(Source: Reddit)
A tractor trailer hauling printer ink rolled over on the morning of March 9, 2011 spewing its contents across the highway and forcing the closure during the morning’s rush hour of the ramp linking Route 128 and Interstate 95 in Peabody, MA. Here is what it looks like – a beautiful colorful mess. Read more here.
Image Courtesy: Reddit.com
Trucking industry stakeholders are invited to participate in a free webinar to discuss key policy and institutional challenges that could impact fleet adoption of new wireless communication technologies. The particular technologies being discussed include communication technologies that allow trucks to “talk” to other vehicles and roadside infrastructure. Through this webinar, motor carriers will be able to provide the U.S. DOT with direct feedback on technology implementation issues.
Presentations will include 1) a brief introduction on the U.S. DOT’s Truck Technology Policy program of research; 2) an overview of the potential value of the wireless connectivity technologies to the trucking industry and 3) a summary of related policy issues identified to date. Feedback gathered from participants will be used to develop the Truck V2V/V2I Policy Roadmap and Research Agenda.
Please visit the TIMTC website at www.freightmobility.org to register for the webinar or click here
Interested in becoming involved with TIMTC? Participation is free and provides the latest information and updates on trucking industry initiatives that improve the industry’s safety and mobility. Send your contact information to TIMTC@trucking.org to receive your free membership.
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The Trucking Industry Mobility & Technology Coalition (TIMTC) is jointly managed by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) and the American Trucking Associations (ATA). The TIMTC is sponsored by the U.S. DOT. Members include motor carriers, commercial drivers, law enforcement, technology providers, equipment manufacturers, transportation planners and policy makers at the local, state and federal levels.
Interesting to see how things have changed in a short period of time. Twenty years ago more than half of the top 20 container ports were in America or Europe reflecting imports into both regions from around the globe. In a testament to China’s tremendous growth, the country now has 8 of the world’s largest ports compared to zero twenty years ago. On the other hand, the U.S. had 4 in the list during 1989 but that has now dramatically halved in 2009. WOW!
(Cross posted on The Young Professionals in Transportation Blog)
Click the image to access the report
AASHTO released its latest report, Unlocking Freight, at a national news conference in Des Moines, Iowa, and at two regional news conferences in Tennessee and Pennsylvania on July 8th. The report includes new data, state examples of urgent capacity needs, and solutions to solve the pending transportation crisis in America’s freight system. The reports shows that investments are well below what are needed to maintain – much less improve – the movement of freight in this country. As a result, according to this report released, the transportation system that supports the movement of freight across America is facing a crisis.
The transportation system that supports the movement of freight across America is facing a crisis. Our highways, railroads, ports, and waterways require investment well beyond current levels to maintain – much less improve – their performance. Millions of jobs and our nation’s long-term economic health are at risk.
In 10 years, an additional 1.8 million trucks will be on the road; in 20 years, for every two trucks today, another one will be added. Already bottlenecks on major highways used by truckers every day are adding millions of dollars to the cost of food, goods, and manufacturing equipment for American consumers.
Unlocking Freight finds our highways, railroads, ports, waterways, and airports require investments well beyond current levels to maintain – much less improve – their performance. The report identifies key projects in 30 states that would improve freight delivery and dependability, and offers a three-point plan to address what is needed to relieve freight congestion, generate jobs and improve productivity.
Despite more long-distance freight being moved by intermodal rail, the report finds that trucks will still carry 74 percent of the load. On average, 10,500 trucks a day travel some segments of the Interstate Highway System today. By 2035, this will increase to 22,700 commercial trucks for these portions of the Interstate, with the most heavily used segments seeing upwards of 50,000 trucks a day. Yet between 1980 and 2006, traffic on the Interstate Highway System increased by 150 percent while Interstate capacity increased by only 15 percent. The report identifies the 1,000 miles of most heavily traveled highways used by trucks.
Each year, 147 million tons of freight pass through Tennessee by way of trucks, rail cars and barges. Nearly half of Tennessee’s Gross Domestic Product comes from the movement of goods and more than half of the statewide employment is in goods-dependent industries. The segment of I-40 through Tennessee and Arkansas alone accounts for nearly one-third of the nation’s busiest truck miles.
A current strain on the movement of freight in the Tri-State region is the lack of vehicular and rail crossings along the Mississippi River, according to Nicely. Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas are currently working to develop a third Mississippi River bridge crossing – dubbed the Southern Gateway Project. Environmental studies on the project are now underway and include consideration of a multi-use bridge that would include both vehicle and rail access.
Unlocking Freight is the second in a series of reports generated by AASHTO to identify the need to increase capacity in our transportation system. For more information and to see state examples of freight capacity needs, go tohttp://expandingcapacity.transportation.org.
