Here is a look at what is happening in the world of transportation this morning:
- Germany’s Daimler AG – the world’s largest truck maker – beat profit estimates in its fourth quarter results, notes Bloomberg.
- Sweden’s AB Volvo believes truck sales should increase in key markets, according to Reuters; with North America being one of them.
- News Channel 9 reviews the “Smart Park program” being pilot tested in Tennessee as a way to help reduce truck driver fatigue.
- Air freight trucking firm Forward Air Corp. is buying rival Towne Air Freight for $125 million, notes the South Bend Tribune.
- Does United Parcel Service have a “logistics problem”? Jim Cramer at CNBC thinks it does, based on Big Brown’s fourth quarter earnings.
- A judge repeals a controversial truck ban put in place by the city of Morgantown, W. Va., according to WDTV 5 News.
- Some $2.8 billion in vehicle recall related costs sliced profits at General Motors by 26%, reports The Boston Globe.
- Ford Motor Co. is boosting pay significantly for a number of its assembly line workers, according to The Courier-Journal, even though profits dropped way down during the fourth quarter last year, reports USA Today.
- Debt retirement is reason fourth-quarter profits fell 56% for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, notes U.S. News & World Reports, even though the revitalized Jeep brand is becoming a “money making machine” for the global automaker, says The Globe and Mail.
- The Marshfield News Herald reports that trucking jobs are plentiful in the Central Wisconsin region.
- WTAJ News notes that a former trucking CEO accused of embezzlement to build a barn waived his right to a preliminary hearing.
- A local Georgia trucking company gets a tax incentive package to relocate, reports the Rockdale News.
- Ocean carriers are being encouraged to raise their freight rates, according to the American Journal of Transportation.
- A new president takes the helm at Total Quality Logistics, notes the Dayton Business Journal.
- XPO Logistics is boosting by $50 million the size of its private offering of senior notes, reports MarketWatch.
- The tax implications of the pickup truck given to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for being named Super Bowl MVP are reviewed by Forbes – and they are not pretty.
