Service technicians from Beaver Truck Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba captured first place at the 2011 Volvo Trucks North American VISTA competition. According to Volvo, the Vista hands-on team competition highlights technician excellence and helps participants hone their skills while determining the top dealer service personnel.

The members of the winning team: Dennis Baehnk, Chris Dunn and Daniel Teleglow, will now compete at the Vista World final in Gothenburg, Sweden in June. This was the second time this team has won the Volvo Vista team competition in North America; their first win was in 2007. The other two finalists represented at this year’s North American contest represented   GATR of Sauk Rapids, Inc., Sauk Rapids, Minn., and Mobile Fleet Service, Yakima, Wash.

This year’s contest began last October and featured 120 three-person teams from throughout North America. According to Volvo, participation in the biennial event involves three rounds of competition featuring online technical questions, and a hands-on section where contestants had to troubleshoot pre-determined faults placed on two Volvo trucks and a Volvo D13 engine. Once the preliminary rounds were completed, the three teams of finalists traveled to Greensboro, N.C. for the final round. The Vista competition began in Scandinavia in 1957, and expanded to global event in 1977.

The Automotive Parts Remanufacturers Association (APRA) will be hosting heavy-duty transmission clinic May 12-13 in Philadelphia..

On Thursday, May 12^th the program of events consists of the following presentations:

•        You Got A Problem?, this intercative session will be presented by John Schroeder of Jasper Engines & Transmissions and will identify the seven steps in root cause analysis;

•        An Overview of the Current State of the Transmission Market, Bobby Mace, Publisher of Transmission Digest Magazine

•        What You’ll See During your Tour of TransAxle, Dave Olsen, TransAxle

•        Containing Your Enthusiasm About Containers, Jim Burra and Sue Williams of Endural;

•        ATF: Why the Right Fluid, is the Right Fluid? The Benefits and Risks of Transmission Fluids to your Bottom Line, Laurie Strasser of Afton Chemical Corporation and Dan Goering of Chrysan Industries

•        Hidden Problems That Cause Lost Earnings in Your Business, Tony Blazek, National Sales Manager of Hot Flush

•        Repairing Aluminum Housings to Reduce Your Scrappage Rate and Add Dollars to Your Bottom Line, Gary Reed, President of Lock-N-Stitch.

On Friday, May 13^th, the group will meet together for breakfast and then depart for a tour of both TransAxle plants in Cinnaminson, N.J.

Call the Hilton Philadelphia Airport Hotel at 1-215-365-4150, ext. 33 (Mon-Fri, 8 am-5pm) or after 5pm and on the weekends at 1-800-445-8667 to make your hotel reservation. Mention the code “APR” to receive the discounted room rate of only $129 single/double. The hotel has a complimentary shuttle to and from the airport. Click here for a full program and to register for the HD Transmission & VTRG Clinic

TCi Tire Centers announced the opening of two new centers located in Houston and Harlingen, Texas. “In order to offer our Texas-based fleet customers the product and services they need, TCi has explored the growth potential in these areas and believe strongly that adding these locations is beneficial to those fleets,” says Guy Pekle, president and chief executive officer of TCi Tire Centers.

The Houston facility is located at Highway 225 and Pasadena Freeway. The Harlingen center is located just off Expressway 83 in Harlingen. Both centers are full-service facilities offering fleets new tires, retreads, preventative maintenance, emergency road service and alignment capabilities.

TCi Tire Centers also are part of the Michelin Commercial Service Network, a franchise network of commercial tire dealers committed to establishing a new standard for consistent high-quality service across the United States. The network offers consistent service from network dealers with highly trained technicians, professional equipment and casing management, all ensured by rigorous certification and audit standards.

Headquartered in Duncan, S.C., TCi is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Michelin North America Inc. and comprises two divisions – distribution and commercial. The distribution division serves passenger and light truck tire retailers through 78 distribution centers across the country. TCi supports its truck and earthmover customers from its 64 commercial centers located throughout the United States. The company also operates multiple Michelin Retread Technologies plants throughout the country.

