/59782-cummins-x12-endurant-powertrain-now-available-in-regional-haul-applications/?tab=comments#comment-435627 https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/55010-cummins-x12-engine-now-available-for-freightliner-114sd/

Happy Thanksgiving from the #Autocar family to yours! We are thankful for our amazing customers & our dedicated team members who are committed to delivering the safest, most reliable severe-duty trucks w/ the highest ROI. Always Up - Autocar Trucks

When you run #Autocar trucks in your fleet, every day is #BlackFriday due to big total ownership cost savings! Less downtime, less unscheduled maintenance & 40% fewer accidents w/ injury add up to a huge ROI advantage. #itsallabouttheuptime #uptime #safety Always Up - Autocar Trucks .

With the industry's largest all-steel cab, the most driver visibility & tightest turning radius, #Autocar is committed to the #safety of refuse professionals & the communities they serve. Always Up - Autocar Trucks .

Ford Trucks International Press Release / November 26, 2019 At Ford Trucks, our journey will continue until we're all over the world! 🌍 #FordTrucks #SharingTheLoad .

Freightliner Cascadia Heads Down Under David Cullen, Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT) / November 25, 2019 A right-hand drive version of that quintessentially American longhauler, the Freightliner Cascadia, is available for order in the Oceania nations of Australia and New Zealand, Daimler Trucks North America announced on November 22. DTNA said it put a “substantial investment” into the Class 8 tractor to develop the RHD version and to “ensure it was ready for tough Australian and New Zealand environments and use cases.” In addition, the OEM said that an international on-road testing program was conducted in both the U.S. and Australia. On-road testing followed extensive development work performed at DTNA’s Portland, Oregon product validation and engineering center as well as dedicated track-testing at the company’s Madras, Oregon proving grounds. Dubbed the “Australia Pacific Cascadia,” the model for the lands Down Under will be available with two Detroit engines: The 16L DD16 with up to 600 horsepower and 2050 lb-ft of torque, and the 13L DD13 with up to 505 horsepower and 1850 lb-ft. of torque. Available transmissions will include the Detroit DT12 Automated Manual Transmission and an 18-speed Eaton manual transmission. “Our reputation for best real cost of ownership is a direct result of listening to our customers,” said Roger Nielsen, DTNA president and CEO. “For demanding Australian and New Zealand conditions, we doubled-down on our customer focus and listened to the voice of customers in the region to bring industry-leading technologies and the single best truck money can buy to markets that are very important to the company.” At launch, Freightliner will offer the Australia Pacific Cascadia with either a 116- or a 126-inch BBC dimension and in configurations ranging from a day cab to 36-, 48-, 60-, and 60-inch raised roof cabs. The Cascadia rollout will also mark the introduction in Oceania of the Detroit Connect, system, which enables remote vehicle updates, fault code diagnosis and repair recommendations, and OEM analysis of fuel economy and safety performance in addition to such “traditional” telematics services as GPS route-tracking and incident alerts. DTNA noted that the RHD Cascadia is now available to order through Freightliner’s Australian and New Zealand dealership network.

David Cullen, Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT) / November 26, 2019 Cummins Inc. is planning to lay off about 2,000 workers due to the downturn in the market. “As we communicated to our employees last week, demand has deteriorated even faster than expected, and we need to adjust to reduce costs,” Jon Mills, the engine maker’s director of external communications told HDT in an emailed statement. The company expects to complete the cuts in next year’s first quarter. As Cummins employs some 62,600 persons, the reduction will amount to slightly less than 3% of its global workforce. Mills said the worldwide engine builder has already taken “several actions” in response to declining revenues. These include “reduced discretionary spending across the company, several global efforts to optimize our operations, and voluntary headcount reductions.” He also said that Cummins will “continue to align production with demand at our manufacturing facilities. “Unfortunately,” he added, “we must do more to reduce costs because the downturn is happening at a sharper pace than we experienced in the previous two cycles. "We understand this is incredibly difficult for those directly impacted and for all employees across the company." Cummins did not specify where the job cuts may land, either in terms of types of positions or location of operations. Word of the layoffs came less than two weeks after Cummins rolled out an ambitious environmental- sustainability strategy. Under its Planet 2050 plan, the company aims to set quantifiable sustainability goals for 2030 along with longer-term aspirations out to 2050. Cummins described its new environmental strategy as science-based and intended to meet or exceed the goals of the United Nations Paris agreement on climate change.

