A.M. Executive Briefing - July 19
b>This Morning's Headlines:
- Rates May Be Firming in Some Specialty Classes
- Diesel-Ethanol Fuel Cleans Up in Early Tests
- N.J. Truck Ban Draws Cheers, Questions
- CSX Is In Talks to Sell Some Operations
- Trucking Schools in High Gear
- Probe of Fatal Truck Accident Continues
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Rates May Be Firming in Some Specialty Classes
Truck-cargo insurers in the Southeast and Midwest, competing fiercely for the business of Class 1 carriers, are cutting rates too low without appropriately assessing risks. According to Bruce Dalrymple of Fireman's Fund Insurance, that could change as a decrease in companies offering cargo insurance gives the remaining insurers negotiating leverage. Steve Arndt of St. Paul Cos. concurs, saying his company has been able to increase rates for high risks by 10% to 15%.
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Diesel-Ethanol Fuel Cleans Up in Early Tests
Chicago transit buses are testing a mixture of diesel and ethanol fuel called "oxydiesel," which helps reduce soot pollution characteristic of diesel exhaust and may help meet stricter Environmental Protection Agency standards. The tests are being conducted by the mixture’s developer, Pure Energy Corp. of New York, in association with the Chicago Transit Authority, the Illinois Commerce Department and the Illinois Corn Growers Association. The transit authority agreed to participate after a successful November 1998 test of oxydiesel in four Mack trucks owned by Archer Daniels Midland, the leading ethanol producer in the United States. Anticipated problems with cold starts never materialized in the November tests. Wall Street Journal (07/19/99) P. B7G; Farivar, MasoodA NAME="story3">
Truck Ban Draws Cheers, Questions
Interstate truckers appear to be the only people unhappy with New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman’s executive order banning out-of-state trucks 102 inches wide or larger from nondivided highways in the state unless making in-state deliveries. The truckers, some of whom are considering suing the state, complained that having to avoid some state roads made their routes less direct and forced them to pay higher tolls.Meanwhile, state and local officials said the ban doesn’t go far enough to reduce truck traffic in some small towns. An unnamed Transportation Department spokesman said truckers making deliveries anywhere in the state can use small highways in completely different parts of the state due to a loophole in the ban. The exemptions for New Jersey drivers helped the ban avoid opposition from the New Jersey Motor Truck Association, but association chief Sam Cunningham said his group might fight an extension of the ban to cover alternate routes to the New Jersey Turnpike. Bergen Record Online (07/19/99); Martello, Thomas
CSX Is In Talks to Sell Some Operations
CSX Corp. is discussing a potential $800 million sale of its Sea-Land Service container-shipping unit, the largest in the United States, to Maersk. Maersk, the worldwide shipping leader, would fortify that leadership by acquiring Sea-Land, the only U.S. container shipper to serve nearly all important ocean trade lanes. The proposed sale reflects the uncertain state of container shipping as regulations change around the world and ships are overburdened. Such a sale was widely predicted after CSX’s March 1998 breakup of Sea-Land into three operating units. Maersk is owned by the Danish container-shipping giant A.P. Moller Group. Wall Street Journal (07/19/99) P. A4; Machalaba, DanielTrucking Schools in High Gear
Trucking companies, facing a driver shortage estimated at 80,000 by American Trucking Associations spokesman Mike Russell, are eagerly hiring new graduates of trucking schools.d Skupejko of Smith & Solomon says he has "companies calling me every day for students."
arl Spatocco of All-State Career Truck Driving School adds that he can name 100 companies offering $18 an hour for drivers.
The shortage comes as unemployment drops, freight loads are growing, and commercial driver license requirements become more stringent. Smith & Solomon charges $2,390 for a three-week course, including 40 hours on the road and tough written and driving tests designed to help students pass the CDL exam in New Jersey.
The Iowa flatbed carrier TMC is one company that recruits Smith & Solomon students, offering satellite mapping systems and computer links for drivers. However, ATA training and development director Joel Dandrea says driver training should last eight to 12 weeks with 320 to 450 hours of on-the-road training. A New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles spokesman says 17,359 people took the CDL exam in 1998 and 5,825 failed.
Rising rates of fatal truck accidents have caused some to demand federally-mandated training rules and oversight of trucking schools by the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Motor Carriers and Highway Safety. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has put truck drivers at the top of its occupational-fatalities list for five years running. Philadelphia Inquirer Online (07/19/99); Braun, Martin Z.
Probe of Fatal Truck Accident Continues
California transportation department investigators are looking into a recent accident that occurred when a truck hit an overpass and knocked an empty 7,000-pound fuel tank onto a car, killing the vehicle’s driver. State transportation department spokeswoman Rose Orem thinks the truck’s driver had properly applied for and received a permit to drive the load along the route. However, the bridge was marked with a clearance 2 inches lower than the 15-foot height of the tank.Orem says the overpass has been the site of only one other accident in recent years, despite the preponderance of freeway truck accidents in the area. She advises automobile drivers near big rigs to "give them plenty of space and plenty of clearance, leaving enough reaction time for yourself so if they have to suddenly brake you can take defensive action." Los Angeles Times Online (07/18/99); Richardson, Lisa
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