P.M. Executive Briefing - Aug. 2
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Grupo Dina Makes Changes At The Top
Mexican truck maker Grupo Dina replaced its chief financial officer, engineering and purchase director and its operational and sales manager in an attempt to overcome financial struggles, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.Dina's shares have fallen 72% so far this year and the company recently reported a 55% second-quarter sales drop to 276 million pesos ($28.09 million U.S.), the report said.
Recently, Dina defaulted on its debts after Western Star, a recent acquisition of DaimlerChrysler subsidiary Freightliner, cancelled an order of 140 trucks and scaled back its third quarter order, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
Home Sales Dropped Again in June
U.S. sales of new homes fell in June for the third consecutive month, the government reported. The 3.7% drop to the weakest sales pace since the end of 1997 suggested that while the overall economy may be growing fast, some big parts of it are not.Those weak numbers for new-home demand follow a year of Federal Reserve rate hikes to cool the economy, and would come as no surprise to truck companies already hit by reduced shipments of related construction supplies or home furnishings and appliances.
Separately, Bloomberg reported that outspoken St. Louis Fed President William Poole suggested he does not now see enough inflation risk to prod the Fed to push rates higher. Some in financial markets had feared last week's report of strong economic growth might prompt another Fed rate hike. Transport Topics
Truckers Worry About Impact Of Hours Rule, USA Today Says
Trucker Lyle Favreau and his 3 million counterparts nationwide are concerned that proposed new hours-of-service regulations will throw off their sleep cycles and add more trucks to the roads, the USA Today reported Wednesday.Favreau, who drives for Crete Carriers, took a USA Today reporter with him on a trip to Norcross, Ga. The trip demonstrated how truck drivers must juggle federal regulations on how long they can drive with the customers' demands to have their product as fast as possible.
In the article, Favreau also expressed concern that the new hours-of-service regulations would counteract a person's natural sleep cycle. He also noted that the new regulations would require more drivers to meet delivery demands, thus putting more trucks on the roads. Both of these issues would counteract the point of the proposed regulations - cutting back on truck accidents, the article said. Transport Topics
XTRA Corp. Reports Significant Increase in Third Quarter
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Earnings for the quarter increased to $1.15 per diluted share, and net income also in-creased to $14 million from $11 million a year ago, the company said.
Company CEO Lewis Rubin said this was the 13th consecutive quarter in which earnings per diluted share increased and attributed the strong quarter to high demand for freight transportation equipment. However, Rubin added that the company foresees a demand slowdown and expects to spend "significantly less" on new equipment in the next fiscal year. Transport Topics
Revenue Rises in Second Quarter For Vitran Corp.
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Vitran also had a record earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization of $10,627,000 (Canadian) for the quarter, as well as a record operating income of $7,368,000 (Canadian). Net income for the quarter was $3,415,000 (Canadian), or 35 cents per share.
"The Canadian LTL business unit performed very well during the period, but the most sig-nificant accomplishment of the 2000 second quarter was a continuation of the solid results we achieved at the end of the first quarter at our U.S. Central States LTL operations, Vitran Express," said company CEO Richard McGraw. "If the present economic and company-specific trends continue, Vitran Corporation should achieve stronger financial results in the second half of 2000." Transport Topics
Logistics.com Launches QuoteShip Exchange™ Nationwide
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QuoteShip Exchange is an online service that automates and facilitates spot quotes between shippers and transportation services. It has been fully integrated into Logistics.com's Digital Transportation Marketplace™. Transport Topics
State Money Used To Help Freeway Access For Trucks In Los Angeles
The California state government will help finance an alternative route to Interstate 5 in Los Angeles to help the trucking industry comply with a recent ban, the Los Angeles Time reported Wednesday.State Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) announced $2 million in state funds would go to widening a freeway onramp near Olympic Boulevard and Lemon Street in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles.
