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Oct 3, 2011

OPINIONS * USA - Meet another potential victim of euro mess: Us

As the crisis drags on, some European banks are finding it difficult to get dollars through normal market channels, an eerie repeat of 2008

Seattle,WASH,USA -The Seattle Times, by Jon Talton -October 1, 2011: ... Washington's exports to Europe exceeded $9.6 billion last year, up from $5.8 billion in 2005. That represents 18 percent of the state's exports. The state ranks eighth among states in its goods sold to the continent. Transportation equipment, computers and electronics lead... Major Northwest companies are also invested there. For example, British truck maker Leyland is owned by Paccar, headquartered in Bellevue. Another Paccar subsidiary is DAF Trucks, with production plants in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is the third-largest truck maker in Europe...


* USA - Auto sales up in September on big trucks


Detroit,MICH,USA -The Washington Post/ Associated Press -October 3, 2011:  --  U.S. buyers shrugged off economic worries and snapped up SUVs and pickups last month, surprising the auto industry and raising hopes that a bumpy year will end on a high note...  Big trucks typically sell when the housing market and construction industry are strong, gas prices are low and consumer confidence is high. None of those was true in September. The economy remains weak, confidence is shaky and a gallon of gas costs nearly $1 per more than in September 2010...  But other factors boosted truck sales. Small businesses must eventually replace aging fleets of work trucks, and auto companies offered some good deals to clear out 2011 model trucks. They also stepped up their marketing. And consumers are learning to live with economic uncertainty...

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Mar 10, 2011

TRUCK MAKERS ANALYSIS * India - Global OEMs and Suppliers Bracing for Tremendous Growth in Demand and Production of Low-Cost Trucks

The demand for low-cost trucks is set to experience steady and robust growth over the next 5 years

London,EN,UK -Andhra News (India) -March 9, 2011: -- The rising reliance of emerging economies on cost-effective light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles coupled with a recessionary environment in developed economies is creating tectonic changes in demand for trucks worldwide... New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Strategic Analysis of Global Low-cost Truck Market, reports that over 3.2 million low-cost commercial trucks will be manufactured globally in 2016. Around 29 low-cost truck models will be introduced by global OEMs by 2016, indicating the rapid expansion and pertinence of low-cost light commercial vehicles (LCVs), medium commercial vehicles (MCVs) and heavy commercial vehicles (HCVs) in global markets. Powertrain, chassis, safety, comfort and convenience and other marketing related expenses will be key focal points for cost reduction in an endeavour to create low-cost trucks...   The low-cost truck will be initially fuelled by demand from BRIC nations, gradually finding traction in developed economies and eventually supported by the growth in the Next 11 economies. The changing nature of commercial vehicle activities under an environment of rising urbanisation, economic and energy price volatility and robust growth in demand for cost-effective commercial vehicles are compelling global truckmakers and suppliers to participate in this growing segment... This implies that a new segment is being created rapidly in the global commercial truck market offering growth opportunities to truckmakers and suppliers alike. This is also offering the opportunity to mature market OEMs to attain rapid volume growth in both local and global markets... In an endeavour to penetrate and grow in global markets, Asian OEMs have created low-cost truck platforms that are customisable to meet local market needs. The North American and European OEMs are acknowledging the threat and also realising the opportunities that they can avail through participation in the global low-cost truck market...

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Jul 1, 2010

OPINION * USA - Overcoming our infrastructure deficit

The U.S. surface transportation system was once the envy of the world. In recent decades, however, our roads, bridges, trains and transit have slipped into decline while other nations have made robust investments

Washington,DC,USA -Politico, by REP. JAMES OBERSTAR -28 June 2010: ... In 2008, the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission called for an annual investment of $250 billion from federal, state and local governments for the next 50 years to meet our transportation needs. The Commission also reported that the current level of investment is less than 40 percent of that... Unfortunately, at a time when we need to direct more money to transportation, the political will to dedicate resources to this purpose is sorely lacking... One big problem is that the main source of revenue for surface transportation has not kept pace with our needs... The Highway Trust Fund is sustained primarily by federal fuel taxes. President Dwight D. Eisenhower initiated this fund when he imposed a 3-cents-per-gallon tax on gasoline to pay for the Interstate Highway System. There was little opposition in Congress because it operates like a user fee. The people who pay the tax are the users of the facility it finances... Even the leading fiscal conservative of our age saw the benefit in the user-based fee to keep our transportation system healthy...

