Freightliner SC plant gets 2,000 truck UPS order

By Jim Brumm

WILMINGTON, N.C., May 15 (Reuters) - A large order for trucks, including hybrid electric vehicles, by United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will mean steady work for the Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp plant in Gaffney, South Carolina, over the next eight or nine months, a company spokesman said.

It is not clear, though, whether the order for 2,000 delivery vans, including 200 hybrid electric vehicles and 300 vehicles running on compressed natural gas, will lead to new hiring at the plant, said Jonathan Randall, director of sales and marketing for Freightliner, the U.S. truck unit of German carmaker Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Randall said on Wednesday night that 1,500 trucks in the order would have conventional diesel engines. Work on the conventional diesels will start before the end of the month, he said.

In contrast, the Daimler division's plant 90 miles to the northeast, in Cleveland, North Carolina, is expected to lay off about 1,500 workers in early June when operations are reduced to one shift a day from two shifts, the company said in April.

Randall did not have any information on the North Carolina plant.

In a statement released last month, Freightliner said the layoffs could be canceled if the market recovers enough by June to support two shifts at the plant.

The Portland, Oregon-based company laid off about 1,200 workers in the spring of 2007 when it went to two shifts from three.

Officials of both companies declined to discuss the value of UPS's Freightliner order.