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Iveco Press Release / October 7, 2015

Paccar Launches the DAF MX-11 Engine in North America Paccar Press Release / October 7, 2015 Paccar is expanding its range of self-branded engines in North America with the introduction of the DAF-designed MX-11 engine, with an output of up to 430 HP and 1,550 lb.-ft. of torque. The MX-11, which complements the MX-13 engine, is scheduled to be available with Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks in January 2016. DAF launched the MX-11 engine in Europe in 2013, installing over 10,000 MX-11 engines in DAF trucks in the last two years. “The MX-11 engine is designed to deliver optimum performance and fuel economy, industry-leading durability and reliability, and a quiet operating environment for the driver,” said Landon Sproull, Paccar assistant vice president. “Paccar’s over 50 years of engine development and manufacturing expertise have established the company as one of the leading diesel engine manufacturers in the world.” The 10.8-liter MX-11 engine is characterized by its combination of state-of-the-art innovations and proven technologies that reduce weight and deliver features needed for a wide variety of over the road and vocational applications. The MX-11 engine’s double overhead camshaft design, coupled with a compact graphite iron (CGI) engine block and cylinder head, create long-lasting durability, achieving an industry-leading B10 life of one million miles. The MX-11 utilizes a common rail fuel system with injection pressures of 2,500 bar to optimize combustion and ensure the lowest possible fuel consumption and noise levels. .

Los Angeles Times / October 8, 2015 Virginia firm will pay a $100,000 fine and spend $290,000 on pollution-reduction programs for operating 73 trucks in California without diesel particulate filters, federal and state officials announced Thursday. The Environmental Protection Agency’s settlement with Estes Express Lines (https://www.estes-express.com/) was the first federal enforcement action against a company for violating California’s tough regulations to slash emissions of toxic diesel soot and smog-forming pollutants from diesel trucks. “Today we mark the closure of the first of what we hope are many cases,” said Todd Sax, chief of enforcement for the California Air Resources Board, adding that it “sends a strong message that trucking companies, even those based outside of California, must meet California’s requirements when operating here.” The 2008 regulations require heavy-duty diesel trucks either to meet 2010 engine standards or upgrade their vehicles with filters that reduce diesel particulate emissions by 85% or more. The rules, being phased in through 2023, apply to all 1 million diesel trucks operating in California, including 625,000 that are registered out of state. Jared Blumenfeld, the EPA’s regional administrator, said compliance with California’s rules is crucial because diesel trucks are one of the largest sources of smog-forming nitrogen oxide emissions in the state with the worst air quality in the nation. The EPA approved the state’s heavy-duty diesel regulations in 2012, giving the agency the authority to enforce them under the federal Clean Air Act. In the spring of 2014, the agency sent letters to Estes and about a dozen other large, interstate trucking companies requesting information on their compliance with California’s diesel emissions rules, Blumenfeld said. In response, Estes disclosed that about 15% of its 500-truck California fleet was not equipped with particulate filters and that it had failed to verify whether the trucks of subcontractors it had hired were in compliance. The EPA cited Estes, based in Richmond, Virginia, for those violations in February. The company now operates only new trucks in California, the EPA said. As part of its settlement with federal officials, Estes agreed to pay more than $250,000 to help with the replacement of old wood-burning stoves with cleaner devices in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the state’s most polluted regions. The company also will spend $35,000 to fund a UC Davis-run program to teach out-of-state trucking firms about California’s diesel regulations. “We think that's an appropriate use of the penalty and we look forward to a compliant future within California,” said Nick Scola, a spokesman for Estes. The company agrees with the EPA’s findings, he said, and is “working diligently” to meet regulators’ requirements. Blumenfeld said the EPA expects to announce other settlements involving similar emissions violations by large, out-of-state trucking firms in the near future. State air-quality officials estimated last year that about 85% of the trucks operating in California were in compliance with the new diesel rules. California regulators have enforced the diesel regulations as they have begun to take effect in recent years by conducting on-road inspections and other investigations and issuing fines for the companies found in violation. In May, the Air Resources Board fined Bakersfield-based Randy’s Trucking Inc. $524,675, the largest penalty to date, for failing to clean up its fleet in accordance with the regulations. California’s rules for heavy-duty trucks are the toughest in the nation and aim to sharply reduce health risks from air pollution by cutting the amount of cancer-causing soot in diesel exhaust. If fully implemented, they will prevent about 3,500 premature deaths in California between 2010 and 2025, according to state air-quality officials.

