News Briefs - April 3
The Latest Headlines:
- Ryder, Fleet Capital Launch Lease Finance Program
- UTi Worldwide Reports Better Fiscal 4Q
- Crude Oil Prices Continue Slide
- Snow Says Airlines Should Cut Costs
- Private Group Launches Food Shipment Certification Program
- DOT to Oversee Weekend Time Change
- Initial Jobless Claims Rose to 445,000 Last Week
- Trailer Bridge Narrows Quarterly Loss
- UTi Worldwide Reports Better Fiscal 4Q
Ryder, Fleet Capital Launch Lease Finance Program
Ryder System Inc. and Fleet Capital Leasing’s Global Vendor Finance Group said Thursday that they have launched a joint lease financing venture.Under the terms of the partnership, Fleet, a division of FleetBoston Financial, will offer competitive pricing and lease terms to existing and prospective customers of Ryder.
Ryder, a transportation management and leasing company based in Miami, is ranked No. 3 on the 2002 Transport Topics 100 listing of the largest trucking companies in the United States and Canada. Transport Topics
UTi Worldwide Reports Better Fiscal 4Q
Supply chain management company and freight forwarder UTi Worldwide Inc. said Wednesday that for the fiscal fourth quarter, it had net income of $7.3 million or 26 cents a share. This is an improvement from the $3.8 million or 15 cents a share, the company said.The Rancho Dominguez, Calif.-based company said that during the quarter net revenues rose to $132.8 million from $71.8 million in the fiscal quarter ended Jan. 31, 2002.
The company said it was pleased with its strong performances in Africa, Asia and the Americas.
"Despite the ongoing difficult economic environment, UTi achieved double-digit gains across all geographic regions and revenue categories, increasing net revenues by 85% during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2003 compared with last year," said Roger I. MacFarlane, chief executive officer of UTi Worldwide. Transport Topics
Click here for the full press release.)
Crude Oil Prices Continue Slide
The price of crude oil continued to drop early Thursday, adding to a two-day decline that took prices down 7%, Bloomberg reported.In electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price of crude oil for May delivery fell 2 cents a barrel to $28.54, Bloomberg said.
An advance by U.S.-led forces on the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and a crude oil inventory report by the Department of Energy that showed U.S. stockpiles rose 2.5% to 280.7 million barrels in the week ended March 28. Transport Topics
Snow Says Airlines Should Cut Costs
Treasury Secretary John Snow said Thursday that the airline industry needs to cut its costs and stop relying on government aid, Reuters reported.The administration has said it does not believe that the airlines require another package of aid, but Congress has added about $3 billion to President Bush’s supplemental funding bill for the war in Iraq for that purpose, Reuters said.
The airlines as an industry have projected their yearly loss for 2003 to be about $7 billion, Reuters said. Several major air carriers, including most recently United Airlines and Air Canada, have sought bankruptcy protection.
Earlier this week, USAirways reemerged from Chapter 11 after making some severe job and service cuts. Transport Topics
Private Group Launches Food Shipment Certification Program
A private certification company, the Facility Certification Institute, said Thursday it would roll out a program to monitor shipments of food and other consumer goods and try to ensure they would remain safe for public consumption.The Certified Transport Program incorporates several federal regulations, including the Sanitary Food Transport Act of 1990.
The chairman of FCI, Rich Severson, said that the new program will enhance consumer confidence in the safety of food and other goods.
Severson said that initial reaction to the program has been good, with more than 4,000 companies requesting information.
FCI is a third-party certification provider based in Arlington, Va. Transport Topics
(Click here for the full press release.)
DOT to Oversee Weekend Time Change
The Department of Transportation announced this week that most Americans should reset their clocks ahead one hour for daylight-savings time.In a release, the DOT said that 2 a.m. Sunday morning, Americans should put their clocks ahead one hour, providing an extra hour of daylight for most the summer.
Under the Uniform Time Act of 1966, daylight-savings time starts on the first Sunday in April and lasts through to the last Sunday in October.
Several states do not recognize daylight-savings time. Those states are Arizona, Hawaii, the section of Indiana located in the Eastern time zone, and several U.S. territories like Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.
The DOT oversees daylight-savings time because the time zones were originally created by the railroads during the 1880s. Those zones were made official in 1918 and given to the Interstate Commerce Commission to oversee. Transport Topics
Initial Jobless Claims Rose to 445,000 Last Week
The number of U.S. workers filing for unemployment benefits for the first time rose by 38,000 last week to 445,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.It marked the seventh consecutive week that the claims figure was over 400,000 – a level that economists say indicate weakness in the labor market. Analysts told Bloomberg news that the string of poor claims reports did not bode well for the overall monthly unemployment report that will be released Friday.
The four-week moving average rose to 426,250 from 423,750 in the previous report. The average smoothes out some of the volatility in the weekly statistics. Transport Topics
Trailer Bridge Narrows Quarterly Loss
Trailer Bridge Inc. said this week that it narrowed its net loss in the fourth quarter to $1.6 million from a loss of $12.5 million it suffered in the same quarter in 2001.The company said that during the three months ended Dec. 31, 2002 it generated $19.7 million in revenue, up slightly from the $19.2 million it generated in the year-earlier period.
Trailer Bridge is an integrated trucking and marine freight service based in Jacksonville, Fla. serving the lower 48 states and Puerto Rico. Transport Topics
(Click here for the full press release.)
