P.M. Executive Briefing - Mar. 8
This Afternoon's Headlines:
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Volvo Rejects Calls for Further Concessions Over Scania Merger
Volvo announced that it will not make more concessions to win the European Union's backing for its planned Scania merger, saying it does not think the current conditions needed for approval would allow the EU and Volvo to negotiate a deal.It said the EU turned down reasons offered by Volvo that Europe should be considered a single market for commercial vehicles, and that the EU had seen Europe as a single market in some earlier decisions, such as when RVI of France merged with Iveco of Italy.
DOT Recommends Regulators Consider Industrywide Effects of Rail Mergers
As a four-day Surface Transportation Board rail hearing began Tuesday, the Transportation Department asked the board to examine proposed rail mergers in light of their effects on the total industry, although it did not go so far as to urge a moratorium on rail consolidation. The proposed merger between Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Canadian National Railway sparked the hearing.The specter of the continent ending up with only two transcontinental railroads was raised after the other major railroads said they may have to merge in order to keep up with the merged BNSF-CN.
According to BNSF CEO Robert Krebs, competition and service would improve after the proposed merger is complete, while prohibiting mergers would discourage investors. However, other top railroads' executives countered that more mergers in the industry would make customers even more upset with the industry and interrupt efforts to bring service back up to par.
Union Pacific Chairman and CEO Richard Davidson said one reason UP and Canadian Pacific did not follow through on merger deliberations in 1999 was because they worried that customers would urge more federal rail regulation, but his position could change if BNSF and CN combine.
Major rail customer United Parcel Service Inc. was to testify Wednesday rail mergers cause severe and costly disruptions in rail service and request that rail mergers be prohibited at least until June 2002; other rail customers will also testify at the hearing. Wall Street Journal (03/08/00) P. A4; Machalaba, Daniel
1 in 20 Big Rigs in City Carrying Hazardous Cargo
A study performed for the Jefferson County (Ala.) Emergency Management Authority found that 4.5% of big rigs going through Birmingham, where a truck carrying military munitions was involved in an accident Monday, bore a hazmat placard. The Monday crash, which caused two interstate highways to be shut down at rush hour, pointed up the number of hazmat shipments that go through Birmingham and the threat thus posed by accidents on the city's highways.Stephen Clark, who worked on the EMA study for months, said fragmented regulation poses a problem; "No one agency tracks everything," he said.
His survey watched nine locations along Birmingham highways and noted the placards on trucks that went by. Forty-eight percent of the hazmat-carrying trucks had flammable liquids, 14% had hazardous gases, 14% had corrosive cargo, and 2% had explosives.
In the Monday crash, a car crossed the Interstate 459 median and hit the Landstar Inway truck after another car swerved around a wicker chair in the roadway Birmingham News Online (03/08/00); Bryant, Walter; Archibald, John
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