P.M. Executive Briefing - Aug. 31
This Afternoon's Headlines:
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Proposed Storage Depot to Add 200 Tanker Trucks to Huntsville-Area Roads
Colonial Pipeline is looking over the eastern portion of Madison County, Ala., for possible gasoline-storage sites. No one is sure how traffic, roads, and air pollution might be affected by the 200 tanker trucks that would be coming and going from the site every day.The Alabama Transportation Department says traffic would not be a large burden on U.S. routes 72 or 431, and Huntsville Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management manager Daniel Shea says he does not expect higher ozone levels to result. But Huntsville officials say the site should not be on Route 431, part of which the city has not planned to improve. Phase one of a bypass between the two federal routes is to be completed in 2004. Alabama Live Online (08/31/99)
Temporary Layoffs at Volvo Plant
Some workers on the vocational-truck production line at the Volvo Trucks North America plant near Dublin, Va., will be laid off for one week. Volvo is spending $148 million on expanding the site, and has added 725 assemblers to the payroll since announcing in January that it expected new hires to total 1,277. The hiring of 600 employees was announced two months ago. Roanoke Times Online (08/31/99); Calnan, ChristopherWho's Buying, Who's Selling?
Freightliner's portion of the U.S. market for big rigs could rise from about 33 percent to close to 50 percent if a reported DaimlerChrysler-Volkswagen partnership to take over Volvo goes through. DaimlerChrysler already owns Freightliner, while Volvo is in the process of acquiring fellow Swedish truckmaker Scania. It is expected that, if the purchase of Volvo occurs, Volkswagen would take over Scania while DaimlerChrysler would take over Volvo. Land Line Magazine Online (08/31/99); Jones, RuthTruckers May Bring E-Business Profits
Investors seeking to gain from e-commerce by including Internet retailers in their stock portfolios would do well to put some money into the companies that deliver products bought online. United Parcel Service is soon to make its IPO, and FedEx parent FDX is already publicly traded.Over 15,000 Web sites offer UPS shipment, and a Zona Research study found that, of 1998 holiday online purchases, UPS handled 55 percent, the U.S. Postal Service 32 percent, and FedEx 10 percent. Airborne Freight, also publicly traded, was among the companies that handled the other 3 percent.
UPS, the USPS, and FedEx will all gain from dealmaking with e-commerce sites, says Branch Cabell & Co. analyst Frederic Dickson. UPS says consumers are the recipients of 20 percent of its parcels, although it could not comment on much else because of restrictions before its IPO.
No one can yet tell how e-commerce has affected the parcel companies' revenue, since they do not track it separately. Also, expectations that FDX might have higher FY99 sales due to e-commerce did not come to fruition, says Dickson. FedEx says business-to-business service represents most of its e-commerce sales. But RPS, a FDX unit, is trying to get in on the home delivery market for e-commerce with a Pittsburgh pilot program making RPS the exclusive freight handler for some 10 e-commerce operations.
North Granby, Conn.-based Capital Reflections Inc.'s President Jeanne Hanley says her UPS driver mostly handles packages of products bought on the Internet. Some observers do not think home delivery will catch up to business-to-business service as a revenue maker for the parcel companies. Miami Herald (08/30/99) P. 9 (Technology Section); Bott, Jennifer
Briefs: Trimac Transportation, American Freightways, Rollins Leasing Corp.
Trimac Transportation of Calgary, Alberta, will get five more years as the only highway transportation carrier from the Arch Chemicals manufacturing facility in Kentucky. The five-year, $15 million contract will involve more than 10,000 truckloads.In other news, the Chemical Manufacturers Association has made American Freightways one of the few trucking firms in its responsible care partnership.
Finally, Rollins Leasing Corp. has made its first move into Canada by taking over Range Transportation Systems' four Toronto-area truck rental and leasing sites. Traffic World (08/30/99) Vol. 259, No. 9; P. 19
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