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Apr 13, 2010

POINT of VIEW * USA - Trucking Industry vs. Rail system = Follow the money

The largest contributors are the real estate developers and they have a lot of control over what the politicians do

Denver,CO,USA -The Truck Industry Examiner, by Jason Cox -April 12, 2010: ... Highways are crowded because our major cities have inadequate mass transit systems and poorly planned real estate development. Who has the biggest influence on the money to be spent on trucking and rail systems - politicians. How is this tied together, you ask? ... The reason is this, residential development is the most lucrative way to make a lot of money off a little land. Here's an example; Owning 350 acres of land in central Ohio is valuable (one farm is going for $980,000 in Thurman, OH right now). But, being able to sell each 1/4 section of those 350 acres for $250,000 (the cost of a typical home around Washington, DC) is extraordinarily valuable [350 x 4 x $250,000 = $350,000,000]... The Real Estate Developers have developed relationships with whom spend the taxpayers money on new roads to provide access to the land the developers own and where the new houses will be built, and it is all pretty much completely legal. Politicians control zoning and road or rail access and in exchange they get donations they use to get re-elected... The same is true of the railroads, but with a twist. The railroads compete with trucking directly for a portion of the freight market. Railroads only want to have trucks carry the short haul loads in the US, with Railroads owning all the long haul business... Normally, the "market" would determine if Railroads deserve to "own" the long distance freight business if they could prove they are more efficient than Trucking. Unfortunately for the railroads, the market has already decided that trucks are more efficient for the high value items needed in small locations throughout the US... The railroads get the politicians to delay and study new rail routes while at the same time the politicians don't do anything that will really relieve traffic congestion on the highways... Because trucking is more efficient for the high end freight hauling business, the competition between trucks and rail is rigged and truckers don't have the financial resources to compete in the game by out contributing to the politicians. And those politicians are not going to admit they allow traffic congestion to get worse and worse simply to decrease the efficiency of the trucking industry... (Photo: Highway Congestion - It's only getting worse)

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Apr 3, 2010

OPINION * New Zealand - Heavier trucks "a disastrous policy"

A motoring commentator is predicting the move to allow heavier trucks on the roads will result in more fatalities

Auckland,NZ -NZ City -1 April 2010: -- Clive Matthew-Wilson, motoring commentator, says heavier trucks a serious risk to other motorists and carrying goods by rail more efficient... Clive who edits the Dog and Lemon Guide, says trucks make up four percent of the total vehicle fleet but cause 16 percent of all road deaths. He says that risk is only going to rise with larger trucks carrying up to 53 tonnes. The current maximum is 44 tonnes... He says heavier trucks will be complete disaster from both a road safety and an ecological point of view. He added, the government's attempt to use energy-saving as an excuse does not stand up to scrutiny, as its own study shows it is five times more efficient to carry goods by rail than by truck... Mr Matthew-Wilson says it is not only is it incredibly wasteful of energy, but is a serious risk to other motorists. He claims the policy is being driven by National's friends in large corporations and trucking companies, who stand to make a lot of money by moving freight away from rail and onto the roads... (Picture from roadtransport/big-lorry-blog -UK-: Big New Zealand Kenworth truck)

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Oct 4, 2009

OPINION * USA - Paccar Closing Strike-Hobbled Peterbilt Plant

Management 1, Organized Labor 0 ...


