“We are working very closely with our customers, the OEs, to resolve the problem,” Barbara Gould, manager, communications & brand management for Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, told Fleet Owner. “We are working very closely with our customers to address the issue and remedy the situation as rapidly as possible.”

Bendix notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the issue on Jan. 26, 2012.

“This potential defect has caused several vehicle manufacturers to defer shipments of trucks with the ATR-6 manufactured between Dec. 2, 2010, and Jan. 18, 2012,” Gould said.

Gould said the affected vehicles come from Paccar, Navistar, and Volvo trucks.

Jack Allen, president of Navistar’s North American Truck Group, told analysts yesterday in an earnings call that the company’s first quarter earnings would be negatively impacted due to a supplier issue with a faulty product. He did not specify the company, but Gould confirmed the product is Bendix’ valve.

“It doesn’t affect everybody in our industry and it doesn’t even affect all of our products, but it’s a serious issue,” Allen said. “As a result we haven’t shipped a whole lot trucks since Jan. 20.”

The issue, Gould stressed, is not a problem with the traction or stability control systems themselves. The affected valve, though, does impact the performance of the vehicle, resulting in pressure building within “a service brake circuit.” This pressure can “cause intermittent or – in isolated cases – continuous brake application,” Bendix said in a service bulletin on its website.

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Both diesel and gas prices have been slowly creeping upward for the last month and a half, with the last price decrease taking place in mid-December, according to figures from the DOE’s Energy Information Administration. The current diesel price is up 34 cents from a year ago, and gas prices are up 35 cents this week from 2011.

On Monday, U.S. oil futures fell below $97 a barrel, the same day new sanctions were announced against the world’s third-largest exporter, Iran. The sanctions are supposed to make it harder for Iran to sell its oil through traditional banking routes. The idea is to force Iran to sell its oil at a discount, and reduce the oil revenue Iran uses to run its economy and fund its nuclear operations.

Abundant U.S. oil supplies kept prices in check despite the new sanctions against Iran. Crude supplies are expected to keep growing into spring as the petroleum industry ramps up drilling projects.

Brent crude prices rose to $1.35 to finish at $115.93 a barrel in London. The increase is due to winter storms that brought icy temperatures to much of Europe.

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“There’s been an awful lot of deferred capital investment on the part of carriers over the last few years and so we’re really only at the start of this replacement trend,” Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst for ACT Research, told Fleet Owner.

“If you look at Class 8 retail sales in the U.S. for 2011, for example, our numbers indicate some 175,700 units were sold,” he said. “But our nominal replacement demand number is 180,000 units annually, so even though sales were up last year, we did not reach the industry’s nominal replacement level for the full year.”

So far in 2012, North American orders for commercial trucks are strong, with heavy-duty Class 8 orders topping 25,200 units in January, while medium-duty Class 5-7 orders were just over 13,500 units for the same month, according to ACT.

“There were no surprises with the level of order intake in January,” Vieth added, noting that both sets of preliminary net orders still support the firm’s North American production forecast of 295,000 to 300,000 Class 8 units this year, along with 175,000 to 180,000 medium-duty units.

Dan Sobic, executive vice president of Paccar, the parent company of Peterbilt Motors Co. and Kenworth Truck Co., said in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report that annual replacement demand for the U.S. and Canadian truck market is estimated to be approximately 225,000 units.

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The company commemorated the milestone at a special ceremony February 1.

Steve Russell, founder and CEO of Celadon Group, took delivery of a special award to commemorate his fleet’s receipt of the 100,000th trailer. Other speakers included the mayor of Terre Haute and several members of the Great Dane management team. The ceremony also recognized the 14 Great Dane employees who have worked in the Terre Haute plant since it opened 17 years ago.

Great Dane opened the 565,000-sq-ft facility in 1995 with a single production line and added a second line two months after the plant opened. It produced 2,700 trailers during its first year of operation. It has averaged more than 8,200 trailers per year in the 17 years it has been in operation.

The plant is capable of producing the full line of Great Dane’s new Champion dry van series, including the Champion CP dry-freight van that utilizes the company’s composite panel technology.

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T. Boone Pickens, the oilman-turned-gas promoter whose BP Capital owns Clean Fuels, joined Navistar executives to announce a deal yesterday morning at the truck builder’s new headquarters in Lisle, Ill.

The agreement will see Navistar building more International trucks with natural gas engines, while Clean Energy will build more filling stations for truckers who commit to using the comparatively inexpensive and increasingly abundant fuel.

Customers who sign up will pay no extra money for trucks equipped to store and burn natural gas and filling stations for them.

“Progress is being made in alternative fuels,” said Dan Ustian, Navistar’s chairman, president and chief operating officer, who opened the press conference before slipping away to prepare for a stock analysts meeting later that morning.

“It’s always seemed to be government supported. While we hope we can get more money for research and development, this can stand on its own.”

Pickens, who’s been promoting the use of natural gas since 2010, said it’s both a financial and national security matter.

