P.M. Executive Briefing - Aug. 4
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Oil Prices Rise a Fourth Day, Hit Two-Week High
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The increase, putting prices at a two-week high, comes amid concern over reportedly de-creasing supplies in the United States. Inventories of distillate fuels, including heating oils, are also down, and concern is growing over possible winter shortages, the article said.
Also on Friday, OPEC president Ali Rodriguez said the oil-producing cartel does not plan to raise production at the moment, though it will reconsider after reviewing prices again in September, Bloomberg said. Prices currently remain in OPEC's target range of $22-$28 a barrel. Transport Topics
Giuliani Supports Proposed Rail-Freight Tunnel Under New York Harbor
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani favors a proposed rail-freight tunnel under New York Harbor that would cost approximately $2.3 billion but, a survey says, would pay for itself through increased business, the New York Times reported Friday.After a two-year study, the New York City Economic Development Corporation recommended a tunnel connect Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and Staten Island or Jersey City, the article said. The study also concluded that the harbor tunnel would cut back on the number of trucks going through the city by approximately 1 million a year, the article said. Transport Topics
Western Star Picks Associates First Capital For Financing
Associates First Capital Corp. has been selected as the preferred provider of truck financing in the United States for Western Star Trucks Inc., the company announced Friday.As preferred provider, Associates First Capital will offer Western Star a variety of wholesale and retail financing programs, the company said.
It was recently announced that DaimlerChrysler's Freightliner division will purchase Western Star, manufacturers of Class 8 heavy trucks. Transport Topics
Trucker And Daughters Killed In Collision
Truck driver Quincy Henderson told the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee that if he didn't have his wife and 1-year-old son join him on the road he would never see his boy grow up.So is life for truckers and the topic of having family – especially children during summer vacation – join them on long hauls was on the minds of many Thursday after an accident killed a trucker and his two daughters.
Bruce Caldwell, 49, and his daughters Abby, 2, and Sarah, 7, died in a fiery collision in which Caldwell's rig rammed into a flatbed tractor-trailer hauling aluminum tubing. California Highway Patrol officers said the fuel tank on Caldwell's truck ruptured and exploded. CHP investigators believe Caldwell may have fallen asleep at the wheel. On Wednesday Caldwell called his wife back home in Minnesota from Salt Lake City to say they would be home in a few days.
The truck Caldwell hit was driven by a man who was on the road with his two teen-age daughters. None of them were injured in the accident. Transport Topics
S.C. Trucking Association Announces Driver Appreciation Week Plans
The South Carolina Trucking Association will host several cookouts for truck drivers during National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, Aug. 12-19, SCTA announced Friday.``We want our truck drivers to know that we understand how difficult a job it is to operate large commercial vehicles out on today's crowded roadways, and that we all need to promote safe driving,'' said Elleveen Poston, SCTA chairwoman.
Several grocery stores and distributors are contributing food for the events. In addition, individual trucking companies are also planning their own celebrations, the SCTA said. Transport Topics
PartsRiver Opens Two New California Offices
E-commerce catalog solutions provider PartsRiver, Inc., announced this week it is opening two offices, in Mountain View and Sacramento, Calif.The company headquarters will be the Mountain View facility and Sacramento will be a satellite office, the company said.
PartsRiver provides catalog software, content aggregation, data integration, data mining and transaction processing over the Internet to large industrial manufacturers, distributors, dealers and buyers. Transport Topics
Emery Worldwide to Build Facilities At Harrisburg International Airport
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Emery Worldwide will be the first new air-freight carrier to begin operations at HIA since the Susquehanna Regional Airport Authority purchased the airport from the state of Pennsylvania in 1998, the article said.
An airport official told the Patriot-News that freight operations at HIA have increased 12% in the past year, ranking it 58th among the nation's 300 airports in freight volume. Emery's HIA manager added that the air-freight industry hopes to make central Pennsylvania a transportation corridor, as it is for the trucking and rail industries, the article said. Transport Topics
