News Briefs - Oct. 2
The Latest Headlines:
- Mullen Transportation Buys 4 Smaller Companies
- Navistar Seen Asking Supplier to Share Recall Cost
- House Committee Rejects 15% Hike in Highway Spending
- FedEx Not Planning to Resume Profit Sharing
- Record Inventory Decline Blamed in Oil Price Rise
- New Group Formed by New Jersey, New York Truckers
- Navistar Seen Asking Supplier to Share Recall Cost
Mullen Transportation Buys 4 Smaller Companies
Canadian trucking and oilfield-services company Mullen Transportation Ltd., has bought four smaller companies to expand its oil hauling business, Bloomberg said.The transaction,estimated at $32 million (U.S. dollars), involves Lloydminster Heavy Crude Services Ltd., Temor Oil Services Ltd., Kam's Oilfield Hauling and Dominion Rathole Drilling.
The companies provide oil-hauling and well-servicing near Lloydminster, which is near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
Navistar Seen Asking Supplier to Share Recall Cost
ANavistar International will seek to have TRW Inc. pay part of the cost of a recall of brake parts the company estimates will cost about $51 million, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.Some 90,000 buses and medium duty trucks are involved in the recall, Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley told Bloomberg, resulting in a wider loss for the fourth quarter that ends this month than had been anticipated.
A spokesman for Cleveland-based TRW said the parts supplier is working with Navistar on getting recalled vehicles back on the road and "on the numbers," Bloomberg reported. Transport Topics
House Committee Rejects 15% Hike in Highway Spending
The House Appropriations Committee voted down a 15% increase in highway spending, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.The proposal to boost highway spending, a Democrat-sponsored measure, was defeated by a 29-26 margin in the Republican-controlled committee, Bloomberg said.
Republican leaders on the committee said that boosting highway spending to $31.8 billion – a $4.1 billion increase – would drain the federal road fund.
A Senate bill passed previously contained $31.8 billion for highway construction, Bloomberg reported. Transport Topics
FedEx Not Planning to Resume Profit Sharing
FedEx Corp. said Tuesday that it still has no plans to resume an employee profit-sharing plan it ended earlier this year as U.S. shipment growth slowed, Bloomberg reported.At a meeting with analysts and bankers in New York, Chief Financial Officer Alan Graf said that the company was more likely to consider increasing its contributions to its employees' 401(K) retirement savings plans, Bloomberg reported.
Graf told the group that pressure on pension and health costs made it unlikely that the Memphis, Tenn.-based company would resume the profit-sharing plan it suspended for 18 months in May as part of a cost-cutting plan, Bloomberg said.
FedEx is ranked No. 2 on the 2002 Transport Topics 100 listing of the largest trucking companies in the United States and Canada. Transport Topics
Record Inventory Decline Blamed in Oil Price Rise
A record decline in United States oil inventories was cited as one factor pushing the price of crude oil new highs on world markets, Bloomberg said Wednesday.The 13.9-million-barrel decline in weekly crude inventories, to 275.9 million barrels, was the biggest in percentage terms, 4.8%, since it keeping records in 1983, the American Petroleum Institute said.
The decline was a result of shutdowns caused by tropical storm Isidore, which battered the Gulf Coast last week, said the API.
Now, Hurricane Lili is heading along a similar path and may have winds twice as strong, Bloomberg reported.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the November price for oil rose to $31.05 a barrel Wednesday, while Brent crude reached $29.24 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange in London. Transport Topics
New Group Formed by New Jersey, New York Truckers
The Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers, Inc. has began operations in Newark, N.J., it was announced in a press release Monday.The group was formed, the release said, to focus exclusively on issues and interests of truckers who serve international business in the port areas of New Jersey and New York.
Jeffrey Alan Bader, president, said the new group has its roots in the 20-year-old Bi-State Harbors Carriers Conference, but "will carry an identity and purpose befitting the pressing need for independence" and will not be affiliated with the New Jersey Motor Truck Association.
The Carriers Conference was so affiliated, said Bader, who had been president of that group, but the new group was formed, he said, because it became clear that the interests of the members must be prioritized.
Sam Cunninghame, formerly executive director and past president of the New Jersey Motor Truck Association, was retained as a lobbyist to represent the new organization's governmental interests in the New Jersey capital, Bader said. Transport Topics
(Click here for the press release.)
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