News Briefs - April 3
The Latest Headlines:
- U.S. Crude Oil Stocks Highest in 11 Months
- LTL Exec Warns of Truck Shortage
- DOT Defends Small Airport Plan
- ISM Non-Manufacturing Index at 57.3 in March
- Enforce Speeding Laws, Canary Urges
- French Government Sells Part of Renault Stake
- Allied Holdings Replaces Arthur Andersen
- Truck Unit to Break Even, MAN Says
- Isuzu Eyes U.S. Diesel Engine Market
- LTL Exec Warns of Truck Shortage
U.S. Crude Oil Stocks Highest in 11 Months
A report by the American Petroleum Institute shows crude oil stocks in the United States during the last week in March were at their highest level since April 2001, Bloomberg reported.Crude oil is refined into fuels for the trucking industry, making its supply very important.
API said that U.S. crude oil stocks were at 322 million barrels, up 2.1% from the previous week, Bloomberg reported.
Gasoline inventories were up for the week - rising 1.9%, or 3.87 million barrels, to 209 million barrels. Transport Topics
LTL Exec Warns of Truck Shortage
NAPLES, Fla. - Businesses in the northeastern United States are on the cusp of a trucking shortage if customers do not allow less-than-truckload carriers to make a fair return on their investments, logistics providers were told here Tuesday.Executive Vice President Jon Shevell told members of the National Small Shipments Traffic Conference that LTL trucking companies are being run like grocery stores, which are known as low-margin, high-volume businesses.
Members of the conference are traditionally heavy users of LTL transportation.
"Carriers are killing each other," Shevell said because of an inability to say "no" to customers who ask for lower rates.
This is particularly a problem in the current business cycle, he said, because carriers that go out of business now - such as A-P-A Transport, which recently closed its doors - cannot easily be replaced.
Shevell said the high cost structure of LTL trucking, which uses more real estate and labor than does the truckload sector, forms a high barrier to entry for potential replacement firms. Jonathan S. Reiskin
DOT Defends Small Airport Plan
The Department of Transportation is defending its decision to use less high-tech methods to inspect luggage at small airports, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.Security procedures hold the potential to delay flights, which affects the schedules of trucks that pick up and deliver air cargo at the planes.
DOT had said that some small airports will not get bomb-sniffing machines that use sophisticated X-ray technology to check luggage for explosives.
This decision was immediately criticized, the Post said, but the department is standing by its plan to swab the luggage at small airports with cotton gauze and then check for residue of explosives using a different machine. Transport Topics
ISM Non-Manufacturing Index at 57.3 in March
The Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday that its index of non-manufacturing companies fell to 57.3 in March, from 58.7 in February.Trucking is part of the large service sector of the economy.
Although ISM's monthly index declined, any number above 50 shows that the economy is expanding. Analysts were expecting a reading of 57, Bloomberg reported. Transport Topics
Enforce Speeding Laws, Canary Urges
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.-Failure to adequately enforce speeding laws is causing avoidable highway fatalities, the president of the American Trucking Associations said Wednesday.Speaking at the International Truck and Bus Safety Symposium held April 3-5 at the University of Tennessee here, William J. Canary decried a "culture of acceptance" built by a "lack of aggressive, visible enforcement aimed at both passenger and commercial drivers."
That culture, Canary said, contributed to the loss of 12,350 lives in 2000.
As a solution, Canary proposed beefing up enforcement in the short term, and also increased funding for comprehensive enforcement programs in the next six-year federal highway-spending bill. That will become effective in fiscal year 2004. Daniel L. Whitten
French Government Sells Part of Renault Stake
The French government has sold an 11% stake in Renault for about $1.3 billion, Reuters reported Tuesday.The move reduces the government’s ownership of Renault from 37.8% to about 27% and is a part of a plan, announced in October 2001, to reduce the government stake to 25%, the news service said.
In July 2000, Renault traded 100% of its truck manufacturing subsidiary, Renault VI/Mack, for 15% of the stock of Volvo AB.
As a result of the deal, Louis Schweitzer, Renault’s chairman and chief executive officer, and Patrick Faure, chairman of Renault Sport, joined the Volvo AB Board of Directors. Transport Topics
Allied Holdings Replaces Arthur Andersen
Allied Holdings Inc., which provides logistics, distribution and transportation services for the automotive industry, said Wednesday that it has appointed KPMG LLP as the company's independent public accountants, replacing Arthur Andersen LLP.Allied said that the change was not related to any disagreement between the companies.
This comes one day after diesel engine maker Cummins Inc. said it had replaced Arthur Andersen with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
More than 80 companies have reportedly dropped Andersen since the firm was accused of improprieties in the collapse of Enron Corp.
Based in Decatur, Ga., Allied Holdings is ranked No. 20 on the 2000-2001 Transport Topics list of the 100 largest trucking companies in the U.S. Transport Topics
(Click here for the full press release.)
Truck Unit to Break Even, MAN Says
Cost reduction through job elimination in MAN AG's commercial vehicles unit will produce a 'break-even" financial situation in 2001 after a loss the previous year, the German truck manufacturer told Bloomberg News Wednesday.The division will break even at a pretax level, with demand reviving in the second half and sales returning to growth in 2003, the company's annual report said.
Bloomberg said the company plans to reduce the number of workers by more than half, from 1,090 to 500, and move assembly of heavy ERF trucks to Germany, while leaving the commercial vehicles unit's headquarters in England. Transport Topics
Isuzu Eyes U.S. Diesel Engine Market
In an attempt to become more competitive in the diesel engine market, Isuzu said late Tuesday it is consolidating some U.S. operations.The company said in a release that American Isuzu Motors Inc., the U.S. distributor of sport utility vehicles and diesel engines, merged on Monday with its parent, Isuzu Motors America Inc.
General Motors Isuzu Commercial Truck, the commercial truck sales and support division, will continue as a separate entity. Transport Topics
(Click here for the full press release.)
