Mack Trucks

A wire report that appeared yesterday in Money Today on the planned resignation of the chairman of Mack Trucks Inc. was an outdated story that appeared as a result of a computer error.ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Ralph E. Reins will resign as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Mack Trucks Inc., the chairman of the company's distributors council confirmed late yesterday. Reins, 50, has accepted a position as head of the automotive group at United Technologies Corp. of Hartford, Conn., said Bob Nuss, owner of Rochester Mack in Rochester, Minn.

Edward Jonas, a retired diesel mechanic and World War II Navy veteran, died Jan. 4 of respiratory failure at his Auburn, Calif., home. He was 87. Mr. Jonas was born and raised in Richwood, W.Va., where he attended high school. He enlisted in the Navy in January 1941 and during his wartime career served on three ships — and survived the sinking of two of them. Mr. Jonas was assigned to the powder magazine of the cruiser USS Quincy, which sank in August 1942 during the Battle of Savo Island in the Pacific.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Ralph E. Reins will resign as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Mack Trucks Inc., the chairman of the company's distributors council confirmed late yesterday.Mr. Reins, 50, has accepted a position as head of the automotive group at United Technologies Corp. of Hartford, Conn., said Bob Nuss, owner of Rochester Mack in Rochester, Minn., and chairman of the council that includes 200 Mack dealers.Mr. Reins will be replaced by an executive from Renault Vehicules Industriels, which on Oct. 5 completed its $107 million buyout of the 55 percent of Mack stock that it had not previously owned, Mr. Nuss said.

Volvo AB of Sweden said yesterday that it would embark on a $50 million expansion and add 50 workers to its Mack Powertrain Division plant in Hagerstown as part of a sweeping restructuring across the company. But the truck maker also announced it would lay off up to three-quarters of its 120 workers at a parts facility in Baltimore as the company moves to streamline some operations. The changes in Maryland are a small piece of a plan outlined by Volvo, which acquired Mack in 2001, that executives said would make the truck company more cost-efficient.

Joseph C. Merrick, a retired Mack Trucks vice president and Project Liberty Ship volunteer officer who served in the Canadian navy, the U.S. merchant marine and the Army six decades ago, died from stroke complications Monday at his Glen Burnie home. He was 79. Mr. Merrick was born in Glendale, Calif., and raised there and in Victoria, British Columbia. He served in the Canadian navy from 1943 to 1944, when he left to join the merchant marine. "He left the Canadian navy after seeing the food that the U.S. merchant mariners were getting.

Renault Vehicules Industriels has again delayed the deadline for its stock takeover of Mack Trucks Inc.The French automotive giant said yesterday it would accept shares from Mack stockholders through 9 p.m. Friday.This is the second deadline postponement by RVI. The $6.25-a-share bid was pushed back from last Friday to today earlier this month.If RVI does not have control over 90 percent of Mack's stock by Friday, the company has warned that the takeover bid will fail, and the Allentown, Pa.-based truck-maker may be forced into bankruptcy.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Despite massive layoffs, Mack Trucks Inc. has continued to hemorrhage cash and lose market share in the year since French industrial giant Renault Vehicules Industriels took it over.In his first wide-ranging public discussion of Mack since taking command last fall, Chairman Elios Pascual yesterday angrily denied rumors that Renault would give up on the last U.S. integrated truckmaker -- that is, the last that makes all its own components.Mack produces its engines and transmissions at a plant in Hagerstown.

Mack Trucks to mark centennial with open house The 100th anniversary of Mack Trucks will be celebrated Saturday with an open house at the Baltimore Parts Distribution Center in Severn. Located at 8000 Telegraph Road, the 127-employee facility, which moved to Anne Arundel County from New Jersey nearly two decades ago, is the world's largest distribution center for Mack Truck parts. It has 5 acres under roof, manages about 42,000 parts and ships an average of 150,000 pounds of parts daily to destinations worldwide.

Mack Trucks Inc., founded 90 years ago by descendants of a man who emigrated from France to escape religious persecution, has been taken over by the huge French government-owned automotive conglomerate, Renault Vehicules Industriels.Renault announced yesterday that its controversial $6.25-a-share bid for control of the Allentown, Pa.-based truck-maker had succeeded, setting off industry speculation about restructuring of the money-losing operation.Renault announced that it had won control of 93.1 percent of Mack's shares by the 9 p.m., Sept.

Teamsters reach tentative accordNegotiators for the Teamsters and 22 trucking companies reached a tentative agreement late yesterday that would increase members' pay and could end a 23-day-old nationwide trucking strike.The Teamsters said the proposed agreement would block a move to introduce part-time workers but opens the way for more goods to move off the highways and into the rail system.Representatives of union locals will review the agreement today, and members will vote by mail on whether to approve it.General Nutrition fined $2.4 millionGeneral Nutrition Inc. agreed yesterday to pay $2.4 million in civil penalties to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that the vitamin and food supplement retailer violated the terms of two previous agreements with the agency.

