Rockin' the Open Road - Detroit Style
Posted by Karen Thomas on Fri, Feb 03, 2012 @ 12:28 AM
Detroit rocks. We all know that. Good people, good music, and some pretty sweet auto-motives The Open Road runs the lengths of the United States, and runs especially deep in the city where automobile manufacturing has its roots. Big rigs, passenger vehicles, motorcycles, and we're sure of some small planes and boats, have been built on Detroit Soil.
In the United States, there are several tractor trailer manufacturers including:
American Coleman
Ford (sold to Daimler Chrysler in 1998 and renamed Sterling)
Freightliner
Kenworth
Navistar International
Mack
Peterbilt
Pro star International
This week the Department of Transportation's Ray LaHood visited the rocking city of Detroit to acknowledge the community's contributions to the transportation industry. Oh yeah – and to check out the annual Detroit Auto Show.
The Detroit Auto Show
According to the DOT, the Detroit Auto Show always offers an impressive display of innovation. But, when I attended in 2010, the atmosphere was subdued. A palpable cloud of economic uncertainty hung over the auto industry then. This year, however, the show has a different buzz. Today when I toured the exhibits, people were gathered not only to see the latest prototypes, but to celebrate the resurgence of the American auto industry.
The LaHood Report:
When President Obama took office, America was staring down the worst recession since the Great Depression, a recession that hit our auto industry particularly hard. During the year before the President’s inauguration, this industry lost more than 400,000 jobs. Two great American companies -- Chrysler and GM -- stood on the brink of liquidation. President Obama had two choices: He could do nothing, or he could take action.
Today, each of the Big Three--General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford--is yielding a profit for the first time since 2004;
Today, each is gaining market share for the first time since 1988;
Today, each is adding shifts and creating jobs at the fastest rates in memory; and
Today, experts project that car companies will add more than 60,000 U.S. jobs next year, and 190,000 by 2015.
These are American workers, applying American know-how to build some of the best cars in the world.
(source: http://fastlane.dot.gov/2012/01/detroit-auto-show.html)
When there's good news in Detroit – there's good news on the Open Road and the transportation industry at large.
