Beyond the Big Leave: The Future of U.S. Automotive Human Resources

Based on industry interviews and trends analyses, forecasts employment levels and hiring nationwide and in Michigan through 2016, and compiles automakers' input on technical needs, hiring criteria, and suggestions for training and education curricula

Motivations and Barriers Associated with the Adoption of Battery Electric Vehicles in Beijing: A Multinomial Logit Model Approach

The recent surge of the Chinese Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PEV) market makes China the world’s largest PEV stock. A series of supportive policies in China contributed greatly to the rapid PEV adoption by limiting regular vehicles and reducing the price of PEVs. However, the role these policies play in changing references and encouraging consumers to purchase PEVs rather than conventional vehicles is not fully known. Other factors, rather than incentives, that could help maintain the current adoption trend are still unclear. The latter is especially critical in understanding how the market reacts to a gradually decreasing level of incentives to achieve the next goal of 5 million PEVs on the road by 2020 in China. Therefore, in this study the authors explored these research questions through a cross-sectional study of the current PEV market on consumers in Beijing by employing a multinomial logit model. Beijing has high levels of PEV adoptions in addition to a specific policy stimulus. The model results show significant influences of stimuli, individual socio-demographics, attitudes, charging infrastructure, and charging experiences on the adoption of PEVs over conventional vehicles. The results may help find out key interventions for policy makers to promote more PEV adoptions in China as well as other countries

The European bus system of the future: Research and innovation

The development of a new generation of bus systems was the goal of the European Bus System of the Future (EBSF) project, funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Program. To accomplish this, a series of very different innovative solutions for buses (such as new vehicle layouts, advanced remote maintenance systems, improved on-board communication systems, more performing bus stops and eco-efficient engines) were simultaneously tested in seven Use Cases (UCs) in Europe (Bremerhaven, Brunoy, Budapest, Gothenburg, Madrid, Rome and Rouen). All the tested measures had to increase the attractiveness and improve the image of the mode. The efficiency of all of them was assessed as well as their transferability to other European contexts. The paper describes the tested solutions and focuses on the assessment methodology, the main results achieved and the drivers and barriers for the transfer of such solutions across Europe

Powered industrial truck training

Includes bibliographical references

From fly-by-wire to drive-by-wire: Safety implications of automation in vehicles

The purpose of this paper is to critically review the current trend in automobile engineering toward automation of many of the functions previously performed by the driver. Working on the assumption that automation in aviation represents the basic model for driver automation, the costs and benefits of automation in aviation are explored as a means of establishing where automation of drivers' tasks are likely to yield benefits. It is concluded that there are areas where automation can provide benefits to the driver, but there are other areas where this is unlikely to be the case. Automation per se does not guarantee success, and therefore it becomes vital to involve Human Factors into design to identify where automation of driver functions can be allocated with a beneficial outcome for driving performance

Guidelines for the Use of Synthetic Fluid Dust Control Palliatives on Unpaved Roads

The amount of small soil particles, dust, lost from typical unpaved roads to fugitive dust is staggering. A 1 km stretch of unpaved road can contribute over 2400 kg of dust to the atmosphere (4.2 ton/mile) in a typical 3-month summer season. Road managers typically manage dust from unpaved roads with various dust-control palliatives, which are effective for up to 1 year. Synthetic fluids are a relatively new category of dust-control palliatives. Unlike the more commonly used dust-control palliatives, such as salts, engineering guidelines do not exist for the application and maintenance of synthetic fluids on unpaved roads. To fill this void, we present through this document guidelines for road design and maintenance, palliative selection, application, and care of synthetic fluid-treated roadways.Midwest Industrial Supply United States Department of TransportationReport Documentation Page .............................................................................................. ii Disclaimer ......................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi Executive Summary............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1.0 – Introduction............................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER 2.0 – Background.............................................................................................. 6 Measurements of the Effectiveness of Dust Palliatives .....................................................10 CHAPTER 3.0 – Guidelines .............................................................................................. 16 Road Design and Maintenance...........................................................................................16 Palliative Selection..............................................................................................................20 Application .........................................................................................................................22 Areas Requiring Special Attention......................................................................................26 Maintenance .......................................................................................................................27 CHAPTER 4.0 – Summary................................................................................................. 31 CHAPTER 5.0 – References.............................................................................................. 3

What Do Respondents Bring to Contingent Valuation? A Comparison of Monetary and Labor Payment Vehicles

With contingent valuation, both the goods being valued and the payment vehicles used to value them are mostly hypothetical. However, although numerous studies have examined the impact of experience with the good on willingness to pay, less attention has been given to experience with payment vehicles. This paper examines how this influences responses to a contingent valuation scenario of maintenance for irrigation canals. Specifically, the paper uses a split-sample survey to investigate the effects of experience with monetary and labor payment vehicles on the acceptance of a contingent valuation scenario and protest bids. Using convergent validity tests, we found that experience acquired from using both monetary and labor payment vehicles reduces the asymmetries in acceptance rates. These findings suggest that experience with payment vehicles reduces time/money response asymmetries in the contingent valuation method.contingent valuation, payment vehicles, numéraires, experience

Competition, quality and contract compliance: evidence from compulsory competitive tendering in local government in Great Britain, 1987-2000

The introduction of competition has frequently been found to cause costs to fall. There has, however, been a question as to whether this was partly achieved at the cost of quality. Auction theory predicts prices would fall more the greater the competition to provide the service. There has been some debate about whether the smaller budgets would make contract compliance more difficult. Evidence is found in support of this hypothesis. We also find some evidence that the better recorded performance of the in-house direct service organisations (DSOs) during this period was due to the information advantage they had from being incumbents

Integrating IVHM and Asset Design

Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) describes a set of capabilities that enable effective and efficient maintenance and operation of the target vehicle. It accounts for the collection of data, conducting analysis, and supporting the decision-making process for sustainment and operation. The design of IVHM systems endeavours to account for all causes of failure in a disciplined, systems engineering, manner. With industry striving to reduce through-life cost, IVHM is a powerful tool to give forewarning of impending failure and hence control over the outcome. Benefits have been realised from this approach across a number of different sectors but, hindering our ability to realise further benefit from this maturing technology, is the fact that IVHM is still treated as added on to the design of the asset, rather than being a sub-system in its own right, fully integrated with the asset design. The elevation and integration of IVHM in this way will enable architectures to be chosen that accommodate health ready sub-systems from the supply chain and design trade-offs to be made, to name but two major benefits. Barriers to IVHM being integrated with the asset design are examined in this paper. The paper presents progress in overcoming them, and suggests potential solutions for those that remain. It addresses the IVHM system design from a systems engineering perspective and the integration with the asset design will be described within an industrial design process