GM goes to war against FCA Hannah Lutz, Automotive News / November 25, 2019 DETROIT — When Sergio Marchionne and UAW President Dennis Williams opened contract talks in 2015 with a bear hug instead of a handshake, assembly workers recoiled at the idea that their union and employer were getting too cozy. The truth was more sinister, General Motors now claims. Marchionne, stymied by GM's refusal to entertain his merger proposal, had been bribing Williams and other UAW officials for years, GM says in a stunning federal lawsuit filed last week. The suit contends that the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO was "using the UAW as the hammer" to make GM reconsider. Hours after the hug, GM says, Williams and some of his underlings — including the union's chief FCA negotiator, later sentenced to prison after admitting to taking FCA's bribes — celebrated at Detroit's London Chop House with an $8,000 meal on FCA's dime. FCA vehemently denied GM's allegations, accusing its domestic rival of trying to thwart this year's UAW negotiations and undermine its planned merger with PSA Group of France. The suit, arguing that FCA corrupted the bargaining process over the course of a decade to put GM at a labor-cost disadvantage while suppressing wages for thousands of its hourly workers, seeks potentially billions of dollars in damages. FCA went from having the highest labor costs of the Detroit 3 in 2006 to the lowest in 2015 by paying union officials to give it better deals, GM says. Suing FCA and three of its former executives wasn't "a decision that we made lightly," GM CEO Mary Barra said at an investor conference last week. But without a "level playing field," she said, "we had to take action." Marchionne, who died in 2018, "was a central figure in the conspiracy," said GM's general counsel, Craig Glidden. The three executives GM is suing — Alphons Iacobelli, Jerome Durden and Michael Brown — have pleaded guilty in a federal corruption probe. GM specifically excluded the UAW as a defendant, though six former union officials also have pleaded guilty, with former Vice President Joe Ashton expected to do so next week. FCA, in a statement, said it was "astonished" by the lawsuit and its timing, as the company works toward merging with PSA and finalizing a four-year labor contract with the UAW. Glidden told reporters that GM wanted to file the case within four years of the 2015 labor contracts that it believes were corrupted. Not until January 2018, when Iacobelli's plea agreement with the federal government became public, were details of the scheme and its effect on GM exposed, the complaint says. FCA funneled "millions of dollars" to certain UAW leaders, starting in July 2009, GM says in its lawsuit. The payments were designed to give FCA an unfair advantage in bargaining, it says, citing Iacobelli's admission of that, and "GM did not and could not have reasonably discovered this information earlier despite due diligence." Operation Cylinder Marchionne had long sought a merger partner. After GM rejected his overtures, FCA conspired with the UAW to weaken GM to make the merger proposition more appealing, GM alleges. GM says Marchionne called it Operation Cylinder, which is presumably a reference to the circular towers that house the company's headquarters in downtown Detroit. Marchionne and General Holiefield, the UAW vice president who negotiated the union's contract with FCA in 2011, were close friends, documented by a photo of a lively embrace between the two in 2009. Secretly, GM says, Marchionne treated Holiefield to lavish dinners, paid for his 2012 wedding in Venice, Italy, and got the couple's mortgage paid. Holiefield, who died in 2015, used his personal charity to conceal many of the bribes, the lawsuit says. His wife, Monica Morgan, pleaded guilty to taking bribes through her photography business and was sentenced last year to 18 months in prison. A month after Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy in 2009, Iacobelli and other FCA executives paid Holiefield hundreds of thousands of dollars, considered as an investment in "relationship building," GM says, citing Iacobelli's indictment. Marchionne also gave Holiefield a custom-made Terra Cielo Mare watch worth several thousand dollars, with a handwritten note saying he had declared its value as "less than fifty bucks," GM says. Marchionne at the table By 2014, the UAW's new president, Dennis Williams, a friend of Marchionne since the early 2000s, also was in on the conspiracy, the