Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 19, 1994                   TAG: 9401190063
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

The nationwide average price of self-serve regular unleaded gasoline has fallen to its lowest level in nearly two years, the American Automobile Association reported Tuesday.

The motor club's monthly survey shows the price at $1.06 per gallon. It hasn't been that low since regular unleaded averaged $1.054 per gallon on March 31, 1992.

The January price was down 3.1 cents from last month's survey, when the average was $1.091 per gallon. The nationwide average price of self-serve midgrade unleaded was down 2.3 cents to $1.17. The self-serve premium unleaded average was down 2.7 cents to $1.259.

UPS set 4th-quarter air volume record

United Parcel Service, Atlanta-based package and document distribution company operating a sorting hub in Roanoke, said Tuesday it set record volume in its domestic air business for December and the fourth quarter.

In December, UPS handled an average of 1.37 million packages and documents per day in its domestic air business, up 25.9 percent from December 1992.

UPS said it set a one-day air volume record on Dec. 21, handling 2.95 million packages, or 31.6 percent more than 1992's peak day of 2.24 million air shipments.

For the quarter, UPS averaged 1.18 million air shipments per day, up 27.6 percent. - Staff report

Drought chopped '93 Va. farm yields

Extreme drought conditions last summer resulted in the lowest yields for corn, peanut and soybean crops in Virginia in nearly a decade, according to the Virginia Agricultural Statistics Service.

The state's tobacco and cotton crops were less severely affected, the agency said.

- Staff report