“Prices vary, but this is the cheapest fuel in the United States” at about $2.50 per diesel-equivalent gallon, or about $1 to $1.50 less than diesel, he said. “We cannot pass up this opportunity.

“Heavy trucks are the biggest users of fuel and stand to see the biggest savings” because of gas’s lower cost. “It’s a big deal for our country because we’ve got to get off OPEC oil.”

Clean Energy spent $200 million last year to build fueling stations for both compressed and liquefied natural gas, said Andrew Littlefair, the firm’s president and CEO. That effort will expand under the partnership with Navistar, with $250 million budgeted for this year.

Jerry Moyes, president of Swift Transportation, who participated in the announcement, said he’d like his company to have the first trucks in the program. “We’re very excited about the potential for natural gas,” he said. “We buy millions of gallons (of fuel) every day, so this is a big deal.”

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Saha discussed the shifting aftermarket parts and service business in North America for an audience of industry suppliers in Las Vegas last week at the annual Heavy Duty Dialogue .

“Class 4 to 8 truck repair and maintenance channels are finding it increasingly harder to attract skilled technicians because of the complex and dirty nature of the work,” Saha said. “Dealerships are expected to grow their skilled technician numbers in the short and medium term because of their ability to offer higher wages and training.”

This is creating pressure on independent repair facilities to upgrade their knowledge and skills, he noted.

“Despite the slight economic recovery, fewer independent shops are providing the level of training they historically provided. In 2010, 55% of independents offered formal training services versus 87% of dealerships.

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Osterberg told the audience that he had four “keys to success” when it comes to fleet safety: Hire the “right” drivers (and retain them); train them effectively; manage driver-performance actively, and leverage technology to enhance safety programs.

Traditional safety metrics are lagging, not leading indicators, he noted. Rather, he said Effectiveness flows from the ability to identify and proactively manage those leading indicators, and technology can definitely help to get the job done.

“Technology enables visibility to driver behavior,” Osterberg said. “In the past, it was a crash that raised our awareness of an aggressive driver. Now we can [use driver performance monitoring technology to help us] detect indicators of problematic behavior to enable interventions to remediate the behavior preemptively.”

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Planned hiring is in line with 2011 hiring, which exceeded internal expectations by 74 percent over 2010 due to industry demand. “We’re pleased to continue this positive hiring trend at our North American operations in 2012,” says Ken Hurley, senior vice president of human resources for Penske Truck Leasing. “We look forward to adding new associates to our talented diverse team.”

Penske Truck Leasing and Penske Logistics anticipate finding qualified candidates for the following positions: vehicle maintenance supervisors, technicians, customer service, sales, drivers and logistics and supply chain positions. Penske plans to promote open positions through various online hiring and social media sites, career fairs at diesel technical/trade schools and colleges and universities, diversity career fairs and military job fairs.

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For a complete solution, customers can choose the Kenworth NavPlus system. For those that don’t want all the bells and whistles of the NavPlus, factory-installed radios are now Bluetooth capable, Kenworth said.

“While Kenworth NavPlus is the ultimate do-all, hands-free cell phone system married to true-truck navigation, iPod and MP3 integration, diagnostics, gauges and a host of other features, some drivers just want basic Bluetooth capability, and that’s what we now offer with our two high-quality radios,” said Michelle Harry, Kenworth’s special projects marketing manager.

The factory-installed AM/FM/CD radios are available with or without satellite radio capability. A small Bluetooth microphone is mounted in the A-pillar trim above the driver. Up to eight cell phones can be synchronized to the radios and contacts can be automatically loaded, the company said. A contact screen makes calling easy while parked, but drivers can also take advantage of voice command mode to make calls while on the move.

When incoming calls are received, the radio displays the name of the caller and phone number. Pushing the OK button accepts the call, while the ESC button rejects the call.

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According to TCP’s fourth quarter Business Expectations Survey, over 80% of carriers the firm polled report that recent health care changes will adversely affect them. As a result, more carriers (43%) are shifting additional costs to employees and are asking employees to pay more for family coverage (37%). Some 29% report that while they are affected by increased costs, they still haven’t developed an alternative plan.

“With two-thirds of carriers telling us that driver wages must go up above $60,000 to attract and retain drivers, it is likely that drivers will also put more emphasis on shopping for fringe benefit packages as a part of the compensation mix in the future, especially as the effects of health care change reverberate through the economy,” noted Richard Mikes, a TCP partner and survey leader.

“The cost pressure for driver health care and other employees’ health care is just another balancing act challenging carriers this year during rate negotiations and amidst uncertainty in the general overall economy,” he added.

The problem posed by the rising cost of health care is not just an issue for trucking alone. According to a study published last October by global human resources consulting firm Aon Hewitt – a division of insurance provider Aon Corp. – the average health care premium rate increase for 2012 is expected to be around 7%, which is slightly lower than the 7.5% mark in 2011 but on par with the 6.9% increase experienced by businesses in 2010.

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