P.M. Executive Briefing - Oct. 3
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OPEC May Boost Output in October
This October may bring more than cooler weather and baseball playoffs. It may also bring more oil from OPEC than it now produces.OPEC President Ali Rodriguez of Venezuela said Tuesday the group may increase crude oil production again in October - on top of an output increase that took effect Sunday of 800,000 barrles a day - if prices remain above $28 per barrel, Bloomberg reports.
Rodriguez told reporters that if prices stay above that informal benchmark price for 20 days from Oct. 1, OPEC will boost production by another 500,000 barrels per day. Transport Topics
U.S. Rail Agency Proposes Tougher Merger Rules
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board on Tuesday proposed rules that would make it tougher for railroad companies to merge, Reuters reported.The rules would require railroads to show how a merger would enhance competition, and would make them more accountable for service and the merger benefits they claim, the report said.
U.S. railroads are already under a 15-month STB merger moratorium. After several big mergers had caused enormous congestion problems for freight shippers, Canadian National and Burlington Northern Santa Fe planed a merger that would create the largest North American rail system.
That, in turn, had triggered alarms by shippers and other railroads fearing that it would set off a new round of service-clogging mergers. That moratorium expires next summer. Transport Topics
ArvinMeritor Names Gosnell to Head Commercial Vehicle Systems
Transportation parts supplier ArvinMeritor (ARM)announced Tuesday Tom Gosnell has been appointed company senior vice president and president of its Commercial Vehicle Systems unit, effective immediately.
He previously headed the Commercial Vehicle Aftermarket operations.
Headquartered in Troy, Mich., ArvinMeritor supplies a broad range of integrated systems, modules and components to the light vehicle, commercial truck, trailer and specialty original equipment markets as well as related aftermarkets. Transport Topics
UPS Lays Out Plans for Holiday Driver Hires
UPS (UPS said it will hire about 2,500 temporary tractor-trailer and package-car drivers for the upcoming holiday season. Of that number, 20% will be truckers, a spokeswoman said.In 1999, UPS found it necessary to hire more drivers than originally anticipated; about 900 of them were tractor-trailer drivers, the spokeswoman said.
In all, UPS expects to hire 95,000 seasonal employees, most of them package sorters for its hubs and drivers' helpers. Transport Topics
US&T Relocates Chicago Same-Day Delivery Operations
United Shipping & Technology (USHP) said Tuesday it has moved its Chicago-area, same-day delivery base from the northwest side of the city to Hodgkins, Ill., a suburb west of the city.Operating under the name VXP, US&T's Chicago operations offer delivery services such as on demand, scheduled, distribution, warehousing and fulfillment, e-commerce, logistics and on-site services.
US&T said it serves a variety of industries including healthcare, petrochemical, computers and electronics. Transport Topics
Economy: Fed Holds; Leading Index Slides
As expected, the U.S. Federal Reserve's top officials held their fire on monetary policy Tuesday and for their third straight meeting kept short-term interest rates at 6.5%, as the economy's growth moderates and inflation does not threaten to break out, wire services reported.Without some strong evidence that inflation might get out of hand, no one thought the Fed might hike rates again in the final stretch of a presidential election campaign and risk becoming a political target.
Now, some economists are speculating that when the Fed does act again it might even push rates down for the first time since 1998, to keep the economy from slowing too much.
Earlier Tuesday, the private Conference Board said its index of leading U.S. economic indicators fell a scant 0.1% in August, the third decline in four months for a guage that tries to predict the economy's behavior three to six months in the future. Transport Topics
Slater, Other Transport Ministers to Attend Symposium Oct 9-12
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater will join with other transport ministers and heads of state from around the world at an international transportation symposium Oct. 9-12 in Washington, D.C.Topics include changing consumer expectations, workforce capacity and increased demands, plus technology advances and safety standards.
The U.S. Department of Transportation, the city of Washington and the Greater Washington Board of Trade are hosting the event. Transport Topics
Transport Bill: Alcohol; Big Dig; Wilson Bridge
Among the controversial items that made it into the federal transportation funding bill Tuesday for fiscal 2001 were:- a tougher standard for drunk driving,
- money to help rebuild the Woodrow Wilson Bridge near the nation's capital, and
- language that embraces a cap on spending for the massively over-budget "Big Dig" project in downtown Boston.
A press release from the House Appropriations Committee said the House-Senate conference panel agreed to require states to adopt a .08% blood-alcohol limit for drunk driving laws. That is below the level in many states, and those not adopting it would start losing federal highway funds starting in fiscal 2004
The Big Dig is the nation's largest road-building project and was first estimated at $2.5 billion to put some major roadways underground in central Boston to clear up congestion. Now the estimates are over $13 billion, but a recent agreement with Massachusetts officials would limit a federal payout to $8.5 billion. The new transportation bill codifies that limit.
Traffic on north-south Interstate 95 outside of Washington, D.C, must cross the Potomac River along one of the nation's busiest corridors by traveling on the long Wilson drawbridge. It is already handling a lot more traffic than it was built for, the backups are lengthy and often, and both Maryland and Virginia have offered partial funding. Now, the federal government plans to allocate $600 million in the coming year for the project. Transport Topics
DHL, Post Office Expand Their Links
The U.S. Postal Service and global delivery company DHL Worldwide Express have expanded their relationship to offer a joint two-day delivery between U.S. and foreign locations, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The report said the alliance has grown from serving 11 U.S. cities and 18 foreign countries early last year, to about 20,000 U.S. retail postal outlets and more than 200 foreign countries now. Transport Topics
Headlines From Today's A.M. Briefing
- U.S. Diesel Prices Drop After Setting All-Time High
- House-Senate Panel to Meet on Transport Bill, Driver Hours
- Hub Group Expects to Fall Short in 3Q, 4Q Earnings
- Tower Issues 3Q Warning, Undergoes Restructuring
- LoJack Corp. Names Farris CFO
- 3Plex Names New President/COO
- Some Break With L.A.'s Striking Bus Drivers
- Rush Enterprises Diversifies More With Rocking H Trailers
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