Goteborgs-Posten / October 2, 2015 The era of free residences for AB Volvo's top executives has come to an end. This fall, the luxury villa of former Volvo CEO Olof Persson in Långedrag will be sold to the highest bidder. Volvo’s purchase of the 500 square meter luxury villa for Olof Persson brought sharp criticism when the company was in a period of financial crisis in 2011. “We have decided to sell the villa where Olof Persson lives...........we will not offer residencies in the future, said Kina Wileke, press manager at AB Volvo. Persson's villa on the Defence Road was purchased for SEK 30 million (US$ 3.6 million). Under the terms of his contract, ousted Volvo CEO Olof Persson can remain in the villa until the spring of 2016. But he has announced that he will be moving this autumn. Volvo’s new incoming CEO Martin Lundstedt, who starts his new job on October 22, will reside in his own apartment in Gothenburg. He also retains his own house in Stockholm, where he has resided during his 25-year tenure at truckmaker Scania in nearby Sodertalje. .

Trucking firm Celadon sells tractor portfolio for $13.6 million Indianapolis Business Journal / October 5, 2015 Trucking company Celadon Group Inc. sold a portfolio of semi tractors and their associated leases for $13.6 million to a joint venture controlled by a private-equity firm, Indianapolis-based Celadon announced late Friday. Celadon said it made the sale to support its Quality Cos. business unit, which manages tractors. The purchaser was 19th Capital Group LLC, a joint venture controlled by Wayne, Pennsylvania-based equity firm Larsen MacColl Partners, with a minority investment by Celadon and Celadon management. Celadon said it made a minority investment in 19th Capital Group as part of the tractor sale, which also includes management participation. "The structure is expected to allow us to account for the investment under the equity method of accounting," Celadon said in a written statement. "In addition, with this investment, we will record a share of the joint venture's profit or loss on the lease income stream and residual sale value of the tractors, which we currently do not share in under the contract with our current financing partner." Celadon said it expects to make additional sales to 19th Capital in the future. Celadon's Quality Cos. unit has grown tractors under management from 750 to about 4,900 since June 30, 2013. Celadon said it buys the tractors "on favorable terms through our consolidated buying power," then sells them to a third- party financing company, which leases them to independent contractors who provide capacity to Celadon and other trucking companies. Quality Cos. provides driver recruiting for those tractors, as well as lease-payment remittance, insurance, maintenance and other services for a fee. The subsidiary has about 13,000 tractors on order from several manufacturers, scheduled to be delivered over the next three years, Celadon said. Celadon announced the sale after the market closed Friday. Company shares dropped 1 percent earlier in the day, to close at $15.84 each.

Related reading - http://trucks.autoreview.ru/_archive/section/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=151308&SECTION_ID=8196

Transport Engineer / October 7, 2015 Chartrange has taken delivery of its first Volvo trucks – three Volvo FMX 8x4 tippers with 15m3 Boweld Taperlite HD tipper bodies – and is achieving 19.5 tonne payloads. All three have high ride chassis and are powered by the 410bhp Volvo 11-litre D11K engine, developing up to 1,950Nm of torque, mated to Volvo’s 12-speed I-Shift AMT gearbox. Simon Redfern, transport manager at the Dukinfield, Cheshire-based operator, says the team tried demonstrators from several manufacturers before making its decision. “Thomas Hardie Commercials initially gave us a Volvo FMX-420 to trial and then later in the process we took a Volvo FMX-410 on a one-week test,” states Redfern. “In the end we decided the Volvo FMX was absolutely the right truck for us [and] now the trucks have been delivered we are convinced this was the right way to go.” Redfern explains that Chartrange is predominantly in the bulk excavation industry, also supplying processed aggregates. “The three new Volvo FMX trucks are each expected to cover some 60,000km per year, hauling both material generated by bulk excavations and processed aggregate from Dukinfield, used for ground stabilisation and for sub-base in road construction,” he says. All three FMX trucks were supplied under three-year Blue R&M contracts with Thomas Hardie Commercials. .

