A.M. Executive Briefing - April 24

Teamsters Shift Gears in Organizing Efforts

After years of local demonstrations by harbor truckers, the Teamsters moved in and sponsored port protests over the winter, leading up to a rally last month in the nation's capital that coincided with a Congressional hearing on ocean carriers' antitrust immunity.

Meanwhile, the union's effort to get drivers to sign pledge cards has had the most success in the Southeast but has made little headway in California. This is due in part to the Communications Workers of America's unsuccessful attempt to get local trucking firms to consider the drivers as employees rather than owner-operators, and in part because work is plentiful at Los Angeles-Long Beach due to strong volume.

Companies at the Port of New York and New Jersey want to combat terminal delays by adding a second shift, but there are too little ILA employees available, a matter to be discussed at a Waterfront Commission public hearing next month.

The union does not have a formal jurisdictional pact with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union on the West Coast, only an understanding that the ILWU covers drayage within the harbor but the Teamsters cover hauls once the container is out of the harbor. Journal of Commerce (04/24/00) P. 1; Mongelluzzo, Bill

Trucking Firm Steers Toward Web

The 400-truck company wants to create an order center using software that will pass orders along to its warehouse workers and such carriers as United Parcel Service for delivery to customers. The company, which currently provides logistics services for such large firms as Hershey's, Kimberly-Clark, and Chesebrough-Pond's as well as dedicated trucking for Home Depot and John Deere, saw revenue rise 20% to 25% annually in the past three years and says it is currently doing even better.

With truckload, less-than-truckload, and traffic management among its other divisions, the company is benefiting from companies' move toward outsourcing of non-core operations. Lanter, which operates multiple-temperature warehouses and distribution facilities in roughly 15 Midwestern and Southeastern locations, also hopes to expand geographically.

The company was founded by Wayne E. Lanter, whose son Steve currently heads up the business; the elder Lanter began delivering milk in the St. Louis area in the 1950s and took over the distribution operations of a defunct meat company in the following decade. Work with grocery stores continually grew after that, and in 1983 the company won a Kansas City-area warehousing contract with Brach's Confections. Lanter later moved into LTL and, in 1995, traffic management, and today bears little resemblance to the small business it once was. St. Louis Post-Dispatch (04/23/00) P. E1; Dalin, Shera

State Making More Rest Stop Space Available for Tired Truckers

The department wants to promote adherence to hours-of-service rules and to keep drivers from having to park on shoulders and ramps. The point of the three-hour limit was to keep motorists from using rest areas as campgrounds, said the department; public comment on the proposed trucker exemption will be taken for the next one and a half months, and the exemption could go into effect in June.

New York State Motor Truck Association chief Bill Joyce said his group has pushed for such an exemption for truckers, saying it makes sense as long as the state is not aggressively adding to the amount of truck parking spaces at rest areas. Associated Press (04/22/00); Stashenko, Joel

Delta Jobs Project Stuck in Neutral

President Clinton and Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, as well as state officials and regional trucking-industry luminaries, have come out in support of the project, and many thought a December meeting with Clinton signaled that the school would be partly funded with federal money.

While state and private interests have vowed to pay the $30 million price tag for establishing the school, which would be located near Memphis, none is willing to do so until the federal government begins funding.

Mid-South Community College President Dr. Glen Fenter puts in a daily effort to make the project work, and he said officials at the Transportation Department say they are working on getting funding but did not supply him with any specific information.

According to Arkansas Trucking Association President Lane Kidd, trucking companies are ready to push state and federal leaders to support the school and may underwrite bonds to support it. But he and others expressed concern that the project may fail altogether if there is no action from the Clinton Administration before the end of Clinton's presidency. Dallas Morning News (04/22/00); Parker, Suzi

State Troopers Check Truckers for Drowsiness

Illinois-based MCJ Inc., which developed the EyeCheck, will be loaning the two $7,500 devices to the state police for the pilot test, which will examine truck drivers on a voluntary basis but will not penalize the truckers based on the test results.

While some people have questioned the new device on scientific and legal grounds, the movement to track driver fatigue is gathering steam, and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration acting chief Julie Anna Cirillo says regulators may mandate fatigue-testing devices if trucking interests do not endorse them.

While truckmakers are working on several such devices, the EyeCheck has received the most attention from law enforcement. In addition to Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota are working with EyeCheck.

Virginia Tech researcher Walter Wierwille was skeptical of the technology, saying he awaits scientific proof, while Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety senior researcher Jerry Donaldson was unsure whether the device could demonstrate sufficient impairment to warrant prosecution. Detroit News (04/21/00) P. 1, Business Section; ElBoghdady, Dina

Teamsters Debate Livens U.P. Meeting

Holding candles as well as signs with the names of those they say lost their jobs by participating in organizing activities, the union members did not receive much interest from the roughly 70 meeting attendees. They were more interested in UP's financial improvement, and company leaders announced that service, volumes, and efficiency all showed improvement.

Overnite senior vice president Mark Goodwin said there is no foundation for the Teamsters' claims but said strike costs caused the year-over-year drop in Overnite's first-quarter operating profit from $10 million to $1 million. But the trucking unit managed to show a profit in the quarter, compared to an operating loss of $13 million in the fourth quarter, and UP Chairman and CEO Dick Davidson expressed pride in that accomplishment.

The company did get a question about how long "we shareholders should have to stand by and wait" for an end to the Teamsters dispute; the question was posed by Rusty Harp, who said he is a union member. Omaha World-Herald (04/21/00) P. 20, Business Section; Shim, Grace

New Camera Could Reduce Truck Accidents

In ordinary circumstances, under 5% of trucks receive brake inspections there, since checking them all would lead to long delays and the state could not afford to add enough inspectors to check every truck without holdups.

The Infra Red Inspection System appears to be a good alternative, considering its $270,000 price tag, said Bob Brooks of the state Public Service Commission. The system is created by the Canadian company IRISystems, which says it would also help find problems with bearings and tire inflation.

Although it could not replace a thorough inspection, the system could help trained inspectors decide which trucks to inspect further. The state wants to have a minimum of two systems, so both the northern and southern areas of the state would have one; Brooks especially believes the West Virginia Turnpike near Beckley should have one. Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail (04/21/00) P. 8A; Bowling, Brian

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