Executive Briefing - July 6
- Small Manufacturers Help Economy Stay Afloat
- GM Recalls 10,000 Pickups, SUVs
- Emery Sued for Racial Discrimination
- Gasoline, Diesel Prices Drop as Business Slows
- When Truck Sales Slow, Many Companies Are Affected
- Arizona to Automate Two Weigh Stations
- Repairs to I-285 Completed Near Atlanta
- CSXT to Resume Normal Service
- Rail Intermodal Loadings Still Trail
- GM Recalls 10,000 Pickups, SUVs
Small Manufacturers Help Economy Stay Afloat
Small and midsize manufacturers are finding ways to avoid layoffs and major cutbacks by focusing on the long-term and feeding off profits from the previous eight years of success, the Wall Street Journal reported.Small manufacturers account for 9.8 million or more than half of the nation’s manufacturing jobs, and are a main reason why the bottom hasn’t fallen out of the economy.
Manufacturing accounts for about 20% of all U.S. economic production and is one of trucking’s largest and most important customer segments.
While many larger businesses are more concerned with short-term profits, smaller manufacturers are keeping the workers they have invested in, realizing they will need them when the economy picks up again.
GM Recalls 10,000 Pickups, SUVs
GM) said on Friday it was recalling about 10,000 model year 2001 full-size pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles because the vehicles may have malfunctioning seat belts. These vehicles are used in a wide variety of trucking applications, especially among utility fleets and other service-oriented businesses.
News services reported that the recall covers some but not all 2001 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size extended-cab pickups, as well as Chevrolet Tahoe, Suburban, GMC Yukon, Yukon Denali, Yukon XL and Yukon XL Denali SUVs.
Some of the recalled vehicles may have a component in their safety belt assemblies that can fracture, GM said in a statement. Transport Topics
Emery Sued for Racial Discrimination
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Emery Worldwide Airlines on charges of commonplace harassment of black workers at its mail-processing center in Kearny, N.J., Bloomberg reported.
According to the suit, managers at Emery condoned or participated in such behavior as displaying hangman's nooses, using racial slurs and vandalizing company trucks and personal automobiles used by black workers.
Nancy Colvert, a spokeswoman at Emery, which is based in Redwood City, Calif., told the New York Times the allegations are untrue.
Emery, a subsidiary of CNF Inc., has also denied allegations of racial discrimination made in a lawsuit that several of the black Emery drivers had filed in state court in New Jersey.
The EEOC suit was filed July 3 in federal district court in Newark on behalf of 12 former employees of the unit, 11 black and one white who reportedly protested the treatment of the black workers.
Both lawsuits ask for compensation for emotional pain and humiliation of the 12 workers involved, and that Emery take action against future discriminatory practices. Transport Topics
Gasoline, Diesel Prices Drop as Business Slows
Energy analysts told the Wall Street Journal that the recent unexpected weakness in fuel demand has been created by slowing business.Industry accounts for about one-third of gasoline use, and as manufacturers make fewer goods due to a slowing economy, shippers are taking fewer trips delivering the goods. The added gasoline supply is forcing the price down.
For similar reasons, demand has also been weak for diesel, which fuels most long-haul trucks. Earlier this week, Roadway said that its total tonnage decline 13.3% in the second quarter compared with a year ago.
However, in some areas of the country that require lower-emission gasoline, the price has only gone down minimally. And the Energy Information Agency still expects demand for gasoline in 2001 to increase at least 1% from 2000. Transport Topics
When Truck Sales Slow, Many Companies Are Affected
The troubles at Freightliner LLC's plant in Mount Holly, N.C., are also hurting the business of Quality Metal Products Inc., the Charlotte Observer reported.QMP, a high-tech fabricator that cuts and shapes metal products for companies such as Freightliner, is losing business as the demand for trucks falls.
On Friday, 475 Mount Holly plant workers were fired as part of previously announced layoffs. According to the article, Freightliner said its sales of heavy-duty and medium-duty trucks are off 45% and 21%, respectively, from a year ago.
Meanhwile, officials at QMP would not say whether they are planning to cut jobs, but acknowledged profits are down from last year. Transport Topics
Arizona to Automate Two Weigh Stations
International Road Dynamics Inc. has announced that it has received approximately $660,000 to install its Weigh-in-Motion automation technology at the Sanders and Topock Truck Weigh Stations in Arizona.The company said this system will increase efficiency at the weigh stations and will minimize any possible delays for truckers.
The weigh stations will be equipped with PrePass, a national commercial vehicle pre-clearance program that will allow compliant trucks that are registered to bypass the station. Weight and compliance will be confirmed at highway speeds with the WIM technology.
IRD is a North American highway traffic management technology company that specializes in supplying products and systems to the global Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) industry. Transport Topics
(Click here for full press release.)
Repairs to I-285 Completed Near Atlanta
The travel lanes on eastbound Interstate 285 at Georgia Highway 400 in the Atlanta metropolitan area reopened Friday morning at 5 a.m. ET, two weeks ahead of schedule, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.Three lanes had been closed since June 9, when a tanker truck loaded with gasoline slammed into a barrier wall and exploded.
The Georgia Department of Transportation officials had predicted it would take up to six weeks to repair the bridge, but construction crews finished the repairs much faster than anticipated. GDOT estimated the price tag at $750,000 to $1 million. Transport Topics
CSXT to Resume Normal Service
CSX Transportation Inc. said that it plans to open 400 miles of rail in the southeastern United States on Friday night after five days of intense maintenance activity.Repair work was done to bridges, crossings and railroad ties and rails, re-routing nearly 200 trains in the largest repair effort in the company’s history.
CSXT said that although a project this size could take about three months to complete, over 800 employees worked to finish it in less than a week. Transport Topics
(Click here for full press release.)
Rail Intermodal Loadings Still Trail
Six months into the year, railroad carloadings were down nearly 1% with intermodal trailer loadings down 10%, according to the Association of American Railroads.Like trucking, railroad freight activity is considered a leading economic indicator. In addition, rail intermodal service using trailers, which is largely domestic merchandise traffic, is directly competitive with long-haul trucking.
So far this year railroads have loaded 1,303,847 trailers, compared to 1,448,686 last year. Containers, used largely in international traffic, were down only 0.3%, with 3,074,889 compared to 4,514,053.
For the week ended June 30, railroads loaded 180,391 trailers and containers, compared with 187,396 last year, a drop of 3.7%.
Trailer loadings of 52,279 were 9.4% below the 57,719 reported in 2000. Transport Topics
