Earlier, VECV had said that it had received order for around 1,019 chassis of bus to the Transport Corp of Gujarat State Road. The order will be worth more than Rs 100 crore, says Agarwal. Over last 1 year, Eicher gained a lot of orders from the undertakings of state transport like Uttarakhand & Rajasthan. It had received one order for around 600 buses from the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corp. Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors, India’s top 2 manufacturers of CV reported slower sales of the medium & heavy trucks because of general economic slow down & expensive loans.

The sales of Tata Motors M&HCV went down by 23 percent to around 34,943 units during the times of April-June. Mean while, sales of heavy duty truck of VECV’s risen by around 26 percent to about 4,197 units in this year. Financial year of VECV does stretches from the month of January to the month of December. Agarwal says that they have a really good strategy which are implemented by them in the heavy duty buses and trucks. Due to this, the result of this is relatively doing much better than industry. They are continuing this growth, which is courtesy of more penetration in to the market and improved share of market.

Volvo Eicher

With sales of this company growing at faster clip as compared to the peers, the market share too increased. For example, the market share of around 4.7 percent in segment of heavy duty in 2nd quarter, & 3.8 percent in 1st 6 months for this year, vs. 3 percent in the last year. The bus segment share of market too has gone up to about twelve percent from about 9.7 percent in the last year. VECV has market share of 31 percent in the trucks of light & medium duty.

Total sales of VECV grew from about 11 percent in 1st half of the year,  and over all industry did see some sluggish sales in five tonne & above category. Agarwal had refused to give any precise guidance for full year, but had said that aim here is for continuing to grow very fast than industry. In last few years the competition for segment of truck had increased along with entry of a lot of new players like Asia MotorWorks (AMW), Mahindra Navistar, & Diamler (Bharat Benz).

VECV is now aiming to invest more than Rs 1,000 crore for expanding the capacity, over the year 2012 & 2013. The investment will now used for new plant of bus body building, new engine medium-duty plant, new shop of paint & expanding the capacities & products, says Agarwal. Medium-duty plant of engine will now become global platform for all the automotive requirements at Volvo Group, he says. All of these engines will be used for Eicher Trucks. Shares of Eicher Motors’ had ended by 1.8 percent @ Rs 1,986.10 at NSE. This stock is now up by 33 percent in the year 2012, out performing broader auto index of CNX, which gained by 17 percent.

Volvo is biggest auto maker at Brazil who scaled back the production as out look for the growth in the year 2012 slides to two percent from seven and half percent just 2 years ago. Unit of Daimler AG, Mercedes-Benz recently said in the month of May that they would be laying off around 1,500 workers @ Brazilian factory of trucks as it had idled more of assembly lines.

Change in the standards of emissions for the trucks at end of the year 2011 has also weighed on the sales as the buyers had brought the forward purchases for avoiding any new standards which had come in to the effect for this year. Truck sales of Volvo fell almost by 23 percent in 1st half of the year 2012 from one year ago. The association of Brazilian dealership, Fenabrave recently said that they are expecting sales the fall by around 6.9 per cent in the year 2012 as compared to 2011, reversing the previous forecast for increase of 2.6 per cent.

About 2,100 pieces of the equipment are now up for the grabs, Ritchie Bros. recently announced, including the boom trucks, winch tractors, & bed trucks. This sale will be held @ Ritchie Bros.’ facility of Grande Prairie @ Hwy. 43 & Range Rd. 51.

Brian Glenn, the vice-president of the sales, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers said that it is one of the biggest selections of the late model equipment that we have seen in Peace Country for a long time. Apart from the featured oil field equipment of rig moving, this auction line-up also includes big selection of the late model construction & agricultural equipment that is ready for the work – there’s something for every one. Their yard will be open before this auction so the interested bidders will be able to inspect & test out all the equipment.

