Now HERE’S something that looks like fun!

That’s Meredith Ochs, Sirius radio DJ, in the middle of the photograph below, between Bryan “The Don” Martin on the left and Ryan “Rhino” Templeton on the right – just two of the famous “Chrome Shop Mafia” staffers that’ll be giving Meredith a ride in style to the Mid-America Trucking Show this year.

Meredith – co-host with the esteemed “Chris T.” of the Freewheelin’ satellite radio show broadcast on Sirius Road Dog Trucking Radio channel 147 – is riding shotgun with the Mafia from Joplin, Missouri to the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky, broadcasting all the way.

The Chrome Shop Mafia (as if you didn’t know) is one of the biggest and baddest trucking reality cable TV shows and they do a weekly guest segment on Freewheelin’ Thursdays from 12 noon to 1 pm eastern standard time.

Now, to call Meredith and Chris T.’s live three-hour talk show on Sirius 147 “high energy” is kinda like calling a tornado a strong gust of wind. It definitely wakes you up (far more than my own appearance on the same channel from 6 am to 7 am every Monday morning, let me tell you). They cover the news and pop culture topics, along with celebrity guests, every weekdays from 11 am to 3 pm eastern.

So if you’re coming west to east for Mid America, you might just see Meredith, the Mafia, and probably a lot of other fans rolling along in one big convoy. Tell them I said “hi” if you do.

“The nation needs to develop a new long-term vision for its highway system that would include improving conditions and safety and reducing traffic congestion.” –William M. Wilkins, executive director, The Road Information Program

It’s no secret that our rural and urban roads, alongside highways and bridges, are in sorry shape these days. The question we need to answer is twofold: how bad off are they and what can we do about it?

According to a new study released by The Road Information Program (which gets compacted down into ‘TRIP,’ one very slick acronym) deteriorating urban pavement conditions cost the average driver in the U.S. some $413 a year in terms of additional vehicle operating costs due to accelerated vehicle deterioration, additional maintenance needs and increased fuel consumption.

TRIP, a national transportation research group, also says its study found that roughly 23% of the nation’s major metropolitan roads – interstates, freeways and other critical local routes –are in poor condition, resulting in rough rides for truckers and motorists alike. Not surprising, Los Angeles and the cities of San Francisco and Oakland have the largest amount of poor pavement out of all the metropolitan locations in the country (65% for L.A. and 62%, respectively, for San Francisco and Oakland) while (and this shocks me!) Washington D.C. – the U.S. capitol – only has about 30% of its roadways in serious disrepair.

What’s that mean in terms of dollars? Well, for drivers in Los Angeles, it costs an extra $778 a year in extra vehicle maintenance and fuel – almost twice the national average. “With state and federal transportation funding falling short, the cost of materials and repairs rising and traffic volumes increasing, transportation agencies will face a significant challenge in improving urban pavement conditions,” said William Wilkins, TRIP’s executive director.

Now, TRIP puts out a study like this almost every year and though it does a good job trying to be objective about the issue, trucking gets dinged repeatedly in their roadway analysis – simply because (and it’s the truth) trucks weigh a good deal more than cars, thus putting more pressure on pavement surfaces.

Overall travel on urban roads increased by 39% from 1990 through 2005, but urban travel by large commercial trucks grew at an even faster rate, increasing by 49% from 1990 to 200, TRIP noted. “ Large trucks place significant stress on road surfaces,” said Wilkins. “While overall vehicle travel is expected to increase by approximately 30% by 2020, the level of heavy truck travel nationally is projected to increase by about 39% by 2020.”

There’s a way to address this, of course. If we raise the weight limit on commercial trucks – from 80,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds – and add an extra axle to the trailer, we’ll be able to reduce the number of trucks on the roads while not sacrificing any freight capacity. That extra axle will help redistribute the added weight, by the way, so there wouldn’t be any additional pressure put on the pavement surface.

However, size and weight increases for truck are pretty much dead on arrival in Congress, according to recent comments by Rich Schweitzer, an attorney that serves as general counsel for the National Private Truck Council.

“We want to look at increasing truck size and weight to six axles and 97,000 pounds, explore using 333-foot doubles using current bridge formulas and axle-weight limits, and propose truck-only lanes,” he explained during a speech at the 9th annual fleet management conference in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, last week, put on by PHH Truck Services. “Congress isn’t on board with any of this.”

Back to TRIP’s study: Although the share of major urban roads in poor condition has decreased since 2002, conditions are likely to worsen in the future under current transportation funding projections. The group said the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) expects that, through 2025, the nation will fall short of the cost of maintaining current urban pavement conditions by $119 billion and will fall short of making significant repairs by $270 billion.

TRIP further found that maintaining urban roadways in their current condition would require a 56% increase in annual funding, while significantly improving the physical condition of urban roadways would require a 126% increase in annual funding.

There’s more gloomy news to report, unfortunately. Federal funding for highway repairs and improvements in the fiscal year 2009, starting on October 1, 2008, may be reduced as a result of a forecast deficit of $3.2 billion in the highway account of the Federal Highway Trust Fund.

On top of that, 18 states expect to face budget shortfalls totaling more than $14 billion during the current 2008 fiscal year, with 25 states expecting to face budget shortfalls of at least $36 billion during fiscal year 2009, largely as a result of shrinking tax revenues. Because most states are not allowed to run a deficit or borrow to cover their expenditures, said TRIP, it is likely that states will have to consider drawing down reserves, cutting expenditures or raising taxes.

The cost of roadway improvements is escalating as well, TRIP found, because the price of key materials needed for highway and bridge construction is increasing rapidly. Between January 2004 and January 2008, the average cost of materials used for highway construction, including asphalt, concrete, steel, lumber and diesel has increased by 46%.

Hoo boy!!! Not exactly a recipe for warm and fuzzy feelings about the future of our road networks, is it?

Snow is a familiar sight to any trucker that’s plied Interstate 80 that links Nevada and Northern California over the gorgeous Sierra Nevada mountain range. But this year’s storms give the word ‘snow’ a whole new meaning.

(Snowfall in Tahoe by Mike Kilcarr)

The storms hitting the Donner pass this year (yes, THAT Donner pass – the infamous place where pioneers trapped by winter’s icy clutches resorted to cannibalism to stay alive) are dumping boatloads of the white stuff up there – over 12 feet of snow now packs the slopes in and around Lake Tahoe now.

(The snow may be deep — but Amelia the dog doesn’t mind)

The scary thing is the real heavy snow cycle for the Sierra range hasn’t hit yet. This weekend alone the forecasters are predicting another foot of snow and wind velocities exceeding 100 mph in some spots in the mountains. None of that makes driving a tractor-trailer over the I-80 gap much fun, I’d think.

(When it takes front loaders to remove the snow, you know it’s deep)

My brother lives out there, so I get a pretty frequent update on the snow as well as the ski conditions. (Nothing like being a single, dedicated skiing fanatic, with deep powder as far as the eye can see. Talk about luck of the Irish!) He sends a lot of photos back to me of what the area looks like under 12 feet of snow – and talks about the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) staffers that must clear it day in and day out.

(Amelia takes a walk in her own winter wonderland)

Caltrans has a big depot right at the crest of I-80, next door to the town of Truckee, home base for all the big orange equipment needed to keep the roads clear. I’ve passed by it many a time (in much more agreeable weather!) wondering at the hardiness of the folks manning it that must venture forth in some truly nasty conditions to keep the highways passable. At some points this year, the snow fell at a rate of six inches per HOUR, which is just an unfathomable amount for me to get my brain around.

(All in a wintry days work for the local Caterpillar operator)

This year, the challenge’s been to find a place to dump all the snow, for they are running out of room in the Tahoe area. Route 89 – also known as West Rive Road – snakes from I-80 south in Lake Tahoe along the Truckee river, graced by high alpine vistas of stone and pine trees. Now it resembles something more like an ice canyon, with walls of snow bordering it from the highway down to the lake shore – not something a big rig driver looks forward to navigating, I am sure.

(Even the local roads are canyons cut from the snowfields now)

So props to Caltrans for keeping the roads clear out there – and good luck to the truckers out there driving in those tricky conditions. While it sure looks pretty in the pictures, it’s not something I’d want to pilot an 80,000-pound rig through, let me tell you!

(Ah, but it’s postcard picture perfect, all that snow, isn’t it? A big shout out of thanks to my brother for these shots, by the way.)

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without the work.” –Emile Zola.

Pictures just don’t do justice to “The Godfather.”

One of the last 1,000 Peterbilt 379 highway tractors (No. 27 to be precise – a number emblazoned on this truck’s nose), the Peterbilt of Louisiana dealership ordered it from the factory on a monstrous 320-inch wheelbase, equipped with a 600-horsepower Caterpillar engine and 18-speed Eaton Fuller manual transmission featuring TWO sticks. Lean, low, and clean, “The Godfather” is a sleek machine styled with a 1930s gangster look, with deftly rounded wheel wells and subtle black and tan paint job.

This artistic truck is the brainchild of Scott St. Germain, one of the many unseen designers that work for the famous “Chrome Shop Mafia” out of 4 State Trucks in Joplin, MO, whom you’ve probably seen on TV. I talked with him and fellow chrome hand Gailand Johnston at the Technology & Maintenance Council last week about this latest example of their “rolling art” handiwork.

(Left to right: Scott St. Germain, Gailand Johnston)

“The Godfather” is meant to promote the talents of the CSM at trade shows and other public venues (like they really need it – doesn’t EVERYONE know who they are by now?) even though, in comparison to the many other trucks they’ve tricked out, this one features a much more low-key design. Ah, but it’s packed with details, if you spend a few moments looking for them.

On the back of the sleeper, for example, Bryan “The Don” Martin (known as the “Bossman” on the show) is portrayed in the middle of his “gang” attired in a three piece suit while flipping a coin. Look closely at the coin, and you’ll read “In The Boyz We Trust.” The pin striping down the nose and side of the cab is also unique, crafted by Ryan “Ryno” Templeton, the TV show’s acknowledges paint master.

“The Godfather” doesn’t lack for gizmos, either – the long-slung front bumper can be raised with the flip or a switch, as can the chrome-plated cover on the chassis between the sleeper and the fifth wheel – opening up like a coffin, though the CSM crew decided at the last minute not to go the distance with that graveyard touch by adding a fake body inside the cover.

It’s a classic piece of work, but one that almost didn’t come to life due to the backlog of work at the CSM shop. “This truck sat in our shop for weeks, wrapped up as we were in other projects,” Johnston told me. All told, it took about eight weeks of work to bring “The Godfather” to life – time accumulated in fits and starts. That includes the unusual design for the truck’s trailer, supplied by Monon, IN-based trailer maker Vanguard.

St. Germain told me that the best thing about “tricking” out trucks versus cars is that there’s simply so much more room to work with. “With a car, you’ve got to force everything down into this small interior space; then you have limited exterior area for the paint and art you want to do,” he said. “Trucks are just so big, you can really do almost anything you want. It takes a lot longer because of its size, but the end result just pops.”

St. Germain also did the lead design work for BP Castrol’s truck makeover contest last year, and will probably repeat that effort again in 2008. Both he and Johnston also epitomize truck chrome and flash fabricators, too – laid back, gregarious, yet modest about their accomplishments. They take obvious pride and joy in their line of work, getting paid to do what originally started out as a VERY expensive private hobby, and they also relish the opportunity to get out in the public eye to show off what they can do.

You’ll see this truck around in 2008, at truck stops and other trucking events – keep an eye out for it and make sure you to talk to St. Germain and Johnston if you can, for half the fun is getting a backstage view, if you will, about how these designs come to life.

“This is not a must-win situation: This is a football game. Now, World War II, THAT was a must-win situation.” –Marv Levy, former head coach of the Buffalo Bills

There’s a growing discussion of late over the viability of biofuels – ethanol, biodiesel, etc. – and their potential long-range impact on the globe. Some rightfully wonder if we’re trading our problematic dependence on petroleum for a new complex set of issues, with the agricultural needs of our food supply being in direct competition with our fuel supply if we start switching to biofuels en masse.

Ethanol currently relies heavily on corn and water for producing this fuel for example, so until efficient processes come on line to make ethanol from agricultural waste, landfill glob, and other unsavory byproducts, the debate over the future of biofuels will get only more intense.

Which of course misses the whole point. We need SOME sort of fuel to power trucks, cars, planes and the other motorized creations that support life on this planet of six billion souls. And we’ve got to find a way to do that with a fuel that pollutes less than petroleum and divorces at long last from reliance from the Middle East. What to do?

Here’s an example of creative thinking in this direction: the California Secure Transportation Energy Partnership (CalSTEP), launched a year ago this month, outlined a comprehensive set of actions geared toward increasing California’s transportation energy efficiency and alternative fuel use by 2020. Developed over 18 months, the CalSTEP Action Plan aims to grow that state’s economy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on petroleum at the same time – a tall order, to be sure.

Based on a partnership of industry, government, academic and non-profit leaders from automakers to conservation groups, the plan targets three key areas where the state can take action to secure its energy future: increasing vehicular efficiency; diversifying the state’s fuel supply; and reducing the overall need to drive. One of its overall goals is to reduce petroleum use by 15% percent, while increasing alternative fuel use to 20% over the next 12 years.

Most interesting are the two key facets upon which CalSTEP is based: 1) That no single action is sufficient to address the state’s challenges in transportation energy. 2) That the state can take meaningful action independent of the federal government to buffer itself from the ill effects of excess petroleum consumption.

CalSTEP encourages California state leaders to consider and take actions in three primary and seven supporting area, with those three primary actions accounting for the bulk of the benefits in terms of reducing petroleum use and cutting global warming emissions. They include:

Alternative Fuel Portfolio Standard (AFPS) – a market-based approach for increasing alternative fuel use through fuel blending, dedicated use, and/or credit trading. Goals would be 10% alternative fuels by 2012 and 20% by 2020.

Smart Communities – a program to spark more transportation energy efficient community design and development that sets goals for reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by 10% by 2020 in California’s urban regions and rewards communities who achieve who this goal.

Energy Security Tax Relief and Realignment (ESTRR) – a program to help protect Californians and investors against foreign oil price volatility and gaming that would use a revenue-neutral foreign oil security fee coupled with a rebate to all taxpayers to encourage the long-term production of and investment in efficient vehicle technologies.

Supporting efforts include expanding alternative fueling stations and vehicles, fund and commit the state’s fleets to setting the standard for the use of efficient vehicles and alternative fuels, spur the development and deployment of more efficient vehicles, technologies, and fuels, help communities plan for transportation energy efficiency, and offer rewards to motorists who choose to drive less.

What’s most intriguing to me about this plan is how comprehensive it is: look at the way it suggests managing overall energy and transportation use, to the point of offering monetary rewards for less consumption. That “carrot” approach could spur a lot of change with the public, especially when compared to the rise on gasoline and diesel prices of late. And when you look at projected petroleum consumption figures for the Golden State – 23 billion gasoline gallon equivalents (BGGE) for all on-road vehicles by 2020 – it’s easy to see how large fuel costs could become if a new direction isn’t taken.

Will this plan succeed? That’s a tough question. But at least it’s start – at least transportation and energy needs are now out on the table in clear view with potential, if not ultimately practical, solutions. That’s the first critical step in getting a handle on our future energy and transportation needs, before they start controlling us.

