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February 3, 2012
Diesel Edges Up 0.2¢ to $3.85 a Gallon; Gasoline Gains a Nickel to $3.439 Transport Topics 1/31/12
Diesel rose two-tenths of a cent to $3.85 a gallon, its third increase in four weeks, while gasoline gained a nickel, the Department of Energy said Monday.
Gas rose to $3.439 a gallon marking its fifth increase in six weeks, DOE said following its weekly surveys of filling stations.
Both fuels fell by less than a penny last week, with diesel down 0.6 cent and gas down 0.2 cent.
This week's diesel uptick was just its third increase in the past 10 weeks. It had fallen for six straight weeks from late November through the start of the year.
Trucking's main fuel fell 22.7 cents in those six weeks. Through Monday, gasoline has cumulatively gained 21 cents in six weeks.
Diesel is now 41.2 cents over the same week last year, while gas is 33.8 cents over a year ago.
Oil prices have held steady near $99 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in the past week, Bloomberg figures showed.
Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price.
Provisions for Heavier Trucks Removed from House Transportation Bill Transport Topics 2/2/12
Provisions for heavier, longer trucks contained in a transportation reauthorization bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday did not survive the bill's first hearing.
By a 33-22 vote Thursday, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee removed provisions that would have allowed states to let trucks up to 97,000 pounds run on interstate highways.
The committee substituted instead an amendment that calls for a study of the impact of bigger trucks on safety and roads.
Currently, trucks are limited to 80,000 pounds on the interstate system, except where exemptions have been granted, most recently in Maine and Vermont. The committee vote also removed a provision that would have required states that already allow longer combination vehicles - those with three trailers - to expand the number of routes on which the trucks can travel.
American Trucking Associations spokesman Sean McNally called the committee action disappointing.
"There have already been dozens and dozens of studies that show increasing truck productivity reduces truck miles traveled, which not only reduces accident risk, congestion and emissions, but also will ultimately save money in reduced highway maintenance costs," McNally said.
Another provision that would require all states to allow double trailer rigs with two 33-foot trailers to run on highways remained in the reauthorization bill, said Darrin Roth, ATA's director of highway operations.
So did a provision that would let trucks up to 126,000 pounds run on 25-mile interstate segments, provided the trucks obtain special permits.
The bill would also require the secretary of transportation to start a field study on the new restart provisions in the hours-of-service rule issued in December by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
The five-year, $260 billion surface transportation bill - dubbed the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012 - was introduced by John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the transportation committee.
Ferro: FMCSA in 2012 Will Mandate EOBRs, Revise CSA, Set Medical Examiner Standards Transport Topics 1/31/12
WASHINGTON - The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will move forward in 2012 with regulations concerning medical examiners, a drug and alcohol clearinghouse for drivers and electronic onboard recorders, as well as changes to its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, Administrator Anne Ferro said.
"We've got plenty on our plate," Ferro said in outlining some of the agency's plans for the year at a Jan. 24 session on FMCSA's recent research and analysis at the Transportation Research Board's annual meeting.
Within the first quarter of the year, the agency will publish a rule setting training and testing standards for medical professionals who conduct required physicals on commercial drivers. FMCSA will maintain the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners to help drivers find certified examiners. "It's a very important tool; it's one that I think we're all very excited about," Ferro said of the registry.
The White House Office of Management and Budget is currently conducting a review of the final rule before publication, according to OMB's website. In the third quarter of 2012, FMCSA will propose creating a clearinghouse to track commercial drivers' positive drug and alcohol tests, Ferro said.
The rule would require employers to post positive results and refusals for testing, according to FMCSA's rulemaking agenda. Carriers would be allowed to check the database for names of drivers who apply for employment, with the driver's consent.
The clearinghouse is "another core tool for folks to use in ensuring the right drivers are behind the wheels of those trucks," Ferro said.
FMCSA will push ahead with its universal EOBR mandate and will schedule "listening sessions" to gather input, she said. It also will take into account an August ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit that struck down a more targeted mandate for failing to consider that the devices could enable carriers to harass drivers.
The agency decided in November to drop the finalized rule, which it referred to as "EOBR 1," instead of appealing the court decision. The proposed universal mandate, known as "EOBR 2," relies on the same device standards as the earlier rule, so it too must be tweaked.
"We have an opportunity in the months ahead to do a series of listening sessions to learn more from drivers and carriers and others what is meant by ‘harassment'," Ferro told the session's attendees.
The agency also will incorporate technological recommendations from the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Board and other information it has gathered throughout previous rulemakings, she said.
"We will work very aggressively to continue to advance an electronic onboard recorder rule that makes sense," she said.
Changes will come this year to CSA, and the agency will preview some of the changes in the second quarter of the year, Ferro said.
"Among the things you'll see in this preview . . . will be a proposal for a crash accountability process," she said. It will allow a carrier to tell the agency it is not responsible for a certain crash. FMCSA will then analyze the crash and assign accountability based on its determination of fault.
Around the same time, the agency will "fine-tune" the violation categories within CSA to re-focus the cargo securement category solely on hazardous materials carriers, Ferro said.
Railroads, Union Agree; Possible Strike Averted Journal of Commerce 2/3/12
The largest U.S. freight railroads reached a tentative agreement last week with a union representing track and bridge maintenance workers, eliminating the possibility of a nationwide work stoppage.
Working against a Feb. 8 deadline, the National Carriers Conference Committee, representing Union Pacific and other railroads, announced the agreement with Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees on Thursday.
That union was the only labor group that had not reached a contract agreement in the current round of bargaining. A total of 12 other agreements have been ratified.
A key issue was reimbursement to union members for travel to job sites that may be hundreds of miles away to work in track gangs, the union said in a statement posted on its website. The last adjustment of that compensation was made in 2005.
The U.S.-based carriers and the union agreed early in December to 60 additional days of talks, heading off a walkout at that time.
During the same week, unions that represent locomotive engineers and train dispatchers reached last-minute agreements.
OOCL to Quit Providing Chassis in NY-NJ Port Region Follows carrier's end of chassis service at six other ports, inland locations Journal of Commerce 2/2/12
OOCL plans to quit providing chassis for the drayage of import and export containers at facilities in the New York City metropolitan area and in Rochester, N.Y. as of April 1.
The announcement Thursday is the next step in OOCL's phased withdrawal from the chassis business in the U.S. Last Sept. 1 the Hong Kong-based carrier stopped providing chassis at six additional ports and inland locations in the East and Midwest, including the Port of Charleston, S.C.
The Port of New York is the largest port in which OOCL has pulled out of the chassis business. Most other major ocean carriers have also been getting out of the long-standing business of providing chassis for merchant haulage at U.S. ports and inland terminals.
As of April 1, OOCL said all motor carriers, either working as suppliers for OOCL or OOCL customers, must provide chassis for these shipments. The carrier said truckers should bill chassis usage fees directly to their customers.
OOCL recommended that motor carriers use Flexi-Van if they plan on renting or leasing chassis at these two New York locations, and encouraged them "to execute interchange agreements with chassis providers as soon as possible to ensure a smooth transition."
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