Fleet Owner / October 8, 2015 The certification of Cummins Westport ISL G 8.9-liter to 0.02 grams per brake horsepower-hour (g/bhp-hr) for oxides of nitrogen (NOx) by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) earlier this week is expected to be a “game changer” for natural gas in the truck market – especially as that same “near-zero NOx” technology gets added to the company’s ISB 6.7-liter and ISX 12G 11.9-liter units. “This is huge; this is equivalent to [the emission levels] of a completely electric tractor-trailer – even if one existed that could haul 80,000 lbs. up and down the highway,” explained Erik Neandross, CEO for consulting firm Gladstein, Neandross and Associates (GNA), during the CNG Industry Leaders Forum put together by Gain Clean Fuel and hosted by Anheuser Busch at its Biergarten facility attached to its St. Louis, MO, brewery operation this week. “This is really unbelievable stuff from an environmental performance perspective,” he said. Neandross stressed as well that the number one source of ozone-forming NOx comes from heavy trucks and off-road engines; a statistics that becomes all the more important in light of the EPA’s new rulemaking effort aimed at reducing ground-ozone levels. Hugh Donnell, North American OEM truck business and market segment leader for Cummins Westport, noted at the meeting that municipal fleets located in “non-attainment” areas for high-ozone levels could use the firm’s new “near-zero NOx” engines for faster compliance with the new rules – including the Phase II greenhouse gas (GHG) rules set for implementation in 2017. “This is a big deal – we’re talking about natural gas engines that offer a 90% reduction in NOx pollution. That’s a game changer,” he explained. He added that all of Cummins Westport’s natural gas engines meet the EPA‘s 2010 standard for particulate matter, which is 0.01 g/bhp-hr. Donnell also noted that the company’s “near zero” natural gas 8.9-literengine – designated the ISL G NZ – also meets CARB’s 2023 California Near Zero NOx schedule eight years early. He also said that three components proved key to driving the ISL G NZ’s NOX levels down to near-zero levels: new combustion calibrations; new crankcase venting techniques adapted from Euro VI compliance technologies being used in Europe; and the three way catalyst system used on Cummins Westport’s ISX 12G unit. “It only change [customers will see in the ISL G NZ compared to the ISL G] is an increase in the size of the catalysts of about an inch,” Donnell noted. “That’s it; there is no trade off in fuel economy and no cost to performance. That’s a pretty good recipe; don’t give up anything and get a lot more in return.” He added that the same “near-zero” technology will be added to the company’s ISB 6.7-liter and ISX 12 G products over the next two years. “The near-zero 6.7-liter will go into production in the fourth quarter of 2016 and will be commercially available in the first quarter of 2017,” he said. “We’ll start on the [near-zero] ISX 12 G in mid-2017 and make it commercially available in early 2018.” The main hurdle for Cummins Westport to getting this “near-zero” package to market across its natural gas engine lineup is compliance with onboard diagnostic (OBD) rules, Donnell emphasized. “Getting them OBD certified requires quite a bit of work; that and getting technicians certified to work on them and making sure parts are available when the engines hit the market,” he explained. “It’s like building a new road versus rebuilding an older one; a takes a little longer than expected.”

(related post - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/42059-r-model-and-mh-model-frame-dimensions/?hl=frame) .

Woman kicks 17-month-old toddler to death Associated Press / October 3, 2015 A Washington woman has been arrested after kicking her boyfriend's 17-month-old son to death. Alicia Joni Goemaat, 20, of Seattle admitted to police that she became so angry following an incident on Sunday that she kicked the young boy, Drue Lehto, in the stomach, knocking him down. She told police that she then kicked him again apparently causing fatal abdominal injuries. Goemaat was arrested on Thursday for second-degree murder. A week prior to his death, Drue was treated at Seattle Children's Hospital for 'bruises and scratches that did not appear to be normal for a toddler'. On Sunday when Goemaat was caring for her own toddler son and her live-in boyfriend's son, the boys argued over a toy. She later admitted to authorities that she so got angry she kicked Drue in the stomach, and the victim was dead when his father, Derek Lehto, returned home from the store. A police report stated Goemaat, who is currently booked at the King County Correctional Facility on a $1million bond, would frequently scream at the child. Friends of Goemaat and Lehto also told investigators that she would become 'extremely agitated' when Drue cried and would 'physically punish him' by spanking or flicking him on his body when he cried. According to the police report, Goemaat, also struggles with drug addiction and attempted to commit suicide on Wednesday. .

