Transport Topics
The trucking joint-venture between Navistar Inc. and Caterpillar Inc. will become a Navistar subsidiary, the two companies said.
The companies in June 2008 announced plans to form an alliance for a Navistar-Caterpillar on-highway truck business, called NC(2) Global LLC.
vehicleservicepros.com
While maintenance and service shops have done a good job keeping up with increasingly complex trucks, equipment and service tools, they haven’t done as well in running their businesses. Shops must improve efficiency and lower costs.
That was the message delivered by Mike Delaney, president and CEO of the WheelTime Network, in his address to the awards luncheon at the recent TMCSuperTech2011 - an industry-wide competition to find the best commercial vehicle technicians.
Trucking info.com
Former President George W. Bush will be the keynote speaker at the National Truck Equipment Association's Work Truck Show and annual meeting next March 7 in Indianapolis. He will address attendees at the NTEA president's breakfast, but members of the news media will be all but excluded.
"President Bush led this country through times of great economic growth, as well as times of national tragedy," said Frank Livas, NTEA 2012 convention chairman and senior vice president of Brake & Clutch, Inc., in Salem, Mass. "It is a privilege to have him address our members and event attendees. We look forward to hearing his reflections on the presidency and his thoughts on leadership and decision-making."
ORLAND PARK, IL - September 28, 2011; Governor Bill Graves, President & CEO, American Trucking Associations, will speak to a large audience of heavy duty distributors and suppliers at HDAW’12. Graves’ presentation, ‘Washington Update: Status and Outlook for the Trucking Industry – 2012,’ is part of the opening session of the HDAW 2012 Education Program and will take place at 9:30am Tuesday, January 24, at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.
Graves’ presentation will provide an outlook based on the impact of the economy on the heavy duty industry, while also examining the potential effects of federal policy issues. The key points covered in Graves’ presentation focus on critical issues impacting the foundation of the industry’s culture in support of the HDAW’12 theme—Corporate Culture: The Foundation for Success.
Commercial Carrier Journal
On Sept. 9, Caterpillar’s internal verification process was completed, and the company gave the green light to begin CT660 vocational truck production for the North American market. George Taylor, director of Caterpillar’s Global On-Highway Truck Group, says that at a high-level view, the CT660 is Cat’s most intensely researched product launch ever, with a lot of time talking to Cat “yellow iron” customers to identify shortcomings they’ve noted in their current vocational trucks as well as new features they’d like to see incorporated into future models.
The result, Taylor says, was a chance to bring the “Caterpillar difference” to those vocational customers. “Really, the development of this truck was about a company focusing for the first time not just on the truck itself, but the application of that truck in a business,” Taylor says. “Customers told us how their older trucks that interacted with the machines on their jobsites were really a weak link in their production cycle. So, leveraging our many years of mining experience, we really zeroed in on how this new truck worked with equipment and how it could help our customers make more money using our products.”
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $8.4 million in awards for motor vehicle parts suppliers and vehicle manufacturers to research technologies that increase the efficiency of engines and vehicle powertrains. The recipients included the Eaton Corporation and MAHLE Powertrain LLC, members of HDMA and OESA respectively.
The four projects selected for the award were: