John G Smith
John G. Smith is Newcom Media's vice-president - editorial, and the editorial director of its trucking publications -- including Today's Trucking, trucknews.com, and Transport Routier. The award-winning journalist has covered the trucking industry since 1995.
WABCO opens disc brake, compressor facility
LOUISVILLE, KY - WABCO has opened the doors to a new US $20-million facility in South Carolina that will for the first time give it a place to build air disc brakes in the U.S. The 145,000-square-foot facility employs 230 people. The manufacturing facility is 60% larger than a previous Charleston location that made air compressors, and will continue that work by producing single- and twin-cylinder models under a joint venture with Cummins, first established in 1998. But it also has the capacity to produce about 200,000 air brake units per year, says Jon Morrison, president - Americas. In five years, he predicts the market for those products will be double what it is today, in part because of the rollout of active safety systems.
Suppliers predict growing truck market
LOUISVILLE, KY - What a difference a few months can make. Earlier this year, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems was projecting Class 8 truck sales would drop about 5-10%. Now it's projecting the market will grow about 5%. "Overall, I think the economy has turned for us in the trucking industry," chairman Joe McAleese observed, citing growing truck orders and dropping cancellations. Truck tonnage and utilization are both seen as under control. It was a theme repeated during briefings during the Mid-America Trucking Show's media day.
