News Briefs - Feb. 4
The Latest Headlines:
- Boyd Bros. Posts Modest Yearly Earnings Gain
- DOT Requests Slightly Bigger Budget for '04
- Paccar Boosts Earnings in 4Q, Full Year
- USFreightways Posts 4Q Loss on Sale of Division
- Crude Oil Prices Held High on Inventory, Iraq Concerns
- DOT Requests Slightly Bigger Budget for '04
Boyd Bros. Posts Modest Yearly Earnings Gain
Boyd Bros. Transportation Inc. said Tuesday that its net income rose to roughly $474,000 or 17 cents a share in 2002, up from the $406,000 or 14 cents a share in the previous year.The Clayton, Ala.-based company said that in the fourth quarter, it had a net loss of about $339,961 or 13 cents a share, an improvement of 46% from the more than $626,000 or 23 cents a share the company lost in the same quarter during 20021.
"The final quarter of the year reflected the continuation of a difficult operating environment for our company and our industry, with some statistics already confirming a dramatic slowdown in the economy from the third quarter," Gail B. Cooper, president of Boyd Bros., said in a release. "These conditions clearly affected freight levels - more significantly at the close of 2002 - and limited our potential for revenue growth during the quarter and year. Additionally, fuel costs remained high throughout the year, surging noticeably in the fourth quarter, and we experienced considerable cost pressures elsewhere in our operations.”
(Click here for the full press release.)
DOT Requests Slightly Bigger Budget for '04
The Department of Transportation unveiled its proposed budget for the 2004 fiscal year Monday, requesting $54.3 billion – 6% more than President Bush’s request for 2003.The Federal Highway Administration would see its budget increase to $29.3 billion in fiscal 2004, DOT said. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will see their budgets rise to $665 million and $447 million respectively.
DOT officials said the release of the budget that safety and security were the department’s main focuses for the 2004 fiscal year.
For 2004, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration will be budgeted under the new Department of Homeland Security. Both had previously been counted as part of the DOT’s budget. Transport Topics
Paccar Boosts Earnings in 4Q, Full Year
Paccar Inc., the world’s No. 3 truck maker, said Tuesday that it had net income of $122.2 million or $1.06 in the fourth quarter, up from the $50.4 million or 65 cents it posted the during the same period in 2001.The Bellevue, Wash.-based truck maker said that its sales grew by 25% to $1.92 billion in the fourth quarter.
For the full year, Paccar posted net income of $372 million or $3.22 per share.
The company manufactures trucks under the Kenworth, Peterbilt, DAF and Foden nameplates. Transport Topics
(Click here for the full press release.)
USFreightways Posts 4Q Loss on Sale of Division
Trucking company USFreightways said Monday that it had a net loss of $545,000 or 2 cents per share in the fourth-quarter because of the costs relating to the sale of its freight-management unit.In the same period in 2001, the Chicago-based company had a net income of $8.78 million or 33 cents a share.
In October, the company sold its USF Worldwide division to GPS Logistics and Seko Worldwide Acquisition LLC after the unit had losses of $33 million during the first nine months of 2002.
USF said that its regional trucking business posted a profit of $29.2 million in the quarter, up from the $25.1 million it posted in the same three-month period in 2001.
USFreightways is ranked No. 8 on the 2002 Transport Topics 100 listing of the largest trucking companies in the United States and Canada. Transport Topics
(Click here for the full press release.)
Crude Oil Prices Held High on Inventory, Iraq Concerns
The price of crude oil remained steady near two-year highs as traders waited for information about U.S. oil inventories to be released Wednesday and Secretary of State Colin Powell to lay out the U.S. case for war with Iraq before the United Nations, Bloomberg reported.The price of crude oil rose just 16 cents a barrel to $32.92 Tuesday in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg said.
Each week, the Department of Energy and the American Petroleum Institute release figures about the U.S. inventories of crude oil and motor fuels like diesel and gasoline.
Powell’s speech before the U.N. Wednesday is expected to clear up the U.S. position on Iraq and offer new evidence in the case for war, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics