News Briefs - July 3
The Latest Headlines:
- Windsor Wants to Cut Truck Traffic
- Bankruptcies Continue Despite Recovering Economy
- New Jobless Claims at 15-Month Low, Labor Dept. Says
- West Coast Cargo Flows During Contract Talks
- ATA Sues to Reduce Hazmat Fees
- Roadway, New Penn Announce Rate Hikes
- API Report Shows Crude Stocks Up, Gas and Diesel Down
- CF Unveils Corporate Makeover
- Truck Parking Sufficient, DOT Study Says
- OPEC Oil Output Down 0.4% in June
- Bankruptcies Continue Despite Recovering Economy
Windsor Wants to Cut Truck Traffic
The leadership of Windsor, Ontario is looking for ways to reduce truck traffic and shorten queues of rigs waiting on city streets to get across the Ambassador Bridge to the United States, the Windsor Star reported Wednesday.Mayor Mike Hurst, who heads the city’s emergency operations control group, said that a list would be compiled and handed out to officials soon, but that he favored a plan that would bring trucks to a holding area before crossing the bridge, the Star said.
Hurst said that he would like to see trucks heading to the U.S. diverted off Highway 401 to a holding area to await confirmation that they can cross, but that the city could not impose such a plan unilaterally because it does not control the highway.
Since Sept. 11, increased security at U.S. borders has contributed to longer delays in crossing. Transport Topics
Bankruptcies Continue Despite Recovering Economy
An improving economy hasn’t stemmed a tide of corporate bankruptcies that threatens to top the record-breaking total reached in 2001, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.Bankruptcies, called a lagging economic indicator, suggest uncertainty that could hurt demand for trucking.
In 2001, energy company Enron Corp. led 255 publicly traded companies to put $260 billion of assets under court protection, Bloomberg said. That total was three times the previous record, which had stood for a decade.
However, the tally so far this year stands at 113 companies with $149 billion in assets and the size of the Enron bankruptcy would be dwarfed in WorldCom, which has listed $103.8 billion of assets, compared to Enron’s $63.4 billion. Transport Topics
New Jobless Claims at 15-Month Low, Labor Dept. Says
New applications for jobless benefits fell to the lowest point in 15 months during the work week ended June 29, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.The decline, a seasonally adjusted 11,000, suggests that the pace of layoffs is now stabilizing, the Associated Press said.
It marked the second week in a row in which new jobless claims fell and the fifth straight week that claims were below the 400,000 mark, a level which is associated with weakness in the job market. The 382,000 level reported for that week was the lowest since March 24, 2001, AP said.
The new jobless claims figure was better than some analysts expected, AP said. They were forecasting that claims would hold steady from the previous week.
The four-week moving average of claims, which smoothes out weekly fluctuations and tends to be more stable, dipped last week to 392,000, the lowest level in just over three months. Transport Topics
West Coast Cargo Flows During Contract Talks
Work continues under negotiation extensions at the West Coast ports, but officials from the Pacific Maritime Association worry that longshoremen will stage a work slowdown while receiving their pay, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and PMA have not reached agreements for a new contract, but so far they have avoided a strike, which would halt operations at 29 ports along the coast and leave trucks idle.
A recent study by a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Stephen Cohen, suggested even a 10-day disruption would cost the economy more than $19 billion, AP reported.
However, the union has said it will not strike and, in 1999, the deadline came and went, longshoremen kept working, and two weeks later the two sides settled. The PMA charged that longshoremen cut production in deliberate work slowdowns during those contract deliberations, but the union denies those charges.
The contract expired on Monday, but union members continue to report to work as 24-hour extensions were approved both Monday and Tuesday, AP reported.
Members of the ILWU have accused PMA of trying to cut benefits and introduce technology that would eliminate jobs at the ports, AP said.
I>Transport Topics
ATA Sues to Reduce Hazmat Fees
The American Trucking Associations and 16 other organizations are asking a court to force the Department of Transportation’s Research and Special Programs Administration to reduce its hazmat registration fees.A suit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, holds that the fees, which are collected annually from shippers and carriers of hazardous materials, should be lowered because of a $16 million surplus in the program they fund.
