Critical Shifts:
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The Strategic Partnership: Black Book has signed an agreement with Shelby Performance to bring standardized, transparent data tracking to specialty upfitted and modified vehicles.
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Direct Platform Integration: Vehicles modified by Shelby American (including Mustang-based cars and Ford F-150/F-250 performance trucks) will now be uniquely identifiable within Black Book's core valuation systems.
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Eliminating Appraisal Ambiguity: The collaboration provides dealers, lenders, and buyers with reliable, data-backed market values for high-end vehicle modifications, removing traditional pricing guesswork at the point of transaction.
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Protecting Asset Value: The integration ensures that the unique collector, performance, and retail premium of authentic Shelby packages are accurately recognized and reflected over the vehicle’s lifecycle.
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Lending and Risk Security: By formalizing these vehicle values, the partnership gives financial institutions the precise risk-modeling data required to confidently fund specialty automotive loans.
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Central Transport, LLC, a nationwide trucking company based in Warren, Mich., with over 200 regional and local facilities, will pay $5.5 million to resolve a federal lawsuit charging the company with violating federal law when it intentionally refused to hire qualified female truck drivers throughout the country, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Central Transport, for at least the past ten years, repeatedly passed over qualified female truck driver applicants. Instead, the company routinely selected male truck drivers, many of whom were hired despite being less qualified or having less experience. Numerous female applicants reported that company personnel nationwide subjected them to different hiring procedures than those used for male applicants.
Several female driver applicants also observed Central Transport throwing their job applications in the trash at local truck terminals, and some company terminals including the Phoenix and El Paso locations did not hire any female truck drivers for a number of years despite having numerous female applicants. At a Dunbar, West Virginia truck terminal, the dispatcher informed a female applicant that corporate offices had instructed him not to hire any female truck drivers, according to the suit.
During the EEOC’s investigation, the agency received reports of sex-based discrimination at the following locations: Atlanta, Georgia, Bartlett, Tennessee, Blue Springs, Missouri, Cheboygan, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, Detroit, Michigan, Dunbar, West Virginia, Horn Lake, Mississippi, Memphis, Tennessee, North Jackson, Ohio, Phoenix, Arizona, Portland, Oregon, and Springfield, Illinois.
The company’s alleged hiring practice violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 by intentionally discriminating against female truck drivers and failing to hire them because of their sex.
The consent decree signed by Central Transport, the EEOC, and Arizona Federal Court Judge John J. Tuchi, requires Central Transport to pay $5,500,000 to the four original complainants and a class of other qualified female truck drivers who applied but were not hired. In addition to monetary relief, the decree requires the company to allow affected applicants to apply for positions and participate in the company’s recruitment and hiring processes free from sex-based discrimination and retaliation for participating in the lawsuit.
Central Transport will also hire an outside consultant to review its hiring policies, practices and procedures to ensure full compliance with Title VII. Further, the company will institute training on its anti-discrimination policies, including training on its recordkeeping obligations and the filing of EEO-1 reports as required by current law. Central Transport will also appoint a monitor to review and verify the implementation of the decree’s terms and report on compliance to the EEOC.
