P.M. Executive Briefing - May 23
This Afternoon's Headlines:
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Simon Transportation Rejects Moyes' Bid
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Dick Simon Transportation announced that its chairman, Richard D. Simon, has formally rejected a tender offer by stockholder Jerry Moyes to buy the company. The board of directors, however, will allow Moyes to make the offer directly to other shareholders.Moyes, who owns truckload carrier Swift Transportation, announced earlier that he had made an offer of $7 per share, valuing the Utah-based truckload carrier at about $39 million. Reuters Securities said he originally bid $6.80, but that Simon in December rejected his offer.
Simon is a truckload carrier based in Salt Lake City that specializes in refrigerated food transport; it operates across the United States and in eight Canadian provinces.Transport Topics staff
GE Capital Is Expected to Buy Transamerica Leasing Unit
Aegon NV, which recently acquired Transamerica Financial Group through its purchase of Transamerica Corp., plans to sell the unit – probably to GE Capital. Aegon plans to continue to leverage Transamerica's real estate and life insurance services.GE Capital is in a position to purchase Transamerica Financial both financially and based on its operations. Transamerica Leasing, a transportation-based equipment lessor, would fit in well with GE Capital's existing lessor services.
Sources say that Aegon wants over $1.94 billion for Transamerica Finance and could get as much as $3.8 billion. GE Capital has yet to make a public announcement concerning the deal. American Banker (05/23/00) P. 1; Gjertsen, Lee Ann; Reich-Hale, David
Trucker Hospitalized After Stabbing at Minnesota Rest Area
Truck driver Dennis Nelson, of Blaine, Minn.-based SAV Enterprises, was in serious condition early Tuesday after being stabbed early Monday while he slept in his truck at the Lake Bergen rest area on Interstate 94 in Minnesota.After contacting his dispatcher, the 60-year-old driver was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he underwent surgery.
Officials are hopeful that they will be able to get some information regarding the incident, since several trucks were driving out of the rest area about when the attack occurred. Investigators think the incident was a random attack. Associated Press (05/23/00)
Liles' Group Withdraws Bid for KLLM
JACKSON, Miss. – Truckload carrier KLLM Transport Services said a group headed by its president and chief executive officer, Jack Liles, has withdrawn its bid to acquire the company for $8.25 a share, Reuters reported.The Liles group on May 8 had countered an April 12 bid by KLLM shareholder Robert Low to buy all outstanding shares at $7.75 each, Reuters noted, and the company said it willl now continue talks for a deal with Low Acquisition Corp. or "seek other alternatives for enhancing the value of the company."
KLLM reportedly has more than 4.25 million shares outstanding. Transport Topics staff
Four Railroads Announce Investment in Online Transportation Management Services
Four major railroads – Canadian Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific – announced Tuesday that they are taking a leap into online transportation services.In a joint press release, each railroad said they have invested in Arzoon, a California-based company that has developed Internet technology to provide one-stop management services for all modes of transport. Through Arzoon, customers can request freight services as well as track their shipments in real time.
"When fully developed, the new technology will enable our customers to utilize transportation services that seamlessly span the North American Continent from Canada to Mexico and from one coast to the other with just the click of a mouse," said Rob Ritchie, president of Canadian Pacific.
"Alliances among railroads are the key to providing our customers with quality service, including flawless interchange of freight traffic – the goal of every company in the rail industry," said CSX Chairman John Snow. "The purpose of our partnership's investment is to achieve seamless service." Transport Topics staff
Cummins Exemplifies Success in Branding
Cummins Engine's current branding campaign is an example of how a company can work to build a successful brand. According to Jim White of the advertising and PR firm Doe-Anderson, the two key points of a successful branding are courage, which allows brands to "stand for one simple idea very clearly and strongly," and consistency, which "is the ability to stick with that idea over time, because brands take time to build."Mel Bryant of PriceWeber, a marketing firm that counts Cummins among its clients, says the Cummins campaign – which includes ads showing people golfing, hunting, and relaxing on a beach – demonstrates these approaches.
Cummins, which when studying branding last year found that no company in its industry has a strong brand recognition, abandoned the normal sorts of campaigns used by other enginemakers to focus its brand around its slogan, "Run Hard. Dream Big." The images in the ads are a way for Cummins to "present their engines as a tool that enables their customers to achieve and fulfill [their] dreams," Bryant says.
Cummins backed up the campaign by designing its Mid-America Trucking Show booth to look like a beach, with representatives in Hawaiian shirts, and holding a drawing at the show for an Aruba vacation.
"We're a shirt-and-tie kind of company, and this marketing campaign was really going out on a limb for us, but it's been really successful and our customers have loved it," says Cummins' Thomas Kieffer. Business First of Louisville Online (05/22/00); Moon, Victoria Austen
Mechanical Dynamics Signs Deal With Western Star
Western Star Trucks has inked a deal with virtual prototyping software and service provider Mechanical Dynamics, which said it will provide Western Star with consulting, engineering, design, and structural element analysis services. Crain's Detroit Business (05/21/00) Vol. 16, No. 20; P. 6; Green, LeslieNew Penn Launches Revamped Web Site
In March, Pennsylvania.-based regional LTL carrier New Penn Motor Express inaugurated the revised version of its www.newpenn.com Web site, which was first launched in the middle of last year.After the company's marketing department examined customers' needs and rival companies' online offerings to determine what should be provided on its Web site, the department joined with the company's MIS team to decide what the company's internal capabilities were. Examining its capabilities allowed New Penn to expand some parts of its planned offerings, while the company had to rein in some of its other plans.
The company decided to let its in-house talent design the pages that would interact with its AS/400 enterprise computing system while hiring a Web developer to create the home page and non-interactive pages. Finally, the company added pickup entry and automated rate quote modules. Fleet Equipment (05/00) Vol. 26, No. 5; P. 52; Buxbaum, Peter
Compiled by Transport Topics staff and INFORMATION, INC. © 2000