To view the first report in the series, Unlocking Gridlock, go to http://expandingcapacity.transportation.org.
(Source: AP via Yahoo News & CNN)
Fears of stalled commerce and travel didn’t materialize at U.S. border crossings Monday as people stayed home or were gently warned on the first day of stricter identification requirements for Americans returning from Mexico and Canada.
Traffic generally moved smoothly as those without proper identification stayed home or immigration officials let them pass through with a reminder to get a passport or other accepted ID.
Those crossing the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge in South Texas described the light traffic Monday morning as normal, with cars and pedestrians facing short lines.
“There was nothing. Everything is all right,” said Yvonne Rivera, a U.S. citizen who lives in Reynosa, Mexico, and commutes to work in Texas. The 22-year-old said she got her passport in anticipation of the rule change.
There were some hiccups.
Rosario Aragon said she got into a heated, 30-minute discussion with a border agent demanding a passport for her 9-year-old girl, even though U.S. and Canadian children under the age of 16 only have to present a birth certificate.
The agent at an El Paso crossing let her through after taking her daughter’s name and warning her to get an official ID from local police.
“I’m angry because he held us up for 30 minutes,” the U.S. citizen said after she crossed into Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
The new security rules for land and sea border crossings require U.S. citizens to show a passport, passport card or enhanced driver’s license, which use a microchip to store a person’s information. Some citizens may also use a trusted traveler document, which require background checks and are generally used by peoplecrossing the border regularly for business.
At the busiest passenger crossing along the northern border, the Peace Bridge between Buffalo, N.Y., andFort Erie, Ontario, traffic flowed smoothly with Customs and Border Protection officers reporting a 95 percent compliance rate with the new ID requirement. The Peace Bridge handled 8.9 million autos and 47,100 commercial buses in 2008.
Jessica Whitaker of London, Ontario, didn’t have a passport but was allowed in to the U.S. after showing her birth certificate and driver’s license. “They were very nice, very polite,” she said.
Kevin Corsaro, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Buffalo, N.Y., said it’s been a “routine Monday” with officers seeing a compliance rate as high as 95 percent throughout the Buffalo field office.
“We want to see 100 percent but we know that will take some time,” he said. “We won’t refuse entry to a Canadian if their only violation is they are noncompliant today, as long as we can verify their citizenship.”
The new rules for land and sea ports under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative were supposed to have gone into effect in 2008 but were delayed a year over concerns about the impact on commerce. The requirement for re-entering the country by air went into effect in 2007.
Click here to read the entire article.
One giant container ship can emit almost the same amount of cancer and asthma-causing chemicals as 50m cars, study finds
(Source: Guardian via Tree Hugger)
The Guardian has a pretty shocking piece about giant cargo ships and the pollution they emit. The title of this post is a line from “confidential data from maritime industry insiders”, and according to them, the low-grade ship bunker fuel that powers cargo ships has up to 2,000 times the sulphur content of diesel fuel used in US, and European automobiles and emission control is practically non-existent. Here we can see that the primary concern with shipping is air-pollution (“US academic research which showed that pollution from the world’s 90,000 cargo ships leads to 60,000 deaths a year in the US alone and costs up to $330bn per year in health costs from lung and heart diseases”). It does contribute significantly to global warming, but about 5-6 times less than land-based transportation.
Shipping by numbers (From Guardian)The world’s biggest container ships have 109,000 horsepower engines which weigh 2,300 tons.
Each ship expects to operate 24hrs a day for about 280 days a year
There are 90,000 ocean-going cargo ships
Shipping is responsible for 18-30% of all the world’s nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution and 9% of the global sulphur oxide (SOx) pollution.
One large ship can generate about 5,000 tonnes of sulphur oxide (SOx) pollution in a year
70% of all ship emissions are within 400km of land.
85% of all ship pollution is in the northern hemisphere.
Shipping is responsible for 3.5% to 4% of all climate change emissions
The calculations of ship and car pollution are based on the world’s largest 85,790KW ships’ diesel engines which operate about 280 days a year generating roughly 5,200 tonnes of SOx a year, compared with diesel and petrol cars which drive 15,000km a year and emit approximately 101gm of SO2/SoX a year.
(Source: Hurriyet Daily News)
ISTANBUL – In an attempt to escape banks, some transportation firms change their vehicle identification numbers and the color of the trailers in their fleet. Such irregularities are eroding trust in the industry as a whole, says Murat Tokatlı, chairman of the Association of Trailer Manufacturers. ’Our customers are unable to obtain funding for trailers,’Tokatlı complains
Some transportation companies that are in distress and unable to pay their loans resort to fraud, eroding confidence in the sector, the head of a Turkish association has warned.
