Eberspaecher Names Riabstev President of North American Entities

Oleg Riabstev Photo: Eberspaecher

Eberspaecher North America has announced that Oleg Riabstev has joined the company as head of its North American Entities.

Riabstev has many years of experience in the automotive sector, original equipment manufacturer, and aftermarket segments. His extensive market experience and senior level management is a valuable addition to Eberspaecher, the company stated in a release.

In his new position, Riabstev will report directly to the head of business unit special markets at the corporate headquarters in Esslingen, Germany.

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Smith Transport Selects Successor to Barry Smith as President

Todd Smith (left) is succeeding Barry Smith (right) as president of Smith Transport. Photo: Smith Transport

Smith Transport has selected Todd Smith as its new president, succeeding Barry F. Smith who has served the Roaring Spring, Penn.-based trucking company since 1983 and will continue to serve as the company's chief executive officer and chairman of the board.

The new company president has 25 years of executive management experience. “The board and I are confident that Todd will advance the mission and vision of our company, to allow it to excel in the dedication to employees, customers and our community," said Barry Smith.

Smith Transport is set to celebrate its 35th anniversary in July of this year, growing from 5 units to more than 1,000 with a full logistics service department.

"Smith Transport is highly received in our industry as having exceptional drivers, outstanding employees and the best equipment. I look forward to working with our team to continue to build on our company's success," said Todd Smith.

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Orr Promoted to President of CFI

CFI President Greg Orr Photo: CFI

Effective immediately, Greg Orr has been promoted to president the North American full truckload carrier CFI, replacing previous president Tim Staroba.

Orr joined CFI last year after serving as president of Action Resources, where he was responsible for leading the U.S. hazardous waste over-the-road transporter. Prior to this, he was the president and former vice president of operations for Con-way Multimodal, where he was responsible for leading the company's strategic development, as well as directing financial and operating performance.

CFI also announced that Michael Hinz will join the company as senior vice president of sales and operations.

“Greg has been the driving force behind many of our recent accomplishments, and bringing Michael to CFI further supports our efforts to create a world class leadership team,” stated Greg Rumble, chief financial officer of TFI International. “I am confident in Greg and Michael's ability to leverage the backing of TFI to reinforce a culture of excellence and success for CFI and its valued customers.”

Hinz joins CFI from Roehl Transport where he served as president of the Van Group since 2013. At Roehl, Michael led three divisions including van, dedicated and refrigerated, collectively comprised of 1,500 drivers and 200 office personnel. As part of this role, Michael oversaw safety, equipment, driver capacity, non-driver staffing, sales, pricing, customer service, and overall operational execution. Prior to Roehl, Michael spent nearly 20 years in various roles at Schneider National.

“Our approach is to lead with excellence and build results through the consistently superior service that is a hallmark of CFI and that our customers expect,” said Orr. “I'm pleased to welcome Michael to the CFI team and look forward to his leadership and contributions to our success.”

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4th Quarter Freight Spending Surges as Shipments Ease

A measure of the nation's freight market showed gains in both spending and shipments during the fourth quarter of 2017, but the strength of the advances differed widely.

Spending for trucking services advanced by the highest rates so far this decade, reflecting solid demand coupled with tighter capacity due to driver shortages and new regulations, according to U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index.

Shipments, on the other hand, increased by the smallest amount of any quarter in 2017, fitting with the slightly lower overall economic output during the final quarter of the year.

“The growth in shipments for the fourth quarter was solid, just not quite the torrid pace of the previous two quarters,” said American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello, who provides analysis on the index results. “The concurrent strength in spending can be traced in part to solid demand, but also to a driver shortage accentuated by the new federal requirement that trucks be equipped with electronic logging devices to track driver hours-of-service, which took effect in December.”

The results mirror the broader economic picture during the period as figures released Friday by the Commerce Department showed the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in the final three months of 2017 expanded at a 2.6% annual rate, down from a slightly better 3% rate in the second and third quarters of the year.

The National Spending Index jumped 12.5% from the third quarter and 24.8% over the same quarter a year earlier. The two gains were both records for the index dating back to 2010.

The National Shipments Index increased just 1.6% during the quarter, significantly below the 5.8% and 3.3% gains of the second and third quarters, respectively. Still, it was the best for fourth quarter of any year since 2014, and notably better than fourth quarter of 2016, when the index ...Read the rest of this story