A.M. Executive Briefing - May 3
This Morning's Headlines:
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Mack Plans to Expand, Enjoy New Ownership
Mack Trucks President and CEO Michel Gigou announced expansion plans at the truckmaker's Allentown, Pa., headquarters as well as its engineering, development, and test center there, and he said Mack does not plan any layoffs following Volvo's acquisition of Mack's parent company.The expansion will include a "Bridge" program focusing on upcoming new products, while the test center will host a project concentrating on meeting new, stricter federal emissions rules. At Mack's headquarters, the company is adding a single building to house its training operations, the Mack Institute; this should be ready by autumn of next year.
He said Mack's construction- and vocational-truck plant in Macungie, Pa., will be important, since that sector is a poor one for Volvo.
Meanwhile, Heavy Duty Trucking magazine's executive editor, James Winsor, said Mack and Volvo will have to retain many operations in the near term, since truckmakers are working hard to make their products meet the new 2002 emissions rules. Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) Online (05/03/00); Shope, Dan
Inspections Take 50 Commercial Vehicles off Road in Nebraska
The Nebraska State Patrol carried out surprise commercial-vehicle inspections over two days last week in Grand Island, Neb., putting exactly half of the 100 vehicles inspected out of service and issuing fines totaling $10,815. The inspections also took one driver out of service and found 328 violations, said the Grand Island Independent.Such operations take place at least monthly; among the places that may see such operations in the future are Kearney, Hastings, Lincoln, and North Platte. Land Line Magazine Online (05/03/00)
More Costs, Traffic Hit Highway Program
New regulations as well as rising traffic are driving up cost estimates and delaying the date of completion for Mississippi's program to widen 1,088 miles of highways to four lanes.The original three-phase plan passed in 1987, with an additional phase added seven years later, and transportation officials say the program will not be finished for another nine years.
Between 1989 and 1999, said the state Department of Transportation, truck traffic has doubled on state roads, while automobiles rose 35.7%. Memphis Commercial Appeal (05/02/00) P. DS6; Brown, Timothy R.
DOT Official Found Guilty of Theft From Overturned Truck
Rhode Island Department of Transportation chief maintenance official Thomas E. Jackvony has been sentenced to 40 hours of community service for taking merchandise from an overturned truck Dec. 16.After arriving at the scene of the rollover, where salvage workers were attempting to take items off the truck, Jackvony took "bricks" of cassette tapes while state troopers watched. He later took butter cookies and bathroom scales from a heap of impounded items at a garage.
Defense attorney William C. Dimitri contended at Jackvony's trial that the items were abandoned, but prosecutor Scott Erickson said they were the property of the BJ's Wholesale Club store. While it may have been questionable who owned the items, Erickson said, they were "absolutely" not Jackvony's property.
The 66-year-old Jackvony, who has been a Rhode Island employee for 41 years, is currently on leave without pay; a DOT spokeswoman said the administrative hearing process will determine his employment status. Providence Journal-Bulletin (05/02/00) P. 1A; Mooney, Tom
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