Goteborgs-Posten / September 5, 2015 By the end of next year, AB Volvo will relocate from its long time headquarters in Torslanda to the previous Volvo Trucks headquarters in Pit Humlegårdsgatan in Lundby, Sweden. Approximately 150 people are employed at Torslanda.. We want to get closer to Lundby where we have a lot more activity. Our R&D unit, global sales and marketing organization, Volvo Penta and much more are located in Lundby. So then we end up with other business units that we work with on a daily basis, said Kina Wileke, director of the Volvo Group's media relations. Today’s headquarters is isolated away from the rest of the business in the old headquarters built in the 1980s, when PG Gyllenhammar led the group. This included Volvo car, which it does not today. During the coming year, the old office building in Lundby will be extensively renovated. Today, it is a fairly outdated building with small rooms, which will be rebuilt and refurbished to modern office environments where more people can fit.

Transport Engineer / October 2, 2015 Contract haulage business Gerrards of Swinton has taken delivery of seven 32-tonne Renault Range C430 8-wheel tippers. Supplied by dealer JDS Manchester, the Range Cs are additions to the operator’s fleet of 14 trucks to meet increased demand, but will also be used in Gerrards’ ‘Free Courses for ex Forces’ programme, which offers free driver training to ex-army personnel. Replacing Premium Landers, the Range Cs – with sleeper cab, alloy wheels and enhanced safety equipment – are double-shifted, 24/7 on contract haulage service to the construction industry. Sebastian Gerrard, managing director, says the Premium Landers performed well, so the Renault Range C was “definitely on the list”. A demonstrator proved the vehicle’s capability, he says: “It’s reliable, robust with its big high steel bumper, it offers superb ground clearance and the flat chassis is strong with no flex and no twist, so it’s ideal for off-road use.” He adds: “Even with the aluminium insulated body we can still carry over 20 tonnes. We’re also getting 2 mpg better fuel economy compared to our older vehicles... and the Range C’s outstanding warranty will save us a fortune because maintenance is one of our biggest outlays.” Gerrard, himself an ex-army man, set up the free driver training scheme last year. It’s a win-win, he says, with former service personnel gaining qualifications and experience, and Gerrards able to select the best to join its team.

Fleet Owner / October 7, 2015 Kenworth has announced three new options for its line of vocational trucks. Allison’s 4700 RDS 7-speed automatic transmission – with optional second “deep reverse” – can be ordered on Kenworth’s T880, T800, W900, and C500. The transmission is part of the Allison rugged duty series. “It’s a great choice for our customers operating mixers, dumps, cranes, and heavy-haulers, where the application calls for an increase in overall transmission ratios,” said Kurt Swihart, marketing director. “In the construction world, trucks often need better speed control for job-site maneuverability in steep and often tricky terrain. That’s the beauty of the Allison 4700 RDS, as it offers a lower reverse ratio, and a lower first gear ratio for maneuverability. The new Allison transmission also features no-power interrupts, which gives full power shifts and allows full use of the engine’s horsepower.” For those operating Kenworth’s T880, the company is now offering a “box bumper” in either steel or aluminum. According to Swihart, the new bumper features a tapered design, which allows for hood pivot clearance and more protection for the grill and headlight area. It is available on both short and standard T880 hoods. The steel bumper – with choice of 1/4- or 3/8-inch thickness – can be painted in either the body or chassis paint color. The chrome bumper comes in 1/4-inch thickness. For those running Kenworth’s W900S with the PACCAR PX-9 engine in a set-forward front axle configuration, a fixed grille option is available. “This allows our customer or body builder to utilize the front of the truck without impacting the ability to open the hood,” said Swihart. “This option is especially useful for crane operators or those using the W900S as vacuum trucks with a ‘steady leg,’ or boom supports.”

