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Monday, October 25, 2010

Earlier today, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Transportation rolled out the first of its kind national standards to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve fuel efficiency of heavy-duty trucks and buses. DOT and EPA officials said that this effort is projected to reduce GHG emissions by nearly 250 million metric tons and save 500 million barrels of oil over the lives of the vehicles produced within the program’s first five years.

Recent 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—at 15,231—were up 37 percent year-over-year in September. This output follows a 15 percent annual bump in August.

At a time when capacity across all modes of freight transportation is tightening, coupled with a slower-than-hoped-for economic recovery, many logistics, supply chain, and transportation managers responding to a Logistics Management survey report they are expecting to pay higher rates throughout the remainder of 2010 and into 2011.

Friday, October 22, 2010

As five leading U.S. trucking companies are calling for federal regulations that would require all interstate trucking companies to install electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs) on all their trucks to verify legal duty status of their drivers, their customers are being urged to make changes as well.

Railroad volumes for the week ending October 16 showed continued year-over-year improvement, according to data released by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).Carload volume at 303,664 was up 10.1 percent year-over-year and was ahead of the 297,029 carloads reported by the AAR

The International Air Transport Association called for coordinated efforts to deal with the challenges of growth in the MENA region.

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) has recently advised that all foreign flagged vessels operating in United States waters are required to be maintained in compliance with United States regulations, international Conventions and other required standards.

Volumes at the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and Port of Long Beach (POLB) were strong year-over-year numbers in September but down somewhat on a sequential basis.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Less-than-truckload (LTL) transportation services provider Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL) said it has seven China-based ports to its Pacific Promise service. Rolled out in March 2009, the Pacific Promise is a less-than-container load (LCL) service between ODFL and various ocean carriers. This is a joint guaranteed LCL service from China to the U.S., which allows importers to move LCL quantities “with a much higher degree of velocity, predictability, and visibility” than has previously been available and is also backed by a money-back guarantee.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) announced it has awarded nearly $600 million in funding from its TIGER II program for various transportation infrastructure-related projects. TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) II follows the original $1.5 billion TIGER program, which was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and distributed grants to 51 projects out of more than 1,400 applications for almost $60 billion worth of projects that came in throughout the country.