(B) Aerial view Peterbilt Motors' Denton, TX, plant

New York,NY,USA -GLG Group, by John Schulz -October 2, 2009: ... That's the final linescore from the hardball labor negotiations between the United Auto Workers Local 1832 in Madison, Tenn., and Paccar's Peterbilt Motor Co... For the record, the company says it is closing the Class 8 manufacturing plant because of the precipitous decline in demand for heavy trucks... Given trucking's notoriously cyclical demand cycles, these boom and bust periods are not unusual. Any company that doesn't see the waves can't last very long in trucking... But that's not what's driving this decision. This move is about hardball labor negotiating tactics, and nothing else... One can see how Peterbilt is telegraphing its labor strategy through this move. It is moving all its truck manufacturing to a state-of-the-art plant in Denton, Texas, outside Dallas. Oh, did I mention the Denton plant is union-free? Yes, it is... The Peterbilt plant manager in Nashville, Larry Vessels, is quoted in this Nashville Business Journal story as saying the impasse with the UAW had nothing to do with the decision to shutter the plant... If you believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like you to look at it...

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Aug 7, 2009

OPINION * USA - On the Waterfront: The Struggle for Sustainable Port Trucking

Chicago,IL,USA -In These Times, by Michelle Chen -August 6, 2009: -- America’s teeming harbors are the lifeblood of global commerce. But for the truck drivers who keep the shipping industry flowing, and the communities living downwind, the bustling ports emit a peculiar kind of poison... A recent report by the think tank DEMOS details the corrosive impact of deregulation on the port trucking industry over the past generation. The Motor Carrier Act of 1980, which was intended to break monopolies and lower shipping rates, has in fact sent a once-solid profession into free fall... The result? Drivers today are forced to work long hours for extremely low wages, in large part because they are classified as contractors, rather than employees... Though they supposedly operate as independent business people, contractors are typically tethered to the bosses of trucking companies that control their vehicles and exploit drivers as marginal labor... The urban ecological crisis is pushing “blue” and “green” organizations to seed fresh alliances with poor communities of color... The road to a sustainable waterfront can’t just end at a fair paycheck for truck drivers. The ultimate destination is a community that enables all its members to work and live with dignity... (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images - Trucks drive near the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, the busiest port complex in the United States)

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Jul 1, 2009

OPINION * USA - Talking about economic future of industry

The Department of Labor ranks truck driving as one of the fastest growing occupations

Quincy,Ill,USA -7KHQA/Connect Tristates, by Jarod Wells -June 29, 2009: ... That's the message from Chief Economist and Vice President of the American Trucking Associations. Bob Costello... He says 70% of all US freight is moved by trucks and more than 80% of US communities depend solely on trucks to deliver goods and commodities... Costello told KHQA the trucking industry has suffered just as all other industries have in the current economy, but when things start turning around, trucking will be booming... Costello says the demand for truck drivers has never been so high...

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Jun 6, 2009

OPINION * USA - Economist: "Worst Economy in a Generation"

Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Hellenic Shipping News (Piraeus,Hellas,Greece) -4 June 2009: -- Economic recovery will occur when consumer spending turns around, unemployment bottoms out and the business inventory-to-sales ratio improves, but that will take awhile, according to the chief economist of the American Trucking Associations. "This is the worst economy in a generation," Robert Costello told the Los Angeles Transportation Club on Tuesday... Trucking has been hit especially hard in this recession, with the number of truckloads down more than 20 percent year over year... Although motor carrier failures have not been as great as economists might anticipate given the depth of the recession, Costello said he is concerned that another spike in diesel prices could be too much for some trucking companies to bear... In past recessions, trucking was a leading indicator, preceding the official end of the economic downturn by as much as 10 months. This time, however, the business inventory-to-sales ratio is so bad that trucking will not lead the economy out of recession... Truck sales are likewise depressed, partly because trucks are not being driven as much. About 5 percent of the truck fleet is parked, which extends the life of those vehicles, and the trucks in service are not being driven as much because of the down economy... When the recovery picks up steam, cargo interests should anticipate that truck capacity will tighten considerably and the driver shortages of yesterday will return...

