Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 17, 1994 TAG: 9402170272
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Walt Disney Co. may start its own cruise ship line and is looking for theme park sites in Asia, a company executive confirmed Tuesday.
Disney's interest in entering the cruise business comes near the end of an eight-year relationship with Florida-based Premier Cruise Lines.
"It's more than window shopping," said Peter Rummel, president of Disney Development Co. "We have spent some time trying to understand the [cruise] business."
Rummel said Disney is ready to continue expanding internationally, although the Euro Disney resort outside Paris lost more than $900 million in the past fiscal year.
- Los Angeles Times
Trucking industry losing drivers fast
While winter storms are upsetting trucking schedules now, industry leaders say warmer weather will aggravate a driver shortage as truckers give up their rigs for jobs on farms, construction sites and oil fields.
"It's an annual concern that trucking companies have," said Robert Rothstein, general counsel at the Interstate Truckload Carriers Conference.
This migration of drivers to other fields is not confined to the spring. In recent years, thousands of truck drivers have left the industry, citing long hours, low pay and lengthy periods away from home.
Others have failed to pass tougher federal requirements for heavy-vehicle operators, along with more frequent and sophisticated drug and alcohol testing.
Substance-abuse tests became mandatory for transportation workers in the railroad, airline, maritime and trucking industries in December 1989, under rules issued by the Department of Transportation.
The departure of an estimated 50,000 truck drivers a year, according to various estimates, not only hurts truckers but also disrupts distribution at many shippers, as dispatchers leave freight behind for lack of drivers.
Turnover continues to be considerable among the nation's truck drivers, estimated by labor and trucking sources to number about 4 million. But turnover is higher for the 2.7 million truckload drivers, most of whom are irregular route haulers, the ITTC said.
Among the irregular route truckload carriers, the turnover rate has edged up to 100 percent with the pickup in the economy, said Michael Arendes, a transportation economist at the American Trucking Associations.
- Journal of Commerce
Super Bowl prices to rise next year
CHICAGO - The 1995 Super Bowl is going to carry an ultra-premium price for advertisers. At $975,000 per 30-second commercial, it's 8.3 percent higher than Super Bowl XXVIII a few weeks ago, when advertisers coughed up $900,000, or $30,000 per second.
The 1994 Super Bowl was watched by 134.8 million people, the most for any single TV show.
A 60-second spot during Super Bowl XIX in 1985 went for $1 million, meaning the price has about doubled in 10 years. Commercial time went for $80,000 for 60 seconds at the first Super Bowl in 1967.
- Chicago Tribune
by CNB