Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) announced yesterday that it will be adding a second shift in order to ramp up production at its Freightliner Truck Manufacturing Plant in Cleveland, N.C. The move will create more than 1,100 new jobs by the end of 2012, an increase in personnel of 72 percent.

DTNA says the new jobs will “nearly double the daily production rates at the Cleveland plant by October 2012.”

DTNA is the largest Freightliner Trucks manufacturing plant in the U.S. and exclusively produces Class 8 on-highway truck models. In addition to this welcome news; DTNA will also be hiring 100 new workers at its nearby Components and Logistics Plant in Gastonia, N.C.

It’s great to see companies like Daimler Trucks North America expanding and creating quality manufacturing jobs. Manufacturers continue to lead the economic recovery and are looking for pro-growth policies from Washington which will enable them thrive and create more jobs. 

News coverage on DTNA’s announcement:

• Reuters: Daimler Trucks to add 1,200 jobs in U.S. by September
• Charlotte Business Journal: Daimler Trucks North America to add 1,200 jobs in Charlotte region

Today marks the return of Cool Stuff Being Made, mini-documentaries about manufacturers and manufacturing. Each issue of Member Focus, the monthly magazine for National Association of Manufacturers, will now highlight a company and its video story. Go to http://www.nam.org/memberfocusfor the publication, and this month’s issue is available here.

As for Mack Trucks:

For more than a century, Mack Trucks, Inc. has produced some of the most durable and powerful heavy-duty trucks and engines in the world. In 1905, brothers John, Augustus and William Mack chose Allentown, Pa., as the home of their main manufacturing operations facility, and Mack soon became the standard in the United States for large commercial motor vehicle trucks.

Mack immediately set the bar high for innovation, becoming one of the first manufacturers to mount a cab directly over the engine to increase driver visibility and maneuverability.

Today, Mack is one of North America’s largest producers of heavy-duty trucks, and Mack trucks are sold and serviced in more than 45 countries around the world. Mack trucks have helped build America’s roads, bridges and buildings. The famous Mack bulldog symbolizes the company’s longestablished
reputation for strength, endurance and tenacity.

Mack trucks touch Americans’ lives in some way on a daily basis—whether transporting goods or removing waste.

In this month’s “Cool Stuff Being Made,” Roy Ernst takes us through Mack’s 1-million-square-foot assembly operations facility in Macungie, Pa., just outside of Allentown, and shows us step-by-step how Mack’s granite cab construction and refuse vehicles are manufactured. To view the video, please
visit www.nam.org/CoolStuffBeingMade.