Navistar to lay off 1,100 workers
Navistar International will eliminate 1,100 salaried and contract positions in expectation of lower demand for new trucks. The reduction represents approximately 15 percent of the company’s white-collar workers. Company officials blamed a sharp drop in truck orders for the cutbacks. “While truck shipments have been good, our order receipts and backlog, particularly for heavy trucks, are at their lowest levels since 1996,” said John Horne, Navistar’s president and chief executive, in an Aug. 15 press release. The layoffs are not expected to affect the school bus unit of Navistar, which manufactures International brand chassis, bodies and engines. Horne said a drop in third-quarter truck and bus shipments from second-quarter levels and a decline in orders were clear indications that the industry is at the beginning of a downturn brought on by an oversupply of late-model used trucks, escalating diesel fuel prices and higher interest rates. Navistar’s announcement came just a day after Freightliner Corp. in Portland, Ore., revealed its plan to lay off 3,745 North American employees. Freightliner, the industry leader in heavy truck manufacturing, said it expected truck sales to plunge by up to 25 percent this year.
Two-way radios snatched from 2 school districts
Thefts of two-way radios from school buses are back in the news. Two school districts — Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nev., and Vista (Calif.) Unified School District — were victimized just before the start of school. Clark County reported the burglary of 320 two-way radios valued at $750 each, a net loss of $240,000 worth of equipment. According to school district police, the thieves broke into three bus yards between Friday and Monday, Aug. 11-13, and stole only the latest radio models. In Vista, 63 digital two-way radios were stolen over a weekend in late July. The thieves entered the buses through the emergency doors, which were left unlocked. The district has since added locks to the doors, according to Marta Munson, the district’s bus driver supervisor. Munson said the radio bandits were very organized and neat. “They didn’t vandalize the buses,” she said. “They just wanted the radios.” She added that the thieves collected the radios in large plastic trash buckets. One of the buckets, filled with 15 radios, was left behind. “They must have forgotten it or had to leave in a hurry,” Munson said. About this time last year, a rash of radio thefts took place in Southern California. Four school districts reported the loss of dozens of radios, possibly by the same group of criminals. In the wake of the thefts, some school districts have begun securing radio units with locking brackets and improving security around the bus yard. One district has installed magnetic brackets that allow drivers to check out and return radios to the dispatch office each day.
