Heavy Duty Trucking Magazine
Commercial trailer backlogs reached 101,244 units in April. While backlogs grew during the month, net orders posted a 30 percent decline from the previous month, according to ACT Research.
ACT also noted that industry backlog is 141 percent above levels at this time last year, while build was nearly double the rates witnessed in April 2010.
E-trucker.com
Trucking analysts Noel Perry of FTR Associates and Peter Nesvold of Jefferies & Co. will deliver their insights and projections about the trucking industry during the Commercial Vehicle Outlook Conference Aug. 24-25 in Dallas.
They will discuss equipment sales, capacity, fuel prices, employment and freight trends at the conference which unfolds on the eve of the Great American Trucking Show Aug. 25-27 at the Dallas Convention Center.
Truck Parts and Service Magazine
Volvo Trucks has presented Wilson Trucking Corporation of Fishersville, Va. with the keys to a brand new Volvo VNL 300, the 500,000th Volvo truck assembled in the United States.
To commemorate Volvo Trucks’ North American milestone, company officials presented the new Volvo VN, assembled at Volvo’s New River Valley plant in Dublin, Va., to Wilson Trucking Chairman Chuck Wilson, President Guy Wilson and members of the Wilson Trucking staff. Wilson Trucking’s Volvo VNL 300 is equipped with a Volvo D13 engine, I-Shift automated manual transmission and one-of-a-kind badging to distinguish the truck as the 500,000th Volvo assembled in the U.S.
Dow Jones News Service
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) has scrapped plans to issue up to $2 billion worth of stock to pay for its purchase of mining-equipment manufacturer Bucyrus International Inc. (BUCY)
The world's largest maker of construction equipment will rely on its cash on hand for the more than $3 billion not covered by the company's debt package for the $7.6 billion purchase of Bucyrus. At the end of the first quarter, Caterpillar had about $3.6 billion in cash from its machinery and engine businesses, including $1.1 billion of free cash flow left over after capital expenditures and $350 million from the sale of a company-owned dealership.
WASHINGTON –U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and its state and local law enforcement partners conducted more than 3,000 surprise passenger carrier safety inspections over a two-week period in May that resulted in 442 unsafe buses or drivers being removed from the nation’s roadways.
The strike force issued out-of-service citations to 127 drivers and 315 vehicles during the unannounced inspections that took place from May 1 – 15.
Dow Jones News Service
Financing volume for business equipment rose 11 percent in April from a year ago and the delinquency rate on existing equipment loans declined, signaling further improvement in the equipment-financing industry, according to a monthly survey of banks and finance companies released Monday.
Respondents to the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association's survey said they financed $5.1 billion of new equipment last month, compared with $4.6 billion a year ago. March's volume was down from the $6.2 billion reported in March. The $521 billion-a-year commercial leasing and financing industry has been steadily recovering after the U.S. economic recession and limited access to credit sent the industry into a tailspin in 2009. From January through April, survey respondents provided financing for $19.6 billion of equipment purchases, up 27.2 percent from the same period in 2010.
IHS Global Insight Daily Analysis
A spate of legislation has been introduced in the US Senate and brought up before the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources committee for consideration last week that would dramatically expand the introduction time-table for electric vehicles in this country.
The initiatives would, according to the Detroit News, create a broad program of grants, technology and infrastructure standards, and implement many programs that extend electrification efforts into the heavy truck segments as well. The grant program would be aimed at getting 400,000 PHEVs on roads in the next few years by providing up to USD250 million in grants for governments and public-private partnerships.