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Mack Trucks deliveries fall 40 percent in August
Deliveries at Mack Trucks Inc. plummeted 40 percent in August compared to last year, a trend the company attributed to weak economic conditions in North America.
Mack Trucks recorded 755 deliveries last month, down from 1,266 in August 2008, parent company AB Volvo announced today.
The truck manufacturer reported declines in all of its markets. Its largest segment, North America, reported a 26 percent drop in deliveries.
The company has said the economic downturn, particularly in housing construction and retail sales, has affected its core markets. Year-to-date sales are down 38 percent.
Mack is in the process of a company-wide restructuring, including moving all manufacturing to its Macungie plant, which employs about 525.
Source:[lehighvalleylive.com]
Mack Trucks recorded 755 deliveries last month, down from 1,266 in August 2008, parent company AB Volvo announced today.
The truck manufacturer reported declines in all of its markets. Its largest segment, North America, reported a 26 percent drop in deliveries.
The company has said the economic downturn, particularly in housing construction and retail sales, has affected its core markets. Year-to-date sales are down 38 percent.
Mack is in the process of a company-wide restructuring, including moving all manufacturing to its Macungie plant, which employs about 525.
Source:[lehighvalleylive.com]
Mack to continue sponsorship of Share the Road
Mack Trucks announced it would continue as a major sponsor of the Share The Road highway safety education program for 2010.
The announcement was made at the American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference and Exhibition here.
Designed to enhance the safety of America’s roadways by teaching car drivers how to safely drive around large trucks, Share the Road uses professional truck drivers with exemplary safety records to deliver life-saving messages about potential blind spots, safe following distances, truck stopping distances and other important topics.
Traditionally, the drivers have spread this information through demonstrations to local media, students, community leaders and highway users around the United States, using a SmartWay-certified MACK Pinnacle model tractor donated by the truck maker as part of its support of Share the Road.
Today, additional communication channels are also being utilized.
“Share the Road has exposed millions of citizens to essential information on how to safely drive around large trucks,” Michael McNally, Mack vice president of sales, said. “These messages have been delivered by the professional drivers who are the heart and soul of the Share the Road program. Their passion for safety helps them connect to a wide variety of audiences. And the program now reaches more at-risk young drivers than ever before through the use of social media, such as Facebook and YouTube.”
Source:[thetrucker.com]
The announcement was made at the American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference and Exhibition here.
Designed to enhance the safety of America’s roadways by teaching car drivers how to safely drive around large trucks, Share the Road uses professional truck drivers with exemplary safety records to deliver life-saving messages about potential blind spots, safe following distances, truck stopping distances and other important topics.
Traditionally, the drivers have spread this information through demonstrations to local media, students, community leaders and highway users around the United States, using a SmartWay-certified MACK Pinnacle model tractor donated by the truck maker as part of its support of Share the Road.
Today, additional communication channels are also being utilized.
“Share the Road has exposed millions of citizens to essential information on how to safely drive around large trucks,” Michael McNally, Mack vice president of sales, said. “These messages have been delivered by the professional drivers who are the heart and soul of the Share the Road program. Their passion for safety helps them connect to a wide variety of audiences. And the program now reaches more at-risk young drivers than ever before through the use of social media, such as Facebook and YouTube.”
Source:[thetrucker.com]
Mack Trucks opens new headquarters
Mack Trucks Inc.’s new Greensboro headquarters is now open and operating.
Employees of the heavy-duty truck maker began moving in August, after months of renovations at its 60,000-square-foot Airpark West office park building, said spokesman John Walsh.
The building is not far from the headquarters for its sister company, Volvo Trucks North America.
Mack, a member of the Swedish Volvo Group, announced a year ago that it would relocate its headquarters from Allentown, Pa., to Greensboro to improve efficiency and be closer to Volvo Trucks North America, bringing with it close to 500 jobs and an investment of $17.7 million within three years.
