A.M. Executive Briefing - Aug. 23
This Morning's Headlines:
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UPS Presses to Bar Quick Access to Radio Frequencies
While private companies have to go through a lengthy Federal Communications Commission (FCC) application process in order to secure new radio frequencies, the U.S. Postal Service can gain the use of frequencies more quickly through the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA).Now, United Parcel Service (UPS) is pushing for language in the NTIA Reauthorization Act of 1999 that would allow the NTIA to keep the postal service from gaining more frequencies for purposes also provided by private firms. UPS and the postal service are working hard to sway legislators, even though the Commerce Committee has not even set a date for voting on the bill.
At that same hearing, erstwhile UPS official James Rogers described how holdups at the FCC forced the company to give up on its application to use a certain radio band after it sank $40 million into a network that would have used that band. Later, Rogers told the subcommittee, the NTIA gave the band to the postal service. Federal Times (08/23/99) Vol. 35, No. 29; P. 8; Jackson, Brendan
ODOT Asks Governor to Veto Truckers' Bill
Oregon Transportation Department director Grace Crunican requested that the governor veto House Bill 3292, which would mandate that truckers' driving records include drug- and alcohol-test results.The bill, supported by the Oregon Trucking Association (OTA) and other industry groups, is intended to keep truckers with positive results in the federal tests to hop to other trucking jobs.
Transportation Department legislative liaison officer Kelly Taylor says state law would prohibit using highway funds to create the database. She also charges that the bill violates the Americans with Disabilities Act's ban on discrimination against former drug abusers who have been rehabilitated.
The state Department of Motor Vehicles says the bill would cost it over $298,000 extra between 1999 and 2001. Taylor says it would be higher due to the bill's appeals process language. On the other hand, Robert Russell of the OTA says those estimates are "inflated" and that the bill would follow federal drug-testing rules concerning the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Business Journal of Portland (Ore.) Online (08/23/99); Rose, Michael
PennDOT Will Give Rollover 'Tips'
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will install a sensor at the I-70/I-79 junction, where several truck rollovers have occurred. The special sensor can measure approaching trucks' size and speed and warn them to slow down if they are likely to tip. Rebidding has postponed the project's construction, originally slated to commence in September. The Trucker Online (08/20/99)NationsWay's Hub Goes On the Auction Block
A Phoenix federal bankruptcy court will oversee the auctions of three NationsWay Trucking hubs Sept. 7. American Freightways plans to bid on the Commerce City, Colo., site, while Consolidated Freightways is the expected buyer of the Phoenix and Harrisburg, Pa., facilities. Officials expect income as high as $17 million from selling NationsWay sites around the country.NationsWay closed on May 20 and is in the process of Chapter 11 bankruptcy liquidation, although the company's creditors want this changed to Chapter 7.
Most of the company's 3,500 employees — who are unsecured creditors in the eyes of the court — have not received paychecks. But attorneys in lawsuits against NationsWay officers say Colorado law allows the officers to pay the employees. Denver Rocky Mountain News Online (08/20/99); Williamson, Richard
Trucking School Proposed in Riverton
Wind River Health Promotion Agency Executive Director Dave Love has asked Fremont County, Wyo., for funding or free rent for the establishment of a trucking school in Riverton. The idea is to help combat both the current trucker shortage across the country and the sizable unemployment in Fremont County.C.R. England Co., which already runs three trucker-training sites in other states, is particularly interested in employing residents from the Wind River Indian Reservation "because of their close family ties. ... They envision having families be teams of drivers," says Love. The county commission is thinking of loaning the money instead of spending it outright. Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune Online (08/20/99)
Congestion Buster? Big Rigs in Carpool Lane; It's One Scenario for Coping With Growing Truck and Car Traffic on Highway 60
On Thursday, a task force from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) looked at three methods to consider for adding truck lanes to Highway 60 between Interstate 710 and Interstate 15. Some opposed the first plan, which would allow trucks to use the carpool lanes except during rush hour."We're talking about trucks weaving their way through five lanes of traffic," says Raja Mitwasi, a state Transportation Department engineer.
onsultant Paul Taylor says the state would have to pay about $1 million a mile to buy freeway-adjacent property in some places, which could rule out widening the road. Also under consideration are lanes above the current freeway for cars or trucks only.
Taylor says that in separate truck lanes, perhaps triple trailers would be allowed. Some officials are talking about levying a user's fee on trucks. Consultant Stan Randolph of the California Trucking Association says his group's position on that proposal "depends on what the fee is going to be." The task force's final decision is slated for July 2000. Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Ca.) (08/20/99) ; Lee, Dan
Making an Old Company a New One
The 75-year-old Alabama Truck Center, which at first was a Mack Truck dealership, has expanded its products and service since being bought by Rick Kilgore in 1984. Since 1990, the company has added Mitsubishi and Western Star trucks to its products."When we took on Western Star, there were no Western Stars registered in this territory to speak of," says Kilgore, who was an upper Mack manager before he bought the Alabama Truck Center.
The company now gets more revenue from parts and service due to handling Western Star parts. The Alabama Truck Center now has a separate Western Star dealership site. Now, the company gets more owner-operator customers, since Western Star trucks "are custom-produced with just about any option you can imagine," Kilgore says. On the other hand, he says, "Mack to a certain degree is seasonal and cyclical" and mostly sells to the construction industry.
Some 50 percent of the company's 55 employees work in the service department. The company gives wide benefits packages to the employees who have worked there the longest. "There's a lot of loyalty in this company," says Kilgore, pointing to the average parts-department employment length of 20 years. Kilgore ensures that the company always has the necessary parts inventory by not capping the amount that will be spent on parts. Kilgore's father was a truck dealer, and Kilgore himself paid for college by driving a truck. Birmingham Business Journal Online (08/23/99); Milazzo, Don
Study Shows Crush of Traffic Through Philipsburg
U.S. 322 and state routes 53, 350, and 504 in Philipsburg, Pa., see daily traffic volumes above 34,000 vehicles, according to a recent traffic study by Orth-Rodgers & Associates of Philadelphia.The study, performed in Fall 1998, was released at a two-day meeting regarding Corridor O, a proposed four-lane highway between Interstate 80 exit 20 and Port Matilda. Ten percent of the vehicles entering Philipsburg are trucks, 70 percent of which are going between Interstates 99 and 80. Most two-lane highway traffic is only 3 percent to 5 percent trucks.
A route for Corridor O has not been selected. The state Department of Transportation last week signed a $15.8 million contract for Orth-Rodgers to study the engineering and environmental aspects of Corridor O. Centre Daily Times (Centre County, Pa.) (08/20/99) ; Hopkins, Margaret
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