P.M. Executive Briefing - Sept. 8
This Afternoon's Headlines:
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DOT Asks: How Safe is E-Navigation?
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is investigating the safety aspects of electronic navigation systems, looking into whether devices are designed to be operated safely while driving and if they give so much information as to be confusing or distracting.The DOT, which is trying to make a coast-to-coast intelligent transportation system, is giving some money to the Society for Automotive Engineers Safety and Human Factors Committee. The investigators will focus initially on passenger vehicles, to move on to commercial-vehicle systems eventually.
ccording to Gene Farber, who heads up the engineers society's portion of the project, the Navigation Function Accessibility standard is coming close to a committee vote, and the committee has finished first drafts of the Message Priority and Forward Collision Warning Human Factors standards.
Other standards to be put together are Adaptive Cruise Control Human Factors and Visual Demand Protocol. The committee invites volunteers and suggestions. Journal of Commerce (09/08/99) P. 13; Zuckerman, Amy
Kitzhaber Vetoes Speed Limit Bill
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has reportedly vetoed a bill that would have raised rural automobile speed limits to 75 mph and truck speed limits to 70 mph. In a message on his Web site, Kitzhaber, an emergency-room doctor, writes: "Increasing the legal limit[s] ... will significantly increase traffic deaths and serious injuries suffered by Oregonians." Land Line Magazine Online (09/07/99)T.O.'s Top OPP Officer Heads North
Bill Currie, who has spent five years as commander of the Ontario Provincial Police for the Greater Toronto Region, will be moving to Orillia in February due to a promotion to Central Region chief superintendent.On Currie's watch, the OPP has instituted the Highway Rangers and Truck Troopers as well as several highway-safety initiatives, and crashes, speeding, and highway deaths have gone down.
However, Currie was embroiled in controversy when he pressured the Transportation Minister Al Palladini to push back the opening of the toll Highway 407 and spend close to C$15 million for safety improvements. Currie and the OPP complained of the lack of rumble strips, barriers, and protections around roadside structures.
"In the end, 11 of our 12 recommendations were taken," Currie says. Early on in his tenure as commander, Currie revived the trucking unit, called the Truck Troopers. Also, he established the Highway Rangers both to ticket drivers and to warn them of how their driving was dangerous. Toronto Star Online (09/06/99); Mitchell, Bob
Red Hot Region
It is likely that the southeastern United States has the country's highest concentration of good LTL carriers. Estes Express had an operating ratio (OR) of 86.2. AAA Cooper's OR was 90, Old Dominion Freight Lines' was 94.1, and Watkins Motor Lines' was 93.5.While the founder of Estes said the carrier's coverage area would never cross the Mississippi River, the company is approaching it with expansions into Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Estimates put the amount of yearly freight on southeastern LTLs at 36 billion pounds--144 million pounds a day.
"We grew up in the Southeast and this is where our strength remains today," says Ira Rosenfeld of Overnite Transportation, which gets close to one-third of its $1 billion yearly revenue in the region.
Rosenfeld points out that growth in the Southeast outpaces that nationwide, and three automakers are putting new manufacturing operations there. Also, real estate costs less than in the Northeast, he says.
Tennessee-based Averitt Express, with Nafta as its impetus, is growing its coverage to Mexico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. International operations is becoming a focus for many southeastern LTLs. In addition to its LTL business, Averitt Express has dedicated, logistics, and air charter units. Marketing director Charlie Webster says the company has had Puerto Rican LTL operations for seven years. Traffic World (09/06/99) Vol. 259, No. 10; P. 26; Schulz, John D.
'Cinderella' on the Rebound?
Consolidated Freightways' net for the first half of 1999 was $9.3 million, down $5.2 million from the first half of 1998's earnings. The company's operating income was down $12.1 million to $18.2 million, while the operating ratio went up 2 percent.
The first two years were a Cinderella turnaround story," says CF President Patrick H. Blake of the time since the spinoff of the now separately-traded CNF Transportation in December 1996. While CF managed a $125 million turnaround and started to reinvest, shippers left during late 1997 and early 1998 due to Teamsters negotiation.
In 1999, CF's costs exceeded projections as it tried to put a long-term strategy into place. CF is now trying to streamline its 500-1,500 mile business to get more money to spend on premium services, like Sure Time. In 1999's first half, CF had to hire 500 drivers to replace Teamsters retiring due to the "25-and-out" provision. CF is also consolidating its smaller terminals into larger ones serving metropolitan areas.
Rail problems following the Conrail breakup kept CF from saving more money by making use of intermodal, but Blake says CF would hit its 28 percent railing limit before January. Furthermore, trucking companies will rely less on rail intermodal in the future.
Blake expects CF to benefit from rising rates and "a capacity crunch in the third and fourth quarter." Traffic World (09/06/99) Vol. 259, No. 10; P. 19; Schulz, John D.
Truck Stop Plan in for Bumpy Ride
Some area residents were to meet Tuesday night at the town hall Vienna, Wisc., for an initial meeting about a planned $5 million to $8 million Flying J truck plaza at the I-90/94 junction with Highway V just outside the village of DeForest. The town wants to get more tax revenue from the plaza, which Flying J has wanted to build for close to 10 years, since they often kibosh housing development due to a desire to keep area farmland.Residents fear greater traffic volumes as well as crashes, noise, and pollution if the 24-hour plaza is built. While Flying J says there is a "need" for a truck plaza in the region, area residents say there are other truck stops not far away in I-90/94.
The approval process for the plaza will consist of meetings involving officials from Vienna, DeForest, and Dade County. This is because DeForest won land-zoning rights to the property in a lawsuit. Wisconsin State Journal Online (09/06/99); McDade, Phil
Fighting Cargo Theft
Since 1997, the FBI office in Long Beach, Calif., has been host to the Interstate Theft Safe Streets Task Force, which targets cargo thieves in the Los Angeles metropolitan region.Much cargo theft goes on there because of the amount of cargo that moves through the area in all transportation modes, as well as the nationwide destinations of area cargo and the ocean ports. The region sees a sixth of the country's cargo theft, amounting to some $1 million daily.
Federal agencies and state and local police are working with the FBI in the task force, which netted close to $3 million worth of stolen cargo around Los Angeles in recent raids.
According to Special Agent Brett Millar, a task-force supervisor, the FBI puts the annual cargo theft price-tag at $6 billion, while the National Cargo Security council prices it between $10 billion and $12 billion. The problem is difficult to track because retailers often do not report the thefts and simply pass along the costs to the consumer.
Two years ago, the FBI created around 35 task forces for cargo theft, including the one in Long Beach and another in Los Angeles.
Cargo thieves in Long Beach are often part of international black-market networks. Some former drug criminals are now participating since cargo theft carries a smaller penaltyof 10 years maximum. Agents try to get longer sentences by adding multiple charges from different levels of government and different agencies.
Investigators sometimes trace goods back from legitimate retailers to thieves and illegal distributors, and sometimes they have to find out from thieves who else is in their network. Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram Online (09/05/99); Lowe, Joshua
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