International Trucks

The Afghan National Army met another milestone recently when 19 soldiers graduated from the medium tactical vehicle familiarization course held at the German maintenance facility.

ANA soldiers who completed the weeklong training will train fellow soldiers in their respective kandaks, or units.

“We have learned all the systems of the new vehicles. We will teach the soldiers in our kandaks driving rules and how to maintain the vehicles,” said Afghan National Army Pvt. Hassan, 26th Kandak, 201st Corps Headquarters, a graduate of the course.

The course will help with vehicle safety too, Hassan explained. “We have had many vehicle casualties in the last few years. What we learn and pass on from this class will reduce accidents and also reduce vehicle damage,” he said.

The Afghan army recently received 374 vehicles through a contract with International Trucks, and will use them to transport fuel, water and personnel throughout the country. International Trucks was awarded the contract to build a fleet of 2,781 trucks in four models for the ANA: a general transport truck; a petroleum, oil and lubricant truck; a water truck; and a recovery truck. The contract also addresses training the soldiers to maintain the trucks.

“These guys know what trucks are,” said Emmanuel Lepere, product manager in Kabul for International Trucks. “We’re focusing on modern trucks and explaining the new technology on these trucks. Clean engines, oil changes, maintenance are something new for them. The most important thing the instructors want the students to learn are the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ specific to these trucks.”

Students learned general and environmental guidelines, a description of features, preventive maintenance checks and services, and operation of the vehicles. The course combined classroom and hands-on training, with emphasis placed on the hands-on portion, explained Lepere.

During the hands-on training, students crowded around their primary instructor, Danny Yao, International Trucks service and product engineer. They inundated him with questions and climbed in, on and around the trucks to learn as much as possible.

“The students are very inquisitive and willing to learn,” Yao said. “They are very hands-on.”

Lepere also was impressed with the Afghan soldiers’ approach to the training. “I’m most impressed with their attitudes,” he said. “From the way they ask questions and seem to really want to learn about the new trucks, I get the impression they really want to pull their country up. They have great attitudes.”

The long-term goal is to set up at least one maintenance facility at every ANA corps, with ANA and local mechanics maintaining the trucks at that level.

1929 Bickle to be used as ambassador for city

The pride of the Fort Saskatchewan Fire Department’s fleet is back and its about to become one of the city’s most popular and well-travelled ambassadors.

The 1929 Bickle Model AA fire truck, delivered to the local fire hall earlier this year under the cover of early morning darkness, was unveiled to the public Friday at the Fort Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce’s Trade Show and Sale.

With curious residents and politicians from every level of government causing a trade show traffic jam around the booth of the local fire department, firefighters rolled a protective sheet off the bright red, ladder-adorned truck to applause from the impressed onlookers.

Following a year of fundraising, the truck spent 15 months with an Ontario-based restoration company after local businesses and individuals stepped up to break their banks open for the $100,000 project.

“For us to unveil it for everyone in Fort Saskatchewan – for everyone that got involved and contributed to the project – it’s definitely a treat for us. The guys were really looking forward to today,” Platoon Chief Tim Morin said following Friday’s unveiling.

But Friday wasn’t the first time the firefighters saw the truck. A few weeks ago, a private function was held to unveil the truck to sponsors and dignitaries. And even before that unveiling, the very first unveiling came when the fire truck was unloaded off the transport truck following its return trip from southwestern Ontario.

“When we first brought it into the fire hall and we were unloading it off the transport, it was an amazing morning. It was the middle of the night; it was dark. We didn’t really get to see much of it outside until we brought it into the bay,” Morin said.

“We were all just in awe. We just stood and stared at it. It was incredible.”

Following its cross-country trip, the truck was in “rough shape,” Morin added. The truck needed to be polished, which is a task the restoration crew completed before slipping it back into its trailer that morning.

“The idea was we wanted to polish it up before our members even got a chance to see it,” Morin said.