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Nov 17, 2008

OPINION * India - Commercial vehicles on the kerb

To get an insight into current problems in the commercial vehicles industry, one need not look at interest rates and the global financial crisis, but rather seek answers in the very nature of how road transport industry is organised in the country...

New Delhi,India -The Hindu Business Line, by D. Sampathkumar -16 Nov 2008: -- With 40 per cent production cutbacks and four-day work weeks, the commercial vehicles industry is making news in ways that go beyond traditional assessments such as ‘global slowdown’ and ‘financial turmoil’. Equally, the traditional explanation, that the industry is ‘cyclical’ and that it just now happens to be on the downward slope of a boom-bust cycle, isn’t very satisfactory either... Incidentally, no broking house research report on a company in the commercial vehicle industry is complete without a reference to this notion of ‘cyclicality’. However this begs the question: What is it that makes this industry a cyclical one unlike, say, the market for toothpastes?... Indeed, so fragmented is the trucking industry structure that it is the economists’ ultimate dream of ‘perfect competition’. Such a structure affects the fortunes of the commercial vehicle industry in other ways as well. Every truck operator is basing his investment decisions not on what others are deciding about augmenting capacities under their control, but rather on the basis of where he himself would like to be in the future... A compact ownership structure involving relatively fewer but large fleet operators in the trucking industry is conducive for more rational exercise in capacity planning. Importantly, it allows for decisions by individual enterprises to factor in what others are planning in their own capacity creation calculations... But the disparate market structure of the trucking industry does not allow for orderly conditions to prevail. The market forces eventually sort out these investment excesses through business failures and subsequent economic growth soaking up excess capacities, and so on... In the short run it ends up sending distorted signals of potential demand to commercial vehicles... (Photo by Nissar Ahmad - The structure of the industry is geared to low margins, to the detriment of the fortunes of the commercial vehicles manufacturers)

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Nov 7, 2008

Weak Economy * USA - Could hurt proposed anti-pollution rules

Sacramento,CAL,USA -The Capitol Weekly, by John Howard -November 06, 2008: -- Crucial pieces of California’s efforts to curb pollution from diesel-powered vehicles – everything from school buses to big-rigs to delivery vans – include providing financial help to vehicle owners to install the costly, soot-trapping cannisters on their engines. But as the economy tightens and credit is more difficult to get, forking over $5,000 to $25,000 for a trap or a few thousand dollars to streamline a vehicle is no easy chore and is likely to get a lot harder, trucking industry experts say...

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Oct 16, 2008

OPINIONS * USA - How the Credit Crisis Could Forge a New Financial Order


PEN,USA -Knowledge Wharton/University of Pennsylvania -16 Oct 2008: -- As officials worldwide scrambled to contain the spreading financial virus, hopes are rising that the latest government plans to purchase equity stakes in banks may finally offer the right medicine. And with the patient showing intermittent signs of improving, thoughts turn towards next steps, including new restrictions on the markets. In addition, expect individuals and business to have a tougher time getting loans for years -- not just months. And watch for authorities to prescribe greater transparency, stricter capital requirements to reduce leveraging, and more standardized financial contracts to push opaque securities into the sunlight... Either way, it's likely these instruments will not continue to create the hazards that they have recently, because investors and issuers who were burned will be more careful. Indeed, the business world and financial markets are likely to become considerably more conservative and cautious. "I daresay that for the next few years, we are not going to have excesses in the financial markets," Blume says. "I don't think the markets are going to repeat the same follies that we have had in the last few years."


* Looking for Cost Cuts in Lots of New Places

New York,NY,USA -The Wall Street Journal, by SIMONA COVEL -October 16, 2008: -- When it comes to cutting costs during tough economic times, many small businesses start out with a disadvantage: They don't have all that many costs to cut. Even during good times, small businesses tend to keep expenses pretty tight... The result is that small companies often have to get creative in their efforts to find waste in places where little exists... Here's a look at four companies that have cut their overhead expenses without sacrificing inventory, daily necessities or their employees: ...

