P.M. Executive Briefing - Sept. 28
This Afternoon's Headlines:
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HINO Motors Engine Cuts Nitrogen Oxide Emissions
Hino Motors' new heavy-truck engine will increase fuel efficiency between 5 percent and 10 percent while lowering nitrogen oxide emissions by one-quarter, company officials say. The recirculating engine allows the cylinders to reuse gas emissions, a conservation method engineers have not been able to make practical until recently. The engine was in development for about seven years, as engineers made the engine less heavy by designing it without specialized hoses and valves. Asia Pulse News Wire (09/28/99)PACCAR Opens New Canadian Plant
Paccar Inc. has debuted its Ste. Therese, Quebec, truck plant, which includes high-tech systems for supplier logistics and enterprise resource planning. Chairman and CEO Mark C. Pigott says the C$135 million plant can churn out 20,000 trucks annually.
Transit Group Agrees to Acquire Container, Intermodal and Brokerage Operations
Transit Group Inc. announced an $18.5 million deal to buy Land Transportation's container and intermodal marketing businesses as well as ROCOR International's RFS brokerage business. As part of the deal, Land and ROCOR will get $350,000 worth of shares in Transit Group. After the deal, the container business will be run from Land's site in Atlanta, where Transit Group has its corporate headquarters. It is anticipated that the deal will be finished in the fourth quarter this year. Business Wire (09/28/99)Boys Sue Trucker, Firm in I-78 Crash Fatal to 4
A fatal truck crash on I-78 in Pennsylvania Wednesday morning has prompted a lawsuit against the trucker and Montreal-based Garfield Container filed by the two boys who survived the crash with the assistance of their guardians &3150; paternal uncle Thomas Ruggeri and maternal uncle John Campbell.Attorneys for Louis and Robert Ruggieri filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania just five days after the accident so they can conduct an investigation, put out subpoenas, and interrogate the trucker officially.
Gulvinder Singh Sandhu, 34,the Quebec trucker involved in the accident, was given charges including six counts of aggravated assualt. Sandhu was not injured, and it is assumed that he went back to Quebec. District Justice Gloria Stitzel, who set the $25,000 bail after the crash, did not limit Sandhu's travel. The lawyers in the lawsuit do not know whether Sandhu will return from Canada. The two Ruggieri boys, whose four family members died in the crash, were still in the hospital on Monday. The attorneys say there will be further lawsuits for the four deceased. Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) Online (09/28/99); Grossman, Elliot
Truck Crash Snarls Traffic for 100,000 Commuters
Up to 100,000 people were held up after a sewage tanker rolled over onto a pickup on the San Diego Freeway in Los Angeles County, Ca., at 7:30 a.m. Monday. The air was filled with the smell of sewage as workers sucked out much of the load before righting the tanker; then, the remainder of the sewage was spilled, apparently because of an open valve. It took four hours for the cleanup to be completed. There were no citations in the crash and only minor injuries to the drivers of the tanker and pickup. Los Angeles Times Online (09/28/99)Chief Calls Life-Cycle Value Key to Navistar Comeback
In an excerpted interview in Automotive News, new Navistar International President Steve Keate discusses the future of the company as well as its under-development Next Generation Vehicle.eate says heavy-truck orders have backed up as the industry has not been able to keep up with 1999's record demand, but he expects demand to be down next year. It is already dropping, but still at a high level.
He says his style as a manager is "one of candor, open communications, teamwork, and accountability." Navistar wants its return on net assets to be above 15 percent throughout the up-and-down business cycle, not just in boom times. Keate says Navistar can appeal to customers and make them loyal by lowering operation costs and upping residuals rather than just lowering the sticker price on trucks.
"Life-cycle value" is an important part of the Next Generation Vehicle project, he says. Navistar is putting $650 million into the production of the Next Generation Vehicle, set to debut in March of 2001.
Navistar is increasing automation for manufacturing and also using "a lot of modularity." These modules will be made by suppliers to reduce Navistar's subassembly. The company is shaving about 80 percent off the time it takes to build a cab. Navistar's agreement with the United Auto Workers will allow this shift to outsourcing. The changes will lead to "very big" reductions in jobs, which he says will be made possible by retiring workers. Automotive News (09/27/99) No. 5839; P. 24; Couretas, John
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