A.M. Executive Briefing - Mar. 16
This Morning's Headlines:
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OOIDA Pushes for Fuel Surcharge
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which is leading Thursday's Washington, D.C., trucker protest, is backing federal legislation that would mandate a minimum fuel surcharge, to be passed along to the buyer of the fuel.Carriers, brokers, and freight forwarders that establish rates for small trucking businesses do not cover expenses for owner-operators and lack a reason to add surcharges, according to OOIDA. The bill would force them to impose a surcharge, activated by price changes
House Ground Transportation Subcommittee hearings on strategies to address the price situation will take place Tuesday. Heavy Duty Trucking Online (03/16/00); Patton, Oliver B.
Truckers to Boycott Container Yards
Houston port truckers planned to refuse to haul containers from the J.J. Flanagan Shipping yard Wednesday through Friday this week then move their boycott to some other area container yards, claiming unsafe chassis are being forced on them.Whether the protest was organized by drivers or by trucking companies is not known, although several companies' officials backed the protest, citing problems with equipment from the Flanagan yard. In addition to complaints about poor equipment, drivers also complain that the yards are not open long enough.
The Teamsters union, which organized several independent truckers' rallies around the country, plans a Washington, D.C. rally this week or next. After a Houston rally last month set up by union Local 988, most truckers there were given fuel surcharges and some had their wages increased; another Houston rally planned for next week has been called off. Houston Chronicle (03/15/00) P. 3C; Moreno, Jenalia
SYSCO Picks Sutter Site for Distribution Center
SYSCO will build a new regional food distribution center for northern California and western Nevada in southern Sutter County, Calif., near Highway 99. The 50-acre site is near Sacramento, Interstates 5 and 80, and Sacramento International Airport.Roughly three years ago, Sutter County set up a "reserve" for industrial and commercial operations in the county's southern portion; SYSCO is the first company attracted to the reserve and will become one of the county's top five private employers.
SYSCO currently sends empty double-trailers from West Sacramento to the company's giant Fremont distribution center, coming back loaded; there are usually two round trips each night. Growth in Sacramento-area business led SYSCO to give the region its own distribution site, which will cover northern California locations such as Marysville, Chico, Redding and Yuba City as well as Nevada regions including Lake Tahoe and Reno. Sacramento Bee (03/15/00) P. F1; Schnitt, Paul
German Truck Maker MAN Plans Joint Venture With Italy's Iveco: Report
The WirtschaftsWoche business magazine reported that German commercial vehicle maker MAN intends a joint venture with Fiat heavy-truck division Iveco, but a spokesman for MAN said the report is untrue and MAN, Iveco, and Fiat are not in talks. However, MAN is open to cooperation with European commercial-vehicle manufacturers, he said. Agence France Presse (03/15/00)New Book Describes Trucking "Sweatshops"
University of Michigan Assistant Professor Michael H. Belzer, a onetime trucker, has written the book "Sweatshops on Wheels: Winners and Losers in Trucking Deregulation," which focuses on nonunion and truckload trucking. In the book, Belzer concludes that shippers have gained the edge through savings caused by truckers' falling pay since the industry was deregulated.According to Belzer, nonunion truckload drivers are much worse off than their unionized counterparts, even though unionized drivers' real wages have dropped since deregulation. Belzer suggests that the government reconsider the exemption of trucking companies from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and regulations that make it tough to unionize many people who work in the industry. TruckingInfo.com (03/15/00); Bendel, John
24 Former Mack Employees Sue
Mack Trucks has been sued by two dozen people whose jobs were lost when Mack shut down an Allentown, Pa., plant in 1989 and shifted the work there to South Carolina. The lawsuit in Allentown's federal District Court seeks to have the workers' former jobs restored and damages paid because the company did not hire them back when it responded to rising truck demand by hiring again in 1997.According to the lawsuit, Mack rehired some former employees but ceased to do so after finding out that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act forced it to upgrade pensions and increase pension benefits for its former employees. The suit charges that Mack's behavior constituted a "liability avoidance" scheme. Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) (03/15/00) P. B11; Shope, Dan
No Change in Tie-Up with Volvo: M'bishi Motors
A spokesman for Mitsubishi Motors said the company's commercial-vehicle alliance with Volvo will not be altered by Volvo's seeming abandonment of its Scania acquisition plans. He said in the future Volvo and Mitsubishi will talk about tangible blueprints for cooperation. Jiji Press Ticker Service (03/15/00)© copyright 2000 INFORMATION, INC. Terms of Service
