Love’s Expands Speedco Truck Tire Offerings

Love's is expanding the tire brand offerings at its recently acquired Speedco locations. Photo: Love's Travel Stops

Love's Travel Stops is expanding commercial truck tire brand offerings at many of its Speedco locations across the country.

Tires from Aeolus, Goodyear, Yokohama, and Love's retread tires will be available at 46 of the 52 Speedco stores in the U.S. These tire brands are currently available at Love's Truck Tire Care locations, and now that they will also be offered at Speedco locations, drivers will have access to more choices to fit their needs.

“By offering more tire brands at Speedco locations, our technicians can examine the driver or fleet's budget and goals and provide them with more options for recommendations,” said Aaron Aylworth, director of Speedco operations. “When Love's acquired Speedco last year, the goal was to serve the trucking community in more ways, and providing them with more tire choices at Speedco stores is one way we are doing that.”

Speedco will continue to offer Bridgestone and Firestone tires and services, including diesel oil changes, federal inspections and battery work. The addition of light mechanical services at Speedco locations is also planned for this year. Meanwhile, drivers can access light mechanical repairs at Love's Truck Tire Care locations.

For a complete list of products and services available at Speedco facilities, click here.

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Cummins Taps UK Battery Maker for Electric Truck Development

In August of last year, Cummis unveiled an all-electric demonstration vehicle dubbed the Urban Hauler EV. Photo: Jim Park

Cummins has acquired Johnson Matthewy's UK automotive battery systems business, with plans to collaborate on the development of high-energy battery materials for commercial heavy-duty electric vehicle applications.

The acquisition and collaboration agreement will allow Cummins to expand its electrification and energy storage capabilities. Johnson Matthey will focus on developing high-energy battery materials, including its enhanced lithium nickel oxide (eLNO) product, for transport applications.

The companies intend to collaborate on the development of new products with enhanced performance characteristics for commercial applications, relying on the expertise of each company.

“By combining our electrification capabilities, portfolio of diverse power solutions, and global network, Cummins is uniquely positioned to lead in electrification,” said Tom Linebarger, chairman and CEO of Cummins. “What differentiates us is our ability to help customers succeed with high-quality products across the spectrum of power solutions they use, whether it's electric, diesel, natural gas or other energy solutions.”

This most recent move comes on the heels of Cummins' acquisition of Brammo in October of last year. Brammo designs and develops low-voltage battery packs for mobile and stationary applications.

The company will continue to explore other opportunities to add electrification capabilities as it prepares to offer electrified powertrains to customers in 2019.

“The addition of Johnson Matthey Battery Systems' technical expertise and customer base in markets that are more rapidly adopting electrification further positions us as a global energy storage supplier,” said Linebarger.

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Canada Senate Panel Says Country Must Get Ready for Autonomous Vehicles

Is Canada ready for the global adoption of autonomous vehicles? Photo: Daimler

As the U.S. government mulls guidelines for autonomous vehicles that often don't consider heavy trucks, a Canadian government panel has concluded that our neighbor to the north is ill-prepared for the arrival of autonomous and connected vehicles.

Canada's Senate Committee on Transport and Communications delivered 16 recommendations to help prepare for the technology to come, calling for such things as a national strategy and at Today's Trucking.

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Trump on Infrastructure Draws More Questions than Applause from Trucking

Heavy truck traffic on a California highway. Photo: U.S. Department of Transportation

Reaction by highway stakeholder groups to President Trump's State of the Union remarks on investing in infrastructure seem to be informed as much by earlier information on his spending proposal as by anything he said in his Jan. 30 address to Congress.

In his SOTU speech, the president called for Congress to pass a bipartisan bill that “generates” at least $1.5 trillion to invest in infrastructure improvements— but he made no mention of how to pay for that princely sum.

Click here for our report on Trump speech

But based on what the Trump Administration has previously stated-- as well as a recently leaked draft document— the president's approach to financing infrastructure improvements remains fixed on priming the pump with $200 billion in cash and tax credits to presumably stoke spending on infrastructure projects by state and even local governments as well as private investors.

It should be noted that the leaked draft document contained one specific point that did not go over at all with several stakeholder groups: That states be allowed “flexibility to toll on interstates and reinvest toll revenues in infrastructure” and to “reconcile the grandfathered restrictions on use of highway toll revenues with current law.”

Tolls a No Go for Many

Albeit to different degrees, the American Trucking Associations, the Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates and NATSO, which represents truck-stop operators, all declared their opposition to reversing the current federal ban on tolling existing interstates and to expanding tolling in general.

At least one lobbying group, though, said it is “encouraged by the President's call to cut burdensome regulations and laws that prevent states from accessing all available funding options to meet their local needs.” Patrick Jones, Executive Director and CEO of ...Read the rest of this story

Crypto CEO responds to accusations of $600 million ICO fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday announced it seized the assets of AriseBank and halted its initial coin offering. The company has touted partnerships with banks that do not exist, but says it will fight the SEC's accusations. The CEO of AriseBank, which had its $600 million initial coin offering shuttered by regulators last week, has released a lengthy statement vowing to fight the Securities and Exchange Commission's accusations.

Shell makes big deepwater oil discovery in Gulf of Mexico

The Whale is operated by Shell and co-owned by U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp (CVX.N). "Evaluation of the discovery was ongoing, and appraisal drilling is underway to further delineate the discovery and define development options," Shell Offshore Inc said in a statement without giving figures. Shell has three Gulf of Mexico deepwater projects under construction -- Appomattox, Kaikias and Coulomb Phase 2.

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