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MHEDA welcomes new Distributor Member Intermountain Lift Truck, an industrial truck distributor in Salt Lake City, UT, and new Supplier/Associate Member Space Maker Systems, a storage solution engineering company in Oakland, NJ.
China Decries Dumping Duties
As reported in the January 15 issue of The MHEDA Connection, The United States Department of Commerce recently added additional duties of 43% to 289% on imports of more than $300 million worth of steel product from China. These are in addition to duties ranging from 2% to 438% that were announced in November. Now, a month later, the Chinese government has accused the U.S. of straining their economic relationship by passing these anti-dumping measures. The wire decking duties that China is protesting are the result of a complaint filed with the Commerce Department by AWP Industries, ITC Manufacturing, J&L Wire Cloth, Nashville Wire Products and Wireway Husky Corp.
FMCSA Bans Texting in CMVs
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued regulatory guidance that bans texting while driving a commercial motor vehicle (CMV), effective immediately
75 Federal Register 4305. The guidance is applicable to all interstate drivers of CMVs subject to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.
Recent FMCSA research found that the odds of being involved in a safety-critical event is 23.2 times greater for drivers who are texting while driving than for those who are not. Texting drivers took their eyes off the forward roadway for an average of 4.6 seconds during the 6-second interval immediately preceding a safety-critical event. At 55 mph (or 80.7 feet per second), this equates to a driver traveling 371 feet, the approximate length of a football field, including the end zones, without
looking at the roadway. At 65 mph (or 95.3 feet per second), the driver would have traveled approximately 439 feet without looking at the roadway.
This guidance does not prohibit the use of electronic dispatching tools, fleet management systems or cell phones for uses other than texting while driving. The FMCSA will address the use of other electronic devices while driving in a notice-and-comment rulemaking proceeding later this year. But the agency thought that the risk of texting was so great as to issue this regulatory guidance immediately.
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Overheard on TMJ Editor's Blog |
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In response to "What the Internet Means for Distribution"
The market has always had a niche for these types of sales. In the old days it was the catalog that was mailed out all over the country by various companies. Today it is the internet, basically an electronic catalog. In my opinion there will always be a niche for a local dealer/integrator. The boundaries are greyer no doubt but the bottom line will still be the value you bring to the table with your local market area knowledge and service.
–George Prest |
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Elite Adds Silverman (North Easton, MA) • Bob Silverman joined Elite Storage Solutions as senior national and strategic account manager. Silverman has more than 45 years of material handling experience on both the distributor and manufacturer sides.
J.M. Equipment Relocates HQ (Manteca, CA) • J.M. Equipment is closing its shops in Modesto and Stockton, CA. The company is consolidating the staffs of the 2 branches and relocating them to its new headquarters in Manteca, CA.
RWM Hires Marinos (Gastonia, NC) • RWM Casters hired Steve Marinos as regional sales manager. Marinos is a 20-year veteran of the caster business and will enable RWM to expand its presence in the North American market.
Hyundai Aids Haiti Relief (Elk Grove Village, IL) • Hyundai Construction Equipment Americas is providing an R110-7A excavator to its dealer in the Dominican Republic. The machine will then be donated by the dealer to the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.
Associated Turns 50, Earns Award (Addison, IL) • Associated Material Handling Industries turns 50 this year. The company, which started as a small store front in Chicago, IL, with 1 customer, now boasts 6 locations that serve 16,000 customers throughout the Midwest. Also, the company, along with The Raymond Corporation, was recently named 2009 Vendor of the Year by Medline Operations. Associated provided the organization with more than 1,000 Raymond lift trucks.
Allied Adds Clark (Indianapolis, IN) • Allied Equipment Service Corp. added the Clark line of lift trucks to its product offering. Allied’s territory, which it acquired January 21, includes 40 of Indiana’s 80 counties.
JLG Awarded Grant (Hagerstown, MD) • The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry is channeling $500,000 in grant money through the Southern Alleghenies Planning and Development Commission to be used as training money for the recall of more than 500 employees to JLG industries. The money will provide training in the areas of machinery maintenance, computerized machining and supervisory development.
Voss Marks Anniversary (Chicago, IL) • Voss Equipment celebrated its 75th year in business. President Peter Voss III represents the third generation of family leadership at the company. “I’m honored that, 75 years later, my grandfather’s vision of providing superior product, service and investment in our employees, is still thriving.”
South Atlantic Systems Group Gets Wired
A large grocery distributor in the Northeast was in need of a wire decking solution. Their existing system didn't have anything in place to prevent product from getting pushed back too far and falling off. This was causing significant damage, and they turned to their longtime partner, South Atlantic Systems Group (Jacksonville, FL) Vice President Mark Teixeira, for help.
Teixeira took a trip to the customer's location and began to develop a solution. The first priority had to be preventing product from falling off the rack, but a traditional net-based solution would be too pricey. Something else had to be developed. Also, the labels on the front of the rack needed to be easily visible. This meant that traditional waterfall decking was out of the question. Read more...
2010 Educational Offerings
MHEDA University has a variety of ways to meet all of your training needs. View the complete MHEDA University schedule here. MHEDA offers every employee in your company access to 12 sales podcasts and 22 online customer service training sessions. To access these programs, visit this page.
Recruiting, Selecting and Managing your Sales Engineers and Field Service Technicians
A webinar from Caliper's Herb Greenberg and Harold Weinstein provides a practical and straightforward approach to understanding why some people succeed and others, who looked like they had great promise when hired or promoted, simply don't live up to expectations. Visit this page for more details.
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