Monday, October 4, 2021 Trucking News and Briefs:

Shareholders approve Daimler Trucks spin-off

Shareholders of Daimler AG, the parent company of Daimler Trucks North America, Mercedes-Benz and others, on Friday approved with overwhelming margin the company’s realignment, which will include the split of the company’s truck and bus business. .

A vote in favor of the measure was 99.90%, paving the way for Daimler Truck Holding AG to become an independent company on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Two current members of the Daimler supervisory board, Marie Wieck and Joe Kaeser, will be stepping down and joining the supervisory board of Daimler Truck Holding AG.

Shareholders approved, also with an overwhelming majority of 99.89% of the votes cast, the renaming of Daimler AG to Mercedes-Benz Group AG as of February 1, 2022. The new name, the company said, emphasizes on the future of Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach and Mercedes-EQ cars and vans.

Both measures must now be entered in the commercial register.

Former fleet owner faces 100 years in prison

The owner of several Southern California-based trucking companies has pleaded guilty to five felony counts, admitting to engaging in an array of criminal behavior, according to the California Central District District Attorney’s Office .

Carl Bradley Johansson, 63, of Newport Beach, Calif., Pleaded guilty on September 29 to two felony counts in connection with an oil tanker explosion – one count of conspiring to make illegal repairs on cargo tanks and scam the US Department of Transportation, and a welding account with no certifications required.

He also pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion, one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of bank fraud. Johansson admitted he committed the bank fraud offenses resulting from a COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program scam while on bail in the tanker explosion case.

Johansson controlled and operated two trucking companies based in Corona, Calif.: National Distribution Services Inc. (NDSI), which operated from about 2000 to 2015, and NDSI’s successor company, Wholesale Distribution Inc. (WDI), which operates under the name of Quality Services. He created NDSI following a 15-month federal prison sentence he served after one of his welders was killed in a similar tanker explosion in 1993. Johansson created WDI to resume operations of NDSI so that it can continue to operate cargo tanks that have been taken out of service. after two more NDSI welding explosions in 2012 and 2014, according to court documents.

Although NDIS is not certified to perform in-house welding repairs on its cargo tanks, Johansson and his shop manager, co-accused Enrique Garcia, discussed the direction of two NDSI employees to repair a cargo tank on May 5, 2014 and the next day Garcia ordered weld repairs. Because the tank had not been completely purged of its fumes and crude oil, sparks from the weld caused an explosion, killing one worker and seriously injuring the other.

He also admitted that, from May 2014 to April 2018, he and other NDSI and WDI employees conspired to obstruct a federal investigation into the blast.

In April 2020, while on bail in the tanker case, Johansson asked another trucking company he controlled, Western Distribution LLC, based in Ontario, Calif., To apply for a PPP loan from $ 436,390. He then immediately spent the PPP funds, mostly on non-salary expenses, and instead laid off most of the company’s employees before rehiring them later in 2020.

In March 2021, Johansson forced Western Distribution to repeat the same fraudulent representations regarding its employee lists and payroll numbers to secure another PPP loan of $ 231,527. The total loss in the COVID relief fraud case is approximately $ 667,917.

U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips has scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 9, 2022, when Johansson faces a legal maximum sentence of 100 years in federal prison.

Location Partners with Firm to Align Insurance Industry with Autonomous Technology

Autonomous truck technology developer, Locomation, has partnered with Aon, a professional services company that provides a range of risk, retirement and health services.

Through this partnership, Aon will work with rental and insurance service providers to assess stand-alone technology risks and align them with insurance industry best practices.

The collaboration will also aim to support one of Locomation’s long-term goals of reducing customer operating costs through lower insurance rates for carriers, shippers, truck manufacturers and others using Locomation’s autonomous truck technology.

Volvo hosts online event on the transition to electric

Volvo Trucks will host a global online event to discuss the transition to electric trucks.

The goal of the event is to show how businesses can go electric and inspire trucking companies to get started.

“With this initiative, we want to encourage transport buyers and carriers to take their first important steps towards electromobility. Providing fossil fuel-free transport will be essential to remain competitive, ”says Roger Alm, President of Volvo Trucks.

The event will take place at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, October 12. Registration is available online here.

Pride Transport increases the remuneration of drivers

Pride transport (CCJ 250 first, No. 158) announced a third pay increase for drivers in the past year.

The most recent pay increase, which took effect on Friday, October 1, joins the two previous pay increases of July 2021 and December 2020 for a total of 10 cents per mile of pay increase for the year.

The company says its average truck driver is now expected to earn $ 70,000 a year, an increase of more than 20% from pre-pandemic levels.

The new pay rate range for a solo on-road driver at Pride is now between 51 cpm and 0.75 cpm. A connection bonus of $ 10,000 is paid at a rate of $ 100 per week for the first two years of employment.