Vern Basnett, the president of the Basnett Truck Service said that they are now getting ready for moving on to new venture & Ritchie Bros. are perfect partner for helping them in the key part of process. He has been buying & selling @ auctions Ritchie Bros. for more than 20 years & it’s the most professional auction company that he has ever seen. Their fleet featured in the auction of this week is made from a big selection of the equipment of rig moving, from the winch & bed tractors to the low boys & the floats. They have been detailed & are ready for being put to the work.

2011 Ford F-150 XLT  also comes with standard twelve volt electric power assisted steering for all engines except for the 6.2 V-8; first half on of pick up for doing this. Limited volume of Chevy Silverado Hybrid has system of 42 volts. Steering really feels light when truck gets stopped and for the maneuvers of low speed. It adjusts effort of steering dynamically for matching speed & loads that this truck goes under. On highway, steering was pretty precise & it provided me excellent feedback of driver. There wasn’t any numbness that was associated generally with the early days of electric steering for smaller cars. It varied the boost levels when I entered the turns, smoothly assisting trailer around the bends with contrast to off/on boost which occurs along with hydraulic conventional pumps of steering.

As I drove across desert, I did encounter strong winds which knocked a lot of semis off high way one day before. While I could feel gusts buffeting truck & trailer, I never felt that control was issue. For once, immediately while passing through 18-wheeler, I got hit by strong gale which triggered F-150 trailer system of sway control. Trailer-sway senses the control difference for yaw between the trailer and truck & it uses brakes of wheel for both vehicles for counteracting any sway before it gets very enough for throwing this rig off road.

If you ask for 2011 Ford F-150 XLT , I’d highly recommend you an option along with integrated brake trailer controller; it extends the sway control to trailer (apart from controlling this trailer’s brakes through ABS). Even if my truck was optioned along with F-150’s package of trailer towing, it did not include brake controller, it costs $230 more from factory. Local dealer needed to add controller after it had come to my test.

My turn around point for the road test was close to Laughlin, Nev. At Cajon Pass was warm-up for the testing 5.0 F-150 on 12-miles, 5% grade hill climb of Davis Dam on the Arizona Highway 68, a bit east at Laughlin. Davis Dam has now become default location to measure performance against new trailer of industry standards of towing that were set by Society of the Automotive Engineers. It is also where Ford had recently tested EcoBoost 6-cylinder against the competitors’ engines of 8-cylinder. On the Highway 68, 5.0 was really strong – very strong and I could accelerate @ any point on the route & gain some speed to where I needed to slow down for safely control truck & trailer around the turns.

We staked out 7,500-foot stretch of grade where I’d safely climb hill from full stop & measure the performance using the kit of VBOX. 0 to 60 mph up steady five percent of grade took about 30.29 seconds, & this truck had finished quarter-mile in respectable 25.06 secs @ 55.5 mph. These numbers, along seat-of-pants feel, made me wonder how much will Ford sandbag 5.0-liter V-8’s figures of power, something I suspected during the first drive at Texas.

We ran same tests of performance on the ground level. 0-to-60 mph time along with trailer got cut in almost half, to simply 16.85 seconds. When unloaded, 5.0 had yielded 0-to-60 time of simply 7.18 secs– almost as quick as big as displacement of V-8 6.2-liter Chevrolet Silverado 1500 4×4 crew cab which was fastest truck in my 2008 Light-Duty Shoot out. My final confirmation of tremendous performance of towing & potential of 5.0 which came on chassis of Dynojet Research dyno at my friends @ K&N Engineering at Riverside. At rear wheels, I measured healthy 311 hp & 325 pounds-feet torque. While torque curve is not as flat as curve of EcoBoost V-6, it’s broad, & power climbs steadily over most of range of rev instead of getting peaky close to 4,000 rpm.

Overall, I was quite impressed with how comfortable F-150 5.0 was in my towing legs of long-haul. I towed just below max truck’s GCWR & the towing capacity, yet this truck didn’t like other towing half-tons a lot less. Truck which drives with such smoothness & comfort, with some of driver fatigue, @ max capacities is some thing that is really special – and unusual for any segment of truck.