The Kenworth Merchandise Collection has added nearly 50 new items for 2011 for trucking operators and fleets interested in purchasing officially licensed Kenworth merchandise. The lineup of nearly 165 items includes Kenworth caps, T-shirts, polos, jackets, women’s clothing, accessories, scale truck models, drinkware, golf items, watches, desktop items, bags, and the 2011 Kenworth appointment and wall calendars.

To order, visit www.ShopKenworth.com or call 877-705-3314 toll-free from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT. Those ordering from outside the United States may call 425-806-2306 during the same time period. Kenworth dealerships in the United States and Canada also offer officially licensed Kenworth merchandise for sale.

Great Dane Trailers announced the addition of Randy Gosson to the Aftermarket Parts Group as national account sales manager, responsible for the Great Dane AdvantEdge national account service and parts program, spearheading the enrollment process and ongoing use of the program with fleet customers.

Great Dane says Gosson – with more than 20 years of industry experience, including working at Trailmobile and Aurora Parts – brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise with him that will help facilitate the success of the AdvantEdge program.

The newly formed HDA Truck Pride recently held its first annual membership meeting. The meeting hosted more than 600 attendees, including 123 members and 142 vendors. Company CEO Don Reimondo opened the meeting with the presentation of a vision statement and strategic objectives.

“Our vision is to be the premier, most cohesive supply chain to the commercial vehicle industry,” Reimondo says. “We have a number of key objectives to help us strive toward this, but it requires daily effort and focus on the part of our members, vendor partners and staff to attain it. I could not be more pleased with the overwhelming response and support from our membership and vendor partners as we launched the strategic plan and our initial growth programs.”

Reimondo was followed by HDA Truck Pride Director of Sales and Marketing, Tina Alread, who presented a session on fleet programs and hosted a National Fleet Panel. Panelists included: Bill Bliem, vice president of maintenance at NFI Industries; Lloyd Hair, director of maintenance at Keen Transport; Gary Gid, director of maintenance at Logistic Leasing and Terry Taylor, senior director of national purchasing at Sysco. According to the company, the session highlighted key issues of concern for these fleets and ways in which HDA Truck Pride can bring value to them. Key topics focused on CSA and its impact on the fleets, training, technology and service.

The sales programs then continued as Mark Willis, business development manager, reinvigorated the “TSE: Truck Service Experts” Program. According to HDA Truck Pride, the message behind this independent repair shop program was driven home by a TSE panel: Jim Farr of Iowa City Brake; John Wensel of Wensel’s Truck and Trailer Repair; Jeff Wilson of Brahler’s Truckers Supply and Wayne Marshall of Marshall Truck and Trailer Repair.

The American Trucking Associations’ seasonally adjusted (SA) for-hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 1.7 percent in March after falling a revised 2.7 percent in February 2011.

The latest gain put the SA index at 115.4 (2000=100) in March, which was the highest level since January of this year (116.6).  In February, the index equaled 113.5.

The not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 123.3 in March, up 20.7 percent from the previous month. Compared with March 2010, SA tonnage climbed 6.3 percent, which was higher than February’s 4.4 percent year-over-year gain, but below the 7.6 percent jump in January.  For the first quarter of 2011, tonnage increased 3.8 percent from the previous quarter and 6.1 percent from the first quarter 2010.

“Despite my concern that higher energy costs are going to begin cutting into consumer spending, tonnage levels were pretty good in March and the first quarter of the year,” says ATA Chief Economist and Vice President Bob Costello. “While I still think the industry will continue to grow and recover from the weak freight environment we’ve seen in recent years, the rapid spike in fuel prices will slow that growth.”

Costello also notes that as long as U.S. manufacturing activity remains strong, truck tonnage will benefit.

Jacobs Vehicle Systems has made improvements to its engine brake technology. The company’s new improvements are said to deliver 50 percent more power than the traditional compression release braking product and have been designated HPD to recognize the difference from traditional compression release technology.

According to Jacobs, HPD was created in response to the global engine suppliers’ drive to provide higher power density engines for fuel economy. The new technology is said to provide large displacement retarding power in small and medium displacement engines.

