News Briefs - Nov. 5
The Latest Headlines:
- Price of Crude Oil Rises Falls 4.2% for the Week
- Quality Distribution Names New COO, CFO
- Alabama Voters Oppose Truck Tax Amendment
- Postal Service, Rural Carriers Extend Contract
- Rail Intermodal Traffic Rises 10.8% in October
- Air Cargo Shipments Rise 5.6% in September
- Quality Distribution Names New COO, CFO
Price of Crude Oil Rises Falls 4.2% for the Week
The price of crude oil in New York rose on Friday, but declined 4.2% for the week, Bloomberg reported.Crude oil for December delivery rose 79 cents, or 1.6%, on Friday to $49.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil was 64% higher than a year earlier but well below its record high of $55.67 set on Oct. 25.
nalysts said crude oil rose after the Labor Department said that U.S. employers added more workers than forecast in October, a sign that the rate of economic growth will increase, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
Quality Distribution Names New COO, CFO
Tank truck firm Quality Distribution Inc. said Friday it named Gary Enzor as its executive vice president and chief operating officer and Timothy Page as senior vice president and chief financial officer.Page will start on Dec. 1 and Enzor on Dec. 13, the company said in a statement.
Quality Distribution is ranked No. 31 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics
Alabama Voters Oppose Truck Tax Amendment
Alabama voters defeated a constitutional amendment on Tuesday that would have switched state taxes on big commercial trucks from a property tax to an excise tax, the Associated Press reported.Amendment Eight had been endorsed by the Alabama Trucking Association. It would have based the excise tax on mileage traveled in the state, AP said.
Trucking officials said Alabama-based trucks, which now pay a property tax, would pay less under the new plan, and out-of-state trucks traveling through Alabama, which don't pay a property tax, would pay more. Transport Topics
Postal Service, Rural Carriers Extend Contract
The U.S. Postal Service said Thursday it had extended the collective bargaining agreement with the National Rural Letter Carriers Association for two years.The existing agreement was set to expire on Nov. 20, 2004, the Postal Service said in a statement.
The contract provides for a 1.3% wage increase effective Nov. 27 and another 1.3% increase on Nov. 26, 2005. The Postal Service also agreed to increase the reimbursement rate for rural carriers who furnish their own vehicles, the release said. Transport Topics
Rail Intermodal Traffic Rises 10.8% in October
The Association of American Railroads said Thursday the number of intermodal loadings on U.S. railroads totaled 929197 trailers and containers in October, up 10.8% from October 2003.For the week ended Oct. 30, intermodal volume was 235,876 trailers and containers, the highest weekly total on record and 12.4% higher than a year earlier.
Railroad volume is considered an important economic indicator. Intermodal traffic, which tends to be higher-valued merchandise than bulk commodities, uses trains for the long haul and trucks for the shorter distance at either end of the trip.
For the first 10 months of the year, intermodal traffic totaled 9 million, up 9.6% from a year earlier. Transport Topics
Air Cargo Shipments Rise 5.6% in September
Total air cargo shipments rose to 2.1 revenue ton-miles in September, the highest this year and 11.1% above the pace a year earlier, the Air Transport Association reported.A revenue ton-mile is the measure by which the association gauges air cargo shipments. A revenue ton-mile is the revenue generated by carrying one ton of freight one mile.
Air cargo shipments always have a trucking component, since air carriers use trucks for the local and regional ground transportation.
The report said that domestic cargo shipments rose 7.1% compared with a year earlier, while international shipments rose 15.2%. Transport Topics
