Blog

EnRoute - June 10, 2015




Top Stories

The U.S. House of Representatives voted down an amendment brought by Congressman Matt Cartwright (D-PA) that would have stripped out language TRALA and others in the trucking industry had requested for the transportation appropriations bill currently being deliberated for the coming fiscal year by a vote of 247-176. FULL STORY

 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued the final rule to require electronic stability control (ESC) systems on Class7-8 trucks and large buses.  The rulemaking will not require retrofitting of trucks currently in use. FULL STORY

 

The Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2015 (H.R. 2353), which will extend funding through July 31st for Federal-aid highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety, transit, and other programs financed by the Highway Trust Fund, was signed into law by President Obama. FULL STORY

 

A special report issue by the National Transportation Safety Board is recommending that the latest collision avoidance systems (CAS) be made standard equipment on all new passenger and commercial vehicles. FULL STORY

 

The Driver-Assistive Truck Platooning (DATP) initiative, a cooperative research project led by Auburn University and the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), finds tractor-trailers could experience fuel saving of 5% to 10% if they were controlled by platooning technology. FULL STORY


Technology Trends

Vigillo has released the first Athena's second generation of reporting tools which will allow customers to pivot their Athena Reports to change the analysis from time, to location, to road conditions to driver, to vehicle, to crash outcome and dozens of other dimensions. FULL STORY


 

Briefly

PACCAR Leasing Company (PacLease) is celebrating the company's 35th anniversary in June.  The company has grown to become the fourth largest rental and leasing company with nearly 40,000 trucks in its fleet and over 550 locations. . .Agility Fuel Systems and Cummins Inc.  have entered into a strategic partnership intended to improve the natural gas vehicle user experience, and to drive adoption of natural gas as a vehicle fuel for the heavy-duty truck and bus markets. . .The Taylor family of Enterprise Holdings has announced $22 million in contributions to a variety of charitable and educational organizations that support underserved communities and youth in the St. Louis region. . .Accuride Corporation has recently signed a multi-year agreement with Daimler Trucks North America to supply its American-cast and-machined Gunite brake drums to Daimler's aftermarket parts group. . .Volvo Group North America has achieved its goal of reduced energy consumption in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Better Buildings, Better Plants Challenge five years earlier than anticipated.  The company's goal was a 25% reduction in the energy consumption at its eight U.S. manufacturing plants between 2009-2020.  At the end of last year, Volvo Group was one of only 11 companies to meet its goal early. . .Kalmar Ottawa celebrated the sale of its 60,000th terminal tractor, a T2 model to Averitt Express in Cookeville, TN.  The milestone comes three years after it hit the 50,000 mark. . .Penske Truck Rental closed out Military Appreciation Month with a donation of $150,000 to benefit Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA).  The donation is a result of Penske's ongoing $OneWay4PVA fundraising effort to benefit PVA's Mission: ABLE campaign. . .Murphy-Hoffman Company (MHC) has acquired five dealerships formerly operated by R. L. French Corporation in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, IA; Omaha and Lincoln, NE; and Rock Island, IL.


People

Navistar has named Jeff Sass its new senior vice-president, North America Truck sales and marketing. . .Bob Harbin, president and CEO of Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp. has announced his retirement effective July 15, 2015.  David Carson, general manager of human resources for Daimler Trucks North America will succeed Harbin. . .Erik Seidel has been promoted to vice president of consumer replacement tire sales, Brad Booth to director of consumer dealer sales, and Mike Hall to director of consumer customer service for Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations LLC (BATO).



Taking $tock


A look at truck transportation-industry Fortune 500 public companies:

Company Symbol (Click for Chart) 6/10 Close Performance
Allison Transmission Holdings ALSN $30.54 $0.27 +0.89%
Avis Budget Group Inc. CAR $50.74 $0.91 +1.83%
Cummins Inc. CMI $137.16 $1.25 +0.92%
Dana Holding Corp. DAN $21.99 $0.33 +1.52%
Eaton Corp. ETN $72.54 $1.05 +1.47%
General Electric GE $27.63 $0.30 +1.10%
Goodyear Tire & Rubber GT $31.39 $0.11  -0.35%
Navistar International Corp. NAV $25.48 $0.67 +2.70%
PACCAR Inc. PCAR $65.04 $1.28 +2.01%
Ryder R $94.35 $0.64 +0.68%

SOURCE: Yahoo! Finance

Money Matter$


The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to propose regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty trucks, requiring that their fuel economy increase up to 40 percent by 2027. It is expected that the new rules will add $12,000 to $14,000 to the manufacturing cost of a new tractor-trailer. FULL STORY

Frost & Sullivan has issued the results of a new study, “Executive Impact Analysis of Big Data in the Trucking Industry.”  The study indicated big data analysis has helped several OEMs and their suppliers improve their business processes and service offerings. FULL STORY


Clean Energy Fuels Corp. has reported that gallons delivered increased 27% to 75.2 million gallons
for the first quarter of 2015, compared to 59.3 million gallons delivered in the same period a year ago. FULL STORY


The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has selected CALSTART to continue to administer the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Program (HVIP).  Under the new contract CALSTART will manage $10 million in additional incentives in 2015 and 2016. FULL STORY