The third largest truckload carrier in the United States, U.S. Xpress Enterprises Incorporated (US Xpress) have today announced the asset purchase of Pinner Transportation.

The purchase will see US Express gain Pinner’s facilities in Midland Texas, Louisville Kentucky, Albuquerque New Mexico as well as those in Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville in Florida.  The facilities becoming part of the Xpress Global Systems network.

Speaking to the acquisition, Max Fuller, Co-Chairman of U.S. Xpress, said that US Xpress has “great respect for what Pinner has accomplished during its many years of operation,” and that US Xpress was looking forward to “partnering with Pinner associates and their customers to develop greater opportunities for future growth and profitability.”

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Ethanol Infrastructure development firm the U.S. Development Group (USDG) has celebrated the opening of a new ethanol handling and distribution facility located in Arlington, Texas.

The Dallas Fort Worth Rail Terminal, which is located on 15 acres within a broader industrial area is served by the Union Pacific Railroad and consists of a rail terminal, pipeline operation, truck load operation, and a mass storage facility.  The entire operation geared towards distributing the majority of the fuel-grade ethanol for north and central Texas.

The facility features a 130,000 barrel ethanol storage capacity, an 84-railcar high-speed offloading facility, and outbound truck and pipeline capabilities.

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One of the worlds largest forest products companies, the Weyerhaeuser Company has announced that the group will look into strategic alternatives for its Westwood Shipping Line and the groups four regional short line railroads.

Westwood Shipping Line at present operates four ConBulk vessels,  serving more than 20 ports in Japan, Korea, China and North America.  The shipping line provides transport solutions for both Weyerhaeuser’s forest products as well as third party containerised and oversized cargo.

Weyerhaeuser’s four short railroads, the DeQueen & Eastern, Columbia & Cowlitz, MSV, and Golden Triangle railroads also provide in-house transportation for the companies forest products business, sourcing mills in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Washington with a private railcar fleet numbering approximately 5,500 cars.

Both means of transportation are now under review as part of an ongoing restructuring process throughout the Weyerhaeuser Company.  The company has not set a date for when the review will conclude.

Source: The Weyerhaeuser Company

European logistics conglomerate Deutsche Post World Net has announced a significant restructuring of it’s DHL Express brand in the United States, the conglomerate contracting United Parcel Service (UPS) to handle the majority of its international and North American package volumes.

In announcing the agreement, Deutsche Post World Net has said that the reason behind the restructuring is to reduce costs associated with the DHL Express brand.  The brand expecting losses in 2008 of approximately $1.3 billion dollars.

Speaking at a press conference in Bonn, Chief Executive Officer at Deutsche Post World Net, Frank Appel, commented that the company is, “taking a pragmatic approach” to the issues at hand and would go on to be “smarter player in the challenging U.S. Express market”.  All the while offering “premium service to customers who rely on DHL as the leading network operator across the globe.”

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Subsidiary of FedEx Corporation, the worldwide package delivery company, FedEx Express last week made one of what has to be one of the most fulfilling deliveries, delivering a US$10,000 dollar cheque to Australia’s Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), South Eastern Section.

The donation from FedEx Express will enable the RFDS South Eastern Section to purchase a portable ultrasound machine.  The hand carried, lightweight piece of equipment will enable Medical Officers and Flight Nurses to deliver safer, fast care, whilst in the air.

John Gall OAM, President of the Royal Flying Doctor Service South Eastern Section welcomed the donation, noting that “The generous support of companies like FedEx help us provide aero-medical emergency and primary healthcare services to people who live, work and travel in regional and remote Australia.”  Gall went on, “We would like to thank FedEx very much for their generous donation.”

The donation was made to the Royal Flying Doctors Service at the South Eastern Section’s Bankstown Base, during celebrations for the renowned organisations eightieth year of operations.

Source: FedEx Express

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Worldwide package delivery firm United Parcel Service has announced that the company will shift its intra-Asia air hub from the Philippines to the coastal city of Shenzhen in China.

The new facility to be established at Shenzhen Airport, will cost UPS some US$180 million dollars and be operational in 2010, UPS hoping that Shenzhen’s strategic location will prove beneficial to both the company and its customers. 

Dan Brutto, President of UPS International heralded the decision to change hubs, saying that “the repositioning will slash at least a day off shipment times-in-transit for Asian customers while offering a new level of service to the manufacturing region located just north of Shenzhen.”

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Container shipping giant, Hapag Lloyd has announced that the company will expand it’s Asia Mexico (AME) Services to a twice weekly service with varied rotations from mid June

The company says that the new services will provide customers with improvements in transport capacities, with three additional port calls in Asia, as well as weekly departures from Mexico.

The new services will see Hapag Lloyd in cooperation with American President Lines deploy 12 vessels in total, with Hapag Lloyd’s contribution being six 4200 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit tonne container vessels.

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Global freight delivery company United Parcel Service (UPS) has announced an investment of $16.5 million dollars to expand the company’s facility in Fort Myers, Florida.  The announcement coming in the wake of greater demand for freight handling space at the southern Florida facility.

The present sorting facility is set to expand by some 30,000 square feet as a result of the expansion.  The additional space as well as the installation of modern technology, will, according to the company, make the loading and unloading of packages easier and accelerate the facility’s sorting capacity from 6,000 pieces per hour to 13,000 per hour. The company is also understood to be developing another 5.4 acre lot at the site to construct employee parking, as well as fuelling and truck washing facilities.

Commenting on the expansion, UPS Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for UPS’s South Florida District William Smith said that the expansion is expected to “double the size of the current facility” and will allow UPS to “continue to serve the growing needs of customers on Florida’s southwest coast.”

Source: Business Wire and United Parcel Service

Air cargo transportation holding company ABX Holdings has announced its intention to change the companies name.  Effective immediately the company will now be known as Air Transport Services Group, Inc.

Air Transport Services Group has several subsidiaries which are dedicated to the air cargo industry, from aircraft conversion to cargo charters, as well as airport-to-airport freight transportation services for well known brands such as DHL.

While the name of the holding company has changed, it is believed that the names of Air Transport Services Groups’ subsidiaries will not change.  The holding company having achieved a measure of success in 2007 with a recorded profit of $19.6 million on $1.17 billion in revenue.

Source:Infobolsa S.A.

National rail freight company Norfolk Southern  Railway and North Eastern rail line operator Pan Am Railways have announced that the two companies have agreed to improve the rail corridor between Albany, New York and Boston, Massachusetts.

To be known as the “Patriot Corridor”, the route is expected to benefit from significant investment, resulting in improvements to track quality, boosting train speed and reliability, as well as increasing capacity on the route.

The investments in and improvements to the Patriot Corridor com via the formation of a joint venture company.  The new company, Pan Am Southern, will be responsible for the 155 mile main line track that runs between Mechanicville, New York and Ayres, Massachusetts, along with 281 miles of secondary and branch lines, including trackage rights, in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont.

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