News Briefs - June 16
The Latest Headlines:
- Goodyear Delays 1Q Earnings Report
- FMCSA Puts Swift Safety-Rating Case on Hold
- NAM Nominates Engler as New CEO
- Housing Starts Decline in May
- Wabash CFO Holden Resigns
- House Passes Energy Bill, but Senate Unlikely to Act
- Survey: Companies Optimistic on 3Q Hiring
- Hub Executive Says Hours Rule Helps Railroads
- FMCSA Puts Swift Safety-Rating Case on Hold
Goodyear Delays 1Q Earnings Report
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said it was delaying its first-quarter earnings report scheduled to be released on Wednesday, but said its not loss would be between $75 million and $85 million, compared with a net loss of $196.5 million a year earlier.The company said in a statement it would file the financial statements before the June 30 deadline as required by its credit facilities.
Goodyear also said it expected to report record first-quarter sales of $4.3 billion, compared with $3.5 billion last year. Transport Topics
FMCSA Puts Swift Safety-Rating Case on Hold
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said its safety-rating case against truckload carrier Swift Transportation Co. has been stayed pending the outcome of a related case before the Department of Transportation, the Arizona Republic reported.The DOT case involves a proposed fine Swift is facing for its drivers allegedly falsifying mileage logbooks last year, the article said. Swift has denied the allegations and is asking an administrative law judge to dismiss the case.
Meanwhile, federal regulators recommended in an audit report last year that Swift's safety rating be downgraded to "conditional" from "satisfactory" because it was alleged to have a higher-than-normal accident rate and lax safety controls, the Republic said.
Swift is ranked No. 13 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics
NAM Nominates Engler as New CEO
The National Association of Manufacturers said Tuesday that former Michigan Gov. John Engler was nominated as chief executive officer. Engler would replace outgoing CEO Jerry Jasinowski."Gov. Engler's track record in Michigan shows that he understands manufacturers and their workers, the importance of manufacturing to the country and how to get things done," NAM Chairman Richard Dauch said in a statement.
Engler's appointment must be ratified by the association's board of directors at their September meeting, NAM said. Transport Topics
Housing Starts Decline in May
Housing starts declined 0.7% in May to 1.967 million units at an annual pace, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.Housing starts were forecast to fall to a 1.95 million rate, Bloomberg said. The pace of housing starts has averaged 2.12 million in 2004, putting it on pace to surpass last year's total of 1.85 million, the most in 25 years.
Building permits, a sign of future construction, rose 3.5% to a 2.077 million rate, while the number of houses already under construction rose 0.2% to a 1.228 million annual rate, Commerce said. Transport Topics
Wabash CFO Holden Resigns
Truck trailer Wabash National Corp. said late Tuesday that Chief Financial Officer Mark Holden would resign from the company effective, June 30.Holden has been with Wabash since 1992 and has been CFO since October 2001. The company did not name a successor in its statement. Transport Topics
Survey: Companies Optimistic on 3Q Hiring
A survey by Manpower Inc. found that many companies expect to add jobs this summer to satisfy demand for their goods and services, the Associated Press reported.The survey found 30% of companies expect to hire more people in the third quarter, while 6% intend to cut jobs. The rest anticipated no change or were uncertain about hiring prospects from July through September.
Manpower also noted manufacturers have not been this optimistic about job prospects since early 2001. The quarterly survey includes 16,000 businesses.
According to the Manpower survey, job prospects in the Northeast, Midwest and South were similar to those reported in the second-quarter survey. Employers in the West expected to increase hiring. Transport Topics
House Passes Energy Bill, but Senate Unlikely to Act
The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed an $31 billion energy bill supported by President Bush, news services reported.Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, Republican chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he welcomed the House trying to "draw attention" to the energy issue, but said he did not think the Senate would it up this year, the Associated Press reported.
The bill, which provides tax breaks for oil and natural-gas producers and shields makers of the gasoline additive MTBE from product liability lawsuits, is nearly identical to a $31 billion energy bill that cleared the House last year. Similar legislation stalled in the Senate in 2003. Transport Topics
Hub Executive Says Hours Rule Helps Railroads
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. — New federal hours-of-service rules for drivers have moved some freight to rail from trucks, an intermodal executive said in an interview last week.Joe Domabyl, senior director of intermodal operations for the Hub Group, said that while some freight has moved to trains from trucks, “it’s more a regional issue and really shouldn’t be much of an issue locally,” where drayage drivers run loads from rail yards to customers and back.
The Hub Group ranks No. 36 in the Transport Topics Logistics 50 listing of U.S. and Canadian logistics providers and specializes in railroad freight forwarding.
Mark Yeager, the company’s chief operating officer, said that Union Pacific railroad’s network has been “more reliable” lately, but added that the railroad “learned from last time [it had major service slowdowns in the late 1990s] not to state timetables publicly.” Michael G. Malloy
This story appeared in the June 14 print edition of Transport Topics.