Fleet Owner / October 7, 2015 Ken-Tool has announced the introduction of the Ken-Tool 34555 Shark Fin Dual Wheel Separation Bag, engineered to help remove stuck and corroded wheels/tires from truck and trailer axles. According to the company, the bag is an extreme-duty, rubber coated, nearly puncture proof Kevlar bag which uses air pressure to create 5,000 lbs. of force to separate and remove stuck dual wheels off the axle studs and hubs. “Unlike any other dual wheel separation product on the market, it is safe for use on any wheel type – steel, aluminum or chrome – from 15- to 24.5-in. rim diameters,” the company said. “Stuck wheels are a growing problem due to the corrosion which occurs between wheels (particularly aluminum) and steel studs and hubs.” The Shark Fin bag is inserted vertically between the tires near the 11 and 2 o’clock positions after the tires are off the ground and the lug nuts are loosened, the company noted. Compressed air is added the bag, using the attached 3 ft. inflation hose. The Shark Fin bag, rated at 150 psi, delivers 2.5 tons of expansion force at 87 psi, breaking the corrosion which prevents removal of the wheels. The Shark Fin bag can also be used, with proper support cribbing, on steering axle wheels and inside dual wheels. Deflated, the bag dimensions are 9.75” x 8” x 3/8” (25 cm x 20 cm 0.95 cm), and inflated, it expands to 5.5 inches (14 cm) (maximum), according to Ken-Tool. The inflation tube features a slotted cap for deflation. .

Russia Today / September 30, 2015 The Avtotor Holding plant in the Russian city of Kaliningrad is about to begin assembling Ford Cargo heavy trucks. The vehicles will be spec’d specifically for the Russian truck market and comply with European safety standards. "We are in a pre-production stage of the four most popular models – tow trucks and road construction machinery ... Actual production will depend on market conditions, as well as currency and inflation that have a direct impact on this," Avtotor told RIA Novosti. The 4,000 parts for each truck will come from Ford’s Otosan plant in Turkey. Assembling the trucks from completely knocked-down (CKD) kits provides a high percentage of localization. CKD means importing parts to the country where the vehicle will be finally assembled; tariffs for parts are lower than for complete vehicles which makes the end product cheaper. Moreover, all vehicles will be equipped with Russian made options. Founded in 1994, Avtotor was the first plant in Russia to assemble foreign cars. Today it produces automobiles for BMW, Kia, Hyundai and Chevrolet. Last year the plant assembled 186,000 cars. Kaliningrad is located between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. Its proximity to the EU has made it attractive for foreign auto makers to assemble cars there for the Russian market. The devaluing ruble has also made many producers turn to Russia. In August, the average salary across the country was 31,870 rubles (less than $500 a month), according to the official statistics agency Rosstat. Russian labor is now cheaper than in Romania and China. Related reading - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/38066-ford-signs-heavy-truck-deal-in-russia/?hl=cargo

Australasian Transport News (ATN) / October 8, 2015 Western Australia is trialling super-quad combinations on highways in what state transport minister Dean Nalder says is a national first. The 60-metre road trains will undertake a three-month trial in the Pilbara on the Great Northern Highway between Munjina-Roy Hill Road and Utah Point, Port Hedland. "They have undergone – and passed – rigorous safety assessments to ensure they are safe to operate on public roads," Nalder says. "Even though they are longer, these are state-of-the-art vehicles with improved safety and superior handling compared to the standard 53.5m road trains, the longest currently allowed on our roads." The first two vehicles have been built by WA trailer manufacturers Bruce Rock Engineering and Howard Porter to transport iron ore and other minerals for Process Minerals International and Qube Bulk. Though capable of higher speeds, the road trains will be limited telematically to 90kmh, which the government says will allow "easier overtaking by other vehicles and ensuring superior on-road performance". Nalder says the trial aims to eventually provide the mining industry with greater productivity and lower operating costs, reduced the number of vehicles on the road in the long-term and introduced a safer vehicle. The trial will assess impact on the road infrastructure and other road users, such as pavement assessments, traffic data, community surveys and on-road monitoring. The vehicle combinations will be assessed by a panel of the Road Safety Commission, local government, WA Police, Main Roads Western Australia and the caravanning industry. Qube has wasted no time in getting the combination up and running and saying it is the first heavy haul company to trial a Performance Based Standards (PBS) quad road train in the Pilbara in support of junior iron ore and manganese miners using Utah point. "The first set run tipped off at Utah this afternoon at 1500[hrs] with a load from Atlas Wodgina mine," a spokesman says. "This unit is 60 metres in length and will carry up to 140 tonne payloads. "This compared with conventional quads that are 53.5 metres in length and carry 114 tonne payloads. "If adopted across all tonnes at Utah Point is has the potential to reduce the current required truck trips into the facility by 46,000 trips per annum. "This is a very significant road safety and productivity uplift. "Qube will deploy our PBS Quads on CML's Woodie Woodie operation and Atlas Widgina and Abydos operations." Bruce Rock Engineering managing director Damion Verhoogt says the trial is the culmination of almost two years negotiations with the WA Department of Transport, PBS assessors and clients. The company has approval for six sets in all, with the others awaiting commercial terms from clients. The process had focused on infrastructure impacts and traffic interactions, with Verhoogt saying that the eventual outcome has been a top-line product. "Through the PBS process, we have ended up with a vehicle that is actually dynamically superior to the existing quad set-ups that are on the road at the moment," he tells ATN. "We’ve actually got a much-higher productivity vehicle; the thing’s actually much safer than existing gear; it’s monitored a lot better through the IAP [intelligent Access Program]. "Apart from a bit bigger vehicle and more tonnes, there’s been a big safety and performance gain on what there is currently." Howard Porter managing director Roy Lombardi says the initiative is a whole of industry and government effort in support of junior miners facing hard times due to the fall in mineral prices. "There’s been a lot of pressure on junior miners over here to increase productivity and safety getting their product to the port with the downturn in iron ore pricing," Lombardi says. "There’s a good relationship between industry and government over here and they threw it all on the table to keep some of these smaller mines viable. "Just a bit of a coordinated effort between ourselves and few operators, Main Roads and the minister." Howard Porter worked with Qube for nine months on the Quad Roadtrain design. The design call for modern European prime movers, Driver Safety System (DSS) Seeing Machines, GPS monitoring and electronic braking systems. .

