A.M. Executive Briefing - June 9
This Morning's Headlines:
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Flatbed Specialist Smithway Issues Profit Warning
In what has become almost a daily occurrence, yet another trucking-industry company today told Wall Street that its upcoming quarterly earnings report will not meet analysts' expectations. Smithway Motor Xpress Corp., a truckload carrier of various cargoes that specializes in flatbed operations, said its net income was about break-even for the second quarter.The Reuters news agency, citing a First Call consensus, said analysts had been looking for Smithway to report earnings of about 14 cents a share. The company is based in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and operates nationwide.
Now, the company expects full-year revenue to be about the same as in 1999, and said it has deferred deliveries of more tractor rigs for the rest of 2000 while it focuses on getting more productivity from its current fleet. Smithway added that significant profitability gains will probably not show up by yearend.
In recent days, several large trucking companies and a major equipment supplier have warned analysts to curb their earnings estimates, against a backdrop of a slower truck-freight economy. Transport Topics staff
Canadian Pacific Rolls Out Expressway Intermodal Service
Vying to recapture market share from trucks, Canadian Pacific Railway has created a new intermodal service called Expressway, in which specially-designed flatbed railcars can carry non-reinforced truck trailers.Expressway will travel twice a day between Montreal, Toronto, and Detroit; the company intends to serve Chicago and Quebec City by year's end and New York next year. The trailers are driven straight onto railcars via ramps, and therefore do not need special reinforcement.
According to CPR's Jacques Cote, the new service can assist trucking firms in avoiding the cost of enlarging the trucking fleets, cutting down customs delays and overnight driving, and reducing wear and tear on trucks. Jean-Jacques Peloquin of the trucking company SGT 2000 says the new service will help his company ride out its frequent driver shortages. Montreal Gazette (06/09/00); Dougherty, Sarah
Rig Hits Bridge in Lexington, Ky.; I-85 Business Lanes Closed
The northbound lanes of Interstate 85 in Lexington, Ky., will be closed into next week after the top of a truck load knocked a steel I-support beam off a bridge that runs over the highway. The unsuspecting driver, an employee of Kreative Trucking, will not be charged with a moving violation but the Department of Transportation could try to get the company to pay for the bridge damage. Associated Press (06/09/00)Delivery Services Expanding to Bring All Things to All People
No longer content to be simply the end of the supply chain, the giants of the delivery industry – United Parcel Service, FedEx, and the U.S. Postal Service – are setting up all kinds of electronic commerce initiatives. UPS is bankrolling e-commerce start-ups, FedEx is assembling laptops, and the U.S. Postal Service is considering adding computer terminals to its lobbies, all because of, according to delivery managers, a healthy fear of the Internet's potential.Executives in the parcel industry are aware that Internet companies could strip away traditional lines of the delivery business by way of email and other electronic tools, and intense competition could turn package delivery into a low-margin commodity.
FedEx recently launched a secret initiative to transform RPS, its business-to-business trucking service, into a customized home delivery service in which individuals can schedule deliveries at odd hours of the day and on weekends. Similar creative ideas are sure to be on the way
rom UPS and the Postal Service. Dallas Morning News Online (06/09/00); Landers, Jim
Metroplan Orlando to Study Costs of Traffic Congestion
Metroplan Orlando, which covers transportation planning and coordination for Florida's Orange, Seminole, and Osceola counties, has announced a two-year study to determine how much the area's jam-packed roadways are costing residents in terms of delivery of services and goods.In the past 15 years, the number of deliveries accomplished by truckers for Orlando-based Great Western Meats has declined from three per hour to only 1.3, so the company has had to double its truck fleet.
The $800,000 study, which will be overseen by the Orlando office of consultancy Wilbur Smith & Associates, is expected to be finished by the mid-2002. The problem the study will be addressing is getting worse and worse, according to agency officials; the amount of freight being carried has risen 13% in the past half decade and is rapidly reaching 524 million tons a year. Three quarters of that goes by truck. Orlando Sentinel (06/08/00) P. C1; Jackson, Jerry
Bridge Work on US 97 at Oregon-Washington Border to Divert Oversize Loads
The Washington State Department of Transportation will begin round-the-clock work on the Biggs River Bridge starting June 12. A single lane will be closed until August 27. WSDOT says truckers should expect delays up to 20 minutes getting through the work zone.Over-wide loads will be barred from the bridge and diverted around the work zone for the duration of the project. The department also says that, sometime in August, oversize loads and and vehicles over 10,000 lbs. GVW will be redirected for two days while concrete is setting. The Biggs Rapids Bridge spans the Columbia River between Biggs, Oregon and Goldendale, Washington. Transport Topics staff
Compiled by Transport Topics staff and INFORMATION, INC. © 2000