The program pays for state and local hazmat training.
RSPA instituted the federal registration program in 1992 to fund state and local hazardous materials planning and training.
ATA says the surplus will rise to $26 million by the end of the 2002 fiscal year. Transport Topics
Roadway, New Penn Announce Rate Hikes
The chief executive of Roadway Corp. said in a conference call Tuesday that its Roadway Express and New Penn Motor Express divisions will be raising their rates 5.9%.Michael W. Wickham, chairman and CEO of Roadway, said that the general rate increase would go into effect Aug. 4.
Based in Akron, Ohio, Roadway is ranked No. 7 on the 2000-01 Transport Topics 100 list of the largest trucking companies in the United States. Transport Topics
API Report Shows Crude Stocks Up, Gas and Diesel Down
The weekly report on U.S. petroleum reserves by the American Petroleum Institute Tuesday showed that crude oil inventories rose slightly in the week ended June 28, but that gasoline and distillate reserves edged lower.The supply of crude oil and refined petroleum products can have a great impact on the price of diesel and gasoline – the two primary fuels for trucking.
U.S. crude oil inventories rose just 2.6 million barrels to 322.24 million, the report said. Gasoline stocks dipped 1.3 million barrels and distillate stocks, of which diesel fuel is one, fell 1.05 million barrels.
News of the report caused oil prices to stay near six-week highs in trading Wednesday, Bloomberg reported. The price held fast near $25.96 a barrel in trading on London’s International Petroleum Exchange and at $26.95 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
CF Unveils Corporate Makeover
Consolidated Freightways Corp. Wednesday announced an executive reorganization it says is aimed at strengthening customer relationships.In a press release, CF’s Chief Executive Officer, John P. Brincko, said achievement of CF’s goals requires “a centralized, focused and highly responsive management structure.”
As a part of the reorganization, CF will:
- Eliminate the position of president and chief operating officer of the motor carrier subsidiary and replace it with an executive vice president position to be filled by Robert Warner, formerly operations vice president in CF’s Central region;
- consolidate field operations under the executive vice president and national and local sales organizations under Martin Larson, senior vice president of sales;
- appoint Stephen Sokol to the positions of executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer; and
- appoint Phillip Seeley to the position of executive vice president of process improvement.
(Click here for the full press release.)
Truck Parking Sufficient, DOT Study Says
Parking areas for trucks and buses are adequate, a Department of Transportation study released Tuesday claims.However, the study factors in both public and commercial facilities and did find shortages in 12 states.
The question of parking space availability is one often raised in debates over the feasibility of changes in the hours-of-service regulations.
Many drivers have complained that they cannot find, in many states, sufficient parking facilities to avoid violating hours of service requirements.
The American Trucking Associations has urged the government to assure sufficient parking facilities for drivers.
"The bottom line is that if federal law -- and common sense safe driving -- require truck drivers to pull over for a prescribed period of rest, then the federal government has an obligation to help provide enough safe, secure parking spaces for them to do so," association President William J. Canary said Tuesday.
(Click here for the ATA's statement on the study.)
There is a surplus of parking in 29 states and sufficient supply in eight others, the study said. It was carried out by the Federal Highway Administration under a mandate by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), to estimate peak demand for commercial truck parking facilities at public rest areas and commercial truck stops nationwide.
The study showed that an estimated 315,850 parking spaces at public rest areas and commercial truck stops and travel plazas serve interstate highways and other National Highway System routes. About 90% of those spaces were in commercial truck stops and travel plazas and about 10% were in public rest areas. Transport Topics
(Click here for the press release.)
OPEC Oil Output Down 0.4% in June
Crude oil production by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries fell 0.4% in June, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.The price of crude oil directly affects the price of diesel fuel and gasoline.
Daily production from all members fell 110,000 barrels from May's total to 24.78 million.
Production fell 140,000 barrels a day from Iraq and by 40,000 barrels a day in Venezuela. However, Saudi Arabia, the cartel's largest producer, pumped out 50,000 more barrels a day than it did in May.
Last week the cartel decided to leave its output ceiling at 21.7 million barrels per day for another three months, although it is not uncommon for members to pump more than their expected quotas, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
