Paccar Inc. has made a conditional offer to rival truck maker Navistar International Corp. to acquire all of that company's assets, including its diesel engine division, Stark's Truck & Off-Highway Ledger said Monday in a press release about its story.

Both Navistar and Paccar have declined to comment, Starks added.

Navistar then reportedly sought a competing bid from Sweden's Volvo AB, which was recently cleared by European anti-trust regulatory agencies to proceed with its takeover of Renault and Mack Trucks, Stark's said.

Paccar's offer is for an undisclosed amount, and is conditioned on the outcome of due diligence. That process has not yet started, the article said. Transport Topics

Trucker Protests Flare in Spain, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia

Truckers began a three-day strike in Spain over fuel prices, a "go-slow" protest in Luxembourg for better working conditions, and blockades in Yugoslavia as part of a nationwide effort to force President Slobodan Milosevic to resign, several news agencies report.

The Spanish truckers' strike could disrupt deliveries of supplies such as food and gasoline. Drivers are calling on their fellow truckers elsewhere in Europe to support them by not delivering to Spain.

In Luxembourg, traffic was reportedly slowed along major highways as truckers clogged the roads to voice their demands for reduced working hours and better conditions.

Truckers joined with buses and people on foot blocking Yugoslavia's roads, along with other forms of protest such as strikes by the country's coal miners, hoping to pressure Milosevic into resigning immediately. Milosevic finished second in a recent presidential election, but has called a run-off election for Oct. 8. Transport Topics

Norfolk Southern Warns on Earnings

Eastern-U.S. rail giant Norfolk Southern Corp. said it expects its third-quarter earnings to come in at 22-26 cents per share, including about $72 million in income from a sale of timber rights.

Reuters said that is below the consensus of estimates of Wall Street stock analysts compiled by First Call/Thomson Financial.

NS blamed several factors for its rail operating revenues turning out weaker than it had planned while expenses rose: a slowing U.S. economy, higher diesel fuel prices versus a year ago, a change in the freight-hauler's traffic mix and mild weather across its territory. That mild weather would dampen the railroad's sizable business in hauling coal to fuel electricity power plants. Transport Topics

Grupo Dina Responds to Cancellation of Western Star Contract

Mexican truck maker Consorcio G. Grupo Dina issued a statement Friday regarding the cancellation of their contract with Western Star Truck Holdings.

As earlier reported, Western Star under its new Freightliner ownership gave Grupo Dina 60 days' notice that it was canceling a contract for a total of 9,000 trucks.

Under terms of the contract, signed last year, Grupo Dina was to supply 9,000 Class 7 HTQ trucks over three years for sale in North America by Canada-based Western Star.

"Dina's management intends to seek a meeting with the new executives of the Canadian company in order to negotiate the terms of the contract termination," the statement said.

"Dina has expressed its interest in negotiating an equitable resolution for the parties involved, although management has not dismissed the possibility of taking legal action to resolve this matter. Moreover, in the event that an agreement is not reached within thirty days, Dina will seek arbitration as stipulated in the contract." Transport Topics

Amtrak to Revamp Cargo Operations

Amtrak is expected to announce Monday it will create a new mail and express cargo division in an attempt to boost freight sales, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The company estimates the time-sensitive freight market is worth about $140 billion per year, making the new unit important to Amtrak's turnaround strategy, the article said. Transport Topics

PLM Completes Sale of Trailer Leasing Operations

PLM International said Friday it had completed the sale of its trailer leasing operations to Marubeni America Corp. for $70 million. Marubeni also assumed $48.6 million in debt and other liabilities of the operations.

Robert N. Tidball has stepped down as PLM's president and chief executive officer and will continue as non-executive board chairman. The board selected Stephen M. Bess as the Tidball's successor and also named him to the board.

Based in San Francisco, PLM provides services to transportation, industrial and commercial companies. It also manages a diversified portfolio worth over $700 million of transportation and related equipment for 60,000 third-party investors. Transport Topics

Fed Meets Tuesday; No Rate Change Expected

Don't look for the U.S. Federal Reserve to make any changes in interest rates when its policymakers meet Tuesday for one of their periodic reviews of the economic landscape.

Analysts surveyed by wire services widely agree that the Fed will keep monetary policy where it has been, as there is no new inflation pressure to justify pushing interest rates higher and not enough economic weakness for the Fed to reverse course and start cutting rates.

Reuters noted that markets will be watching the Fed's Tuesday afternoon statement to see if the central bank removes its bias toward a tighter anti-inflation policy. Such a move could better position the Fed in case it needs to cut rates, and it could in the meantime ease some of the market's concern about the Fed remaining in position to tighten. Transport Topics

Bridgestone's Steeltex Tires Now Being Investigated

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is now investigating Bridgestone's Steeltex tires after receiving 169 complaints of tread separations, Bloomberg reported Friday.

The tires are used on some Ford F-250 and F-350 pickups and on Ford Excursion and GM Chevrolet Suburban sport-utility vehicles and Ford's Econoline vans, according to the article. The investigation covers 11 sizes

Since vans and pickups are involved with this type of tire, the Steeltex probe can affect vehicles used for light cargo delivery operations. Transport Topics

Crude Oil Price Moves Back up on Heating-Oil Ideas

Amid growing concerns about a heating-oil shortage in the U.S. Northeast this winter, the price of crude oil went back up Monday, rising 2% in early trading, Bloomberg reported. Prices reached $31.50 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and $30.49 per barrel on London's International Petroleum Exchange, the article said.

Other reports also linked the rise in oil prices in recent days, and concern over lack of enough distilled products becoming available, to Friday's decision by European Union governments against tapping their strategic oil reserves.

In the United States, a provision that would have created a permanent reserve of heating oil for the Northeast and re-authorized presidential power to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was removed from a funding bill by Congress late last week, the Associated Press reported. Transport Topics

American Freightways to Use New Bar-Code Scanning Technology

American Freightways has announced it will begin using a new technology to improve its less-than-truckload service.

It uses embedded digital cameras to photograph bar codes on shipments and the condition of freight during loading and unloading. This is meant to ensure accuracy, decrease expense and compress cycle times, the company said. The photographs will be available on the AF computer system and so can be viewed at any AF office or customer center.

American Freightways is a scheduled, for-hire less-than-truckload carrier, serving points in 40 contiguous U.S. states as well as Alaska, Canada, Caribbean Islands, Central America, Hawaii, Mexico, Puerto Rico and South America through various partnerships. Transport Topics

The Cronos Group Names Younger COO

The Cronos Group, which leases intermodal containers, said it has named Peter J. Younger chief operating officer.

Younger will oversee Cronos' worldwide lease marketing and container operations and information technology. He will also continue as chief financial officer, a post he has held since 1997. Transport Topics

Mitsubishi Fined Lightly in Cover-up Scandal

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. was fined $36,975 by a Tokyo court for covering up reports of defects in its vehicles, the Associated Press reported Monday.

Officials from Japan's Ministry of Transport said said they would not seek harsher penalties on the company because none of the defects - including failing brakes, leaky fuel caps and faulty clutches - were known to have caused any deaths, the article said.

Mitsubishi also released a statement Monday apologizing for the cover-up, AP said. Transport Topics

Headlines From Friday's P.M. Briefing

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