P.M. Executive Briefing - May 4
This Afternoon's Headlines:
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Big Container Cargo Facility Set for Port
The Port of Tampa, Fla., may be able to draw more containerized cargo business thanks to a new contract with shipping agent A.R. Savage & Son, which is beginning construction on a new container-handling facility there.The new 17-acre Tampa site will take the place of the current, smaller A.R. Savage facilities, which are in three different parts of the port; the agent's chief port for cargo coming from Asia is Savannah, Ga.
The port hopes it can lure more container trade once A.R. Savage starts consolidating some of its southeastern operations in Tampa; Savage also went into port trucking in Tampa in 1995 and has had its fastest growth ever since then. St. Petersburg Times (05/04/00) P. 1E; Harrington, Jeff
Teamsters Leaders Had Secret Talks to Try to Save AWG Jobs
Teamsters representatives held talks with the parent company of the firm now running Associated Wholesale Grocers' Springfield, Mo., warehouse in an effort to retain union jobs there, union officials said Thursday. This comes in spite of statements by union business agents prior to the end of AWG's contract with the union, in which the business agents said they would not negotiate with the outsource companies AWG hired in Springfield and Kansas City.The two meetings with Elite Logistics parent company Tibbett & Britten, held in secret in late March, were described as "professional" and "on the whole, constructive" by Tibbett & Britten North American President Mike Sprague. But the meetings "just didn't go anywhere," Sprague said.
Jim Kabell, business manager of union Local 245, said the revelation may discredit a letter AWG President Doug Carolan wrote to newspapers, in which Carolan said union leaders "refused to negotiate" with the companies AWG hired to run the Springfield and Kansas City warehouse and trucking operations.
Kabell further claimed that Carolan "pulled the plug" on the secret meetings, but this was denied by Sprague, who said AWG had no involvement in the talks. MSNBC Online (05/04/00) ; Patton, Laurie
Cops Say Hijacking Was a Lie
The truck driver accused of stealing some of his load of beer and telling Philadelphia police he had been hijacked was caught in a scheme that is becoming a pattern among drug dealers, police say.Driver Dorie D. Daniels told police that a woman offered him crack on Sunday, and he used it for the next two days, then was unable to pay – so the dealers offered to accept the beer in his truck in return. He at first had claimed to have been hijacked and driven around for two days by the perpetrators.
Police say dealers often find truckers who use drugs, then get them to purchase a great deal of the drugs, taking the cargo as payment. Philadelphia Daily News Online (05/04/00) ; Latty, Yvonne
Drug Smugglers Seeing Green
More and more drugs are being smuggled into the United States in truckloads of produce, evading Customs officials who spend less time inspecting each truck due to the surge in U.S.-Mexico trade following the passage of Nafta, say federal authorities.New Jersey State Police have found marijuana and cocaine in at least four different produce trucks in the last year and a half; among them was a ton of marijuana found in a truckload of Spanish onions last week at the New Jersey Turnpike's Vince Lombardi Service Center area in Ridgefield.
Drug Enforcement Agency agent Robert D. Mansaw said Customs inspectors also are hesitant to do lengthy inspections of produce shipments in the summer because the heat could ruin the cargo.
The Vince Lombardi rest area was also the site of a February seizure of marijuana and cocaine in a truck hauling yellow peppers. Other recent seizures by the State Police were about $30 million in cocaine found at a warehouse in Secaucus in January and $24.4 million in cocaine found in a watermelon truck in the southern part of the state in September.
Mexican smugglers are the main conduit for drugs being sent to northern New Jersey by Colombian cartels, said Anthony J. Senneca of the Newark Division of the DEA, and it can be hard for authorities to find the smugglers higher up in the organization because the truckers are told little about the shipments by their employers. Bergen (N.J.) Record Online (05/01/00); Maddux, Mitchel
Fleet Image for Upscale Products
Royalty Foods, an Florida-based foodservice distributor specializing in upscale goods, knows that it pays to have a fleet that looks as good as the products it delivers.The company's royal blue trucks with gold lettering deliver specialty products, such as aged beef, other meat entrees, Vie de France baked goods, veal demi-glace, and truffles. Drivers must wear uniforms in order to complement the company image of upscale-product delivery.
Royalty Foods' large inventory is turned close 40 times per year, with roughly equivalent inbound and outbound volume, and it does some crossdocking of such goods as expensive produce and fresh seafood. President Bob Meeks said orders average 15 to 20 cases, generating $1,200 or so. Meeks also believes in saturating a market before moving into new territory.
While the company does not compete for business on price, Meeks said that once the company earns a customer's trust with its service and more than 90% fill rate, they never leave.
The company's fleet has grown 100% in the past seven years, with two expansions to its building, while its straight trucks have grown larger and it has begun using tractor-trailers as well. It operates eight 28-foot trailers, two 32-footers, two 42-footers, and a single 36-footer – created by lopping 12 feet off a 48/102 highway van. Refrigerated Transporter (04/00) Vol. 37, No. 11; P. 28; Macklin, Gary
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