A.M. Executive Briefing - Dec. 23
Due to the Christmas holiday, the A.M. and P.M. Executive Briefings will not run tomorrow. They will resume on Monday. Have a Merry Christmas!
This Morning's Headlines:
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Renault Integrates Truck Brands
By combining its North American truck brand Mack with the European brand RVI, Renault intends to save $200 million to $500 million a year within five years.
There are hints that RVI and Mack could look to partner with other companies in the coming five to 10 years, such as Germany's MAN or Italy's Iveco, which already makes buses with RVI in a joint venture. Financial Times (12/23/99) P. 24; Owen, David
American Freightways Plans 500-Job Expansion
American Freightways said it will be increasing its payroll by 500 jobs in the coming half-decade, with the company's expected 2000 growth rate between 17 and 18%. It believes the growth rate will continue for several years, said CFO Frank Conner.The Harrison, Ark., LTL carrier expanded its service area to Pennsylvania and New Jersey in April and announced in September that it was moving into the Dakotas. The carrier, which is expanding its general office facilities with a new three-story wing, credit union, and print shop, said two months ago that its third-quarter earnings were up 75.6%.
The state Economic Development Department granted $950,000 to Harrison to help improve the infrastructure, and the department's Advantage Arkansas program has also passed a grant to AF for the project. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Online (12/23/99); Cody, Cristal
Overnite Says Threat Rising to Drivers
Overnite Transportation said it has spent about $1 million a week on additional workers and protection for its employees during the nine-week Teamsters strike. It has also said employees were shot at on 11 occasions – although no Teamsters have been charged in the shootings – six people have been injured, and vandalism has been committed on 302 trailers and trucks.Overnite has gotten 18 injunctions on Teamsters picketing, and there are two court orders on how fast company vehicles can go past pickets. Company Chairman, CEO, and President Leo H. Suggs expressed concerned that his employees are threatened. While he said he does not "necessarily accuse the Teamster leadership" of ordering violence, he said the strike mentality leads people to lose control.
Union President James P. Hoffa said there is not any evidence tying the strike to the Dec. 1 shooting of Overnite trucker William G. Wonder in Memphis. Hoffa blamed Overnite for the strike and said the company can bring the strike to a close.
he FBI is looking into the shooting of Wonder and will also look at anything else apparently tied to the strike in Memphis, a bureau spokeswoman said this week. Overnite's productivity and efficiency is up in spite of the strike, said Suggs. Richmond Times-Dispatch Online (12/23/99); Jones, Chip
Truckers: Bend Rule for Y2K
Iowa Motor Truck Association President Scott Weiser has written to Gov. Tom Vilsack about possibly removing truckers' hours-of-service rules temporarily to avert shortages of food or gasoline due to Y2K fears. If such shortages occur, Weiser wrote, an emergency executive order might be necessary. Vilsack has not made a decision on the idea, said aide Joe Shannahan. Des Moines Register (12/22/99) P. 16; Petroski, WilliamBig Rigs Double as Semi-Billboards
It is becoming more common to see advertisers arrange through third parties for billboard space on the side of big rigs. The top fleetside advertising firm is MediaVehicles, of Atlanta, whose Chairman Keith Rinzler cited the difficulties facing advertisers, including a surfeit of TV channels and the difficulty of gaining permission to put up a billboard. But trucks are "out there to stay," he said.The Texas Lottery advertises its Lotto Texas jackpot via large digital signs on the sides of trucks in Houston. Truckside billboards cost roughly $3,000 monthly, compared to more than three times that for many ordinary billboards, said Charles Lutz, an advertising man in Houston and a consultant for Minnesota-based Fleet Advertising Media Group. Often, small brands like Virgin Cola take on bigger competitors via fleetside advertising, he said.
The difficulty of getting good pictures on easily applied and removed labels was an early stumbling block to fleetside advertising, but it was removed with technology that can put computer images on vinyl. Another difficulty is figuring out the value of the advertisements in consumer impressions. But software from the Traffic Audit Bureau for Media Measurement could clear that hurdle by combining GPS data from the truck to data on the amount of traffic in the places where the trucks went. Houston Chronicle (12/22/99) P. 1, Business Section; Hassell, Greg
DOT to Workers: Take Nothing From Crash Sites
In a Dec. 17 memo to employees, the head of Rhode Island's Department of Transportation said taking items from accident scenes is in violation of department policy, which holds that the items are still the owner's property.The previous day, DOT maintenance supervisor Thomas E. Jackvony Jr. was arrested and charged with larceny over $500 for allegedly taking cookies and other items from a tractor-trailer that overturned. William C. Dimitri, Jackvony's attorney, has argued that Jackvony believed the goods were abandoned items, since they were in with refuse that was to be thrown away, and thus he had no criminal intent and could not be guilty of larceny.
The memo is seemingly an attempt to refute Dimitri's argument; a spokeswoman for the DOT said the department policy against taking items is unwritten but has been mentioned in public by DOT officials. Providence Journal-Bulletin (12/22/99) P. 1A; Rockoff, Jonathan D.
Family Sues Trucker, Firm
Lincoln Park, Mich., trucker Chris E. Green, 43, as well as employer Supreme Express and a truck owner have been sued by relatives of a 5-year-old boy from Sanilac County who died in an October accident.The family's lawsuit says Supreme Express and the owner of the truck, Anthony J. Militello, should have looked into the trucker's driving record and found out that he had received three tickets for speeding and one ticket for disregarding a traffic signal. The trucker, who still works for Supreme Express, was described as a "good driver with a clean record" by company owner John Little.
The boy was in a car driven by his mother, which was rear-ended by Green's truck when the car stopped for a U-Haul turning in front of it. According to an accident expert, the trucker was going at least 65 mph, where the limit was 55, did not see the car prior to the crash, and did not apply the brakes when it hit the car until it had gone over 350 feet, said the family's lawyer. No criminal charges have been filed. Saginaw (Mich.) News Online (12/22/99); Hayman, Rik
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