Truck was really comfortable & relatively easy for managing in the unloaded driving at Los Angeles. It was really fun for showing some of power of 5.0’s @ 1 or 2 green lights. I averaged somewhere between 13 & 17 mpg depending on the traffic conditions, surface streets & high way driving. Nothing for bragging about for the fuel economy, and still superior for what I have observed while driving 6.2-liters V-8 inside LA.

Which engine should the buyers of F-150 opt for? If you are towing & hauling above 10,000 pounds very frequently but you want some thing that is smaller than heavy-duty pick up, opt for 6.2. If you will tow above 10,000 pounds occasionally & need any truck for any light-duty activities of hauling rest of time, 3.5-liters EcoBoost V-6 will probably be one good fit. But if you are towing 5,000 – 10,000 pounds very regularly & are not really ready for trusting six-cylinder twin-turbo for moving the rig, this 5.0 is right one for you. If you will buy 2011 Ford F-150 XLT today, then 5.0 is box that I would likely check on form of order.

There are a lot of other options available in the market which you can check while buying. Some of them might serve you better but you should do a thorough check of the atumobiles while buying. You will get a lot of options in the market and you can also get second hand version of the truck if you want to save on the money. Used trucks are purchased by a lot of people these days because they are a lot less expensive as compared to the newer trucks.

Just like the Mack Terra Pro counterparts of natural gas, natural gas-powered Mack Pinnacle & Granite versions will feature some maintenance-free after treatment & need only 3 way catalyst for meeting EPA 2010 & standards of CARB emissions, says officials. Mack trucks that are natural gas-powered are now available along with CNG (compressed) or LNG (liquefied) systems of fuel.

Kevin Flaherty, the president of Mack Trucks North American marketing and sales, says that Mack has big history in the alternative technologies of drive line, especially natural gas. They have offered them natural gas since it has become clear that it is viable solution of energy in segment of refuse. Now the customers with in LTL, regional haul, & segments of construction will have natural gas benefits combined along with performance and power that they are expecting from Mack.

Officials says that Mack say this company is investigating some other alternative drive line technologies, including the high direct pressure injection, which uses natural gas combination & small diesel amount in process of combustion, & dimethyl ether (DME), which may be made from the natural gas.

This company is also moving forward for development of the hybrid diesel-electric TerraPro versions, recently giving additional Low Entry units of test for New York City Dept. of Sanitation to evaluate.

Rocco DiRico, the deputy commissioner, Department of Sanitation, New York City, Support Services, for above 35 years, we have counted on the Mack for the trucks which can with stand tremendous rigors for the operations. They are looking forward for putting the new automobiles along with latest model of Mack’s hybrid diesel-electric technology for test. They are fully expecting that they will deliver on promise of Mack for reliability, durability, & superior performance as they on continue on delivering on their own promise of clean city along with lots of clean air.

Mack says that the diesel-electric technology of hybrid provides about 30 percent of improvement of fuel economy in stop-&-go apps such like refuse, along with corresponding green house gas benefit of emissions. Flaherty says that they listen to what the customers want & develop technologies that are best suited to their needs. Mack’s alternative technologies of drive line represent on going evolution that is built on proven experience.

They are hoping for increasing number of permits, for expanding the operating hours & extending time that truck stays in 1 spot. Rachel Billow’s La Cocinita truck of food serves some Latin American food and a lot of other mobile operators of food are now working for applying for the nonprofit trade status of association.

The city food truck licensing covers all from the snow ball & produces trucks for trucks main-dish that have turned up at New Orleans since the Hurricane Katrina. Operators are saying that regulations are getting outdated. Once this group has 501(c)(6) status of tax, it will be asking city officials for official interpretation of laws before they ask to meet the members of city council, says Billow. He says thet an address the laws which are problematic.

Andrew Legrand, Metairie attorney, says he believes that this move will get all food trucks on same page. They are at time when the New Orleans has more of restaurants as compared to the before times. There are a lot and hence there is need for food trucks which contribute, says Legrand, who is helping along with paperwork.