Mack’s jobs are expected to pay an average of $73,800, not including benefits. The average Guilford County wage is about $38,948.
Employees of the heavy-duty truck maker began moving in August, after months of renovations at its 60,000-square-foot Airpark West office park building, said spokesman John Walsh.
The building is not far from the headquarters for its sister company, Volvo Trucks North America.
Mack, a member of the Swedish Volvo Group, announced a year ago that it would relocate its headquarters from Allentown, Pa., to Greensboro to improve efficiency and be closer to Volvo Trucks North America, bringing with it close to 500 jobs and an investment of $17.7 million within three years.
Mack’s jobs are expected to pay an average of $73,800, not including benefits. The average Guilford County wage is about $38,948.
GPS will track hired trucks
The position of every private truck doing city work under the revamped Hired Truck Program will be recorded at least every five minutes using satellite tracking equipment, officials said Wednesday.
In announcing that they are seeking bids for a private contractor to run the program, officials said the new administrator would track all trucks in the program using a global positioning monitoring system.
The trucks "would have to be where they are supposed to be," said John Harris, Mayor Richard Daley's budget director.
The new system will be similar to the existing, scandal-plagued program in that the city will continue to rely on small firms to meet much of City Hall's trucking demands.
The major difference is that the new private operator will assume the role of city officials in choosing the trucking firms that will participate and in dispatching trucks.
Harris said the new set-up and other changes in the city's approach to trucking "will better protect us from abuse and misconduct."
The city wants the winning bidder for the five-year deal to provide 30 percent of the trucks that will be used. The new private operator will pick other companies to furnish the rest of the trucks.
The Daley administration's announcement came as a truck driver in the Hired Truck Program pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of mail fraud for paying bribes to a city foreman to ensure he was paid when his truck sat idle.
Timothy Shrader admitted he was paid by the city even while he vacationed for about two weeks in Europe in 2002 and during another trip to the South in 2003.
Shrader paid co-defendant Dennis Natale, then a foreman of a Chicago Department of Transportation asphalt crew, $100 in cash for each day he missed work, authorities said.
Shrader and Natale falsified paperwork to make it appear that Shrader's truck had been at work the entire day, enabling Shrader to collect about $50 an hour from the city, the charges alleged.
In Shrader's plea agreement, authorities put the city's loss from the scheme at more than $12,000.
Shrader has been cooperating with law enforcement and is likely to be sentenced to less than 1 year in prison or possibly probation. U.S. District Judge William Hibbler scheduled sentencing for June 22.
Natale also is expected to plead guilty.
Shrader, 28, of Chicago, became the fourth defendant to be convicted so far in the expanding federal probe. Twenty-seven people have been charged.
Revelations of corruption and waste in the program surfaced in January 2004 as Angelo Torres, the city's former Hired Truck chief, was charged with attempted extortion. Torres pleaded guilty last week to shaking down at least 10 trucking companies for kickbacks.
But Daley defended the program until abruptly giving up on it last month. The mayor vowed to radically reconfigure Hired Truck because, he said, "It is clear that, despite our best efforts, the Hired Truck Program still is not working as it should."
Trucking companies interested in bidding to operate the program have until April 21 to present their proposals to the city.
The private operator will dispatch all trucks, a duty that traditionally has fallen to city officials in the field.
"There will be less employee contact with trucking companies," Harris said.
Harris said the city will rely less on hired trucks with the revamped program.
At the peak of Hired Truck, before the federal probe began yielding indictments, the city called on about 400 hired trucks a day, he said.
The new, privatized program is expected to use between 120 and 160 trucks a day.
To further reduce the need for private trucks, officials plan to retrofit 100 snow trucks for year-round duty.
Harris also said the city would buy asphalt and other material from providers who will deliver the shipments directly to the city rather than rely on hired trucks to carry those loads.
"That greatly reduces the possibility of shipments' being diverted," he said.
A city foreman allegedly pocketed cash payoffs in return for improperly diverting hundreds of tons of city-owned asphalt to private construction projects.
