A.M. Executive Briefing - Nov. 28
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Diesel Prices Rise Nationally
The national price for diesel rose an average of 2 cents from last week to $1.645 per gallon, the Department of Energy reported Monday.The highest price jump was in the Lower Atlantic region, where the price increased by almost 3 cents. The Rocky Mountain region had a price drop of less than a cent, the only regional decrease this week. Transport Topics
Canada's Chretien Reelected With Gain in Parliament
Canada, America's largest trading partner and a huge crossborder trucking market, has reelected its prime minister and given his party a stronger majority in Parliament.
E-Stamp Changes Course to Shipping, Logistics
Online postage company E-Stamp Corp. is changing its focus to shipping and logistics software, and will lay off 30% of its staff, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.Mountain View, Calif.-based E-Stamp will sell software to businesses to track packages and manage orders in warehouses, according to the Journal.
The company will be left with 84 employees, and said customers could use big shippers like United Parcel Service (UPS) and FedEx (FDX) more easily, as its product could help with rate comparisons. Transport Topics
Oil Prices Fall Despite Iraq Threat
The price of crude oil had fallen 1% early Tuesday despite potential disruptions from Iraq's threat to evade United Nations sanctions and an oil workers' strike in Nigeria, Bloomberg reported.Crude oil for January delivery fell 42 cents to $34.96 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, crude oil prices dropped 34 cents to $32.72 per barrel
On Monday, oil analysts feared two international events might bring up oil prices, the story said. Iraq has asked companies to pay an extra 50 cents per barrel of oil, which would then go into an Iraqi bank beyond the control of the United Nations. Workers in Nigeria, the world's sixth-largest oil producer, threatened to disrupt production with a strike. However, neither event brought a rise in crude oil price, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
Vancouver, B.C. Port Truckers Protest Wage Plan
About 75 truckers in the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, staged a protest rally Sunday against the port's plan to do away with guaranteed hourly wages, the Journal of Commerce reported.The article said that in August 1999, the Vancouver Port Authority sponsored an interim plan under which trucking companies serving the port area would pay specified hourly rates to truckers, who often waited for hours while their trucks were being loaded. But the port's most recent plan, to take effective Jan. 1, does not require hourly wages for truckers waiting at ports, the JOC wrote.
The Port Authority said the provision was unnecessary since other measures have improved loading, including a truck reservation system and Internet cameras at terminal gates, the Journal noted. Transport Topics
Furniture Industry Highlights Slowdown for Trucking
A new report of furniture production woes serves as another indication of the slowing economy, and in particular the housing sector, which affects trucking shipments in that industry.Bassett Furniture Industries plans to slash up to 280 jobs at the company's wood furniture manufacturing operations in Virginia, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, amid a weak housing market in the face of higher interest rates and fuel costs over the past year. The Bassett, Va.-based company has 4,200 employees, 75 free-standing stores and 153 galleries inside other stores. Transport Topics
Headlines From Yesterday's P.M. Briefing
- Election-Day Rush Hour Blockade Threatened in Toronto
- Airborne eCourier Will Deliver Electronically
- Isuzu Reports Losses
- Delphi Fires 100 Workers at Mich. Component Plant
- German Postal Regulator Leaving
- Compaq Computers to Use Logistics.com
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