* Creative Thinking

· What's Happening: Small companies struggling to stay afloat in this choppy economy are looking for cost cuts in any places they can find them.
· The Challenge: Many small businesses already keep expenses tight. So they have to be creative to avoid sacrificing their products and operations.
· What's Going: Changes include giving up physical office space -- and rent -- and having people work from home, and substituting pricey display products with lower-cost replicas.

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Oct 10, 2008

OPINION * USA - Slimmer packages mean slimmer profits for truckers

New York,NY,USA -Associated Press/CNN Money -October 6, 2008: -- That bottle of condensed detergent or your lightweight laptop are making the economic downturn even more difficult to bear for the nation's trucking companies, an economist said Monday... Speaking in a panel discussion at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition, American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello said that slimmed-down products and packaging are making hauls smaller for truckers compounding a period of already weak demand... A growing number of companies are reducing packaging to cut costs amid a weakening U.S. economy... Costello said that the weak economy and the corresponding ripple effects, coupled with the yet-unknown effects of the widening credit crisis might cause more trucking bankruptcies this year than the nation has seen this decade... "Trucking failures might exceed the level of the 2000-2001 (recession) if the credit markets do not come back when expected," he said...

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Oct 8, 2008

OPINIONS * USA - What the bailout could mean to trucking

According to trucking industry analysts, it is difficult to forecast exactly what impact the $700 billion financial-market bailout signed into law on Friday will have on credit availability and the trucking industry in general

USA -Fleet Owner, by Justin Carretta -Oct 6, 2008: -- ... Passed by a 263 to 171 vote in the House of Representatives, the bill was signed into law by President Bush two hours later. There is hope that this measure will keep the financial crisis from getting worse, although there is disagreement on whether we’ve hit bottom yet... “It’s not just the truckers and the fleets that will have trouble getting credit—it’s all businesses,” Eric Starks, president of FTR Associates, told FleetOwner. “Smaller guys will be hit the hardest because they will have so much trouble getting financing”... Starks said he believes the trucking industry’s recovery might not arrive until into 2010 or possibly 2011, as the slowdown could continue through the third and fourth quarter of 2009, depending on credit availability... Chris Brady, president of Commercial Motor Vehicle Consulting (CMVC), told FleetOwner that the benefit of the bailout would be in the short run, alleviating the credit crunch that has made lending increasingly difficult. “It’s not going to have a direct impact on the trucking industry, it’s more of an indirect impact,” he said... According to Brady, because businesses and consumers can’t get credit, businesses are conservative on spending, so less freight is being moved. He said that it might take two to three months for freight to pick up again, but the fact that the bill was passed should improve businesses and household’s expectations of the economy...

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Oct 7, 2008

OPINIONS * USA - Logistics, truck firms fret over economy, fuel

Chicago,ILL,USA -Reuters, by Nick Carey -Oct 6, 2008: -- High fuel costs and uncertainty over the U.S. economy's outlook are among the top concerns of logistics and U.S. trucking companies, according to two surveys released on Monday... In a survey of chief executives from 39 of the world's top third-party logistics providers sponsored by Penske Logistics, CEOs said their biggest concerns in the U.S. market include a tough pricing environment, the slowing economy, pressure from customers to cut costs, and high fuel prices... In a separate survey of more than 5,000 trucking sector executives from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) -- a non-profit group funded by the trucking industry -- ranked fuel as most critical issue facing trucking companies... Executives said the state of the U.S. economy was the second most critical issue facing the industry...