After the foreman's arrest in November, Daley threatened to privatize more tasks done by city workers, saying he was "sick and tired" of public corruption.
But critics of Daley's privatization drive, including many aldermen and labor leaders, say outside contractors are just as likely to act corruptly as city workers and cannot be as easily held accountable as public employees.
Forty of the City Council's 50 aldermen recently called for council approval before any more city workers are replaced by private contractors.
In announcing that they are seeking bids for a private contractor to run the program, officials said the new administrator would track all trucks in the program using a global positioning monitoring system.
The trucks "would have to be where they are supposed to be," said John Harris, Mayor Richard Daley's budget director.
The new system will be similar to the existing, scandal-plagued program in that the city will continue to rely on small firms to meet much of City Hall's trucking demands.
The major difference is that the new private operator will assume the role of city officials in choosing the trucking firms that will participate and in dispatching trucks.
Harris said the new set-up and other changes in the city's approach to trucking "will better protect us from abuse and misconduct."
The city wants the winning bidder for the five-year deal to provide 30 percent of the trucks that will be used. The new private operator will pick other companies to furnish the rest of the trucks.
The Daley administration's announcement came as a truck driver in the Hired Truck Program pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of mail fraud for paying bribes to a city foreman to ensure he was paid when his truck sat idle.
Timothy Shrader admitted he was paid by the city even while he vacationed for about two weeks in Europe in 2002 and during another trip to the South in 2003.
Shrader paid co-defendant Dennis Natale, then a foreman of a Chicago Department of Transportation asphalt crew, $100 in cash for each day he missed work, authorities said.
Shrader and Natale falsified paperwork to make it appear that Shrader's truck had been at work the entire day, enabling Shrader to collect about $50 an hour from the city, the charges alleged.
In Shrader's plea agreement, authorities put the city's loss from the scheme at more than $12,000.
Shrader has been cooperating with law enforcement and is likely to be sentenced to less than 1 year in prison or possibly probation. U.S. District Judge William Hibbler scheduled sentencing for June 22.
Natale also is expected to plead guilty.
Shrader, 28, of Chicago, became the fourth defendant to be convicted so far in the expanding federal probe. Twenty-seven people have been charged.
Revelations of corruption and waste in the program surfaced in January 2004 as Angelo Torres, the city's former Hired Truck chief, was charged with attempted extortion. Torres pleaded guilty last week to shaking down at least 10 trucking companies for kickbacks.
But Daley defended the program until abruptly giving up on it last month. The mayor vowed to radically reconfigure Hired Truck because, he said, "It is clear that, despite our best efforts, the Hired Truck Program still is not working as it should."
Trucking companies interested in bidding to operate the program have until April 21 to present their proposals to the city.
The private operator will dispatch all trucks, a duty that traditionally has fallen to city officials in the field.
"There will be less employee contact with trucking companies," Harris said.
Harris said the city will rely less on hired trucks with the revamped program.
At the peak of Hired Truck, before the federal probe began yielding indictments, the city called on about 400 hired trucks a day, he said.
The new, privatized program is expected to use between 120 and 160 trucks a day.
To further reduce the need for private trucks, officials plan to retrofit 100 snow trucks for year-round duty.
Harris also said the city would buy asphalt and other material from providers who will deliver the shipments directly to the city rather than rely on hired trucks to carry those loads.
"That greatly reduces the possibility of shipments' being diverted," he said.
A city foreman allegedly pocketed cash payoffs in return for improperly diverting hundreds of tons of city-owned asphalt to private construction projects.
After the foreman's arrest in November, Daley threatened to privatize more tasks done by city workers, saying he was "sick and tired" of public corruption.
But critics of Daley's privatization drive, including many aldermen and labor leaders, say outside contractors are just as likely to act corruptly as city workers and cannot be as easily held accountable as public employees.
Forty of the City Council's 50 aldermen recently called for council approval before any more city workers are replaced by private contractors.
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