Now that the truck has returned and has been unveiled, the city and fire department have grand plans for it. The truck will start to travel the province to promote the city at events, such as the Calgary Stampede parade or Edmonton’s Capital Ex parade. The truck will also be taken to different municipalities in the region, to others that request a visit and even to antique shows.

“It’s something we’ll be able to use as a showcase piece for the fire department and the city as a whole,” said Mayor Jim Sheasgreen, who was “wowed” by the restored truck when he first saw it.

“I looked at it and I said, ‘Holy macarel.’”

While the truck is restored, the remainder of the project – turning the interior of the truck’s storage trailer into a museum – is still a work in progress.

The Model AA Ford chassis was originally purchased by the Town of Fort Saskatchewan in 1929 and was outfitted as a fire truck by the Bickle Fire Engine Company in Woodstock, Ont. It served Fort Saskatchewan for about 25 years before being decommissioned.

In 2007, a total of 128,876 heavy trucks (carrying capacity more than 12 tons) were sold in Russia, a 42% growth on 2006. More than a half of the trucks sold had Russian and CIS origin. Import of new trucks accounted for 16% of total sales, used trucks - 22%. The customs statistics last year for the first time contained data on Chinese Trucks, which at once grabbed 10% of the Russian market.

After approving a motion to buy a Dodge Charger police car last month, the Silver Lake Town Council heard from Dave Cox of Kerlin Ford Tuesday.

Cox told the council that he was disappointed that they did not decide to purchase a Ford vehicle from the Kerlin dealership. He said it was upsetting that the town did not choose to buy locally.

After Cox’s presentation, the board said they would take the issue under advisement and make a decision at a later date.

In other business, the council:

n Approved a motion to spend $1,200 to hire Bob Murphy to conduct a community survey to help the town receive low- to middle-income federal grants.

n Opened bids for the town’s trash collection and approved a motion to have Stafford Solid Waste pick up the town’s trash for $31,416 per year. Other bidders were Veolia at $52,800 per year and Waste Management at $61,564 per year.

n Looked at three possible layouts for the town’s new Web site from The Green Banana. After choosing their favorite layout with one change, they learned that the site will be up by the beginning of April. The site’s address is www.townofsilverlake.com

n Approved a motion to pay G&G Tree Trimming Service $1,100 to cut down and remove a dead tree in town.

n Tabled two motions. The first motion was a request to replace a bumper and paint the town’s small Ford truck. The motion will be revisited next month when snow and sand are no longer needed for the roads. The second motion pertained to the employee Health Savings Accounts. Council members will decide how much money to put in the accounts next month.

n Approved a motion to give one month’s sewer credit to resident John Wolfe at the request of the sewer department. Because of the location of his sewer pit, the sewer department believes that he has lost more than a month’s sewer service over the years. Wolfe is close to the lake, and many times water in his sewer pit will prevent town workers from restoring his sewer service for a few days at a time.

n Approved a motion to spend $12,736 on phase monitors and surge protectors for the pumps in the town’s well houses. Last month a three-phase pump in the north well house burnt out after something caused it to switch to one phase for an extended period of time. The monitors and surge protectors will prevent the same thing from happening in the future.

“Protection is always better than failure,” said Josh Naibauer, water superintendent.

n Signed a permit application to close Ind. 14 for Silver Lake Days in June.

n Approved Ordinance 03-01-07, which codifies all the town’s ordinances into one book. The binder that contains all the ordinances is available in the town offices.

n Approved a motion to give a water and sewage adjustment to Shannon Hyden, who had a water leak.

n Heard that the town received a letter from Brenda Wadkins requesting documents.

n Set an executive session for 5:30 p.m. March 27 at the town hall. The meeting will be to discuss annexation litigation with Vern Landis, the town’s attorney.

n Heard that Town Superintendent Phil Shalley plans to hand in his letter of resignation April 8.

Silver Lake Town Council members are Gale Owens, president; Ronald Jones and Linda Baker. Clerk-Treasurer is Angie Glass.

