NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are slightly higher Friday after they wiped away an early loss. Energy companies are rising with oil prices and banks are up in tandem with bond yields and interest rates. Technology companies are up as well, but sporting goods makers and retailers continue to take sharp losses after investors did not like what they heard from Foot Locker and Hibbett Sports. Stocks are coming off their biggest loss in three months.
The S&P 500 was barely higher Friday afternoon as investors assessed the latest White House shakeup, while shares of sporting goods retailers and Deere (DE.N) weighed on the market following disappointing results. The White House announced President Donald Trump fired chief strategist Steve Bannon on Friday. Bannon is known as an economic nationalist and an advocate of "America First" policies.
Another presidential advisory committee appears to be breaking up. Actor Kal Penn, artist Chuck Close and the entire membership of the President's Committee On the Arts and Humanities have announced their ...
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The Latest on the Spain attacks (all times local):
Like all North Korean adults, Song Un Pyol wears the faces of leader Kim Jong Un's father and grandfather pinned neatly to her left lapel, above her heart. But on her right glitters a diamond-and-gold ...
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">Motiv Power Systems announced an order for two all-electric refuse trucks by the City of Los Angeles' Sanitation Department. According to the manufacturer, this marks the third metropolitan area in the United States that will utilize and benefit from Motiv-Powered, all-electric, zero-emission refuse trucks in their communities.
Los Angeles has followed the lead of their counterparts in the state capitol, Sacramento, offering their residents refuse trucks that not only eliminate carbon emissions but also noise. These refuse trucks will ensure quieter mornings for the residents of Los Angeles.
According to Motiv, refuse trucks are ideal candidates (economically and environmentally) for electrification due to their fixed pickup routes and predictable range requirements. The application of Motiv's All-Electric Powertrain results in a high quality, zero-emission electric vehicle with the same capability as traditional diesel-powered vehicles without the noise or pollution typically associated with refuse trucks.
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...Read the rest of this storyDenise Rondini
" >Denise Rondini
" width="185" height="208">Recently industrial distributor Grainger announced a new e-commerce initiative it is calling Gamut. Company officials said they did it in part to stem competition from Amazon Business, which is increasingly becoming a source for all sorts of things — including truck parts.
A quick search will demonstrate that you indeed can purchase parts for your trucks on the Amazon website. Of course, a closer look shows that you can't buy all your truck parts there. Amazon is very adept at handling quick-moving, smaller parts that can be easily shipped.
You still need to rely on a local distributor for those slower-moving parts and large parts. While the slower-moving parts provide higher margins for distributors, they come with higher inventory holding costs.
So why should a fleet care about this? Because distributors cannot survive on the slow-moving parts alone. If Amazon continues to take an increasingly larger share of the A and B items, it is likely that distributors are going to find themselves facing serious financial pressure that may force them to close their doors.
Where will that leave a fleet when the part fails on the road? Without support from a local distributor to provide parts in emergency and breakdown situations, the fleet could find itself accruing more downtime until a part can be secured.
The point is, supply chain health matters to a fleet's success. The supply chain is not just from supplier to distributor; it must include supplier to distributor and distributor to fleet.
The way things are in the truck parts business today, only two-thirds of the supply chain is involved in keeping it healthy. Going forward, everyone needs to take on that responsibility.
That means fleets need to sit down with their best distributors and say, “How can we work better together so that we both benefit?”
If you are ...Read the rest of this story