You trundle down Route 5 long enough in James County, VA, and you’ll hit the James River – a broad expanse of water where some of the very first colonists made their home in the once and future United States 400 years ago at the appropriately-named Jamestown nearby.

However, the highway doesn’t end here – it can’t, frankly, for it picks up on the other side of the river outside Surry, VA, about five miles downstream. To connect those two disparate highway halves is where the ferries come in – the only 24/7 ferry system operating in the Commonwealth of Virginia today.

I take my family on the Jamestown-Scotland ferry several times a year (so-called because the ferry departs from the Jamestown and Scotland Wharf pier on the Surry side of the river, hence the use of the name ‘Scotland’ in its title) but the four craft plying their trade down here aren’t built for joyrides. Operated by a staff of 90 from the Virginia Department of Transportation (which has run the ferry system since 1945), these low, flat, bulky water craft form a critical commuter and freight link over the James River, shuttling tractor-trailers, contractors, and everyday folks going from home to job and back again every day.

Four ferries navigate the 15-minute run over the James River: the Pocahontas, built in 1995, which carries 70 cars; the Surry, built in 1979, which carries 50 cars; the Williamsburg, built in 1983, which carries 50 cars; and the Virginia, built in 1936 and still running strong, handles just 28 cars.

While it’s surely a scenic trip – the seagulls effortlessly tracking the wakes of the big ships, as the river slowly undulates away from the bows – security is tight. In 2004, new, security measures went into effect, resulting in armed guards patrolling both docks, carefully screening cars and trucks to prevent dangerous substances and devices from boarding the ferry – all in accordance with the Maritime Transportation Security Act, These measures include checking picture IDs of the driver and passengers, plus comprehensive inspections of vehicles, including under the hood, trunk and undercarriage, along with cargo trailers.

Ah, but it’s done with professionalism and class, with the guards patiently explaining the procedures to those who ask, making sure delays are kept to a minimum. They wave at the kids and are very polite to one and all, staying civil and courteous in spite of the serious nature of their work.

Like big trucks, the ferries wade back and forth on their route, with the skilled helmsmen docking them so expertly that they bump the dock with barely a tremor or ripplein the water. The ramps raise up to link with the dock, and then we file off slowly, winding our ways – freight carriers and tourists alike – to our various destinations. Until another day and another trip across the river.

OK. So the Dow Jones index has plunged nearly 500 points as I sit down to write this. The U.S. economy is clearly in a recession now as stock values have dropped close to 20% since last fall – the big red flag in every economist’s handbook that indicates a recession’s presence. In fact, stock markets all over the world are getting slammed this week – London’s fell nearly 5.5%, Germany’s dropped 7.16%, Japan’s is off 3.86%, and even China watched stock values slide over 5%. It’s clearly bad all over.

But I am going to push all that off to the side for a moment, because, frankly, the worth of humanity isn’t tied up in stocks, bonds, indexes and other numbers. Sure, they make life easier or harder – depending on which way the balances swing – but they don’t determine who and what we are, especially in moments of crisis. Will we panic? Will we stand on the sidelines and watch? Or will we cinch the belts a little tighter and get ready to dig ourselves out of this mess?

Me, I vote for option three for I see it in operation much of the time. Here’s a small example from this morning. A woman gets a flat tire out near my youngest daughter’s preschool. I stop to help out. Before a few minutes have passed, so does a Fairfax County police officer. He puts on his emergency lights to warn traffic, then without pause begins to change her tire. He could have told me to do it, could have let her husband do it (he arrived in short order after his wife called him via cellphone). But he just jumped in and got it done – see problem, apply solution, wipe hands, have a nice day. Fairfax’s finest at work.

Stuff like that, even though it’s small scale, helps keep my faith in humankind at a high level. In fact, it goes on pretty frequently all over the world – neighbor helping neighbor, stranger helping stranger – but of course that isn’t dramatic enough for TV or print journalism these days.

