P.M. Executive Briefing - Nov. 7
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Possible Nigerian Export Drop Drives Oil Prices Up
Reports of delays in oil exports from Nigeria sent crude oil prices up about 2% Tuesday, Bloomberg reported.U.S. crude rose as much as 58 cents to $33.44 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and Brent crude went up 31 cents to $31.60 a barrel on London's International Petroleum Exchange, the story said.
Exports from Nigeria may decrease because local residents have tapped into export pipelines; the delay may keep U.S. inventories at low levels, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
Airborne Express Signs Multi-Million-Dollar Deal for Delivery Service
Airborne Express (ABF) announced Tuesday it has signed a three-year, multi-million-dollar deal to provide women's apparel marketer J. Jill with its airborne@home delivery service.J. Jill will use airborne@home for about 1 million shipments annually, Airborne said.
Airborne@home is a partnership between Airborne Express and the U.S. Postal Service, by which Airborne transports shipments from its sort hub network to one of more than 24,000 local destination delivery units operated by the Postal Service. Local postal carriers then deliver the packages to residences. Transport Topics
Key House-Senate Panels Ride on Election Results
Tuesday's U.S. elections not only determine whether Democratic Vice President Al Gore or Republican Gov. George W. Bush of Texas will be the nation's next president, they also decide which political party will control the House and the Senate for the next two years and therefore who will chair key committees and subcommittees in Congress.The chairmanship is a powerful position that can determine legislative priorities, so any change among lawmakers heading key panels is closely watched by the industries they monitor. Trucking is no exception.
Should the House of Representatives remain under Republican control, a GOP term limit for committee chairs already has Alaska's Don Young poised to replace Bud Shuster of Pennsylvania as chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Shuster is expected to chair the Ground Transportation Subcommittee.
If Democrats gain a majority, James Oberstar of Minnesota would chair the committee, while West Virginia's Nick Rahall would be in line for the subcommittee chair.
A Republican-controlled Senate would keep Arizona's John McCain as chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas would remain chairwoman of the Surface Transportation Subcommittee.
But if Democrats gain control of the Senate, South Carolina's Ernest Hollings is in line to chair the full committee, and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii would head the subcommittee. Transport Topics
Standard Automotive Reports Dip in 3Q Earnings
Standard Automotive Corp. (AJX) reported earnings of 5 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30.That figure is down from the comparable quarter of 1999, when Standard reported earnings of 26 cents per diluted share.
Standard's Truck Body/Trailer Division designs, manufactures and distributes trailer chassis for transporting maritime and railroad shipping containers as well as a line of specialized dump truck bodies, dump trailers, truck suspensions and other related assemblies. Transport Topics
Technician Reporting Not Required by New Vehicle Safety Law
The technicians who fix vehicles - and are often the first to spot problems and defects - are reluctant to report them, and a law President Clinton signed last week will do little to help, the New York Times reported Tuesday.The law requires manufacturers to report, and technicians often feel "allegiances" to those companies, Sue Bailey, the new chief of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told the Times.
The automotive industry's culture and procedures contrast sharply with those of the aviation realm, the paper said. Also, all commercial operators - even crop dusters - are required to report airplane problems, and many mechanics who work on private planes do so as well, the paper said. Transport Topics
Goodyear Denies Silent Recall for Light Truck Tire
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT) confirmed that it's offering free replacements for its light-truck tires. But the company denied it is running a "silent recall," where a company replaces defective parts for free, instead of recalling them.
Since 1995, Goodyear has received about 3,000 complaints about its light-tire trucks, the Los Angles Times reported. Goodyear didn't comment on this number. It said many of replacements were made for customer-satisfaction claims.
Last month, the company acknowledged a link between its 16-inch Load Range E tires and 15 deaths and 125 injuries. Yet company officials have said they found no problems with the tire. Thus, a recall wasn't necessary, they said. Goodyear spokesman Chuck Sinclair said the accidents probably came from misuse of the tires.
Safety advocates believe the Goodyear is putting thousands of people at risk by not declaring a full public recall. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration said Monday it was expanding its inquiry involving Goodyear's light-truck tires and fatalities. Transport Topics
Ford Putting Payload Info on SUVs
Ford Motor Co. (F) plans to put payload information on its sport utility vehicles to help prevent overloading, even though such practices have not been linked to crashes, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
Although the Ford Explorer has one of the largest cargo areas of any mid-size SUV, it has little extra capacity to carry weight, a consumer advocate told the Times. SUV owners are often urged to weigh their empty vehicles at public scales so they can calculate how much else they can pack in before getting to the top gross weight. However, states usually discourage such activity at highway weigh stations - a New York official told the Times that people make use of the scales at the nearest municipal garbage facility.
Meanwhile, a report in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal says that when Bridgestone/Firestone analyzed its recalled tires, it found that failures occurred most often on the tire mounted on the vehicle's left rear wheel. Firestone's analysis was not final, and Ford told the paper it had not completed its study either. Transport Topics
DaimlerChrysler Signs Agreement with Iranian Axle Maker
DaimlerChrysler (DCX) has signed a licensing agreement with Vehicle Axle Manufacturing Company, an Iranian manufacturer of truck and bus axles, to produce Mercedes-Benz axles, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.The 10-year contract is worth 430 million euros (US$369 million) and is for about 14,000 trucks and bus axles each year, the story said. Transport Topics
Headlines From Today's A.M. Briefing
- Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Clean-Air Compliance Costs
- Diesel Prices Decline Nationwide
- Expeditors Posts 44% Increase in 3Q Earnings
- Lazer Transportation Boosts Spanish Effort
- RailAmerica Wants to Sell Trailer Maker Kalyn/Siebert
- Daylight Transport's Steve Caddy Becomes Operations VP
- Satellite Firm Rolls Out Cellular Modem for Truckers
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