EnRoute - April 28, 2016

• By: Shannon Davison
• On: 04/28/2016 17:35:10
• In: EnRoute

TOP STORIES

U.S. Senator Tom Carper has introduced a bill to extend the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act through 2021 to continue to provide grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce emissions from old diesel-powered trucks and equipment.FULL STORY
 
In its final report to Congress on truck size and weight limits, The U.S. Department of Transportation calls for no change to the current federal truck and weight, trailer length restrictions.  DOT's position remains unchanged from a preliminary release last June. FULL STORY
 
The Federal Highway Administration is proposing across-the-board measures for states to record and report what's going on with the National Highway System. One of the goals of this proposed rule is to set standards for states to measure highway congestion. FULL STORY

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

SkyBitz Local Fleets has introduced SA2000, a plug-and-play GPS fleet tracking product that provides data on vehicle location, speed, mileage, and fuel usage. FULL STORY
 
Carrier Transicold has expanded its line of Thin Flexible Solar Panels designed to help maintain peak performance of transport refrigeration unit (TRU) batteries in a more environmentally sustainable way. FULL STORY
 
Mack Trucks has introduced Mack Predictive Cruise, an intelligent system that memorizes a route when cruise control is on, storing up to 4,500 hills in its memory and can increase fuel efficiency by up to 1 percent and does not require a constant GPS connection. FULL STORY
 
WEX has launched Fleet SmartHub, a mobile app that gives business managers access to their account information. FULL STORY

BRIEFLY

JX Leasing was named Peterbilt Franchise of the Year by PacLease.  The award was presented at TRALA's Annual Meeting during the PACCAR Leasing Annual Franchise Meeting. . .SkyBitz has announced that Mesilla Valley Transportation (MVT), has renewed its asset management technology solutions from SkyBitz for its fleet of roughly 5,000 trailers. . .Volvo Group North America and North Carolina State University (NC State) have signed a three-year Academic Preferred Talent Partner agreement, extending a mutually beneficial partnership that offers students multiple experiences and career-building opportunities. . .Utility Trailer Manufacturing Company's Glade Spring, VA manufacturing plant recently celebrated the sale of its 75,000^th 4000D-X Composite dry van trailer. . .PACCAR Parts' new $32 million, state-of-the-art distribution center in Renton, WA, is now fully operational. Servicing dealers in the Northwestern U.S. and Western Canada, the new 160,000 square-foot parts distribution center (PDC) is almost three times the capacity of its predecessor built in 1973. . .Spartan Motors  has begun construction of an 85,000-square-foot plant to assemble Isuzu cabovers for the North American fleet market. . .PACCAR has started an engineering program with Allison Transmission to release the fully automatic Allison TC10 in the latest PACCAR models. . .Daimler Trucks North America marked a milestone in its corporate history with the grand opening celebration of its new nine-story headquarters building on its corporate campus in North Portland, OR. . .Penske Truck Leasing  won its fourth-straight SmartWay Affiliate Challenge Award.  The company is one of seven organizations, and the only transportation corporation to win the award, which is presented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

PEOPLE

Otto Schmid has made the move from Daimler AG to the position of director of product management with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck of America and Scott Coyle has been promoted to vice president, service operations for North America. . .Bridgestone Americas Inc. has made leadership changes to its technology, manufacturing and procurement team. The changes affect leaders in both North and South America: Rioji Hirokawa has been named executive director of Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations Latin America Manufacturing South America; Dave Abdallah has been named executive director of Process Engineering Development; Jim Kozy has been named vice president, Bridgestone Americas Center for Research and Technology; Jeff Henegar has been named director of technical planning at the Americas Technical Center; Mitchell Kritzell has been named director of commercial tire development at the ATC; and Jamie McNutt has been named director of compounding at Bridgestone Americas Product Development. . .Robert Muhs has received this year's Russell Bruno Award for outstanding service to the auto industry. The award was presented at the closing session of the 2016 International Car Rental Show at Bally's Las Vegas. Muhs serves as the vice president, government affairs, corporate compliance and business ethics for Avis Budget Group.

TAKING STOCK

SOURCE: Yahoo! Finance

MONEY MATTERS

Supreme Industries, Inc. has reported that first-quarter net income increased to $3.8 million, up from $1.9 million in last year's same period, an increase of 94 percent. FULL STORY
 
The Ryder Charitable Foundation announced its grant of $50,000 to the Universal Technical Institute Foundation (UTIF) which will be earmarked to give female veteran priority to UTIF's Veterans at Work: Military Transition Fund program and to support UTIF's Women's Technical “Strong Start” Awards campaign. FULL STORY
 
Mack Trucks is planning to invest about $70 million in its Lehigh Valley, PA, truck assembly operations over three years in order to further improve manufacturing quality and efficiency and to modernize the facility.FULL STORY

TRALA Announcements

TRALA Industry Scholarship Application Information
TRALA members and their dependents are invited to apply for TRALA's Industry Scholarship.  We're moving our industry forward by awarding up to four-$2,500 scholarships to qualified applicants.  Applications can be submitted by June 1, 2016 for consideration.  Visit our website for details: www.trala.org