lawsuit says. Marchionne wanted to take over GM and run the combined company as its CEO, the lawsuit says, but needed UAW officials on his side because they could block the merger. GM rejected FCA's offer in April 2015, two weeks before Marchionne published a manifesto called "Confessions of a Capital Junkie." In it, Marchionne said an FCA-GM merger would save nearly $5 billion without laying off employees. That June, just before the formal start of UAW negotiations, Iacobelli abruptly stepped down from his post as FCA's vice president of employee relations. Marchionne assumed Iacobelli's place at the bargaining table across from Williams, Vice President Norwood Jewell and other leaders GM says FCA had bribed. Jewell recently was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Williams and Cindy Estrada, the UAW's vice president in charge of relations with GM at the time, advocated for the merger proposition in a meeting with GM brass later that month, the lawsuit says. Expensive contract The UAW's initial contract demands in 2015, GM says, would have cost about $1 billion more than the 2011 agreement. As the largest and most profitable of the Detroit 3 at the time, GM believed it would be the primary negotiation target, typically an advantageous position because it sets the pattern that the other two companies generally follow. GM had been the target in 2007 and 2011. This year, being selected first backfired on GM, when the UAW went on strike for 40 days. GM says that early in the 2015 talks, it was homing in on a deal with an incremental cost of about $800 million. Then the UAW named FCA as its target, surprising much of the industry. GM says the FCA-UAW deal it had to follow instead resulted in a contract with an incremental cost of nearly $2 billion. "With cooperation of UAW leadership purchased through bribes," the lawsuit says, "Marchionne schemed to use the collective bargaining process to harm GM by becoming the lead in negotiations and attempting to force a merger of the companies." Marchionne called FCA's contract with the UAW, negotiated over just two days, "transformational." The economics of the deal, he said when it was announced, were irrelevant because the costs "pale in comparison given the magnitude of the potential synergies and benefits." Williams called the 2015 FCA deal "one of the richest ever negotiated" and labeled the bargaining process with FCA a "testament to the UAW's democratic values and commitment to our members." He retired in 2018 and has not been charged with a crime, but agents raided his home in August. When he chose FCA as the 2015 target, Williams told a GM executive he would explain why when he retired but has not done so, the lawsuit says. GM says UAW officials, in return for the bribes they received, refused to give the company concessions that they agreed to with FCA. For example, the UAW allowed FCA to employ more temporary and lower-paid, second-tier workers than GM was allowed. GM agreed in 2011 to reinstate a pre-bankruptcy cap on second-tier workers in 2015, meaning that those in excess of the limit would be bumped up to top wages. But FCA made a "side letter" deal with the union that the number of second-tier workers would remain unlimited, GM says. "FCA hired tier-two workers with abandon, possessing the incredibly valuable foreknowledge that it would not be penalized by any reinstatement of the cap," GM's complaint says. "By 2015, tier-two workers made up around 42 percent of the UAW membership at FCA — double the proportion of tier-two workers at GM." Today, more than half of FCA's workers don't receive top pay, according to the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. If FCA follows the pattern of GM's and Ford's 2019 labor contracts, all current in-progression workers would get to top pay by 2023. ‘Worst to first' In another instance, the UAW agreed in 2014 to a new prescription-drug list that significantly reduced FCA's health care costs. GM requested the same deal, which would have saved it up to $20 million a year, but the UAW refused, GM says. From 2011 to 2014, FCA cut its labor costs by $8 an hour while doubling the gap between its costs and GM's, the lawsuit says. Ultimately, GM asserts, the nearly decadelong scheme "helped buy a wage advantage to take FCA from worst to first among the Detroit-based automakers."

The new #Autocar DC-64 roll-off really lit up downtown #Chattanooga at the 2019 TCAPWA/SWANA Conference. https://www.autocartruck.com/dc/ Always Up - Autocar Trucks .