* USA - Trucking assn says infrastructure 'top priority'

Trucking association CEO Graves calls infrastructure legislation 'top priority'

New York,NY,USA -Associated Press/CNN Money -October 06, 2008: New legislation to boost spending on U.S. roads, highways and bridges is the most important initiative for the trucking industry in the coming year, the chief executive of the sector's main trade association said Monday... Speaking at the annual American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition, president and CEO Bill Graves urged members to lend their support to the highway reauthorization bill in an effort to spur funding to improve the nation's infrastructure... He also noted that the current economic crisis is causing hardships across the industry, making it tougher to borrow money and driving up interest rates... Graves said it is still uncertain whether demand in the segment has bottomed or there is more room to fall, as a timetable for overall economic recovery is remains unclear... Graves noted that while he would like to underscore some key legislative victories, implementation of new industrywide safety initiatives and programs over the past year, he thinks that the worst might not yet be over...


* Economic panel extends gloomy outlook for trucking

New Orleans,LA,USA -The Trucker, by KEVIN JONES -6 Oct 2008: -- A trucking industry searching for good news should look someplace other than toward the American economy, a panel at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition told business leaders here... Moderator Stuart Varney of FOX News, in pointing out the particular timeliness of the annual roundtable, noted the stock exchange had fallen by 700 points by lunchtime – and the news didn’t get any sweeter for truckers during dessert... Because this year hasn’t been 'terrible,' at least compared to 2007, a continuing slide might not seem as dramatic as the 2000 freight crash, ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello explained... Wachovia Corp. analyst Mark Vitner colored the bleak economic outlook with specifics, noting the economy had so deteriorated in the past couple of weeks that his previously prepared slide presentation had become obsolete... Vitner likened the ongoing downturn to the 1981-82 recession – much more severe than the two “relatively mild” recessions since, and comparable in high unemployment and duration... Unemployment could hit 8 percent, Vincent added... In closing, Varney chose to bet against the gloomy predictions offered by the panel... "I predict when we reach this time one year hence, we will be looking at the other side of the trough – at how positive we’re going to view the year 2010", Varney said...

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Sep 17, 2008

OPINION * USA - The Crisis on Wall Street Also Hurts Truckers

Although many may not see the connection, wall street has a huge impact on the trucking industry

USA - Freight Factoring -September 16, 2008: -- As the meltdown continues with some of the nation’s oldest and most respected financial institutions, the overall credit crisis is placing a strangle hold on many truckers’ ability to obtain a loan for fleet expansion or operating capital. The macro economy generally affects the amount of freight being shipped and the rate paid to move the freight... In summary, the overall economy impacts fleet operators by limiting the availability of credit and impacting the number of loads available to haul. Trucking operators with good credit are no exception. The trucking industry will continue to be under immense pressure until consumer spending picks up and the construction industry sees a recovery...

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Sep 13, 2008

OPINION * USA - Holding Tight on Price

Another flat peak shipping season is helping keep a lid on price increases for LTL truckers and their shippers

Washington,DC,USA -Traffic World, by John Gallagher -15 Sept 2008: -- ... Add to that a stagnant economy and high fuel costs, and the outlook for stronger pricing remains frustrating for carriers looking for signs of a turnaround... Several major LTL carriers are already planning for lighter-than-normal tonnage by the time the third quarter is over. YRC Worldwide said it expects to see a drop in business levels after seeing volume stabilize in the first half of the year. It adjusted by cutting 400 nonunion positions... For carriers, the market has been tough for a long time. "We've seen the LTL market in a gradual decline for the last two-and-a-half years as far as price is concerned," said Harold B. Friedman, senior vice president at Data2Logistics, which helps negotiate spot and contract rates for shippers and carriers. "Fuel prices have a significant impact on rates, but raw rates have been soft even without fuel. It's been a buyer's market that continues today"... Friedman said once the economy starts to pick up, rates will begin to tighten. "And then we'll see a role reversal. It's not going to be a buyer's market forever, so I suggest customers look hard and fast in building those relationships now so that when the shoe is on the other foot they're not looking at huge increases in freight costs"... Predictions of a large-scale turnaround in demand for truck freight have so far been off the mark, and Friedman declined to hazard a guess...

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Aug 31, 2008

TRUCK MARKETS OPINION * Europe - Volvo: July Deliveries.

