Operations

Your May 12 Pre-Trip: Leathers named Werner CEO

May 12, 2016

Here are five things worth knowing today.

Here are five things worth knowing today: 1. Werner Enterprises Inc. announced that Derek Leathers has been promoted to chief executive officer, The Wall Street Journal reports. Leathers will replace company founder Clarence Werner, who will remain the company’s executive chairman. According to the report, Leathers, who was previously the company’s president and chief operating officer, has held executive management roles at Werner since 1999. 2. The Nikola Motor Company, a Utah-based startup, has unveiled a compressed natural gas-electric hybrid semi-truck, Fox News reports. The truck, called the Nikola One, has been developed in secret for the past three years and features a 150-gal. dHybrid storage system stacked behind its cab that fuels a turbine generator, which charges a 320-kilowatt-hour battery pack that drives six motors, according to the report. Fox has more on the new hybrid truck. 3. According to an ABC News report, a group of U.S. senators are urging federal regulators to do more to cut air pollution around port cities and railyards. The group, comprising all Democrats, wrote a letter asking the Environmental Protection Agency to further reduce air pollution emitted by heavy-duty diesel trucks, ocean vessels, cargo handling equipment, railroad locomotives and harbor craft that are heavily concentrated in port communities. The group asks that regulators act before the end of the Obama administration. ABC has more.4. Portland, OR, city officials are asking voters to consider a 10-cent a gallon gas tax in an effort to repair the city’s roads, KGW Portland reports. The tax, which would last four years, would bring in an estimated $64 million, according to the report. KGW said just over half that would fix run down streets, while the rest would pay for bike routes, traffic calming, sidewalks and crosswalks. 5. Reuters columnist Mark Miller takes on legislation passed in 2014 that opened the door to the possibility of cutting retiree benefits – typically in industries like construction, trucking, mining and food retailing. According to Miller, the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 “allows troubled multiemployer plans to seek government permission to make deep cuts to the future pensions of workers – and even for current retirees – if they can show that cuts would prolong the life of the plan.” Read more at Reuters.

About the Author

Cristina Commendatore

Cristina Commendatore was previously the Editor-in-chief of FleetOwner magazine. She reported on the transportation industry since 2015, covering topics such as business operational challenges, driver and technician shortages, truck safety, and new vehicle technologies. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.