A Monthly Update of Global Trucking News

Compiled Exclusively for FleetWatch by Frank Beeton of Econometrix (Pty Ltd.

Truck industry observers have been eagerly awaiting some indication of just how - and to what extent - Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation will be integrated into the global DaimlerChrysler commercial vehicle family.

Following a period when the previously developing relationship between the German/US manufacturer and what could loosely be termed "the Mitsubishi Group" had begun to unravel, mainly because of the Japanese organisation's well-documented management, financial and product quality difficulties, the extent of likely future inter-company co-operation had become less than obvious. During the run-up to the financial restructuring of the Group's light vehicle specialist component, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, there had been a considerable loosening of links between Stuttgart and that entity.

On the contrary, however, DaimlerChrysler took a totally opposite position with regard to Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus, stating that it was to become an important component of its overall world truck strategy. Subsequently, DaimlerChrysler AG increased its shareholding in MFTB to 85%, fully consolidating the Japanese operation as a subsidiary of the company. 

Substance has now been given to this strategic intent by the announcement of a partnership programme between Fuso and DaimlerChrysler's Sterling unit, which will result in the development of a new mid-range truck for the American market. Readers will recall that Sterling is the renamed successor to Ford's Louisville truck operation that was acquired by DaimlerChrysler in 1997 and now resides as a division of the US/German group's US flagship truck manufacturer, Freightliner LLC. Sterling currently specializes in providing vocational trucks for the distribution, construction and refuse sectors.

The new jointly-developed range of forward control (cabover) US Class 3, 4 and 5 vehicles will be based on a recently-introduced Fuso product platform and will be distributed alongside Sterling's Acterra, Condor, L and A-line products through select dealerships from mid-2006. 

Mitsubishi Fuso will also continue to market vehicles in the US and Canada under its own name through more than 170 established dealer locations, adding to the parc of over 80 000 units that it has already delivered to North American users. Interestingly enough, around 65% of world-wide Fuso sales during 2004 were reportedly made outside of Japan where the company's reputation had taken something of a beating. While it is an obvious future objective to restore home market sales volumes to a more competitive level, the partnership with DaimlerChrysler also has the potential to considerably enhance MFTB's global footprint.

At the recent Brisbane Truck Show launch of the seventh generation Canter model on to the Australian market, local Fuso management stressed that the three diamond logo would remain on future product and denied that there were any plans to submerge the brand into any form of generic DaimlerChrysler identity. Opportunities generated by the alliance to save costs through component rationalization, and co-operative marketing, as typified by the Sterling arrangement described above, would, however, be fully exploited. 

Mahindra International fleshes out

In the last WorldWatch, we reported on the announced $US80-million joint venture between International Truck and Engine Corporation of the US and Indian utility vehicle specialist Mahindra & Mahindra, covering the production, marketing and export of light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles and the sourcing of materials and components.

Additional information has now emerged regarding this potentially important development, which echoes an earlier 1961 arrangement between the agricultural products division of ITEC's predecessor, International Harvester Company, and Mahindra & Mahindra. The 55 year-old Indian company has since grown into a significant industrial organization with six manufacturing facilities producing tractors, three-wheelers, passenger cars, utility vehicles and light/medium commercial vehicles of up to 6 tons Gross Vehicle Mass. M&M has also entered into a separate volume passenger car-manufacturing arrangement with French automotive giant, Renault 

Mahindra International, as the new ITEC/M&M co-operative venture is to be known, will reportedly manufacture and market optimized Indian versions of International's medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicle platforms, incorporating a planned initial local content level of 90%, commencing in 2007.

The jointly-managed operation will also provide ITEC with components sourced in India as well as design and engineering services for future product development. This is likely to give International a low-cost production base from which it can exploit new export market opportunities, or even an alternative procurement arena to service its truck, bus and engine manufacturing operations on both the American continents. M&M's domestic and export distribution chain will benefit from an upward extension of its product line-up to include medium and heavy trucks, and bus chassis.

International was undoubtedly attracted to India by both the prospect of cost-effective component sourcing and the potential for participating in a burgeoning local truck market. Total sales of commercial vehicles above 3 500 kg GVM surged from 129 000 units in the 12 months between June 2001 and May 2002, to a more-than-double 262 000 in the equivalent 2004/5 period.

The same time period also witnessed a significant upward displacement in the mix profile of the overall truck market with HCV sales (trucks and tractors over 16 200 kg GVM), more than trebling from 23 220 units to 78 600 units. This change has been largely underpinned by an aggressive programme of highway building in India, and a crackdown on the previously rife practice of overloading smaller sized trucks. 

In the US, the term "vocational truck" has been coined to describe something different from the normal sort of vehicle you would expect to see offloading at the local shopping mall, or trunking between coastal ports and inland markets. Typical "vocational" applications include tippers, truck-mixers, skiploaders and refuse removal units. As these applications become more specialized, the "vocational" vehicles tend to depart more radically, in design, from their conventional brethren. 

Refuse removal is one area where specialization is growing. The practice of fitting compactor bodies - with their inherently unpredictable payloads and unbalanced mass distribution - to basically standard freight-carrier truck chassis, has been complicated by issues such as less tolerance, by authorities, of individual axle overloads and increasing demands from operatives for more favourable health and safety conditions. In the UK, the latter factor has radically increased the demand for low-entry cabs, now estimated to be specified for around 60% of all new waste removal vehicles, and growing.

