Trucking Technology Report - June 27
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Both the online report and e-mail are sponsored by @Track Communications, a supplier of wireless communications and dispatch services.
Today's Technology Headlines:
- Ports Warned on Productivity
- CSX Lines Deliver Export Alternative
- Philips Will Quit Making Mobile Telephones
- NextWave Deal With Government Looks Remote
- NTT DoCoMo to Expand Asian Investment
Ports Warned on Productivity
At a recent seminar sponsored by the Foreign Trade Association of Southern California, shipping executives reported a need for more efficiency at sea ports, predicting the worsening congestion could force many shippers to use alternative means of transporting their goods.Western U.S. ports in particular are found to be lacking in utilizing the efficiency of available technology, and are instead hiding facility and management inadequacies by purchasing more land and bigger containers. The executives highlighted the fact that West Coast ports are not using the productivity improvement information technology already being used by European and Asian ports.
CSX Lines Deliver Export Alternative
CSX Lines' Internet application NetCaptain can be used by customers to submit their shipping instructions and shippers export declaration forms (SEDs).CSX Lines processes the instructions and submits the SEDs via electronic data interchange with AES, the government's automated export system. NetCaptain eliminates the need of duplicate and paper processes, saving time, money and resources, according to Michele Hughes, director of documentation for CSX.
Customers who wish to avail themselves of the CSX system must have Internet access and provide CSX a letter of authorization allowing the shipper to submit SEDs for them. CSX is one of only two global logistics firms able to provide a direct link for the submission of SEDs from their Internet sites. Eyefortransport (06/27/01)
Philips Will Quit Making Mobile Telephones
Royal Philips Electronics has announced that it will drop the wireless phone manufacturing business, except for a minority stake in a Chinese joint venture.Philips says it will transfer control of its research and development unit and its factory in Shenzhen, China, to China Electronics and book a pretax charge of $259 million for the costs, but will not say how big a stake in the venture it will retain.
Phones produced by the venture, however, will still be sold by Philips under its brand name. Handset manufacturing has become unpopular with the big electronics companies as sales growth slows; both Motorola and Nokia decided earlier to farm out some production to cut costs, and Ericsson is moving all its phone manufacture to an outside contractor.
Philips never managed to capture much of a market share for handsets. New York Times (06/27/01) P. W1; Kapner, Suzanne
Legislators will probably protest a deal because of the cost to the government, and it will probably be many months before NextWave's reclaimed licenses are straightened out.
NextWave filed for bankruptcy in 1998 without paying most of the $4.7 billion it bid for 63 licenses in a spectrum auction; the FCC reclaimed the licenses for nonpayment and re-auctioned them, but a federal appeals court ruled that the move violated federal bankruptcy law, which leaves the companies that bid on the licenses hanging. The FCC is NextWave's biggest creditor. Wall Street Journal (06/27/01) P. B6; Dreazen, Yochi J.; Petersen, Andrea
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However, senior executive vice president Yoshinori Uda, speaking at an annual shareholders meeting, noted that this move within Asia would take time due to existing regulations and DoCoMo's desire to operate in open environments. According to Uda, the company has invested 100 billion yen ($808 million) in Asia so far, and intends to increase that amount. DoCoMo, he said, is considering a number of opportunities. Wall Street Journal (06/27/01) P. A8; Oyama, David I.
NextWave Deal With Government Looks Remote
Bankrupt NextWave Telecom's interests are much different than those of the federal government, which means that a deal between the two will be quite difficult--especially given the number of entities that must approve the deal, such as Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).NTT DoCoMo to Expand Asian Investment
NTT DoCoMo says that it intends to invest as much in partnerships in Asia as it has in Europe and the United States, adding that it sees no need to write down the value of its existing overseas investments.
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