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Released: July 15, 2010
FMCSA Sends HOS Proposal To DOT For Review
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration sent its new hours of service proposal to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's office for review in late June, according to a Department of Transportation report issued earlier this month. The secretary's office typically reviews important rules before sending them to the White House Office of Management and Budget for a final assessment. FMCSA is issuing a new HOS proposal as part of a court agreement with Public Citizen and other interest groups. According to that agreement, the agency must send the proposal to the White House by July 26. DOT's report said the proposal for the hours of service rule is likely to be published in November.
Click here to view NASSTRAC's Position Paper on HOS.
DOT Freight Index Signals Improvement
The Department of Transportation's freight transportation services index rose 4.4% in May from a year ago, marking the third straight year-to-year increase. May's freight TSI reading of 97.7 compares with last May's 93.5—the lowest level since June 1997. The index is down 13.5% from its historic peak of 112.9 set in May 2006. The 2.6% gain in March was the first year-to-year increase since July 2008. The index slipped 0.4% in May from April, DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics said in its monthly report released Wednesday. The TSI is a seasonally adjusted monthly index measuring the output of services provided by the for-hire transportation industries, including railroad, air, truck, inland waterways, pipeline and local transit
Oil Dips As Diesel, Gas Inventories Improve
Import cargo volume through the nine busiest container gateways in the U.S. is expected to post a year-to-year increase of 15 percent in June, and may rise by double digits into this fall, reported NRF and Hackett Associates in their monthly Global Port Tracker. The increases, aided by soft comparisons with last year's weak volumes, come despite continuing concern about economic conditions and consumer demand. U.S. ports surveyed by Global Port Tracker handled 1.15 million 20-foot-equivalent units of containers in April. That was up 7 percent from March and up 16 percent from April 2009. It was the fifth consecutive month to show a year-to-year improvement after December broke a 28-month streak of declines, according to the Journal of Commerce.
Trucking Adds Jobs In June
For-hire trucking companies hired 1,000 workers in June, the third consecutive month the number of industry jobs increased, the Labor Department reported July 2. The department also reported that the nation's unemployment rate fell to 9.5% last month — the lowest it has been since July 2009 — even though the overall number of jobs fell by 125,000 during the month. Economists said the decline in rate was because of people giving up their job searches, therefore falling out of the category of unemployed. The drop in overall jobs was led by the loss of 225,000 temporary Census workers, but the private sector added 83,000 jobs during June, more than double the previous month.
Do You Have A Plan To Meet The 100% Air Cargo Screening Mandate?
Effective August 2010, 100% of air cargo flown on passenger aircraft (PAX) must be screened according to a Congressional mandate. Unscreened cargo will not be permitted to fly on PAX, potentially leading to logjams at airports and an economic shift as that cargo moves to alternate methods for transport (all-cargo air, maritime, rail, truck, etc). NASSTRAC recently hosted a webcast to learn critical information for shippers and carriers alike to understand the requirements, featuring officials from the Department of Homeland Security (TSA).
> View NASSTRAC's free webcast on-demand about the benefits of TSA's program, the Certified Cargo Screening Program (CCSP).
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