At the recent Institute of Waste Management show held in the UK at Torquay, the following new solutions to this requirement were exhibited:

• Turkish manufacturer BMC Sanayi showed its new 628 Enviro, a 6x4 chassis powered by a 210 kW Cummins ISBe engine driving through an Allison five-speed automatic transmission and dual ZF/Meritor rear axles. Both the low-entry cab and refuse collection body on the exhibition vehicle were reportedly manufactured in-house by BMC.

• Mercedes-Benz exhibited the first 8-wheeled, low-entry refuse truck to be seen in the UK. Based on the 8x4 Econic specialist waste chassis with steering pusher axle mounted ahead of the rear bogie, this unit was equipped with an OM926LA engine "borrowed" from M-B's new Axor rigid range, developing 245 kW and driving through a 5-speed World series Allison transmission with dash-mounted controls. Five of these units have reportedly been sold to Yorkshire-based contractor Onyx, who will use them with Faun Variopress 27 cubic metre compactors.

• Renault's new dedicated Puncher refuse removal chassis range was revealed as a right hand drive low-entry vehicle available in 4x2, 6x2 or 6x4 configurations, at GVM ratings of 18 tons for the two-axled version, or 26 tons for the six-wheelers. Renault also announced at the show that it could now offer steel or air-suspended Master, Mascott, Midlum or Premium rigid 4x2 units with an Axlog Alfa overload warning system. This package informs the driver through an in-cab diplay of individual axle and total vehicle masses, and sounds an audible alarm if any are approaching an overload condition.
   

  Renault Puncher Refuse-vehicle an area where specialization is growing.

   

• MAN, through its UK ERF subsidiary, exhibited a right-hand-drive version of its TGA-based low-entry chassis. The MAN D20 engine, which drives through a ZF automatic transmission, complies with Euro 4 emission requirements in 230 or 260 kW ratings and the 6x2 drive configuration includes a rear-steer axle. The cab fitted to this model will, as previously reported, be outsourced from British specialist refuse truck manufacturer Dennis Eagle.

Showtime: Brisbane

WorldWatch's regular peek into what's happening in the Australian trucking scene provides numerous benefits. Apart from general intelligence about an operating environment quite similar to our own, it provides fascinating insight into some unique products developed for that market, and also gives us advance news of developments out of Japan, where the same information, in English, is often difficult to come by. Here's some snippets from the 2005 Queensland Truck and Machinery Show held in Brisbane during May.

• As mentioned earlier, the completely restyled seventh generation (Mitsubishi) Fuso Canter has now appeared on the export market. Whispers at Brisbane were that automatic and hybrid driveline versions of this extremely successful light truck range were not far off.

• The much-anticipated new Iveco PowerStar normal-control (conventional) premium model finally materialized at Brisbane. The cab styling, which has certainly progressed since the somewhat bizarre original late-nineties "Darth Vader" effort, is reported to have been derived from the latest Stralis design and is offered in day and sleeper versions. The high-tensile chassis is sourced from International Truck and Engine Corporation in the US and driveline choices are initially limited to Iveco's Cursor 10 and 13 families, ranging up to 410 kW in output, coupled to the Eurotronic II automated transmission.

• Other Iveco exhibits included a four-axle Stralis derivative, an updated ACCO range now offered with Euro 4-level Cummins ISC engine and Hendrickson Primaax air rear suspension and several products from ITEC, for whom Iveco is the Australian distributor. The latter included the CXT, which at seven metres long, is touted, justifiably, as the world's biggest bakkie!

• The rather strange DaimlerChrysler distribution strategy in Oz sees Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner and Sterling all in the same structure while Western Star stands alone and is currently allied to MAN in that market. At Brisbane, Western Star Trucks Australia announced that it had acquired local distribution rights for another independent US truck manufacturer, Autocar, which specializes in heavy-duty, low-profile, cabover (forward-control) models. Autocar uses the normal US proprietary component mix which includes aggregates from Caterpillar, Cummins, Allison, ArvinMeritor and Hendrickson.

• Images from Brisbane revealed that a facelift version of Isuzu's N-Series is on the horizon. On the surface, the changes do not appear too radical with a new multi-element grille and bigger, more angular light clusters. Technical specification changes, however, are somewhat more deep-seated and include a new 5,2-litre, 4 cylinder engine developing up to 129 kW output, automated five and six-speed transmissions utilising combined wet clutches and fluid couplings, Hill Start Aid on manual transmission models, ABS/traction control and new interior equipment and trim.
  

  A FACELIFT version of the ISUZU is on the horizon.

   

• Keen to consolidate its market leadership position at the heavier end of the Aussie truck spectrum, Kenworth exhibited a new version of its conventional T350, specifically aimed at the truck mixer sector. Two configurations - a 23,5 ton GVM 6x4 for use with a 6,5 cubic metre drum agitator and an 8x4 which would be legal at 28,5 tons gross carrying 7,5 cubic metres - will be made available, together with Cummins engines rated from 200 to 235 kW, six-speed Allison automatic transmissions, Dana Spicer drive axles, and Kenworth's own Airglide air rear suspension.
   

  KENWORTH T350