Prime Mover Magazine / October 7, 2015 Freightliner Trucks Australia has revealed the new red Argosy cab-over used as part of its sponsorship deal with V8 Supercars team, Brad Jones Racing. According to Freightliner, the entire combination weighs in at 57 tonnes and will be carry cars, parts, tools, tables, chairs and catering equipment. The Freightliner Argosy is also fitted with a 15-litre Detroit six-cylinder diesel that pumps out 560 horsepower. The truck joins two more Argosys, which will all tow a total of six V8 Supercars, 66 wheels, 24 bumpers, 12 complete doors, 12 bonnets, 30 front brake sets, 18 rear brake sets, 48 suspension dampers, 15 door mirrors, 10 sets of headlights, six tail-shafts, three steering racks, four gearboxes and four spare engines. Established in 2014, the Freightliner Racing is part of the Brad Jones Racing family that runs a total of six cars at Bathurst, in both the main game and the Dunlop Development Series. Among them includes the Number 14 Freightliner Racing Commodore of Fabian Coulthard and the number 8 Alliance Truck Parts Commodore of Andy Jones. Related reading - https://www.freightliner.com.au/Trucks/Argosy .

Commercial Carrier Journal / October 5, 2015 I-405 is the main north-south freeway through the greater Seattle area and often a source of frustration, given the high volumes of traffic that is seemingly always present. But once you clear the congestion, the Pacific Northwest offers stunning vistas and great roads. And while it is true that this area is Kenworth’s home turf, it is also true that you’d be hard-pressed to pick better terrain to test a new 11-liter Diesel engine and terrain-following cruise control system. The new MX-11 was, like its big-brother MX-13, designed by Paccar’s DAF subsidiary in The Netherlands where it underwent extensive testing on the European continent since its debut there in 2013, eventually logging 250 million miles there, with another 2 million logged here in North America. Interestingly, Paccar builds the new engine at its manufacturing facility in Columbus, Miss., with many of those engines finding their way back across The Pond to Europe. The MX-11 features several new design points that were not available when the MX-13 engine was on the drawing board. There are new, modularly-designed components, for example, including an interesting new water pump that features cartridge-style sections that can be replaced without removing the entire system. If the impeller or the belt assembly goes bad, a technician can simply remove and replace those modules and go on his way. A glimpse of the future can be seen in the MX-11 as well: The engine has been designed from the ground up to be quickly updated with new software and can be programmed to meet specific customer requirements. Actual engine displacement is 10.8 liters, which works out to 355 to 430 horsepower options with torque ratings ranging from 1,250 to 1,550 pound feet. Paccar says the new MX-11 is 400 pounds lighter than comparable Cummins ISX12 or MX-13 engines and has a 1 million mile B10 life. On the highway, the MX-11 proved to be superbly quiet with plenty of low-end torque on hand. Lugging up steep mountain grades was no problem at all. My test truck, a sharp Kenworth T680 with an Eaton Fuller 13-speed manual transmission was loaded with about 34,000 pounds in the trailer — a load the MX-11 was easily able handle in that rugged terrain. New Predictive Cruise Control system now in production It was no coincidence that my MX-13-powered T680 test tractor featured the Eaton Fuller Advantage AMT. That transmission is also the key controlling component of Kenworth’s new DAF-developed Predictive Cruise Control system, which I was also given the opportunity to evaluate during my drive. The new system is pretty slick: It uses real-time GPS data to not only control vehicle speeds to optimize fuel economy, but closely monitors GPS terrain modeling to anticipate changing road conditions and set the truck up to deal with them in as efficiently as possible. One of the drawbacks of a conventional cruise control system is its inability to judge terrain conditions. Every driver is familiar with the sudden burst of throttle as cruise control discovers too late that its truck is on a long, steep mountain grade, or scrambled to disengage the system as speed