P.M. Executive Briefing - June 21
This Afternoon's Headlines:
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EPA's Diesel Plan Gets Public Airing in Chicago
At a Chicago-area hearing Tuesday, diesel engine manufacturers and health advocates urged the Environmental Protection Agency to move forward with proposals to cut the sulfur content of diesel fuel by 97% starting in 2006. However, oil industry officials – saying such a restriction would cause price hikes that would make the area's recent price surge look minimal by comparison – would only like to see a 90% reduction in diesel's sulfur content.According to the EPA, diesel fuel pump prices would only rise between 3 cents and 4 cents, and compliance for oil refiners would cost about $30 million each. However, Edward Murphy, a manager at the American Petroleum Institute, predicted that smaller refiners would go out of business and the fuel supply would decline.
Volvo Plans To Expand Engine Manufacturing At Mack Trucks
The engine-making capacity at Mack Trucks Inc. will be expanded, the head of the truck manufacturer's incoming owner announced this week at Mack headquarters, the Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call reported Wednesday.Volvo's President and CEO Leif Johansson did not give specifics during his speech to management at Mack World Headquarters in Allentown. It's unknown if the engine-making expansion plan means adding on to Mack's Hagerstown, Md. plant or building another one elsewhere in the United States.
The $1.83-million deal for the Swedish company to purchase the truck division of Renault SA, which includes Mack, was announced in April but is two to nine months away from being completed, Johansson told the Morning Call.
Johansson added he did not anticipate any layoffs following the deal's completion, explaining Mack's recent announcement of cutting 360 workers was not due to the merger but a market slowdown. Transport Topics staff
Flying J Truck Stops Goes on a Building Spree
Flying J is on an expansion track, with construction underway at 10 sites and three scheduled to open in the coming two months – two in Ontario and one in Georgia. The new Flying J center on Interstate 20 south of Atlanta, an area where there were formerly few truckstops, has already beaten expectations.Because communities frequently fight truckstop plans, Flying J says it works with planning commissions, telling them truckstops are needed for the country's economic growth. The company is currently working on getting permits for 28 more locations. Heavy Duty Trucking Online (06/21/00); Lockridge, Deborah
Vermont Rail Director Aims to Cut Truck Traffic
Charles F. Miller, the newly appointed Rail Division director at the Vermont Agency of Transportation Rail, says one of his goals is reducing truck traffic on the state's roadways in order to maintain downtown areas.He will be leaving his post as chairman of the Windham Regional Commission, where he has become known as a regional transportation expert. Miller, who has spent close to a quarter century as general manager at Brattleboro-based Country News Distribution, also wants to see the state's rail lines get more use and to bring Amtrak to Bennington County. Associated Press (06/21/00)
Fleet Optimization Enters the Internet Age with Offerings from Logistics.com, Decartes
Two companies formed to provide online transportation solutions, rather than just spot markets, are Logistics.com and Descartes Systems Group.Logistics.com, which used to be called Sabre Logistics Group, was scheduled to put all its traditional products on the Internet this month, while also launching a Digital Transportation Marketplace that will include corporate relationship management tools and a spot auction.
Other tools that will be included are OptiStop, which optimizes fuel costs; OptiYield, which matches loads to equipment; and MicroMap, which matches loads to drivers. The company charges for the online tools based on the number of times they are used, rather than charging a licensing fee for the entire program, making them more accessible to small companies.
Meanwhile, Descartes is offering eFrame, which allows information-sharing to increase total supply-chain visibility, and eSchedule, which allows carriers'
ustomers to do their own scheduling. Other Descartes products include back-end dispatch and warehouse management applications, linked with eSchedule, as well as wireless handheld devices for drivers' use.
Descartes may soon be going multimodal thanks to its recent merger with ocean transportation technology firm E-Transport. Transport Technology Today (06/00) P. 22; Buxbaum, Peter
USA Truck Improves Efficiency with Logistics.com
Brandon Cox, manager of special projects at Arkansas-based truckload carrier USA Truck, discussed his company's use of load optimization software in a Transport Technology Today interview.He says the company met its goals of improving efficiency, driver utilization, customer service, and driver home time since becoming aware of Logistics.com's MicroMap system in 1996. MicroMap helps the company assign an average of roughly 800 loads a day, evaluating more than 120 factors for each load and returning the names of five drivers best suited to handle the load.
The software considers such factors as where the drivers live (to help them get home time) and how much log time they have, as well as the locations of the equipment and the trailer requirements. The company has reduced empty miles 15% since 1996.
Since the company instituted a new policy allowing drivers to choose their own home time, it has begun using the Drop & Swap program from Logistics.com, which finds locations where drivers can swap loads and get home more easily.
USA Truck runs these programs on an IBM RS/6000 and has linked them to proprietary programs operating on an IBM 9672 mainframe. The software can also run under Windows NT. Transport Technology Today (06/00) P. 8; Ludorf, Carol
Compiled by Transport Topics staff and INFORMATION, INC. © 2000
