P.M. Executive Briefing - Aug. 18
This Afternoon's Headlines:
li>Logistics Firms' Rivals are Thieves
li>TFM Inaugurates Toluca Terminal
li>CompuNet Grows 28 Percent in Fiscal Year
/ul>
A NAME="story1">
Logistics Firms' Rivals are Thieves
Mexican logistics companies trying to streamline and offer better service have to face organized cargo theft.The Material Handling and Distribution Society's Mexico chapter President Gilberto Ponce says, "Organized crime has developed to the point
hat they take orders from clients."
Ponce adds that logistics companies have made crime fighting a priority. However, companies shipping freight in Mexico have to deal with poor roads and less than top-rank freight handling, which he says lags 30 years behind that in the United States.
But Mexican organized cargo crime might have even better logistics than the United States, he conjectures. Thieves will steal a truck and notify a dispatcher, who asks about the cargo and decides whether the thieves should keep the truck. Also, cargo thieves have plenty of distribution channels in Mexico, which even for legitimate distributors differs from the United States in that its suppliers include small businesses and markets as well as bigger stores and wholesale companies.
"Having many channels that manage low volumes increases delivery costs," Ponce says, but "The logistics chain of organized crime is ... as good as that of market leaders."
Things have gotten better due to work groups fighting cargo crime, says the National Association of Private Transportation. Companies that can afford tracking and security have seen crime going back down after going up for years.
Jose Cuervo export manager Ramon Yanez says his company has "not had any major thefts reported this year," but things have been getting better because of "policies instrumented by the company and not anything the government has done."
Cuervo attempts to send out two or more trucks together accompanied by two security escorts.
However, Logistica Bital director Luis Tommasi says, "The danger of escorts is that they attract attention."
Tommasi says other companies use unmarked cars to watch over shipments, but sometimes they do not get there in time to stop a hijacking. His company puts security guards in each truck, but he points out that this and other security strategies cost more money.
Ponce says many companies use guards riding in trucks. Journal of Commerce (08/18/99) P. 21; McCosh, Daniel J.
TFM Inaugurates Toluca Terminal
Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM), the Mexican railroad that handles the most business in the country, pushed forward itsntermodal plans by opening a $1.4 million Toluca-area terminal with two tracks and two cranes.
TFM, which wants to have more freight moved by rail, expects to handle 20 containers daily at first and by year's end have that number up to 90.
The company opened a Laredo-area intermodal terminal in March and plans to open one near Monterrey next month.
By next year's first quarter, TFM wants to have terminals in San Luis Potosi and Queretaro.
The Toluca site's main customer is DaimlerChrysler, which in the area has a Freightliner plant, a factory making cars and engines for light trucks, and a Mopar center.
DaimlerChrysler is also TFM's nationwide chief customer and has a long-term contract mandating that TFM invest in Monterrey, Toluca, and Mexico City intermodal operations.
The Toluca trains will mostly be doublestacks, with piggyback service planned for early 2000. Journal of Commerce (08/18/99) P. 21; McCosh, Daniel J.
Briefing: Overnite Transportation
Overnite Transportation Senior Vice President of Operations Gordon Mackenzie wrote employees a letter saying that some shippers have been afraid to use Overnite, the country's biggest nonunionized LTL carrier, because of Teamsters planning to strike against the company across the country and asking to be allowed to picket on the shippers' land.But Overnite did not specify the amount of lost business that has resulted.
Last month, 11 of the 166 Overnite terminals were struck for a week, causing a 2% to 3% drop in business, says company spokesman Ira
osenfeld. St. Louis Post-Dispatch Online (08/17/99)
CompuNet Grows 28 Percent in Fiscal Year
CompuNet Credit Services, which allows its network of motor-carrier subscribers to share data on bill-paying practices of shippers and brokers, saw revenue up 28% during the fiscal year that ended June 30.In 1998-1999, the company also expanded its subscribers by 20%.
Since the data sharing began, the amount of companies reported for non-payment has been cut in half. The amount of brokers paying up within a month has doubled since 1995. Land Line Magazine Online (08/17/99) ; Cisper, Jason
© copyright 1999 INFORMATION, INC. Terms of Service
