Equipment

Navistar offers emissions update

Company shipped 17,000 trucks last quarter


At a facility tour of its Huntsville Engine Plant in Huntsville, Ala., Navistar International Corp. announced the delivery of about 17,000 vehicles to U.S. and Canadian customers in the past quarter.

Navistar’s facility in Huntsville, Ala., is the sole Navistar engine plant in North America, supplying products to seven Navistar truck plants in the United States and Canada.Navistar’s facility in Huntsville, Ala., is the sole Navistar engine plant in North America, supplying products to seven Navistar truck plants in the United States and Canada.

During a tour of the Huntsville facility – the sole Navistar engine plant in North America, supplying products to seven Navistar truck plants in the United States and Canada – members of the media saw production engines being built, as well as preproduction MaxxForce 15-liter engines being assembled. The MaxxForce 15 is slated to enter full production in 2011.

“Like our other manufacturing facilities, our Huntsville engine plant is operating in full production mode and shipping several hundred engines each week to our truck and bus assembly locations,” says Daniel Ustian, Navistar chairman, president and chief executive officer. “To date, we have built and shipped more than 15,000 Environmental Protection Agency-compliant 2010 vehicles, and we continue to build more than 100 EPA 2010 MaxxForce 13 engines every day.”

Of the 28,000 U.S. EPA 2010 orders Navistar has received, and of the 17,000 trucks shipped, more than 10,000 are for International ProStar tractors with MaxxForce 13 engines, and more than 1,000 are for the new medium-duty TerraStar model, which will begin shipping to dealers and customers this month.

“For us, this is about differentiation and leadership,” says Michael Cerilli, vice president of North American Truck Marketing for Navistar, which is relying on exhaust gas recirculation exclusively to meet EPA standards. “Clearly, Navistar’s EGR emissions path is different. But we’re leading this industry in a number of ways beyond simple product categories.”

Expanding on that theme, Ramin Younessi, Navistar group vice president of product development and strategy, notes that Navistar soon will submit technical data to EPA for certification of the company’s next generation of low-emissions diesel engines. “We’ll be able to show better fuel economy with this technology at .02 grams of NOx,” he says. “Naturally, we won’t put that engine into production until we have to. We will wait until our credits expire, and we’ve got at least a couple of years left there. But we’re going to get everything certified soon so that everyone understands we have a solution that works and will be available when the time comes.”

“We take heat for using credits,” Ustian adds. “But the rest of the story that gets overlooked is that Navistar has been beating EPA standards for years. We earned those credits. And, of course, everyone is using credits.” Ustian says Navistar’s competitors use credits to try to convince people his company is “not kosher now.”



IN BRIEF

* GE will purchase 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015 for its own global fleet and through its Capital Fleet Services business. GE plans to deploy 15,000 electric vehicles in its own global fleet, which comprises 30,000 vehicles.

* Ryder System Inc. will offer diesel exhaust fluid at all of its North American full-service locations to support contractual full-service lease and maintenance customers operating vehicles that use selective catalytic reduction technology to meet 2010 emissions standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Customers will be able to purchase DEF in 2.5-gallon portable containers.

* Peterbilt announced the purchase of 180 liquefied natural gas clean fuel Model 386 and 367 trucks by Robert Transport of Boucherville, Quebec.

* Freightliner launched its Really Simple Syndication (RSS) online feed, an XML-based format designed so that technical information, new product features and options and dealer information can be routinely and automatically sent to those who subscribe.

* FreinMeister introduced its Air Brake Interactive series of air brake teaching resource programs for fleet driver and service technician instructors.

* Eaton joined the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, an invitation-only coalition of 200 leading global companies working to advance sustainable development through advocacy on critical issues of economic growth, ecological balance and social progress.



Mack opens new Customer Center

Mack Trucks opened the doors to a new Customer Center during its recent World Sales Conference. The new Customer Center – designed to provide the ultimate Mack experience for truck dealers and customers – is a 159,000-square-foot facility on 65 acres that was formerly the company’s engineering, design and test center about 20 minutes from Mack’s production facility in Macungie, Pa.

The Mack Customer Center includes a product showroom, an 18,000-square-foot modification center and a two-lane, .73-mile oval track.The Mack Customer Center includes a product showroom, an 18,000-square-foot modification center and a two-lane, .73-mile oval track.

The Mack Customer Center includes a product showroom, an 18,000-square-foot modification center and a two-lane, .73-mile oval track, allowing customers to test their vehicles in a wide array of conditions that emulate real-world driving experiences. The track has multiple grades, on- and off-road durability courses and a skid pad.

Inside the main building, customers can relax, meet and work in a reception area or at the “Bulldog Café.” The new facility also houses the Mack Museum and Heritage Center, which features an array of Mack vehicles from the past 110 years — including the ninth Mack chassis ever built, a 1901 open-air bus that eventually logged more than 1 million miles during its active service life.

The core mission of the new Customer Center, however, will be education. Mack will use the facility to instruct both dealers and customers on a wide array of Mack-specific topics. “To our way of thinking, this Center will be a complete Mack brand experience,” says Kevin Flaherty, senior vice president of sales. “It will be a tool to enhance the Mack sales and ownership experience through training and product demonstrations. When the economy tanked in 2008, Mack didn’t walk away. Instead, we invested in our customers, and this facility is proof of that.”



FleetNet America offers CSA 2010 solutions

FleetNet America, a third-party vendor management company that coordinates emergency roadside services and scheduled/unscheduled maintenance, says it has a cost-effective solution to a common problem that will become even more frequent with the full implementation of Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010. Many of the company’s emergency roadside customers also have instances where they need immediate assistance at their facility or at a drop yard.

That’s why FleetNet now handles “Simultaneous Events” that allow customers to call the company to dispatch, follow-up and pay third-party mechanical vendors to handle multiple onsite events with all the specific customer accountability controls, VMRS coding, payment processing and other FleetNet functionality that comes with its services – at a lower per-occurrence fee because of the dispatching of a single vendor for more than one repair performed at the same time.

FleetNet says Simultaneous Events takes advantage of its handling of emergency roadside events to handle immediate onsite mechanical repairs that enable equipment to get repaired before getting on the road, providing a cost-savings solution for companies with facilities that do not have dedicated shops or mechanical personnel. Since necessary repairs that are not addressed before a trip will cause concern for U.S. Department of Transportation inspections under CSA 2010 regulations, FleetNet says it is committed to handling equipment maintenance requirements in a customized manner based on the specific desires of its customers.

According to FleetNet, another remedy to meeting onsite CSA 2010 requirements is its TMcare DOT inspection adherence. Customers have 24/7 online access to unit history files, inclusive of the third-party vendors’ invoices and full accountability of preventive maintenance and Federal Highway Administration compliance. TMcare is an extension of FleetNet’s fleet maintenance program and manages the fleet according to the customer’s specifications and current laws. n