picks up sharply once a grade has been crested. The DAF system can identify these terrain conditions before the truck is actually dealing with them, and adjust throttle settings or gear selections in advance to handle them. This holds true both up a grade, or going down, when the system automatically shifts the powertrain into neutral, or what Kenworth calls “Coast Mode,” to deliver exceptional fuel economy. Should the grade steepen and vehicle speed start to pick up, the system automatically and seamlessly engages the MX-11’s engine brake to hold the truck at its desired speed. It’s a fine system that worked exactly as advertised during my run around the Cascades. Even in steep terrain, drivers can pretty much flip the system on and forget it, with full confidence it will handle any terrain coming its way. Paccar says MX-11 engines will enter production early next year, and the DAF Predictive Cruise Control System is available now as a factory-installed option.

Ford Press Release / July 28, 2015

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/10/07/legacy-classic-power-wagon-first-drive-review/

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2016-chevrolet-colorado-diesel-first-drive-review

The veto power of the 5 permanent council members must be cancelled, as it is the main cause for the UN's ineffectiveness. Owing to the veto power in the security council, the UN has since 1945 been little more than an expensive joke. Ref. The United Nations Security Council "power of veto" refers to the veto power wielded solely by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and United States), enabling them to prevent the adoption of any "substantive" resolution, as well as decide which issues fall under "substantive" title. This de-facto control over the UN Security Council by the five governments is seen by critics, since its creation in 1945, as the most undemocratic character of the UN.

Reuters / September 26, 2015 It is high time the United Nations Security Council is reformed to reflect the real distribution of power across the world in the 21st century, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday. "We need a new method of work to solve problems," Merkel said. "That makes reform of the Security Council necessary, reform which reflects the real power in the world better than the situation today." The appeal was in a summary of Merkel's opening remarks at a meeting with her counterparts from Brazil, India and Japan provided to reporters by the German delegation. "We have to proceed very wisely," she added, according to the summary. "We have to find allies to reach our goal of reform." Merkel is in New York for a summit meeting of world leaders on global development at the U.N. General Assembly. The Security Council, the most powerful U.N. body, has 15 members, five of them permanent. It has the ability to issue legally binding resolutions imposing sanctions or authorizing military action to enforce its decisions. The 10 temporary members are elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly. Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, key allies from World War Two, are permanent veto-wielding council members. Germany, Japan, India and Brazil say the world is very different from what it was in 1945, and the Security Council should reflect that. Germany and Japan, which are global financial powers and top contributors to the United Nations, argue that they deserve permanent council seats. "The current atmosphere is that not only we four but many others don't agree with the structure and the working method of the Security Council," Merkel told the other leaders. "We want to take others with us to reach a modern working structure of the Security Council which suits the 21st century." The goal of expanding the council to include additional permanent and temporary members has long been an elusive one. Many U.N. member states routinely call for Security Council reform and have been working for decades, so far unsuccessfully, to find an acceptable formula for expanding the council. The five permanent council members can block any such moves. Britain and France say they support council reform. The United States has also cautiously backed it. U.N. diplomats say China, and to a lesser extent Russia, are the principal opponents of the idea.