Moving and Storage Business News

The News Review:

- Brian Hamilton: How much is a name worth to you?
- Back in the family
- Top Tech Strategies for 2008
- DaytonDailyNews: Dayton, Ohio, news and information
- Volvo V70: On a roll

Brian Hamilton: How much is a name worth to you?
Union of Grass Valley – The Union of Grass Valley – Oct 13, 2007
To Masch the demands seemed "totally absurd," especially considering that in dropping her request for trademark she would be surrendering her ability to keep others from infringing on her own rights. Masch established 49er Communications, which sells two-way radios to agencies such as forest services, fire departments and school districts, in 1997 at a desk in her bedroom. The company has grown to the point of actually building a new office in Nevada City’s Gold Flat Business district that they hope to occupy by next summer. Considering she previously had her logo and company’s name trademarked – with just a slight difference to the new logo – since 2000, it seems odd that the NFL would have an argument against her renewing it. In fact, it just seems odd that the NFL – the richest sports league in the world, whose teams have an average net worth of $957 million, according to Forbes magazine – would bother with a small business in western Nevada County. But it seems even more ridiculous that someone could actually trademark what essentially is a piece of our country’s history. After all, if you want to argue about it, it would seem western Nevada County – founded by the actual 49ers of the gold rush era and even connected to other former mining communities by, appropriately enough, Highway "49" – has a more viable claim than the National Football League…
After all, if you want to argue about it, it would seem western Nevada County – founded by the actual 49ers of the gold rush era and even connected to other former mining communities by, appropriately enough, Highway "49" – has a more viable claim than the National Football League. But, apparently, you can trademark history. I guess that means 49er Coin Laundry, 49er Family Fun Park, 49er Hardwood, 49er Liquors, 49er Regional Occupational Program, 49er Self Storage, 49er Windows, 49er Wines, Forty-Niner Auto Repair, Forty Niner Electric, Forty-Niner Fence, Forty-Niner Fire Protection District, Forty-Niner Overhead Door and even the Forty Niner Rotary Duck Race should all be on the look-out for one of those letters from the NFL. Could the NFL legally force compliance? Well, we’ll never know whether or not the demands the league laid out for Masch would stand up in court. That’s because, after speaking with her own attorney, she’s decided to acquiesce. "The bottom line is I can’t fight them even if I wanted to," she said. "They have a lot more money than I do.

Back in the family
Roanoke Times – Oct 14, 2007
“We talked about how much we wanted to do something we loved and felt passionate about,” he recalled. Soon after, Vance Pitzer phoned Doug Sibila, president of People’s Services. It turned out that People’s Services’ primary focus had become commercial freight and Sibila was willing to talk about selling the moving company. Rubber hit the road. Sibila said last week that he felt comfortable selling Pitzer Transfer back to the family. “We were confident about the integrity and quality of the people who would take care of the employees who once worked for us and would work for them,” Sibila said. Pitzer Transfer now leases its building on Cook Drive in Salem from People’s subsidiary Total Distribution of Virginia.

Top Tech Strategies for 2008
PC World – Oct 13, 2007
Here’s a look at Gartner’s list:1. This is a path that more and more companies are taking as a socially responsible strategy. A green approach is multifaceted and can affect data center operations in a number of ways, such as moving workloads based on energy efficiency and using the most power-inefficient servers only at times of peak usage, said Carl Claunch, an analyst. But data centers also face the threat of regulatory action to curb power usage. The problem, said Claunch, is you can’t predict what may trigger regulation or when mandates will arrive. “Some event somewhere, a popular movie, some shift in election politics, and suddenly you are forced to change dramatically and it comes with little warning,” he said…
But it’s not just the obvious things that will converge, such as telephony and messaging. Companies may make security videos part of this convergence, which may give businesses, for instance, new ways to analyze a retail outlet’s traffic patterns. This video data would require a lot of storage, so using it in this way could prompt IT managers to introduce the security team to the networking group. Business process management. This is not a technology, its a way of using technologies to enable companies to simulate, model and design the processes that run their businesses. A key trend is the evolution of the business process management suite, Cearley said.

DaytonDailyNews: Dayton, Ohio, news and information
Dayton Daily News – Oct 14, 2007
The waste was then picked up by a registered used oil transporter, the Ohio EPA said. The agency noted that only registered transporters are permitted to transport hazardous waste and the company was not permitted to move hazardous waste from one company to another, nor was Day-Hio permitted to accept the hazardous waste. It created an unauthorized hazardous waste storage area. No release of hazardous waste was observed during the inspections and the companies are now in compliance with applicable hazardous waste storage regulations, Ohio EPA said. Of the $16,000 penalty, $12,800 will be deposited into the state’s hazardous waste cleanup fund.

Volvo V70: On a roll
Telegraph.co.uk – Oct 13, 2007
The car that Volvo thought might sink it, the S80, now provides the underpinning for several Ford models and Volvo is a highly valuable asset should Ford boss Alan Mulally decide to sell it. In seven years of Ford ownership Volvo has needed no lessons on safety, design or reliability, but in 1999 its cars were old-fashioned, extremely heavy, expensive to build and thirsty – and the company had a very limited model range. Ford’s wide span of models allowed it to leverage existing platforms such as the Focus to give Volvo the extra products it so desperately needed, and to help make its cars more cheaply. I write as if Volvo were largely still independent, mainly because it largely acts as if it still were. Volvo’s president is Leif Johansson and the board of directors is mainly populated by Swedish types with hurdy-gurdy names. Even when that arch-egotist Wolfgang Reitzle was supposedly in charge of Ford’s PAG companies and swanked about in his private jet giving lectures on sportiness to Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover, Volvo was having none of it…
The quality of the Volvos’ interior fittings is almost a match for BMW and its subdued and grown-up design is certainly superior. Cabin storage space could have been slightly better thought out, particularly the rubbishy wires with which to attach an iPod, which occupy most of the centre-console locker. We also despaired of the horrible electronic parking brake, which moves in a completely counter-intuitive way. As might be expected of a Volvo, the list of safety equipment is comprehensive, but bewildering. There are multiple twin-stage airbags, side-impact and whiplash protection systems and the bodyshell uses various grades of high-strength steel to provide stiffness and a safer crash structure. Depending on the specification, you can have Volvo’s useful blind-spot and collision warning systems, adaptive cruise control and various assist programs to go with the standard anti-lock brakes and dynamic stability controls.