London,UK -The World Trucks Blog, by Oliver Dixon -27 Aug 2008: -- AB Volvo's policy of issuing concise, clear delivery reports on a monthly basis is one that we like; it is transparent, and says much about both the health of AB Volvo, and, by extension, the state of the global market(s) going forward... Both brands - Volvo and Renault - are again outpacing themselves in terms of year on year figures; YTD statistics show Volvo putting through 11358 units into Eastern Europe (which includes Russia) against 9958 during the same period last year, whilst Renault has scored 6808 so far this year, over 4776 during 2007. Very good; in sum, AB Volvo has delivered 3432 more trucks into Eastern Europe so far this year than it managed during the same period last year... We say: ... Eastern Europe. It can't decouple from Western Europe, and if Western Europe goes to the wall, then Eastern Europe will follow. And AB Volvo's deliveries? Do we feel foolish? No, but we will refer to the un-named AB Volvo spokesperson who is quoted by Reuters as saying: "The downturn regarding the economic situation in Europe, as well as high fuel prices, continues to affect the truck demand adversely. The demand on the North American market remains at a low level."... AB Volvo might appear to be overdoing the pessimism here... Or is it, in fact, being very cute in managing down expectations ahead of the carnage that we remain convinced will be visited upon the European truck markets - both West and East - as of the fourth quarter? To be in the black at present is a pretty good achievement, and AB Volvo's caution is therefore even more noteworthy...

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posted by Unknown @ 12:30 PM  0 comments

OPINION * UK - The Commoditzation of Transport and the End of Brand

London,UK -The World Trucks Blog, by Oliver Dixon -30 Aug 2008: -- One issue that applies to each OEM in equal measure is that of the diminishing value of brand within the transport sector. This is a philosophical as opposed to a quantitative discussion, and one that does not lend itself to ready measurement, but we make no apologies for posting it here, as it is one of the key developments that we see likely as the Commercial Vehicle industry moves forwards... The consolidation of OEMs, which have, over the past three decades, morphed from small, nationally-focussed assembly operations into regional and, increasingly, global full-line manufacturing businesses has been one of the key trends observed within the Commercial Vehicle industry over the past thirty years... But such consolidation has not just been witnessed on the supply side of the industry. Increasingly, the profile of the end user is changing... Many vehicles are already sold on the basis of guaranteed uptime. Should an OEM enter the market with some means of underwriting cost, it would get a hearing. There seems to be no reason why this OEM should be one with its roots away from the Triad -Europe, North America and Japan -... We make this argument for the simple reason that manufacturing location is no longer an issue in most procurement decisions... A Chinese or an Indian-sourced truck with a guaranteed cost ceiling would be an eminently palatable proposition for any logistics operation... This is a view of a future, and one that may be some way away. However, we see the European truck market - and, by extension - the entire Triad market - as being receptive to one more cohort shift. Today's global logistics industry is populated one the demand side by global companies providing a commodity product. That the supply side should follow suit would seem to be an inescapable conclusion...

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Aug 25, 2008

TRUCKER'S OPINION * USA - Not too Swift!

In my opinion Swift is one of the root causes of where the trucking industry is today, they take advantage of new drivers in a big way, they’ve been known to black-list drivers that wanted to leave...

USA -truckingblog.net, by Aubrey "Allen" Smith -24 Aug 2008: -- Company fined $14,450 for rig on bridge (phillyBurbs.com) Swift Transportation Co. of Phoenix, Ariz., was fined $14,450 on Wednesday because one of its drivers drove a 28-ton tractor-trailer over the deteriorating, 3-ton-limit, canal bridge on River Road in Upper Makefield, police said"...

Probably close to 40 tons on a 3 ton bridge. I’ve been lost before, and Philly or anywhere in PA isn’t a good place to be lost in. Or maybe someone told him to go that way. In any case, you get what you pay for. (Cheap pay for inexperienced drivers)...

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posted by Unknown @ 10:34 AM  1 comments