News Briefs - Oct. 22
The Latest Headlines:
- Volvo's 3Q Net Income Rises on Strong Truck Sales
- Yellow Roadway's Profit Doubles on Price Increases
- USF's Earnings Fall on Red Star Costs
- Profits Rise at Arkansas Best
- Knight Earns 22 Cents in 3Q
- FedEx Renames Parcel Direct at FedEx SmartPost
- Fuel, Delays Hurt Union Pacific's Results
- Rail Intermodal Volume Sets Another Record
- Allied Holdings Files Form 10-Q for Second Quarter
- Port of Tacoma Names New Executive Director
- Yellow Roadway's Profit Doubles on Price Increases
Volvo's 3Q Net Income Rises on Strong Truck Sales
Swedish truck maker Volvo AB said Friday its strong commercial vehicle sales lifted its third-quarter net income 4.8% over last year to $138.8 million.The company's truck sales in the quarter rose 26% to 41,288 vehicles, led by a 49% increase in North America and a 68% rise. Sales of its Volvo brand rose 27%, Renault increased 20% and Mack jumped 38%, Bloomberg reported.
Volvo said it expected the market for heavy-duty trucks to increase as much as 30% to 240,000 unit this year in North America. Transport Topics
Yellow Roadway's Profit Doubles on Price Increases
Yellow Roadway Corp. said its net income for the third quarter was $55.9 million or $1.15 a share as sales rose 16% to $1.77 billion.The company, which was formed by Yellow Corp.'s purchase of Roadway Corp. last year, said its combined earnings in the year-earlier period would have been $27 million or 56 cents.
Shipments rose 4.8% and rates climbed 4.5% at less-than-truckload unit Yellow Transportation, the release said.
Yellow Roadway is ranked No. 3 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics
USF's Earnings Fall on Red Star Costs
USF Corp. said Friday its third-quarter profits declined due to costs associated with the closure of its USF Red Star unit earlier this year.Total net income was $12.1 million or 43 cents per share, compared with $13.1 million 48 cents a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Revenue for the quarter was $582 million, down from $585 million a year earlier.
USF said it incurred shutdown costs and operating losses from Red Star of $7.8 million or 18 cents.
Its less-than-truckload units totaled $484 million, compared with $486 million a year earlier. The current quarter was lower because Red Star's revenue for the third quarter of 2003 was $58 million, USF said. Truckload carrier USF Glen Moore reported revenue of $33.6 million, compared with $33.7 million a year earlier, the release said.
USF is ranked No. 12 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics
Profits Rise at Arkansas Best
Arkansas Best Corp., parent of less-than-truckload carrier ABF Freight System, said its net income was $27.4 million or $1.07 per share, compared with $17 million 67 cents.The company said in a release its revenue was $461.9 million, an increase of 12.6%. ABF Freight System's revenue was $427.9 million, a per-day increase of 16.3%, the release said.
Arkansas Best is ranked No. 16 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics
Knight Earns 22 Cents in 3Q
Truckload carrier Knight Transportation Inc. said its third-quarter profits were $12.6 million or 22 cents, compared with $9.5 million or 16 cents a year earlier.Total revenue increased 30.1% to $114.1 million, the company said in a statement.
"We expect the shipping environment to remain favorable based on economic growth of approximately 3% or better in the remainder of 2004 and into 2005. We also expect industry-wide trucking capacity to remain constrained for the foreseeable future, mainly due to the limited number of qualified drivers," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Knight said.
Knight is ranked No. 57 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics
FedEx Renames Parcel Direct at FedEx SmartPost
FedEx Corp. said Thursday it had renamed the recently acquired parcel consolidator Parcel Direct as FedEx SmartPost.In August, FedEx agreed to acquire Parcel Direct for $120 million from Quad/Graphics. The subsidiary of FedEx Ground is based in New Berlin, Wisc., and uses sorting locations to consolidate packages from shippers and sends them to post offices for final delivery.
FedEx is ranked No. 2 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics
Fuel, Delays Hurt Union Pacific's Results
Freight railroad Union Pacific Corp. said Thursday its third-quarter results declined as delays and rising fuel prices pushed up costs.Net income declined to $202 million or 77 cents a share, from $317 million or $1.21 a year earlier. Sales rose 4.1% to $3.08 billion, the company said.
Union Pacific said its diesel fuel costs rose 39% to $459 million during the quarter. Shipments rose 1.7%.
"Unprecedented fuel prices and high operating costs resulting from our service inefficiencies outweighed the revenue growth," Chief Executive Richard Davidson said in a statement. Transport Topics
Rail Intermodal Volume Sets Another Record
The Association of American Railroads said late Thursday that intermodal volume totaled 231,255 trailers or containers in the week ended Oct. 16, more than any previous week on record.The volume was 9.5% higher than the same week a year earlier and broke the old record of 231,025 trailers or containers set the week ended Sept. 25.
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.
Through the first 41 weeks of 2004, intermodal volume was 8.6 million trailers or containers, up 9.5% from a year earlier. Transport Topics
Allied Holdings Files Form 10-Q for Second Quarter
Automobile transporter Allied Holdings Inc. said Thursday it believed it was in compliance for continued listing with the American Stock Exchange after filing its Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission.Allied said in a statement it had delayed filing the report for the second quarter "in order to complete its evaluation and analysis of the company's accounting for certain items . . . relating to the company's financing and funding of its insurance arrangements."
The company is ranked No. 22 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics
Port of Tacoma Names New Executive Director
The Port of Tacoma Commission said Thursday it named Timothy Farrell as the port's executive director effective Jan. 1.Farrell has been acting executive director since July 1 and was deputy executive director since 2000.
Andrea Riniker, who was executive director, will continue in a transitional role until the end of year, the port said in a statement. Transport Topics