Used Ford trucks for sale at TrucksJunction.com

Toyota plans to sell 9.85 million vehicles worldwide in 2008, the company said Tuesday, setting an ambitious target despite worries about a slowing U.S. car market, as it tries to become the world’s top automaker.Toyota also said it plans to produce 9.95 million vehicles worldwide next year, up 5 percent from this year - the same as the projected annual percentage jump for Toyota’s global sales.

An Indian car maker that will unveil the world’s cheapest car next week may soon produce two of the world’s premier brands as well.

Ford Motor Co. named Tata Motors Ltd. the top bidder for its Jaguar and Land Rover brands Thursday and entered into “focused negotiations at a more detailed level,” meaning Tata was named preferred bidder for the storied British automakers.

“While no final decision has been made, we will proceed with further substantive discussions with Tata Motors over the forthcoming weeks,” Lewis Booth, executive vice president of Ford’s European units, said in a statement.

Jaguar and Land Rover employees in the United Kingdom were told about the negotiations Thursday morning shortly before the company made the announcement.

Ford executives have said they expect sell the two British automakers early this year.

Ford spokesman Jay Ward in London would not say how much Tata bid for the automakers, nor would he say if two other bidders, Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and U.S. private equity firm One Equity Partners LLC, still were in the running. Last month people close to the negotiations with Ford told the AP that potential suitors had submitted bids for both companies that ranged from $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

A person briefed on the negotiations said Thursday that Mahindra and One Equity still were under consideration, although Tata is the likely buyer.

“Ford hasn’t told them to go away, and that’s the end of it,” the person told The Associated Press. “Tata’s emerged as the preferred partner.”

The person requested anonymity because the talks are confidential.

Mumbai-based Tata Motors confirmed the negotiations Thursday.

“We are now entering a period of more focused and detailed negotiations with Ford. We hope both parties can reach an agreement in the forthcoming weeks, though these are complex discussions and there is still much work that needs to be done before that position is reached,” a company statement said. “We are pleased by the progress in the discussions to date and very positive about the prospects of this business going forward.”

Tata plans to unveil its ultracheap $2,500 car next week at an auto show in New Delhi.

Company Chairman Ratan Tata said in a recent interview that acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover would help bring global visibility to his group — a sprawling conglomerate that makes everything from automobiles to steel and software, and a name that until recently was little-known outside India.

Tata Steel made headlines in January when it acquired Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group PLC for $12.1 billion by outbidding rivals. The deal, India’s biggest foreign acquisition, put Tata at the forefront of India’s global reach.

While the Corus acquisition was widely seen as a good match — and appears to be paying off — many fail to see comparable synergies in Tata’s attempted takeover of Jaguar and Land Rover.

Tata long has been a giant in truck and bus manufacturing, but it has sold cars for only about a decade. It currently has about a 17 percent share of India’s market.

The design brain trust of the world’s most successful auto company is discreetly tucked away in a leafy suburb of Newport Beach, Calif. Toyota’s (TM) Calty design and research facility sits inconspicuously at the end of a sleepy Orange County cul-de-sac. Surrounded by fountains and gardens, the studio radiates a monastic calm broken only by the sound of children playing in the yard of a nearby grade school.

Despite the Zen-like atmosphere, designers here have been brewing up creative disruption on four wheels for decades. Since it was established in 1973, Calty has served as the Japanese giant’s crucial toe-hold in the American auto market. The studio has created some of the company’s boldest and best-selling vehicles, including the 2005 Scion xB and the 2001 Highlander SUV. Now, Toyota’s American designers are at it again.

On Jan. 13 the company will take the wraps off yet another vehicle that could have embattled American automakers scrambling to catch up. A new concept truck, dubbed A-BAT, will make its debut in the heart of the U.S. auto industry at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. And there’s a twist: The tough-looking pickup packs a hybrid gas-electric power supply to reduce emissions and improve fuel economy.

