News Briefs - July 8
The Latest Headlines:
- Roadway's 2Q Net Income, Revenues Increase
- Fewer Bridges Found Deficient, Report Says
- Price of Crude Falls After Nigerian Strike Ends
- MMTA Names Ehrlich 'Person of the Year'
- Mack Reportedly Pays $8.3 Million in Truck Death Suit
- Fewer Bridges Found Deficient, Report Says
Roadway's 2Q Net Income, Revenues Increase
Roadway Corp., the parent of several less-than-truckload carriers, on Tuesday reported a net income for its fiscal second quarter ended June 21 of $6.3 million or 33 cents per share, compared with $5.7 million or 30 cents in the year-ago period.The company's earnings matched the lower guidance it provided last month. (Click here for the related story.)
Revenues increased 13% to $741.5 million, the Akron, Ohio-based company said in its release.
Roadway is ranked No. 7 on the 2002 Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. It operates with 12 weeks in each of the first three quarters and 16 weeks in the fourth quarter. Transport Topics
(Click here for the full press release.)
Fewer Bridges Found Deficient, Report Says
Although more than 25% of all U.S. highway bridges are considered deficient, that is a significant improvement from just a decade ago, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.The number of bridges that are in need of repairs, unable to adequately handle traffic loads or fail to meet safety standards declined 18% to 163,010 during 2002 from 199,090 during 1992, according to Federal Highway Administration data. The new figure still amounts to 28% of bridges.
The drop in deficient bridges coincided with passage of two federal transportation bills that provided $36.5 billion for repairs beginning in 1992, more than double the $15.3 billion during the previous decade. Transport Topics
Price of Crude Falls After Nigerian Strike Ends
The price of crude oil prices fell Tuesday after Nigeria's main labor movement canceled a national strike, ending concerns about a possible cut in exports, Bloomberg reported.The Nigerian Labor Congress and 29 affiliated unions called off the strike after the government agreed to limit increases in fuel prices to 31%, instead of 54%, Bloomberg said.
Brent crude oil for August settlement fell as much as 61 cents on London's International Petroleum Exchange to just over $27 per barrel. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, August crude oil was down 41 cents at $29.72 in electronic trading. Transport Topics
MMTA Names Ehrlich 'Person of the Year'
The Maryland Motor Truck Association named Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. as its 2003 Person of the Year.MMTA spokesman Louis Campion said the group honors a different person each year for service to the industry, and presented Ehrlich’s award in a recent ceremony attended by American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves.
Ehrlich “has supported the trucking industry first as a state delegate, then as U.S. congressman and now as governor of Maryland,” Campion said.
raves presented Ehrlich with a miniature ATA 70th anniversary truck.
Campion said the Maryland association usually invites an ATA representative to attend. But “given the nature of the recipient,” the state group asked for Graves as both former Kansas governor and ATA president.
“The event is typically a roast,” Campion said. “So it worked out nicely because Graves was able to talk, tongue-in-cheek of course, about what not to do as governor.” Sean McNally
This story appeared in the July 7 print edition of Transport Topics.
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Mack Reportedly Pays $8.3 Million in Truck Death Suit
Mack Trucks Inc., a division of Volvo AB, has paid $8.3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the mother of an Alabama truck driver killed in a truck fire, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing an attorney for the deceased driver.The settlement ends a suit that produced a $50 million jury verdict against Mack in 2000. Mack had appealed, and the Alabama Supreme Court reduced that penalty on May 30 to $6 million but upheld the jury's finding that the Mack truck wwas defective, Bloomberg reported.
The driver's attorney said that on July 1 Mack paid the judgment plus $2.3 million in interest, the report said.
The plaintiffs had contended the driver was killed because the truck he was driving did not have a cut-off switch to disable the electrical system after a collision, Bloomberg said, and the attorney said the driver was trapped in his truck and died in a fire started by an electrical arc from battery cables.
Mack had no comment on the payment, Bloomberg reported, but a spokesman said the company continued to disagree with the state Supreme Court's decision upholding the jury finding of a defect in the vehicle. Transport Topics
