Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The battle for increasing truck size and weights received a shot of good news, when the White House last week has agreed to a request from Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to permanently enact a pilot program allowing trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds to travel on federal interstate highways in Maine.

The air cargo industry has made unexpected gains in recent months, but analysts are not predicting that the trend will continue into 2011.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

“Only the paranoid survive.” Given the claims almost every candidate is making about the other guy (or gal), no matter their party persuasion, you might think I’m talking about politics. But, I’m talking about materials handling.

Average diesel prices for the week of September 20 at $2.960 per gallon were up 1.7 cents from the week of September 13. Prior to this increase, diesel prices have been heading down since reaching $2.991 the week of August 9, falling a cumulative six cents from August 9 to September 6.

Data published by ACT Research, a provider of data and analysis for trucks and other commercial vehicles, indicates that net orders of heavy-duty Class 8 commercial vehicles were up 15 percent year-over-year in August.

Monday, September 20, 2010

The most recent results from the Transportation Intermediary Association’s (TIA) 3PL Market Report indicate that the third-party logistics sector is regaining its financial footing following the depths of the recession.

The push from Washington to act on President Obama’s goal of doubling exports in the next five years gained additional momentum with the White House recently issuing a report to Obama on the National Export Initiative (NEI).

Damco, the logistics arm of A.P. Moller-Maersk and one of the world’s “top 20” providers of freight forwarding and supply chain management solutions, has announced that Maersk Distribution Services Inc. (MDSI) will be integrated into Damco.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Port of Los Angeles staff will recommend to the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners an adjusted schedule for implementation of certain provisions of the Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program Concession Agreement that were previously enjoined by the federal court.

Having proved its resilience in the face of Hurricane Katrina and the recent BP spill, the Port of New Orleans is ready to demonstrate it can compete with some of its regional neighbors for more cargo in the future.