A.M. Executive Briefing - August 3
This Morning's Headlines:
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PATT Leader in Washington to Talk About Ideas for Restrictions
Parents Against Tired Truckers founder Daphne Izer, who has already spoken to Congress about truck safety, has returned to Washington, D.C., at the request of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater.Slater wants to talk to Izer about ways to meet the federal agency’s goal of a 50% reduction in truck- and bus-crash fatalities by 2009.
Izer further advocates that the government force trucks to carry computers to record how long the trucks are driven.
The 1993 death of her teen-age son in a crash with a fatigued trucker, and the trucker's sentence of three months imprisonment and a $1,000 fine after he admitted breaking log-book laws, inspired Izer to start PATT in 1994. Many drivers support PATT because they would like to be paid for all the time they wait for loading and unloading rather than have to cover miles on the road for their pay.
Izer also supports shipper regulation, more truck parking spaces, and better public education about the problem of tired drivers. Boston Globe Online (08/03/99)
6 Die as Pipes Fall From Truck
Truck driver Richard Sommerville has been arrested on charges, including DWI and vehicular manslaughter, after three concrete pipes fell off his flatbed and hit an oncoming minivan and sedan, killing six people.Among those killed were two children identified by the California Highway Patrol as 9-year-old Lonnie Ledford and his 6-year-old sister Skyler. The two children were in the minivan with their parents Randy and Melissa.
The accident happened soon after midnight Monday on California Route 58 in the Mojave Desert between the towns of Kramer and Boron.
Sommerville is now in San Bernardino County Jail on a $100,000 bond, facing three felony charges. The concrete pipes were 30 feet long and three feet in diameter and weighed more than 5 tons apiece.
Jim Alves, vice president of Sommerville's employer First Class Service, says Sommerville was a 20-year trucking veteran who had been a First Class Service employee for a year. Los Angeles Times (08/03/99) P. A3; Gorman, Tom
Transit Group Acquires R&M Enterprises, MDR Cartage and Bestway
Transit Group has paid $38 million to finish its acquisitions of the refrigerated carrier R&M Enterprises, the dry van carrier MDR Cartage, and the truckload carrier Bestway Trucking.Transit Group expects an $85 million increase in revenue base and annual total revenue up $400 million as a result of the acquisitions.
Transit Group President Philip A. Belyew says his company has made 17 acquisitions in the United States and Canada in the last two years. He adds that the company will continue to consolidate "to take advantage of the economies of scale and other synergies made possible."
Transit Group has called off its plans to purchase Pro Transportation but intends to complete its acquisition of Shippers Distribution Services and its parent company Fox Midwest by the end of August.
Transit Group has seen year-over-year gains in revenue and net for the second quarter and first half of 1999. Business Wire (08/02/99)
RESEARCH ALERT - Roadway Estimates Raised
Analyst Steve Lewins of Gruntal & Co. raised his Roadway Express per-share earnings estimate for 1999 to $1.80 and his estimate for 2000 to $1.95. Lewins also increased his 12-month stock target price to $25. His earlier estimates were $1.70, $1.90, and $23, respectively.He concludes that Roadway could get more business in the East now that Preston Trucking is shutting down. Reuters (08/02/99)© copyright 1999 INFORMATION, INC. Terms of Service
