![[Valid Atom 1.0]](valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
TRUCKING INDUSTRY NEWS * USA: USPS' troubles
* DC - How aging trucks could doom nationwide mail delivery
Washington,DC,USA -Bloomberg Business Week, by Devin Leonard -June 24, 2014: -- Postmaster General, Patrick Donahoe, has been saying for three years that his agency is in danger of running out of money because of declining mail volume. And since bills and greeting cards continue to be delivered six days a week, it’s little surprise that Congress has largely ignored his call for sweeping postal reform legislation... Now time may be running out. There are expensive projects that the USPS isn’t tending to because it doesn’t have the funds. The agency’s inspector general predicted earlier this month that unless the USPS replaces its aging fleet of trucks, it might not be able to deliver mail throughout the country after 2017... The USPS has nearly 190,000 vehicles, one of the largest fleets in the U.S., of that number, according to the report, 142,000 are custom-built mail delivery trucks expected to last 24 years. Many are approaching or have passed their expiration date. The inspector general says the current fleet consists of delivery vans that are “now between 20 and 27 years old.” ... Naturally, there are risks involved when postal workers make their rounds in 27-year-old trucks. The report notes that many of those vehicles lack the kind of safely features people now take for granted, such as front air bags, backup cameras, blind-spot warning systems, daytime running lights, seat belt reminders, and anti-lock brakes... The inspector general estimates that the USPS would have to spend $452 million to replace the entire fleet, and there’s no money for new vehicles at an agency that reported a $5 billion loss last year. The USPS has debated two plans to replace smaller numbers of vehicles and found those unaffordable as well. The sole exception came earlier this year, when the USPS approved a plan to purchase 3,509 vehicles to honor its contract with rural letter carriers...
* DC - Trucks continue to lead trade parade with NAFTA partners
Washington,DC,USA -The Trucker -26 June 2014: -- Two of five transportation modes – pipeline and trucks – carried more U.S.-NAFTA trade in April 2014 than in April 2013 as U.S.-NAFTA trade value rose to $100.1 billion, according to the TransBorder freight data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)... The increases came in two modes that combined carry more than two-thirds of total U.S.-NAFTA trade. Trucks, at 60.3 percent of the April trade, and pipeline, at 8.6 percent, carried a total of 69.0 percent of the trade... Trucks carry three-fifths of U.S.-NAFTA trade and are the most heavily utilized mode for moving goods to and from both U.S.-NAFTA partners. Trucks carried 60.3 percent of U.S.-NAFTA trade in April 2014, accounting for $30.6 billion of exports and $29.8 billion of imports...
* DC - Professional drivers write letter to DOT chief Foxx supporting FMCSA’s Ferro
.jpg)
Washington,DC,USA -The Trucker -23 June 2014: -- FMCSA Administrator, Anne Ferro, “gets it,” wrote 12 drivers with a combined 245 years driving experience in a letter to DOT Secretary, Anthony Foxx, late last week. And the reason, they said, is because Ferro sees the relationship between non-compliance and sub-standard pay... On most jobs, explained 48-year career driver Jerry Fritts, 68, a spokesman for the group, employees are paid more for producing more. In trucking, however, drivers went from hauling 45-foot trailers in 1982 to 53-foot trailers, the weight they pull increased by 10 percent, miles increased from 450 miles a day to 750, yet truckload drivers last year averaged $37,700 in earnings while in 1982 they were averaging $48,000 a year... Fritts, one of the 12 drivers who signed the letter to Foxx, said Ferro is “our best hope” to get driver pay where it needs to be... They wrote that Ferro’s mission has been to raise the bar of safety for both drivers and carriers and eliminate the “race to the bottom mentality” that cuts corners on safety...
* New York - Task Force makes recommendations to improve Port of N.Y. and N.J. movements
NY,USA -Truckinginfo -June 25, 2014: -- Nearly 100 port partners representing all sectors of the industry, including the New York Shipping Association, International Longshoremen’s Association, National Retail Federation, ocean carriers, importers and exporters, terminal operators, chassis providers and trucking companies, developed the recommendations over the past six months following extensive analysis, discussion and collaboration, according to the port authority... The Task Force was created by the port authority in conjunction with the New York Shipping Association in December 2013 to identify challenges and examine broad long-term recommendations to improve service reliability and efficiency in the port...
The task force also explored ways to address more immediate issues. The recommendations include:
- Development of a model to improve the management of truck chassis in the port.
- Development of a truck management system to meter truck arrival rates, which would reduce congestion and resulting air emissions, decrease truck turn times and improve terminal productivity.
- The coordination of gate hours at all of the privately operated terminals serving the port.
- The use of radio-frequency identification, or RFID, technology to measure and report on various truck movement times, including turn times on the terminal, queue times at terminal entrance gates and traffic on port roadways.
- Improved customer service at the terminals to assist truckers with transactions and other questions...
Labels: trucking industry news USA
posted by Unknown @ 6:35 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home