These firms change their vehicle identification numbers and colors of the trailers in their fleet in order to escape from banks. Such irregularities erode financial institutions’ trust in the transportation industry, said Murat Tokatlı, chairman of the Association of Trailer Manufacturers, or TREDER. “Therefore, customers are unable to obtain funding for trailers. This forces producers to shoulder costs and risks.”
Tokatlı said 1,000 trailers and 300 trucks are “lost” at present due to the irregularities. He also said some firms have new traffic registrations for previously-used vehicles after having small producers change their vehicle identification numbers and colors.
Erosion of confidence
“Such irregularities started six months ago. The losses deriving from this have reached 25 million euros. The vehicles we produced get lost, and another brand new vehicle emerges. Such moves are completely in violation of the manufacture, amendment and assemblage regulations for vehicles,” said Tokatlı.
Irregularities in type approval certificates have also been an ongoing issue in the sector, Tokatlı said. Despite obtaining just one type approval certificate, some firms produce many vehicles, he said.
Explaining the irregularities, he said; “Some producers manufacture a type of product without having its certificate. Then they purchase the certificate and have the vehicle’s traffic registration. Besides being against the law, this also is a threat for safety. It is crucial to establish an audit mechanism.”
Commenting on financing problems stemming from the irregularities, he said; “The irregularities have eroded the trust of finance institutions into the transportation sector, which is the purchaser of trailers. The customers are unable to obtain financing for trailers. Maybe half of the trailer sales in Turkey are made with producers’ loans. The sector is under threat, and therefore we are obliged to provide the funding. Producers shoulder the cost and risk of the financing.”
Click here to read the entire article.
(Source: USDOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics)
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 – Surface transportation trade between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico was 27.2 percent lower in January 2009 than in January 2008, dropping to $47.5 billion, the biggest year-to-year percentage decline on record, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (Table 1). The $47.5 billion in U.S.-NAFTA trade in January 2009 was the lowest monthly amount since January 2004.
The value of U.S. surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico fell 10.3 percent in January from December (Table 2). Month-to-month changes can be affected by seasonal variations and other factors.
Surface transportation consists largely of freight movements by truck, rail and pipeline. About 88 percent of U.S. trade by value with Canada and Mexico moves on land.
The value of U.S. surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico in January was up 3.9 percent in the five-year period compared to January 2004, and up 31.6 percent over the 10-year period compared to January 1999 (Table 3). Imports in January were up 26.4 percent compared to January 1999, while exports were up 38.1 percent.
U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada
U.S.–Canada surface transportation trade totaled $29.0 billion in January, down 31.1 percent compared to January 2008 (Table 4). The value of imports carried by truck was 31.3 percent lower in January 2009 compared to January 2008, while the value of exports carried by truck was 27.2 percent lower.
U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Mexico
U.S.–Mexico surface transportation trade totaled $18.5 billion in January, down 20.0 percent compared to January 2008 (Table 6). The value of imports carried by truck was 20.5 percent lower in January 2009 than January 2008 while the value of exports carried by truck was 10.7 percent lower.
Click here to read the entire report in HTML or click here to download the report in PDF. A read-only version of the PDF file is provided here:
(Source: USDOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics)
Surface transportation trade between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico was 4.1 percent higher in 2008 than in 2007, reaching $830 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The 4.1 percent rate of growth was the smallest year-to-year growth rate since 2003 (Table 1).
BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), reported that surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico grew 8.6 percent during the first six months of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007. It declined 0.3 percent in the final six months and 9.4 percent in the October-to-December period compared to 2007. For 2008 data by month, see the BTS December North American Surface Freight press release athttp://www.bts.gov/press_releases/2009/bts010_09/html/bts010_09.html
Total North American surface transportation imports rose 2.7 percent in 2008 from 2007, and exports rose by 5.9 percent during the same period (Table 2).
In 2008, 86 percent of U.S. merchandise trade by value with Canada and Mexico moved on land. Total North American surface transportation trade value in 2008 was up 47.5 percent compared to 2003, and up 83.7 percent compared to 1998, a period of 10 years (Table 3).
Click here to read the entire press release or click here to download the PDF report. Shown below is the “Read-only” version of the PDF report.
(Source: AASHTO)
Enactment of the FY 2010 budget resolution “will be the starting point as the House considers the new surface transportation authorization bill,” Kansas Secretary of Transportation Deb Miller testified today before the House Budget Committee.
Appearing on behalf of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Miller outlined a six-year, multi-modal transportation investment that includes:
Miller noted that even before addressing authorization, however, the Congress must ensure that the Highway Trust Fund has sufficient revenue to fund the current program. An $8 billion transfer made by Congress last September may not be sufficient to last through the year, she said.
Miller’s complete testimony may be accessed at tinyurl.com/miller-2009-03-17. For information on AASHTO’s authorization recommendations go to www.transportation.org.
Click here to read the entire article.