There are plenty of groups around this country, says Matt Geller, who is running Southern California Mobile Food Vendors Association. It had started along with twenty nine members at Los Angeles County. Now there are around 140 & they are considering state wide expansion.

Before the group had got together, Geller says that there were plenty of misinformation. He has previously worked in the restaurants & has law background. Even regulators did not know what is going on.

Since introduction Titan, full-sized landscape of truck has considerably changed. All the competitors have undergone around one substantial make over or given model that is all-new. In contrast to this, Titan of today is largely same model as the one of 8 years ago, but there were some minor changes. Most important change came in the year 2008 with introduction of long-wheel base model giving King Cab extended model full 8-foot available bed & 2012 Nissan Titan Pro-4X Crew Cab version an option of seven foot bed.

Although it is just about one decade since I got to drive 1st model, my 2012 Nissan Titan Pro-4X Crew Cab tester was a lot familiar, down to hard-plastic, plain-Jane dashboard, 3-spoke steering wheel, & characteristic roar of fan at the startup of engine. 5.6-liters V-8 still make same burble that is husky under the throttle & gives same torquey delivery of power for low-to-mid range of rpm.

The platform-mate SUV Armada received a bit substantial make over for interior on 2008 model year. However, Titan got passed over for gentrification interior treatment, so utilitarian, angular theme was introduced on original continues.

While I did not subject my tester to any of the heavy towing or payloads while it stayed with me, the 1842 pounds pay load & 9300-pound capacity of towing can handle most of the tasks that it will encounter. Ford F-150 that is equipped properly can tow about two thousand pounds more, & it delivers about 3/4-mpg-better highway/city economy of fuel while you aren’t towing, with 3.5-liters EcoBoost direct-injected, twin-turbocharged V-6 option.

With 6.9-seconds 0-60mph & 15.4 seconds time of quarter-mile, you hardly can call this Titan slow. This time puts it almost neck & neck along with Ford F-150 4×4 comparably equipped along with new 5.0-liters, 360hp V-8. I haven’t tested 4×4 F-150 equipped along with EcoBoost, but model of rear-drive ran about 6.2-seconds 0-60 & 14.8 second quarter mile.

If you yearn for V-6 option for Titan, you are out of luck unfortunately. 385-lb-ft, 317-hp, 5.6 liters Endurance V-8 is only engine that is available, & 5-speed automatic is the only transmission that is offered. The combination here returns a 12/17 mpg for city/high way for EPA testing on 4×4 version, with my tester averaging at 14.8 mpg for its stay along with us.

2 very clever details on this Titan are power front remote-operated windows, which fully or partially open through holding down of the unlock remote button. Unfortunately, function auto-close needs to be actuated through holding key in door tumbler in position of “lock”. My tester had rear vertical-sliding window, but unlike full-width Toyota Tundra’s vertical slider, just middle section in rear window of Titan retracts.

Original plan for this Titan was to share platform along with Ram pickup that is newly redesigned. But the plan had fallen apart in the year 2009, leaving Titan to soldier for some more years while in-house all-new replacement gets developed.

I do not know precisely when there will new Titan coming, but 2015 or 2014 is one good guess, & you can bet that Nissan will be raising the bar quite substantially over current model. V-6 option is really likely, as 1 is offered for new commercial NV-series vans, which shares good deal of the hardware along with Titan. Infiniti QX56 SUV redesigned recently has direct-injected model of 5.6-liter V-8, and produces 400 substantial hp & 413 lb-ft torque, along with improved economy fuel. There is good chance that next Titan will be getting some of version of the engine, along with version of seven-speed QX automatic.

Fully equipped, my Pro-4X cost about $40,975, including the destination fees. However, at time of writing this review, huge $4000 rebate was made available for Titan, suddenly making value proposition very attractive. Unfortunately, as compared with the more modern and refined competitors, the value is just only truly compelling feature on the dated truck.

