EnRoute
Headlines From The Vehicle Renting and Leasing Industry
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Top Stories
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is seeking comments on a proposed rule that would require the retrofitting of 1993 and older truck engines running in California in order for them to be 2004-emissions compliant by 2009. The second phase of regulations would require truck engines to be 2007 emissions compliant by 2019. FULL STORY
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The Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCSA) adopted a final fee schedule for the Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) Plan and Agreement. FULL STORY
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The U.S. House of Representatives introduced the “End Discriminatory Taxes for Automobile Renters Act of 2007,” which would help prohibit future discriminatory car rental excise taxes that currently cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars annually. FULL STORY
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An official with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has admitted that a rule on electronic onboard recorders is not imminent, despite the public comment period closing in April 2007. FULL STORY
Technology Trends
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PeopleNet BLU is a new and enhanced in-cab driver display product that will incorporate most of PeopleNet’s onboard computing and mobile communications services. FULL STORY
Michelin has unveiled the XDA5, a new drive tire for Class 8 trucks that uses patented design and manufacturing techniques to enhance the tire’s expected life by 30 percent and also regenerates new tread over time. FULL STORY
Mitsubishi Fuso returns to the Class 3 market with their redesigned FE 125, a low-cab forward truck with OBD II, which allows it to be sold in the United States. FULL STORY
Briefly
Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co. announced its 4000D-X dry van is the first trailer manufacturer offering to be certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a SmartWay trailer. . .Yokohama Rubber recently donated more than 1 million yen to the World Wild Fund (WWF) for Nature Japan. . .Fontaine International was presented with the Volvo Supplier Award by the Volvo Group. . .Customers ranked Kenworth highest in all three categories surveyed – over-the-road, pickup and delivery and vocational trucks in J.D. Power & Associates satisfaction study. . .Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire LLC has broken ground on what will be its biggest distribution center, a Jacksonville, FL facility that will cover one million square feet. . .Freightliner LLC has introduced its new Excelerator breakdown assistance program, designed to assist owner-operators and fleets up to 25 units in a variety of situations. . .PACCAR and Eaton Corp. announced that they have entered into an agreement to jointly develop proprietary hybrid technology for heavy-duty commercial vehicles in North America. . .On September 18th, Visual Marking Systems will hold a customer appreciation day, which is an opportunity for customers to tour their facility, meet the staff and watch how customer concepts are transformed into actual designs. Contact Allen Grant at agrant@vmsinc.com for more information . . .To read more news about TRALA members, please click here.
People on the Move
Christian Johansson has been appointed chief financial officer for Volvo Trucks and Peter Karlsten has been appointed president of Volvo Powertrain, a unit of Volvo AB. . .Key Equipment Finance has promoted Mark Erickson to senior vice president of Key Government Finance. . .J.J. Keller & Associates has hired Russ Kent as a regional account executive serving the Atlanta metropolitan area and Brenda Joachim as a regional account executive serving the Nashville, Tennessee area. . .Annette Freund has been promoted to vice president of compensation, benefits and human resources support for International Truck and Engine Corp.
Taking $tock
A look at truck transportation-industry Fortune 500 public companies:
| Company | Symbol (Click for Chart) |
09/04 Close | Two Week Performance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ArvinMeritor | ARM | $17.19 | $0.26 | 1.49% |
| Avis Budget Group Inc. | CAR | $22.43 | $0.78 | 3.36% |
| Caterpillar Inc. | CAT | $76.85 | $1.08 | 1.43% |
| Cummins Inc. | CMI | $121.37 | $2.95 | 2.49% |
| Eaton | ETN | $94.64 | $0.42 | 0.45% |
| General Electric | GE | $39.04 | $0.17 | 0.44% |
| Goodyear Tire & Rubber | GT | $27.56 | $0.10 | 0.36% |
| PACCAR Inc. | PCAR | $86.62 | $1.07 | 1.25% |
| Ryder | R | $54.77 | $0.02 | 0.04% |
SOURCE: Yahoo! Finance and bigcharts.com
Money Matters
Ryder System has reached an agreement to buy Pollock NationaLease for an undisclosed sum. FULL STORY
Pricing inquiries from fleets are one of the few signs that OEMs and suppliers are seeing in terms of the truck and trailer market beginning to show improvement. FULL STORY
Dana Corp. is one step closer to achieving its goal of emerging from Chapter 11 protection by the end of this year with its submission of a proposed Plan of Reorganization to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. FULL STORY
News From TRALA
As your high school seniors head back to school, it’s not too early to be thinking about paying for college this time next year. One strategy is for your son or daughter to apply for a TRALA Scholarship that could amount to $20,000 over four years. Applicants must be dependent children (high school seniors only) of full-time employees of TRALA member companies. Employees must have been working full-time for the company a minimum of one year as of the application deadline. Applicants must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale and plan to enroll in a full-time course of study at an accredited four year college or university. Just click here to apply. The application deadline is January 15, 2008.
Questions? Contact TRALA’s Anne Riser at (703) 299-9120 or ariser@trala.org.