Traditional engine brake technology provides up to 100 percent of the engine’s rated power, and the new Jacobs’ HPD Engine Brake is said to provide up to 150 percent of the engine’s rated power and reduce loads on the valve train.

The braking system consists of two dedicated braking rocker arms and two collapsible bridges per cylinder. Jacobs says this configuration enables a second braking event to occur during each engine cycle. This new braking process is also said to provide for even stronger braking power at low-mid range engine speeds, providing greater vehicle control, drivability and improved fuel economy.

Paccar Financial (PFC) is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year. “We’re celebrating a milestone,” says Todd Hubbard, president of Paccar Financial. “The growth of Paccar’s captive finance company has been dramatic. In 1970, PFC had total assets of $87 million in its portfolio compared to $3.6 billion in 2010. The finance group saw a 30 percent jump in business between 2009 and 2010, and it’s looking to grow significantly again in 2011.”

According to Hubbard, PFC has grown to be a primary lender to customers through Peterbilt’s and Kenworth’s network of dealerships. “Our mission is to support our dealers with innovative and attractive lease and finance packages for their customers,” says Hubbard. “And, since we have a vested interest in the transportation industry, we can be more creative and responsive to our dealerships’ customers than other finance sources.”

PFC also offer a used truck trade package program. “In some cases, our customers wanted to purchase new trucks, but trading in their existing used trucks was a problem due to depressed resale values in the used truck market,” says Hubbard. “PFC bridged that gap by taking a portion of the trades and limiting a dealer’s risk of absorbing an entire trade package. The end result was that it helped facilitate new truck purchases, which was good for our customers, good for our dealers, and good for Paccar.”

Through its history, PFC says it has been known for offering comprehensive finance and lease packages to better serve its customers. These include special promotions such as bundling “no-cost” extended warranty offers in the finance package.  “That’s something banks can’t offer,” says Hubbard.

“PFC certainly does have innovative programs,” says Bob Gentry, president of Peterbilt of New Hampshire. “In addition to standard finance and more creative lease packages, they do extended terms, skip payments for our construction customers, and on the medium-duty side, they’ve been very aggressive with creative financing. The special Medium Duty Combo program they offer blends a 4.99 percent interest rate with an extended warranty and is extremely helpful.  The majority of my business over the past several months was due to that program.”

While providing truck finance packages has been PFC’s mainstay, it has also broadened its scope over the years to include trailer and body upfitting financing. PFC also helps Paccar dealers by lending money for flooring plans, as well as dealership expansion.

“As a captive finance group, they provide wholesale floor plans for us on new and used trucks,” says Cooper Sykes, president of Cooper Kenworth, which has 10 locations in North Carolina. “Along with providing retail financing for our customers, they’ve been absolutely vital to our organization. They have a vested interest in their dealer body in wholesale and retail financing.”

According to Hubbard, PACCAR Financial has come full circle over the past 50 years. “We originally began as a finance source to help customers purchase Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks,” he says. “But as we’ve grown and matured, we’ve come to play an integral role with dealers in their flooring and expansion, plus we’ve continued to support their customers with innovative finance plans and creative approaches to customer needs during the up as well as down cycles of our industry.”

Webb Wheel Products, Inc. has added a new Training Toolbox to its website. According to the company, the material provided on the site draws on the company’s long experience in the commercial vehicle industry to clearly show the proper procedures for maintaining wheel-end components for the greatest reliability, durability and performance.

Webb’s new Training Toolbox is also said to show the problems that can be caused when improper procedures are followed.  The videos and downloadable documents are excellent tools for training technicians and for the development of proper maintenance practices, Webb says.

Three new videos are now available.  Two show the proper wheel0end installation procedure for 10-stud, hub piloted or FN mounting systems and for 10-stud, stud piloted or BSN mounting systems. According to Webb, each installation video shows step by step the proper ways to inspect, clean, determine component replacement and lubrication requirements, correctly mount the drum and install the disc wheel. A downloadable PDF document in the toolbox addresses the two most common warranty returns seen for brake drums, “out-of-round” and “cracked.”

Additional videos and downloadable PDF documents will be added to the training toolbox in coming weeks.