Joseph C. Merrick, a retired Mack Trucks vice president and Project Liberty Ship volunteer officer who served in the Canadian navy, the U.S. merchant marine and the Army six decades ago, died from stroke complications Monday at his Glen Burnie home. He was 79. Mr. Merrick was born in Glendale, Calif., and raised there and in Victoria, British Columbia. He served in the Canadian navy from 1943 to 1944, when he left to join the merchant marine. "He left the Canadian navy after seeing the food that the U.S. merchant mariners were getting.

Kenyan police are investigating the death of a Western Maryland truck factory worker who was shot to death in an apparent robbery this week during a Christian missionary trip to the East African nation. Police said Paul A. Ritchey, 62, was killed Tuesday evening when assailants entered the guesthouse where he was staying in Malaba, a town on the country's western edge near the Ugandan border. "There were two local children watching television in the house where he was staying, and the intruders told them to lie down," said William Okello, officer in charge of Kenya's Teso district.

HAGERSTOWN - AB Volvo's decision this week to assemble its next-generation diesel truck engines at its Mack Truck Inc. plant here gives new life to a large factory that has been a vital part of the region's economy for four decades. "This means that we will be building engines here well beyond 2010," said Roger W. Johnston, vice president and general manager of the Mack plant, Washington County's sixth-largest employer. Had the plant - which last year assembled 30,000 truck engines and nearly 6,000 transmissions and is large enough to house three football fields - not gotten the work, Johnston said, "this location would have been phased out over time.

In the Region Mack Trucks to add to Md. presence with Elkridge warehouse Mack Trucks Inc. is expanding its presence in Maryland with a new parts-distribution center in Elkridge. Mack, based in Allentown, Pa., will move 122 jobs from its 210,000-square-foot distribution facility in Severn to the 314,000-square-foot Howard County warehouse when it's completed this fall. It will become one of two master distribution facilities in the United States; the other is in Chicago. Mack also has a facility in Hagerstown, where it builds transmissions and engines.

Mack Trucks to mark centennial with open house The 100th anniversary of Mack Trucks will be celebrated Saturday with an open house at the Baltimore Parts Distribution Center in Severn. Located at 8000 Telegraph Road, the 127-employee facility, which moved to Anne Arundel County from New Jersey nearly two decades ago, is the world's largest distribution center for Mack Truck parts. It has 5 acres under roof, manages about 42,000 parts and ships an average of 150,000 pounds of parts daily to destinations worldwide.

Teamsters reach tentative accordNegotiators for the Teamsters and 22 trucking companies reached a tentative agreement late yesterday that would increase members' pay and could end a 23-day-old nationwide trucking strike.The Teamsters said the proposed agreement would block a move to introduce part-time workers but opens the way for more goods to move off the highways and into the rail system.Representatives of union locals will review the agreement today, and members will vote by mail on whether to approve it.General Nutrition fined $2.4 millionGeneral Nutrition Inc. agreed yesterday to pay $2.4 million in civil penalties to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that the vitamin and food supplement retailer violated the terms of two previous agreements with the agency.

Kenyan police are investigating the death of a Western Maryland truck factory worker who was shot to death in an apparent robbery this week during a Christian missionary trip to the East African nation. Police said Paul A. Ritchey, 62, was killed Tuesday evening when assailants entered the guesthouse where he was staying in Malaba, a town on the country's western edge near the Ugandan border. "There were two local children watching television in the house where he was staying, and the intruders told them to lie down," said William Okello, officer in charge of Kenya's Teso district.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Mack Trucks Inc. has come close to being drafted into Operation Desert Shield, sources close to the company said yesterday.The U.S. government has been talking with the Allentown-based truck-maker about a $40 million contract for 500 tank-hauling trucks with high-powered E-9 engines, the sources said.Delivery was originally set for Jan. 10 -- five days before the U.N. deadline for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to pull his troops out of Kuwait.But the deal is now on hold because Mack wasn't able to produce the tank haulers in such a short time, the sources said.

Think of the Cable News Network. Then think of 18-wheelers and CB radios (10-4, good buddy, come on back). Now put the two together.What you get is the American Trucking Television Network (ATTN), the world's first TV network for professional truck drivers.The network is scheduled to be launched from Washington on Oct. 18 to more than 50 truck stops in the United States and Canada, including four in Maryland.ATTN plans to provide the latest in news, weather, general information and entertainment.