The sleek vehicle is roughly the size of Toyota’s smallest SUV, the RAV4, despite looking much larger thanks to an oversize front grill and rough-and-tumble body design intended to delight truck aficionados. But in a marriage of red- and blue-state values, the truck was conceived as a gas-electric model. The truck’s cabin is shaped like a trapezoid, as is the company’s flagship gas-electric, the Prius, with which it shares the Hybrid Synergy Drive system. “People gravitate towards sporty,” says Matt Sperling, a designer with Calty. “If you inject utility into that, we think it’s win-win.”

A man is dead after his truck slammed into a dump truck north of Toronto last night.

Michael Worrod, 25 of Tottenham was travelling north on Regional Road 50, just north of Palgrave, at 4 o’clock afternoon when it crashed head-on with a southbound dump truck, said Caledon OPP.

A third vehicle also crashed into the Dump truck.

Rescue crews spent hours extricating Worrod from his truck. Two other drivers — including On Truong, 30, of Mississauga — were taken to Headwaters Hospital in Orangeville, treated and released.

The carmaker’s CEO wants to boost profits with a new, economical, 2009 hybrid—and with emerging market sales to offset weakness in Japan

Considering the environment for auto sales in Honda’s (HMC) two largest markets, Japan and North America, company chief Takeo Fukui looked remarkably relaxed as he delivered his outlook for the year ahead in Tokyo Dec. 19. It didn’t take long to understand why. During the address in Tokyo’s Shinagawa district, a confident Fukui predicted another year of overall expansion at the automaker in 2008, including a 3% increase in U.S. auto sales to 1.59 million vehicles despite concerns about the sub-prime crisis and stubbornly high fuel prices. He also predicted spectacular growth in several other key markets.

And in another sign of the Tokyo-based automaker’s burgeoning strength, Fukui also promised to give Toyota a tougher run for its money in the battle for eco-supremacy in the years ahead. Honda was an early mover in hybrids. But so far it hasn’t been able to benefit with a breakthrough like Toyota’s Prius, which dominates the hybrid sector. For instance, Toyota had 79% of hybrid sales in the U.S. in November, compared to just 10% for Honda, the No. 2 hybrid maker. The Prius alone accounted for 50% of all hybrid sales in the U.S. last month.

That’s why Fukui says that the battle is only now beginning. According to the Honda chief executive, the last decade was just the first phase for hybrids, a time when automakers focused on marketing a green image. The next phase, he argues, will focus on improving the economics of buying a hybrid. “The price needs to be reasonable and fuel efficiency higher so the [premium] the consumer pays [for a hybrid car] can be returned in a short period of time,” he says.

MAYOR Celso Lobregat Monday inaugurated and turned over four newly acquired dump trucks to the Office of the City Environment and Natural Resources (OCENR) in line with the city’s Solid Waste Management Program.

Costing close to P14 million, the dump trucks are expected to help improve the collection efficiency of garbage in the different areas of the city.

Of the four, two are compactor trucks while two are mini Dump trucks. A compactor truck compresses garbage while the mini dump truck is a new innovation to the city’s fleet of garbage vehicles as its features include a detachable body system called as the garbage bin.

The garbage bin is detached and left on the street for dumping purposes and re-hoisted to the truck once it is full.

Lobregat said the purchase of the new equipment is in line with his administration’s cleanliness and sanitation campaign specifically the Solid Waste Management program.

He stressed that the City Government is doing everything possible to sustain cleanliness and sanitation in all parts of the city.

However, the mayor emphasized that while the City Government is undertaking initiatives to ensure cleanliness, public support and cooperation to the campaign is very vital.

The Trucks were turned over to City Environment and Natural Resources Officer Engineer Rey Gonzales. Prior to the turnover, the Trucks were blessed by Fr. Francis Jacinto during rites held in front of City Hall Monday.

Before the blessing and turnover rites, Mayor Lobregat asked the drivers assigned to the four garbage dump trucks to recite the City Government Employees’ Oath and to earnestly and conscientiously comply with it.