A11
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2021
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DOW
33,984.93 +3.36
BRIEFING
DoorDash to offer
lower-priced plans
DoorDash is launching
lower-priced delivery op-
tions for U.S. restaurants,
responding to criticism
that the commissions it
charges are too high .
The San Francisco
delivery company said
Tuesday it will offer a new
basic plan that will charge
restaurants 15% per or-
der for delivery, or around
half the cost of previous
plans. That plan will limit
the delivery area and shift
more delivery costs to
customers — they might
pay $4.99 instead of
$2.99, for example.
Restaurants can pay
more — commissions of
25% or 30% — for other
plans if they want a larger
delivery area, more visi-
bility in DoorDash’s app
or lower customer deliv-
ery fees.
DoorDash said local
restaurants and chains
with less than 75 loca-
tions are eligible for the
new rates. The company
wouldn’t say how many
of its partner restaurants
meet that criteria. But
DoorDash delivers from
nearly 400,000 restau-
rants using a network of 1
million freelance drivers.
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EarthCruiser unveils new
globe-trotting model
Bend company adapts during pandemic
BY GERRY O’BRIEN
The Bulletin
T
Lounge area in a Terranova (above). EarthCruiser Terranova is mounted on
a Ford F-350 chassis (below) which gives it a smaller profile. Submitted photos
here’s a new style of Earth-
Cruiser in town.
EarthCruiser, the Bend-
based manufacturer of luxury ex-
pedition vehicles that can travel
the world on- and off-road, is un-
veiling a new line of its
trucks this week. Called the
EC Terranova, it is a cus-
tom-camper or “cab-over”
that is tailor-made to sit on
the chassis of a Ford F350
pickup, but in a more exact-
ing way compared to con-
ventional campers. Coming Gillies
in 2022, the same model
will be integrated with Chevrolet
or Dodge models.
The company was founded in
2009, first launching in Brisbane,
Australia, then relocating to the
Bend headquarters in 2013.
Lance Gillies, CEO and founder
of EarthCruiser, said the advent
of the new topper came when two
things collided — the COVID-19
pandemic and the desire to have
a remote vehicle, but one that was
not as large an investment as a full-
sized EarthCruiser.
“We have been building expedi-
tion vehicles for a long time, and
have been wanting to build some-
thing on a domestic chas-
sis. And, essentially with
COVID-19, that acceler-
ated that dramatically,”
Gillies said. “Our specialty
is building vehicles for re-
mote travel, and people
wanted to be more remote
than usual when the pan-
demic hit.”
EarthCruisers are known for go-
ing off-road to remote locations
around the world; some places such
as the jungles of Borneo or the Sa-
hara Desert, have no roads or ame-
nities at all. Hence, one can bring
much of that along in an Earth-
Cruiser.
See EarthCruiser / A12
U.S. confidence
continues to rise
Consumer confidence
rose sharply for a second
straight month, hitting
the highest level since
the pandemic began, as
the rapid rollout of vac-
cines and another round
of U.S. financial support
for Americans boosts op-
timism.
The Conference Board
reported Tuesday that
its consumer confidence
index advanced to a bet-
ter-than-expected 121.7
in April, up from 109.0 in
March. It was the stron-
gest reading since the in-
dex stood at 132.6 in Feb-
ruary 2020, right before
the COVID-19 pandemic
struck in the United
States.
The present situation
index, based on consum-
ers assessment of current
business and labor mar-
ket conditions sored from
110.1 to 139.5. The expec-
tations index, based on
consumers’ views of what
conditions will be like
over the next six months,
posted a more moderate
gain, rising from 108.3
last month to 109.8 in
April.
Biden ups pay for
contract workers
President Joe Biden
signed an executive order
Tuesday to increase the
minimum wage to $15
an hour for federal con-
tractors .
Biden administration
officials said that the
higher wages would lead
to greater worker produc-
tivity, offsetting any addi-
tional costs to taxpayers.
The liberal Economic
Policy Institute estimates
that as many as 390,000
low-wage federal con-
tractors would receive a
raise, with roughly half of
the beneficiaries being
Black or Hispanic workers.
