Moving and Storage Business News

The News Review:

- In these thefts, we all lose
- Herald & Review, Decatur, Ill., On Biz column: A lot more…
- Fixing New Zealand’s Infrastructure:Nick Smith

In these thefts, we all lose
St. Petersburg Times – Jul 23, 2006
No, not your fuel station variety diesel, but a reddish offroad diesel used to power heavy equipment. Larkin Contracting general manager Ken Wachman says the company posted the sign because in addition to the usual problem of vandalism and damaged equipment, about 20,000 gallons of diesel have been stolen in recent months from construction sites at Watergrass in Wesley Chapel and Seven Oaks, which straddles Pasco and Hillsborough counties. The company also had a full fuel storage tanker on wheels stolen from a job site in Apollo Beach in southern Hillsborough County. When the tanker was recovered in Gibsonton, 5,000 gallons of diesel had evaporated. "It's unreal, the thievery that's going on," he said. Larkin isn't the only target. Last month, 1,000 gallons of diesel disappeared from a Ripa & Associates site off State Road 52 in Land O'Lakes… This fuel goes for about $3 a gallon, so we're not talking chicken feed. And the thefts, like the shortage of cement and skilled workers, delay projects. Diesel powers the heavy equipment that Larkin crews use for digging, moving and excavating as they prepare construction sites. When crews show up for work and there's no diesel, they can't operate the machines; the project slows down. "If those trucks are sitting, you are losing money," Wachman said. When contractors fall behind, it hurts the developer who is already selling houses that haven't been built. And it takes longer for you or your friends to move into that dream house.

Herald & Review, Decatur, Ill., On Biz column: A lot more…
Free with registration – Herald & Review – AccessMyLibrary.com – Jul 23, 2006
23–A Decatur distributing companya;has a lot more beera;to delivera;to thirsty adults across Central Illinois. The new 68,000-square-foota;Skeff Distributing Co. facility at 3585 E. L&A Industrial Drive has been open since May, moving from 1175 N. The company, which is the area’s Anheuser-Busch supplier for bars, restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores and liquor stores, added the Springfield market to its coverage area, said John Skeffington, the business’ owner and president. It now employs 64 people, up from 28 previously and has 634 clients, an increase of more than 400.

Fixing New Zealand’s Infrastructure:Nick Smith
Scoop.co.nz – Scoop.co.nz (press release) – Jul 23, 2006
Only aweek later on June 19th, thousands of consumers weredeliberately disconnected because power demand exceeded thesystem’s capacity. These serious failures this year comeon top of the severe shortages in 2001 and 2003. Thesequotes from industry leaders show just how much trouble theenergy sector is in:Dr Keith Turner, the Chief Executiveof New Zealand’s largest power company, told theGovernment over 18 months ago that the transmission systemwas so fragile that key lines like those in to Aucklandcould not be taken out for servicing and that this wasunheard of in the western world. On Monday in Wellington,Industry veteran and respected consultant Govind Saha saidthe energy sector had no leadership and that theGovernment’s electricity reforms of 2002 had failed. OnTuesday, Peter Townsend from the Canterbury Chamber ofCommerce noted that he couldn’t see this Government havingthe will or thinking to fix the problem without a totalcollapse. This problem of security of supply goes beyondelectricity. Let me read this direct quote from theInternational Energy Agency’s report on New Zealandreleased in May:“New Zealand has not been in compliancewith its IEA stockholding requirements for several years… We have another conflict exploding in Lebanon. Wehave oil prices topping record levels of US$75 abarrel. And the Government has allowed our storage to beat the lowest level of any developed country in over adecade. It amounts to wilful negligence. Security ofsupply is only one test of the success of energy policy. Price and environment matter too. Power prices in the lastfive years have soared by 33%.