There are exceptions, of course: The Washington Post wrote a nice front-page story a while back (above the fold no less!) about two twin doctors who – on their own – flew to Afghanistan in a plane they rented, choked full of supplies bought on their nickel, to provide medical services in the dusty remote villages of that mountainous war-torn country. They got robbed, they got threatened, they even had to beg for protection from local drug lords so they could help people they didn’t even know.

So, yes, we’ve got some very tough days ahead as the global economy is poised for backward slide that a lot of well-paid experts didn’t think would happen. But there’s enough resilience and willing hands out there to help us get through them.

“It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.” –Samuel Johnson

I loved every minute I spent reading the controversial book “The DaVinci Code” by Dan Brown – but certainly not for its wild and almost ridiculous plot line about secret societies protecting the supposed later-day brood of Jesus. No, my love of that book comes from his use of Opus Dei – a secretive, archconservative Catholic organization – as the bad guys.

You see I attended an Opus Dei run all-boys elementary school for a few years (grades five through seven) and it was simply the worst experience of my childhood – hell, my entire life. It was a violent, mean-spirited place, and for many years I contemplated leaving the Catholic faith because of my time there. Needless to say, anytime I see Opus Dei getting whacked in the press or even in a fictional bestseller, I enjoy it immensely.

That’s the power of negative impressions. And we’ve all been there, too. Get treated shabbily by a dealership when buying a new vehicle or getting it serviced, for example, and not only won’t you ever go back there again, you may never buy the brand of vehicle they sell ever again. You might share your negative experience with others, too, and warn them off of both dealer and brand.

Trying to reverse that negative impression is a huge undertaking that might never succeed. Just look at how GM and Ford have lost market share to the Japanese year after long year despite massive improvements to the design and quality of their vehicles and dealer networks (though I think they will both start to rebound over the next five years).

Trucking has its own share of negative impressions to overcome and we all know why. I’ll share my neighbor’s recent experience: driving home from upstate New York from a long holiday vacation with family, they were tailgated mercilessly on the Pennsylvania turnpike by a trucker doing 80 mph in heavy rain. A frightening experience, to say the least (and they called the state police to report him, a move I firmly endorse). Even though his brother is a top-notch truck driver, having that kind of day on the highway made him steam about truckers as a group – and rightly so.

I talked to Julie Cirillo once about this. The first chief administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration when it was formed back in late 1999, she told me one negative experience like tailgating – something that happened to her own sister – colors people’s overall perception of trucking for a long time. She said those kinds of negative highway experiences gave the whole industry a bad name, undoing all sorts of positive work by professional truckers.

That’s why I think from here on out trucking as a whole needs to really refocus itself on addressing the kinds of driving habits and incidents that lead not only to such bad experiences, but cause accidents, too. The freight may be hot, but that’s no excuse for throwing caution and good safety practices to the winds. For negative impressions last a long, long time, and they’ll complicate industry efforts on a lot of fronts.

There’s a well-used example in scientific circles about the perils of adapting to short-term change while missing the big picture. That’s what “frogs in a pot” is all about. The story goes that if you put a frog in a pot of water and then slowly increase the heat of the water, the frog will stay put – adapting to each increase in temperature – until it gets boiled to death.

When it comes to oil and fuel prices – both gasoline and diesel – we’ve been that frog in the pot, adjusting ourselves to ever higher and higher prices. The question now is whether we’ll get out of the pot before we, as a nation, get boiled to death. The recent explosion in biofuel production efforts – both ethanol and biodiesel – coupled to existing alternative efforts in the natural gas area gives some hope at least that we may indeed escape the frog’s fate. Yet that remains to be seem for we have a long way to go.

Look at the global picture: according to the Energy Information Agency (EIA), global energy demand is going to keep growing despite the relatively high world oil and natural gas prices. However, the agency projects that rising oil prices should dampen growth in demand for petroleum and other liquids fuels after 2015 and, as a result, reducing their share of overall energy use from 38% in 2004 to a projected 34% in 2030. In contrast, the energy shares of natural gas, coal, and renewable energy sources are expected to grow over this period.