There are an estimated
5 million contract work-
ers in the federal gov-
ernment, according to a
posting last year for the
Brookings Institution by
Paul Light, a public pol-
icy professor at New York
University.
The increase could be
dramatic for workers who
earn the current mini-
mum of $10.95 an hour.
Those workers would
receive a 37% pay hike,
though the increase
would be rolled out grad-
ually, according to the
terms of the order.
— Bulletin wire reports
Agreement
with Japan
positive for
beef, wheat
Over 400
businesses
back LGBTQ
rights act
BY RICHARD SMITH
For the Capital Press
TOKYO — It is still too early to as-
sess the total impact the U.S.-Japan
Trade Agreement has had on Japan’s
imports of U.S. beef and wheat.
Market watchers do see a positive
impact from the trade deal, in effect
since January of last year, but point
out the COVID-19 pandemic has
complicated matters.
Because of COVID-19, the past
year would have been an especially
bad time for U.S. beef to face a sig-
nificant tariff disadvantage in its top
export market, U.S. Meat Export Fed-
eration Japan director Takemichi Ya-
mashoji said.
“So the U.S.-Japan Trade Agree-
ment delivered important benefits for
both Japanese consumers and the U.S.
beef industry,” Yamashoji said.
Although the trade pact did re-
move the mark-up on U.S. wheat, the
commodity only suffered a minimal
loss of market share during the one
year when wheat from Canada and
Australia had an advantage through
the Comprehensive and Progressive
Agreement for Trans-Pacific Part-
nership, U.S. Wheat Associates Japan
country director Kazunori Nakano
said.
The U.S. pulled out of the origi-
nal TPP agreement, opting instead to
negotiate a separate agreement with
Japan.
See Japan / A12
BY DEE-ANN DURBIN
The Associated Press
Ellen M. Banner/Seattle Times
Before administering a COVID-19 vaccination at the Amazon fulfillment center in
Kent, Washington, on Monday, Walgreens pharmacist Ai Phan-Tang, right, asks Ama-
zon senior operations manager Alex Ivanov if he has any questions about the vaccine.
Amazon pushes to
vaccinate thousands
of warehouse workers
BY KATHERINE ANNE LONG
The Seattle Times
There was more than a little par-
tying in the air at Amazon’s first
COVID-19 vaccination clinic for its
warehouse and delivery workers in
Washington state Monday.
In a conference room festooned
with balloons and streamers, just off
the deafening hum of the compa-
ny’s warehouse floor in Kent, grin-
ning workers rolled up their sleeves
to show their fresh Band-Aids and
snapped photographs next to a selfie
wall. “I GOT VACCINATED,” read
a massive balloon display on the
way out of the clinic.
“At first, I was hesitant to take
the shot,” said Amazon senior op-
erations manager Alex Ivanov, who
was vaccinated at the clinic Mon-
day. Ivanov said he was nervous that
the vaccine had been authorized
for emergency use before receiving
Food and Drug Administration ap-
proval — but as he watched friends
and family get their shots with no
ill consequences, he decided to join
them.
See Amazon / A12
More than 400 companies — in-
cluding Tesla, Pfizer, Delta Air Lines
and Amazon — have signed on to sup-
port civil rights legislation for LGBTQ
people that is moving through Con-
gress, advocates said Tuesday.
The Human Rights Campaign, a
Washington-based LGBTQ advo-
cacy group, said its Business Coali-
tion for the Equality Act has grown
to 416 members, including dozens of
Fortune 500 companies. Big names
like Apple, PepsiCo, General Mo-
tors, CVS, Facebook, Marriott, Capi-
tal One, Starbucks and Home Depot
pepper the list.
“It’s time that civil rights protec-
tions be extended to LGBT+ individ-
uals nationwide on a clear, consistent
and comprehensive basis,” said Carla
Grant Pickens, IBM’s chief diversity
and inclusion officer, in a statement
distributed by the Human Rights
Campaign.
The Equality Act would amend ex-
isting civil rights law to explicitly in-
clude sexual orientation and gender
identification as protected character-
istics. Those protections would extend
to employment, housing, loan applica-
tions, education and other areas.
The bill passed the U.S. House 224-
206 in February, with all Democrats
but just three Republicans support-
ing it.