Local officials placed a ban on tractor-trailers from using North 7th Street because of the residential area that surrounds it. That ban is set to start in September with fines starting at $200. The trucking industry has been concerned that there would be now viable alternative to the 7th Street onramp. Transport Topics
Jury Awards $1.75 Million In Suit Against Truck Driver
A Henry County, Tenn. jury has awarded $1.75 million in a 1998 accident that was allegedly caused by a tailgating truck driver, the Associated Press reported this week.Robert Lewis Davidson, who sustained serious injury in the accident, received $1.25 million. The estate of Davidson's wife Joyce, who was killed in the accident, was awarded $500,000.
The jury found driver Allen L. Briggs and his company, Southland Transportation Co., 100% negligent in the accident, the AP said.
The accident occurred after two other motorists changed lanes due to Briggs' tailgating and Briggs' truck then struck the Davidsons' car, the article said. Transport Topics
Canadian Trucker Dies After Truck Hits Boulder
A Canadian truck driver was killed instantly Monday when his tractor-trailer struck a boulder in the highway and crashed head-on into the side of a mountain, the Calgary Herald reported Wednesday.The driver, 62-year-old Ralph Joseph Comeau, could not have avoided the boulder that fell into the roadway just minutes before the accident, Royal Canadian Mounted Police told the Herald.
Comeau was a veteran driver who once survived an avalanche while driving. He had been working for his nephew, Tim Comeau, who owns TNT Enterprises Ltd. Tim Comeau told the Herald his uncle died doing what he loved best. Transport Topics
Driver Lied About Being Robbed To Get A Day Off, Police Say
A Philadelphia truck driver was charged with filing a false police report after police discovered his story of being robbed was false, the Associated Press reported recently.Maurice Purnell told police in Princeton, N.J., that seven masked men armed with knives had jumped his truck and stole $400 from him, the AP said. When Purnell's story changed, police became suspicious. He eventually admitted he made up the story to get a day off from the road. Transport Topics
Georgia-Pacific Corp. Branch Helps Out Local School District By Inspecting Buses
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G-P had brought in the Northeast Truckalyser System for free computerized safety inspections on the company's heavy trucks and those that came into the mills. The company also invited the Baileyville School Department to have its five school buses inspected free of charge, the article said.
The Truckalyser system inspects each axle and brake on the truck from front to back and provides a graphic printout for its driver. Transport Topics
N.J. Company Finds Niche in "Very" Heavy Hauling
In 40 years of business, J. Supor & Son, Trucking and Rigging Co., of Harrison, N.J., has hauled some really big equipment, notes the Bergen (N.J.) Record.From 155-foot-long, 500-ton cylindrical storage tanks to military tanks to, most recently, a stuck Continental Airlines MD-80 jet, Joe Supor's company has found a place hauling very heavy equipment.
Supor started with one truck in 1960 and now runs a 100-truck, 65-employee, 24-hour-a-day operation. Supor and his son, Joe Jr., plan big moves using miniature-scale replicas of the equipment, the article said. Transport Topics
UP, Overnite Say They'll Investigate Teamster Allegations
Union Pacific will investigate Teamster allegations that acts including bomb threats were instigated by officials from its subsidiary Overnite Transpor-tation and made to look like union supporters were responsible, officials said Wednesday.UP spokesman John Bromley confirmed an earlier report in the Wall Street Journal that Carl von Bernuth, senior vice president and general counsel for UP, will lead the inquiry into the allegations. Officials with Richmond, Va.-based Overnite will also check those allegations: primarily bomb threats made to Overnite’s Memphis terminal in October and a fire at its Tupelo, Miss. facility in July.
“The company will certainly investigate them, but we have no reason at this time to believe they’re true,” said Overnite spokeswoman Laurie Beasley.
In a New York Times article last week, Anthony Holly said while he was a driver at Overnite he was paid $10,000 last year to get union supporters falsely accused of vandalizing company property. Overnite spokesman Ira Rosenfeld said last week that the company gave Holly loans totaling $22,500 to aid him during a financial crisis. Holly later told the Associated Press he repaid $4,000 of the money loaned to him but did not feel obligated to pay the balance. He later quit Overnite, Holly said, because of the tension coming from the lengthy dispute between the carrier and the Teamsters. Transport Topics
