A.M. Executive Briefing - May 11
This Morning's Headlines:
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More Truckers Will Be Watching Your Driving
A Minnesota State Patrol pilot program in which truck drivers on Interstate 35 report incidents to the patrol will be expanded next month, adding between 15 and 20 truckers who drive on Highway 52 from the Iowa state line to Cannon Falls and Rochester.The current 15-trucker I-35 program, which began in February, has not resulted in sufficient reports for an evaluation of the program; there have been no calls about aggressive or drunken driving, speeding, or road rage, said patrol Capt. David Graham.
One of the I-35 truckers, Rochester Cartage driver Vince Meyer, says he saw a similar Colorado highway-watch program in a trucking magazine and found out during training that there is one for the Pennsylvania Turnpike as well. hile some have said truckers are some of the worst drivers, Meyer says he would call the patrol about truckers' bad driving as well as other drivers who handle vehicles poorly. Minneapolis Star Tribune Online (05/11/00); Blake, Laurie
Paying a Price
Although a February strike of Miami independent port drivers and dump-truck drivers resulted in some concessions – including higher rates or fuel surcharges, as well as a vow from the state insurance commissioner to look into the truckers' insurance issues – the leading participants in the strike say they have been penalized.Orestes Guas, head of the Support Trucking Group, says the company he was driving for refused to hike his rates up to the level of most companies', and it took him a long time to get more work, as employers told him they were not hiring. He later learned that all the truckers except for the strike leaders had gotten work again after the strike, he says.
Support Trucking Group's secretary-treasurer, Jose Lopez Sr., was moved to the end of the seniority list by his employer, First American Service Transport, even though he had been working for eight years and had been near the head of the list. Since the list determines the order in which drivers get loads, he is not able to make as many trips.
Rick Diaz, who served as attorney for the Support Trucking Group and Support Dump Trucking Group, says the most active strike participants have received such penalties as being moved to the end of lists or given poor assignments. In addition, the dump-truck drivers group and some leaders are being sued by five companies that want to prevent further strikes; a federal court hearing on the suit will take place Friday.
Truckers also complain that the improvements won in the strike did not last very long. Miami Daily Business Review (05/10/00) P. A1; Doris, Tony
Werner May Face Hazards
Werner Enterprises Chairman and CEO Clarence L. Werner says the company's revenue and earnings may grow only 8% to 10% over the next one or two years; the company's revenue growth has been in double digits since 1992.He told the company's annual shareholder meeting Tuesday that the growth will likely be slowed by the overabundance of trucks on the highways, high diesel costs, and the proposed new hours-of-service rules. The provision in the proposed regulations that would require onboard recorders would be a bigger burden to other companies, since Werner's trucks already have the devices, but he said Werner's expenses still may rise 20% if the rules go into effect.
He also pointed to poor used-truck sales, which make up a tenth of the profits at Werner.
Also at the shareholders' meeting, three members of the board were reelected and shareholders voted to allow the company to grant executives and office workers a larger amount of shares in its stock-option plan. Omaha World-Herald (05/10/00) P. 43; Shim, Grace
License Scam Cited in Case
The estate of a tow-truck driver who died after a 1999 Chicago accident has filed a lawsuit against Emerald Trucking Service and two of its drivers, Nidal Mohhammad Zeidan and Rafiq Tawfiq Sadiq, saying Emerald had not made any effort to find out whether Zeidan and Sadiq had gotten their CDLs legitimately or in Illinois' bribes-for-licenses scandal.Following a winter storm, the tow truck spun out on a Chicago expressway when the driver, Dennis F. Radwanski, tried to evade another truck that was apparently trying not to hit Zeidan's trailer. Zeidan's trailer was stopped on the roadside, and Sadiq had parked his truck in front of Zeidan's to assist Zeidan with his disabled vehicle.
Unmentioned in the lawsuit is the fact that neither Zeidan nor Sadiq is on the list of drivers that officials believe may have gotten their licenses through the scheme, while the tow-truck driver was on the list.
The estate's attorney, Burton Weinstein, calls that fact "irrelevant" and says he believes Radwanski was licensed legitimately; he did not say whether he has any evidence that either of the other drivers was involved in the bribery scandal. The negligence lawsuit was amended last month to include the portion mentioning the scandal. Chicago Sun-Times (05/10/00) P. 7; Simpson, Cam; Novak, Tim
System Upgrade Puts Fleet Managers on the Right Track
Integrated Systems Research has released a new version of its ISR FleetTrack Automatic Vehicle Location System, which uses cellular digital packet data (CDPD) for truck tracking whenever possible, changing over to the pricier analog cellular networks only when CDPD is not available.CDPD is available in many large metropolitan areas now, but fleets have had to rely on the much more expensive analog networks instead, since trucks on the road will move out of the CDPD areas. The ability to use CDPD when available promises to save fleets money.
The FleetTrack system allows real-time tracking and lets managers change speed, refrigeration settings, and other options in individual trucks; in addition, the system can create Microsoft Access- or FoxPro-compatible reports. It can operate from a PC or a portable computer and works with most cellular, satellite, and radio sensors. Frontline Solutions (05/00) Vol. 1, No. 5; P. 39
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