7 drivers – Wayne Septon (Transport of Agri-Tel), Ben Sawatzky (Transport of Arnold Bros.), Brian Smith (Transport of Arnold Bros.), Gary Barbour (Transport of Arnold Bros.), Eddy Dueck (Systems of Big Freight), Randy Steingart (Transport of Bison), & Craig Dzamon (the Northern Deck) – were the ones recognized during ceremony on 10th of May.

Septon has involved himself in “Where’s Wayne” project along with school of local elementary, and Sawatzky, Barbour, Smith, & Dueck are the members of industry for long-time having records of excellent driving, say the officials. Steingart is long-combo driver of vehicle who recently covered 2 million miles safely. Dzamon, who is also long-time member of industry, recently took charge of scene of accident until the emergency responders could turn up on the site.

Each of the drivers demonstrates that the industry is better place for work, according Jim Clark from Custom Truck Sales. He says they wanted to recognize the drivers who, day in & out, go on their jobs in safe and professional manner. The award looks @ commitments that the drivers make to the industry, whether it is safety or the customer service. They are also recognizing the drivers who around & get beyond what’s expected from them when they’re on road too. The drivers are best in the industry, & as company, they are proud of making them able to take some time & let them know that they appreciate the work that is done by them.

Driver is face of the industry. They’re people who are dealing face-to-face along with customers, who maneuver the way through the traffic on daily basis, who do sacrifice some time at their home with the families & friends for ensuring that freight in the country moves, says Norm Blagden who is MTA president. Drivers play big role in keeping economy moving, & they some times forget that their role is really big. This is 1 way which they can them all of them for the contributions.

Recipients of the Industry Excellence Award, which is annual award open for all the companies, receive jacket, check, and plaque.

Resurgence of Toyota means better deals as the rivals are fighting for the customers by giving discounts & promotions. Toyota has already announced 0 percent financing & some other deals in the month of May. This also means that buyers get better selection. Factories of Toyota are now cranking out the popular models which were missing from the show rooms of last year when earth quake had disrupted production.

Toyota had snatched the buyers from Ford, General Motors, Honda & Nissan, says a report. All of the companies saw that sales had fallen in the month of April. Amongst the ones that saw that the sales had gained was Chrysler; it posted about twenty percent jump. The sales of April had started slowly, but the sales had picked towards end of month. The sales ran @ annual rate of about 14.4 million, which made it 4th straight month for which annualized pace is 14 million or above.

Cutler’s company is supplier of the transmissions to truck market and he dismissed the recent assessments done analysts that truck market of North America stalled post 3 straight months of the year-over-year lower orders. The rising costs of fuel, the scattered orders reports of getting cancelled & the cuts of factory production added to bearish out look for truck industry.

Cutler says that they aren’t panicking. There are people who have people who are overacting about things.

Eaton is Cleveland-based and on Monday it reiterated the earlier forecast that the production of the trucks of heavy-duty for North American will be reaching around 300,000 automobiles, which is about 16% more than 259,000 autmobiles that were built in the year 2011. Cutler had acknowledged that the volumes of production have are out of the whack now. He said that the makers of truck had ramped up the production in late of last year for accommodating surge in the orders. However, accelerated volumes had extended in to 2012 along with the production that was running recently at annualized rate of around 325,000 automobiles, but the March orders had come at the annualized rate of around 206,000 trucks.

Paccar Inc., who is truck maker said earlier in this month that it has plans of reducing the production of heavy-duty trucks for the brand Kenworth after the orders had declined by about 10 percent. This company wants to reduce the workforce @ plant of Ohio assembly by about 10%. Paccar will be releasing the earnings first-quarter by this Tuesday.

Cutler is saying that he expects the orders to go up from about March, and he described things as seasonally weak as the truck markers are currently transitioning to year of new model, which is prompting the truck buyers for delay or cancellation of the orders to get new models of truck. He says that the cancellations are higher during March & April.

Others aren’t really convinced that weakness is really temporary. An analyst @ St. Louis for the Avondale Partners Kristine Kubacki is expecting the heavy-duty production of truck for North American to be about 255,000 – 260,000 of trucks in this year.