Volvo Trucks North America will begin recalling about 270 former employees to its New River Valley assembly plant in Virginia beginning the week of Sept. 6, the company said Aug. 20.
The recall will support a production ramp-up driven by increased orders, a company spokesman said in an email. In addition to positive market trends, the order increase is also being fueled by customers accepting new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2010-compliant trucks, the spokesman said. He said the new models achieve a 5 percent increase in fuel economy over previous models.
Earlier this year, the company announced orders for 370 trucks from Knight Transportation and for 600 from Penske Truck Leasing. Beyond these orders, Volvo is writing orders from customers that previously have not had Volvo trucks in their fleets, the spokesman said.
The recall represents close to a 23 percent staffing increase at the NRV plant, which employs more than 1,200 workers. “We don’t publicly discuss our build rates, but obviously a recall of this size is in line with a significant increase in production,” the spokesman said.
