A.M. Executive Briefing - Sept. 15
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Spain, Ireland Begin Protests; Britain, Belgium Cool Off
Truckers began protests in Ireland and Spain Friday, as similar actions cooled off in Britain and Belgium, Reuters reports.In Italy, the government agreed to give truckers a tax discount on fuel to avert a strike there, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported Friday.
Convoys of truckers tied up traffic on Spanish and Irish highways; protesters also plan to picket a summit between Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Reuters said. Protests continued in Germany and the Netherlands, the article said.
The Italian government, meanwhile, has agreed to provide a fuel tax break in the form of a refund, through December, La Repubblica said in a report carried by Bloomberg. Italian Transport Minister Pierluigi Bersani told the newspaper he hopes the Italian agreement would work across Europe, to quell the fuel-related problems in other countries. Transport Topics
Parts Maker ArvinMeritor Expects 4Q to Fall Below Estimates
ArvinMeritor, which supplies integrated systems, modules and components to the transportation industry, said Friday it expects fourth-quarter earnings per share to fall below current estimates.ArvinMeritor Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Larry Yost attributed the lessened expectations partly to the slumping North American heavy truck market.
A consensus of analysts estimates from First Call/Thompson Financial puts the current es-timated earnings for the fourth quarter at 60 cents per share; however, ArvinMeritor said it anticipates earnings to be in the 40- to 45-cents-per-share range. Transport Topics
Transit Strike Avoided in Los Angeles, For Now
Traffic on highways in the Los Angeles area, while always congested should not be as bad as feared Friday, with word that a strike by L.A.'s Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus and rail drivers has been postponed, the Associated Press reports.The three unions representing those drivers agreed to extend negotiations with MTA for another 24 hours just after Friday's 12:01 a.m. deadline, the article said. Miguel Contreras, of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, told AP that the strike had not been wholly avoided, but only postponed for another day.
Should a strike occur, approximately 450,000 daily passengers would be forced to find other transportation, meaning the already-crowded Los Angeles freeways could see increased traffic in what is also one of the nation's prime freight-hauling zones. Transport Topics
Main U.S. Inflation Gauge Falls First time Since 1986
Markets got a surprise Friday when the U.S. Labor Department said its consumer price index for August fell 0.1% for the first decline since April 1986. Pre-report estimates were for a 0.2% rise, Bloomberg reported.That is the most widely followed measure of U.S. inflation trends, and its weakness confirms the growing view that price pressures remain tame as the U.S. economy slows, despite an energy-cost bulge.
Some say this good news on inflation is a measure of the efficient new economy; others complain it hurts businesses such as trucking that are enduring higher fuel costs, because they can't hike prices to cover the extra expenses.
Some of the recent fuel price pressure has not yet been felt in the CPI, however. Labor said U.S. gasoline prices in fact fell during August, and without a drop in energy costs the CPI would have risen 0.2%.
Still, this is further reason to think the Federal Reserve will not soon hike interest rates that are another big cost factor to truck equipment buyers. Indeed, one Fed policymaker - Dallas Fed President Robert McTeer - suggested this week that rates could come back down after the fuel price bulge moves past. Transport Topics
NHTSA Investigates 47 Million More Firestone Tires
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is stepping up investigations into Bridgestone Corp., and may require the company to recall 47 million of its Firestone tires in addition to the 6.5 million recently recalled, USA Today reported Friday.NHTSA will announce Friday whether the additional tires - 1991-2000 Gillette Force 4, Sieberling Trailrider A/S and Triumph Terrain LT brands - will have to be recalled, the report said.
If Bridgestone were to refuse to recall the tires after a NHTSA request, as they did with the 1.4 million asked for in August, the agency could request a court-ordered recall through the Justice Department, the newspaper noted. Transport Topics
Daewoo Workers Lash Out at Ford for Dropping Bid
The Office Workers Committee of Daewoo Motors released a scathing commentary on Ford Motor Co., after Ford scrapped a $7-billion bid to purchase the Korean auto maker, Bloomberg reported Friday.The 5,400-member committee berated Ford for backing off its bid after beating out other competitors for the purchase, and called on the Korean government and people to make Ford "take responsibility for its action," the report said. The committee even encouraged a nationwide boycott of Ford vehicles, according to Bloomberg.
South Korean stocks and currency plummeted on the Daewoo-Ford news, and investors expressed concern over the possibility that the government's broader plan to sell off assets could falter, Bloomberg also reported. Transport Topics
U.S. August Industrial Output Up 0.3%, But Factory Growth Slight
The U.S. Federal Reserve reported Friday what at first glance appears to be a healthy 0.3% rise in overall industrial production for August. But with utilities cranked up 4% and mining flat, the report showed U.S. factories grew their output just 0.1% for the second straight month.That confirms what truckers on the roads have already been seeing - that growth in shipments of U.S.-made goods has slowed significantly. Although hauls of foreign-made goods from U.S. ports and air cargo facilities has continued strong, more and more U.S. factories have scaled back production recently and announced layoffs.
Unless that changes soon, truckers can only expect a further tightening of shipment growth. Transport Topics
DaimlerChrysler Internet Unit Raises Driver Distraction Concerns
Mercedes-Benz, a division of DaimlerChrysler, said it is the first automaker to offer on-board Internet access, an offering which raises concerns about driver distractions, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official said in the report that screen-based systems are more distracting to drivers than voice-based systems. The Mercedes-Benz system does display a warning, suggesting drivers read the online information while the car is stationary and not while driving, the article said.
That issue is similar to one facing truck drivers using an increasing array of on-board wireless options, including technology to communicate with their home terminals. Safety advocates say that when receiving a message, drivers are encouraged to pull over rather than read the display while driving. Transport Topics
Headlines From Yesterday's P.M. Briefing
- Oil Prices Fall as Clinton Considers Tapping U.S. Reserve
- Burlington Restructures, Cuts Back in Truck Division
- LA Transit Strike Deadline Looms
- U.S. Rail Intermodal Hauls Rise Again in Latest Week
- Britain Rations First Motor Fuel Supplies; Protests Continue Elsewhere in Europe
- Freightliner Gets $400 Million Army Contract
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