News Briefs - Feb. 5
The Latest Headlines:
- Calif. Lawmakers Set Hearing on Truck Routing
- Conn. Panel Blasts Traffic-Reducing Plans
- ISM Services Index Posts 12th Straight Gain
- Pacer Posts Improved Net Income in 4Q
- Oil Prices Sit Near Two-Year Highs
- Conn. Panel Blasts Traffic-Reducing Plans
Calif. Lawmakers Set Hearing on Truck Routing
Lawmakers in the California state Senate have set a hearing on Thursday to determine if Caltrans, the California transportation department, still intends to buy an automated system to streamline the permitting of oversized trucks, the Los Angeles Times said.The hearing was called by state Sen. Joe Dunn, a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, who wants Caltrans to address the issue of potential job cuts at the agency if the system is installed, the Times said.
In 2000, an audit showed that Caltrans had misrouted several oversized trucks between 1996 and 1998 and some of those vehicles were involved in traffic crashes, the Times reported.
Conn. Panel Blasts Traffic-Reducing Plans
A panel of transportation officials in Connecticut released a report criticizing a plan to reduce freight traffic in the state, the Connecticut Post reported Tuesday.The Bridgeport, Conn., paper said that the panel took the state’s Transportation Strategy Board and Department of Transportation to task for what it called “gaping holes” in their plans to diversify freight-hauling options in the future.
The Connecticut Public Transportation Commission, citing studies that traffic volume in the country is expected to “explode in the nation,” in claiming that the groups had not done a thorough enough job of fleshing out their plan to reduce freight traffic, the Post reported.
The plan put forth by ConnDOT and the TSB would shift more freight to rail transport, the paper said. Currently, ConnDOT estimates that about 80% of all freight coming into Connecticut is trucked into the state. Transport Topics
ISM Services Index Posts 12th Straight Gain
The Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday that its services index posted its 12th straight increase in January.ISM said that its index for the retail, financial services, construction and other non-manufacturing businesses rose to 54.5 last month. ISM indexes use 50 as a baseline with figures over 50 indicating growth.
The trucking industry is part of the services economy, which accounts for 85% of U.S. economic activity.
Analysts said that the ISM report, along with several reports on manufacturing, indicate that the economy is improving, Bloomberg reported. Transport Topics
Pacer Posts Improved Net Income in 4Q
Logistics and freight transportation provider Pacer International Inc. said Wednesday that during the fourth quarter, it had net income of $7.8 million or 21 cents per share. Those results are an improvement over the company’s quarterly results from the same period in 2001, when the Concord, Calif.-based company posted earnings of $4 million or 14 cents a share.
Pacer said that during the fourth quarter ended Dec. 27, 2002, its revenues were up 5.6% to $94.3 million from the $89.3 million its posted in the same period a year earlier. Transport Topics
(Click here for the full press release.)
Oil Prices Sit Near Two-Year Highs
The price of crude oil rose more than 1% in trading Wednesday as commodities traders expected Secretary of State Colin Powell to present evidence of Iraq’s noncompliance in an address at the United Nations, Bloomberg said.In trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price of crude oil rose 38 cents a barrel to $33.96 – close to a two-year high, Bloomberg said.
Powell is slated to address the UN Wednesday morning and lay out the U.S. case for war with Iraq. A war in the Middle East could disrupt oil supplies from the region, causing prices to escalate even further, analysts told Bloomberg. Transport Topics