Still, liquid fuel consumption is still expected to grow strongly, reaching 118 million barrels per day in 2030, with the U.S., China, and India together account for nearly half of the projected growth in world liquid fuel use.

And the EIA’s analysis is coming on the heels of some disturbing near-term supply trends. Our web editor, Justin Carretta, recently wrote a story about oil prices breaking the $100 per barrel mark and got some scary comments from Denton Cinquegrana, markets editor for the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS).

Cinquegrana said predictions for the price of oil in 2008 remain high. “Even with the most conservative estimates, all forecasts for 2008 are for well over $80 a barrel,” he said, adding that it is hard to tell how long it will stay in the $90s—it could be a few weeks, a few months, or even longer.

And this historic oil price comes on the heels of a recent report that suggests oil-producing countries may not be able to meet demand sooner than anticipated. According to the Associated Press, the December issue of the OPEC Review, published by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said that its countries might not be able to meet demand at some point between 2024 and 2048, with several countries unable to produce their share even sooner.

OK, this is troublesome, sure. But we’re also seeing a big movement towards alternative fuels that could ease vehicle fuel crunch — if it all pans out. Blue Sky Bio-fuels and the city of San Francisco, for example, are partnering to use waste grease from restaurants to make biodiesel for the city’s school buses – which has the added benefit of stopping such waste grease from being dumped into the city’s sewer system.

“Our goal is to help California reduce its carbon footprint and become less dependent on foreign oil,” said Patrick MacIntyre, president of Blue Sky Bio-fuels. “Our solution is a triple win proposition where cities have their waste grease turned into a renewable … cleaner burning fuel at a price that is competitive with diesel.”

Blue Sky Bio-fuels, located in Oakland, CA, has designed and engineered a 20 million gallon per year facility and MacIntyre said as long as they can keep their biodiesel priced competitively for the school districts, it’ll prove itself to be a better alternative to petroleum diesel.

Richard Kolodziej, president of NGVAmerica, noted that natural gas is gaining more traction as a vehicle fuel as he noted that natural gas costs only $40 per equivalent barrel when compared to $100 per barreloil. “In the past, there were substantial societal benefits of using more natural gas as a vehicle fuel – such as reducing dependence on foreign oil, reducing greenhouse gases and reducing urban pollution,” he said. “Now, as the price gap between petroleum and natural gas widens, we’re seeing a major economic advantage, too. As a result, 2008 will be a milestone year for natural gas vehicles (NGVs) in the U.S.”

Kolodziej added that in 2007, the U.S. used about 250 million gasoline-gallons-equivalent of natural gas for vehicles, with high fuel-use fleet vehicles, such as transit buses, school buses, trash trucks, and delivery vehicles remaining major targets for conversion. He added that, to encourage the shift to NGVs, the federal government is offering income tax credits that range from $2,500 to $32,000 for the purchase or conversion of NGVs.

So maybe we are at a turning point – maybe this time the frog will jump out of the pot before it’s too late. Let’s hope we do.

“Brand names should mean something.” –Jim Walton

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately (a dangerous occupation for me, I know) about the General Motors-International Truck & Engine deal announced late last year, with GM selling its medium-duty commercial truck business to International for an estimated sticker price of $500 million or so.

What’s interesting to me is this deal is yet another sign of the opposite strategic paths auto and truck makers in the U.S. are on these days. For decades, U.S. automakers like GM and Ford seemed to be on a brand-name breeding program – even buying other brands of cars and trucks to add to their stable.

GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac brands were later joined by Hummer (bought from AM General), Saab (bought from Sweden), and Opal (bought from France). The company also went into partnership with Isuzu to gain diesel engines for its medium- and light-duty trucks (the Duramax) and get a lighter cabover medium-duty vehicle as well. It even built Class 8 trucks via a partnership with Volvo and White Mfg. For many years

Ford always had the Lincoln and Mercury brands, then went out and bought Volvo’s car business, Land Rover, and Jaguar. It even used to build heavy Class 8 trucks under the Aeromax brand.

Truck makers, by contrast, kept focused on core products – medium- and heavy-duty trucks only. Each had a distinct brand (Freightliner, Peterbilt, etc.) The only exception proved to be International Harvester at the time, which built farm equipment, heavy trucks, and even the famous Scout light vehicle (now a collectors item), an early version of Jeep’s Cherokee SUV. But by and large, each truck maker really supported only one brand name in the market – not the plethora GM and Ford supported.

How times have changed! Now the automakers are the ones rapidly divesting themselves of brands and product lines, whereas the truck makers are adding more – and on a global scale to boot.

Ford sold off its Class business in the late 1990s and is trying to find buyers for Land Rover and Jaguar now, while paring down the product offerings across its Lincoln, Mercury, and Ford brands. It’s nearly seven year relationship with International to build a joint cabover medium-duty truck and get diesel engines may very well end soon, with Ford building its own diesels in house. GM has been just as aggressive – shutting down Oldsmobile, selling off its “bread van” business, Allison Transmissions, its medium-duty business, all while shrinking product offerings across the board.

The truck makers, now, they are going down the path GM and Ford used to follow. Jim Hebe, Freightliner’s former chief, got the ball rolling. After being acquired by Daimler AG of Germany, Hebe went out and bought Ford’s Class 8 business, which it turned into Sterling Trucks, followed by Thomas Built buses, Canada’s Western Star, and others. Freightliner later bought Workhorse Custom Chassis. Daimler acquired big diesel engine maker Detroit Diesel and added that to the Freightliner mix.

Volvo AB of Sweden bought out GM’s heavy-duty truck stake and then bought Mack Trucks in Allentown, PA. Paccar, which owns Kenworth and Peterbilt, bought DAF trucks in England and plans to add that company’s diesel engines to the U.S. market via a big $400 million plant it’s building in Missouri.

International has also undergone a lot of change. After selling off the farm equipment business, the company changed its name to Navistar in the late 1980s. Finding that brand didn’t do well, it gradually brought the International nameplate back to the fore. Technically, though, the company is still Navistar and gets referred to as such by most stock analysts because it didn’t change its stock listing name – and that causes more than a little brand name confusion out in the market from time to time.

So what does all this shuffling mean, in the great scheme of things, when we look at the GM/International deal? Well, for starters, GM gets to take all the engineering resources it used to spend on medium-duty trucks and refocus that on its light-duty pickups – a real bread-and-butter line for the company. I talked to Mike Matheny, owner of GM dealer Matheny Motors, about that very subject and that is what makes him happy about this deal.

“We have a whole separate commercial department for light trucks and I consider it pretty steady business compared to our retail sales,” he told me. “The one thing I wish we had was something to match Ford’s 450/550 truck – what we need to get there is time and money, and now we’re getting some money to do it.”

On International’s side of ledger, though, the challenge will be integrating the Chevy and GMC brands into its lineup without diluting them or its core International brand – a tall order, in the eyes of Jim Walton, president of PR firm Brand Acceleration.

“Here’s the problem that Navistar will face if they continue to use all three names. In the eyes of the consumer, Chevy is a car sold by General Motors and GMC is a pseudo-Chevy, [also] sold be General Motors,” he told me.

“One reason that companies like to keep three brands is because they are afraid of losing any of the collective market share … [but] brand names should mean something,” he added. “The ‘big three’ forgot that more than thirty years ago: Oldsmobile is now gone and the Cadillac brand nearly ceased to exist.”

So where the Chevy and GMC brands go in the medium-duty market now is up in the air. Though they’ll be around for a while, International controls their destiny, so anything is possible. One thing is for certain: It’ll be an interesting brand transition to watch.