Third-generation Sprinter will be ‘new specimen’ of commercial van
Enterprise introduces new telematics product for rental customers
Efficient Drivetrains expands electric plug-in drivetrain to Class 8 trucks
Fleet graphics company looks to jump start printing industry interest with internship program
Mack Eyes Bigger Bite of the West
A Mack Anthem on a western highway. Photo:Mack Trucks
">OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA. Mack Trucks has thrown down a gauntlet, declaring it is now “well positioned” with products and services to command a bigger slice of the Class 8 pie in the Western United States.
“We're rebuilding our Western presence,” said Jonathan Randall, senior vice president of North American Sales, at a media briefing held here at the headquarters of the Oakland Raiders ahead of the football team's Dec. 3 trouncing of the New York Giants.
Noting that despite Mack's deep Back East roots the company has offered models suitable for Western truck operators since 1948, he said the key to the strategy is unleashing its latest models on customers in the West who have not yet experienced what's new at Mack.
According to Randall, Mack stands out because of its application-specific approach to the Class 8 highway and vocational markets. In terms of appealing to Western customers, he said Mack has developed the “lightweight but high-power models needed to face the high altitudes, long grades, and demanding desert temperatures of western operations.
“We're continuing our western tradition of application excellence with the all-new Mack Anthem,” he said, “but we also have products and developed specifically for each customer's unique needs in the highway, construction, and refuse markets.”
Randall said that in the west, truck fleets seek “performance and efficiency to handle the terrain” and said Mack is providing that with trucks engineered to by “heavy on power, light on fuel” thanks to the OEM's Super Econodyne downspeeding and turbo compounding offerings.
He added that Mack is also well-positioned to meet the needs of weight-conscious customers in the West through its Mack MP7 11-liter engine, 6x2 liftable pusher axle, and lightweight axle options.
Randall said that right now Mack holds a 5% ...Read the rest of this story
ODFL carries Christmas trees for the Vice President
Former Mail Hauler Ordered to Pay $3 Million in Fraud Judgement
A Mount Crawford, Va.-based trucking company that hauled United States mail and its holding company have been ordered to pay more than $3 million in owed money and driver pay restitution for a fraud scheme that lasted for 18 years.
Beam Bros. Trucking and Beam Bros. Holding were jointly sentenced along with its four most senior officers, the president, vice president, chief financial officer, and chief operating officer.
The company was ordered to forfeit to the government $2 million of fraudulently obtained proceeds and pay $1 million in restitution to drivers who were defrauded of their pay. The companies were also sentenced to serve 3 years of corporate probation and pay a fine of $250,000.
Beam Trucking and Beam Holding President Gerald Wayne Beam and Vice President Garland Crawford Beam were each sentenced to serve six months of home confinement followed by three years of supervised release. Beam Trucking COO Shaun Crawford Beam and CFO Nickolas Gene Kozel were each sentenced to serve three months of home confinement followed by three years of supervised release.
BBT was one of the largest contract mail carriers for the U.S. Postal Service. Earlier this year, the company and its top officers pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to knowingly committing offences against the U.S. and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations. Beam pled guilty to defrauding its drivers by falsifying their time sheets so that they would report fewer hours worked and falsified driver hours of service.
According to evidence presented at the sentencing hearing, the Beam brothers created routes that were illegal and instructed drivers to drive on them. The routes were so long that drivers received barely any sleep for weeks at a time.
On a number of occasions, Beam Bros. drivers were so fatigued that they barely avoided crashes when they momentarily fell asleep while driving ...Read the rest of this story