A.M. Executive Briefing - Dec. 13
This Morning's Headlines:
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Truck Driver Watch
Cancom Trucking Solutions, Marsh Canada, and 10 trucking companies in Canada will spend six months testing an Ontario Trucking Association program designed to allow truckers to find and report equipment that has been stolen. The equipment will be included in a database and transmitted to truckers via the Cancom OmniTracs system.Truckers will call Marsh Theft Watch and earn a reward if they see the stolen items. Ontario Crime Stoppers and several Ontario police agencies are participating as well. Traffic World (12/13/99) Vol. 260, No. 11; P. 22; Binkley, Alex
Volvo and Mitsubishi Agree on Truck Strategic Alliance
Volvo and Mitsubishi Motors said they have reached a deal on a strategic alliance, in which Mitsubishi will issue shares to Volvo giving the Swedish company 5% of votes in Mitsubishi.By 2001's close, Mitsubishi will be the sole operator of a truck and bus subsidiary to be created. Volvo will hold a 19.9% stake in the subsidiary by then. The companies intend to work together in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and South America, and Mitsubishi light trucks would be distributed in Europe by Volvo. Agence France Presse (12/13/99)
Briefs: National Carriers, PrePass, Old Dominion Freight Line, Roadrunner Freight Systems
Effective Jan. 1, Kansas-based National Carriers will pay reefer owner-operators as much as 83 cents per dispatched mile and 84 cents per loaded mile if they meet certain criteria.The truck weigh-in-motion system PrePass made it into its 16th state when it was installed along Interstate 80 in Nebraska.
A new 21-door Old Dominion Freight Line terminal is open for business in New Castle, Del.
With six terminals already in the South and Midwest, the less-than-truckload company Roadrunner Freight Systems intends to debut a Los Angeles-area terminal in the first part of next year. Traffic World (12/13/99) Vol. 260, No. 11; P. 23
Public Hearings This Week on Proposed Turnpike Toll Hike
Hearings on the higher tolls proposed for the New Jersey Turnpike will take place Monday through Wednesday. Trucks' cash tolls would go up 13% in 2001 and 13% again in 2003, while E-Z Pass tolls would go up 8% each year. Tolls would go up for motorists as well.The Monday meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the Mount Laurel Radisson Hotel, Tuesday hearings at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. will take place at the East Brunswick headquarters of the turnpike authority, and the Wednesday meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Teaneck's Marriott Glen Pointe Hotel. Written statements can be sent to the authority, as can e-mail (name and address required) to info@turnpike.state.nj.us. Associated Press (12/12/99)
Causeway Third Span Raises Regional Concerns
While engineers cite safety, comfort, and speed as reasons to build a third span over Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, opponents in the regional planning movement say it will draw New Orleans and Jefferson Parish residents to the lake's north shore and make growth issues there worse.The Causeway Commission still lacks funding for the $380 million bridge, which a study found as the way to better traffic flow with the least cost and environmental damage. It is projected that the capacity of the two current spans will be surpassed by the daily traffic volume by 2016. Other concerns that led to the proposal are potential hurricane-evacuation needs and the problem of the bridges being shut down by accidents due to the narrow shoulders.
But others blame the building of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway starting in the 1950s for the flight of people from New Orleans and Jefferson Parish to St. Tammany, which University of New Orleans dean of urban studies Fritz Wagner said "is ill-prepared to deal with" the population growth.
Ronald Goux, chairman of the Causeway Commission, said the commission will only address those issues if they are brought up by the public at hearings set to begin in February. But Wagner and the Urban Land Institute's New Orleans chapter chairman Pres Kabacoff said the concerns merit a wider debate; Wagner proposed a panel outside the Causeway Commission. New Orleans Times-Picayune (12/12/99) P. 1A; Russell, Pam Radtke
Police: Thieves Took Big Truck for Small Parts
Police said the perpetrators of a refuse truck theft from Orange Service Co. in Clermont, Fla., probably intend to disassemble the vehicle and send its parts to foreign countries. According to police Lt. Danny Cheatham, the parts could bring up to 25% to 50% of the truck's value in cash on the black market.Such thefts have become extremely common. The Customs Service and police are set to work together for the thieves of the nearly $100,000 refuse truck and a $90,000 truck that was hijacked lately.
The refuse truck's owner has leased another truck to keep running his business, Cunningham Refuse; the stolen truck was the only one he had. Orlando Sentinel (12/11/99) P. 1, Lake Sentinel Section; Meadows, Karin
UPS Delivers $50,000 to Tutors
The St. Tammany Literacy Assistance Program in St. Tammany Parish, La., will be able to purchase a headquarters building for the first time thanks to a $50,000 grant from the UPS Foundation. A total of 48 community-service groups around the country get grants between $10,000 and $100,000 from United Parcel Service.
uliette Cote, president of the nonprofit literacy program, has spent most of the last six years moving her supplies in her station wagon between churches where the volunteer literacy tutoring took place, but owning the building in Slidell will change that. New Orleans Times-Picayune (12/11/99) P. B1; MacGlashan, Stacey
Man Crushed to Death by 2,500-Pound Tires
Transport National trucker Kevin W. Funkhouser, 26, was killed Friday in Butler, Wis., when two tires fell on him during unloading at Brad Ragan, a tire distributor.According to police Lt. Mike Cosgrove, the first tire fell from the flatbed as the trucker loosened restraining straps; the second came down on him as workers tried to get the first tire off of him. He said the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is looking into the event. The Lynchburg, Ohio, trucker had five children. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (12/11/99) P. 1; Spice, Linda
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