Transport, Trade and Regulation News

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working with slightly more than a dozen federal agencies to help them better determine what shipments are high risks and which ones can be cleared faster because they pose less of a potential threat.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will continue to go beyond standard operating procedures until the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex is free from congestion and productivity is back to normal, the assistant director for field operations at the agency in Southern California said Thursday.

The limited attention the contentious labor negotiations and broader port congestion have received within the Beltway speaks somewhat to the disconnect between the freight industry and Washington.

Since taking the reins of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in March 2014, Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske has met with shippers, brokers and others to better understand trade facilitation and what the agency can do to help. Associate Managing Editor Mark Szakonyi met with the former U.S. drug czar in early December to discuss how Customs will work this year to expedite cargo processing without sacrificing security.

Federal regulators are preparing a host of final and proposed trucking regulations for release and comment this year, but delays caused by lack of staffing and other issues may slow the process.

It’s not clear how many rules the FMCSA will be able to complete in the last two years of the Obama administration, and rules on driver coercion and electronic logging are likely to be challenged in Congress or in court — which could delay their implementation.

Shippers, transportation providers and infrastructure pundits have warned for years that the U.S. needs to go beyond maintaining its freight network and prepare for the day when freight growth takes off. That day has come, and there’s little sign that Congress and the Obama administration are ready to make the needed investments in the nation’s highways, roads and bridges.

NYK joined "K" Line and CSAV in pleading guilty to U.S. price-fixing charges over the past year related to roll-on, roll-off shipping services.

Western ocean carriers, port operators and freight forwarders are bracing for a slump in Russia’s freight traffic as the nation heads for recession and double-digit inflation in 2015.

The Japanese government has recently expressed concern to the U.S. government regarding the delays of U.S. forage exports because of U.S. West Coast port congestion, according to an agriculture shipper group.

Japan’s trade surplus with the United States expanded by a whopping 20.4 percent in November on a year-on-year basis, as exports grew relatively strongly while imports fell, according to preliminary trade figures released by the Japanese Finance Ministry on Wednesday

World Shipping Council President and CEO Chris Koch in late July will hand over the reins of the trade group representing major container lines.

A preliminary reading of an index shows Chinese manufacturing activity in December shrank for the first time since May, the latest sign of weakening European and broader global demand.

The Mexican Congress is expected to approval legislation this afternoon that would protect concessions held by the country’s three largest railroads and create a rail regulatory agency.

Federal regulators are proceeding with a negotiated rule-making on minimum national truck driver training standards, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said Dec. 12.

U.S. ports and other major freight links in supply chains are poised to get less help from Uncle Sam next year after Congress reduced funding for a popular grant program by $100 million.

Opposition by Democrats and some Republicans to the $1 trillion, rider-festooned spending bill is keeping Washington on edge as the legislation nears a midnight deadline.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., has joined a New Jersey state senator in calling for abolition of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection pilot project that allows shippers to reimburse the agency for additional staffing during normal hours and overtime work could help seaports deal with the growing threat of congestion.

The likelihood that truck drivers will have different hours of service rules next year is increasing, as Congress wraps language that will change suspend some 2013 HOS changes into its $1 trillion spending bill.

Starting Dec. 18, U.S. truck drivers in most cases will no longer have to file a report if an inspection of their equipment shows no maintenance issues and safety defects, saving the industry nearly $1.7 billion annually, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

An amendment that would suspend the current 34-hour restart provision in the truck driver hours of service rules pending further study is buried deep within the omnibus spending bill being crafted by Congress. Will it survive as Congress struggles to pass spending legislation before midnight Dec. 12 to avoid a government shutdown?

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission will launch a website soon that will serve as a clearinghouse for port congestion surcharges, following industry confusion over planned U.S. West Coast surcharges, Commissioner Michael A. Khouri said today.

Part of the reason South Atlantic ports haven’t seen as much congestion as their Northeast and Southern California counterparts is because the operating port model is more prevalent there, Federal Maritime Commissioner Michael Khouri said today.

Descartes Systems Group has acquired two companies for about $11.8 million that will help the Waterloo, Ontario-based transportation technology provider expand its European reach.

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., lashed out at the Jones Act during a Friday panel at the Heritage Foundation, saying the 94-year-old maritime law is an anachronism that hurts U.S. farmers and manufacturers at the expense of foreign rivals.

Brazil’s trade deficit narrowed for the third month in a row in November as the economy continues to face headwinds.

Transportation technology provider Descartes increased its net income 91 percent year-over-year in the third quarter, citing the industry's growing reliance on logistics technology to handle increased trade regulation.

President Obama on Wednesday severely downplayed the chances of hiking the federal fuel tax to provide more stable surface transportation funding.

Two U.S. senators are objecting to a provision in a House-passed Coast Guard reauthorization bill that they say will require more U.S food aid shipments to be carried on U.S.-flag ships.

U.S. and Singapore shippers and transportation providers in their countries’ trusted trader programs are poised to see faster cargo processing after customs agencies from both countries yesterday signed two major agreements.

The ports of Seattle and Tacoma are one step closer to creating an alliance to protect and even expand their container market share after getting a green light — one of two needed — from U.S. maritime regulators.

Japan and Turkey have kicked off negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement, as Tokyo sees the newly industrialized country as a potentially lucrative market and strategic gateway to other markets in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere.

U.S. House and Senate negotiators have agreed on a bipartisan bill to limit Federal Maritime Commission members’ terms, reauthorize the FMC and Coast Guard budgets at current levels, and establish a national maritime policy to encourage U.S.-flag shipping.

Eurasian Economic Union and Mercosur officials met last week to see how members could strengthen trade relations and increase the movement of goods between trade blocs.

Plans to raise the minimum insurance coverage U.S. trucking companies must maintain to operate could affect hundreds of thousands of trucking companies, large and small, and their shipper customers.

China is speeding up its process of ditching a two-year ban on Brazilian red meat with a resumption of imports expected before Christmas, said Brazil’s agriculture minister, Neri Geller. And Saudi Arabia is expected to resume imports of Brazilian beef by the end of this year.

Hapag-Lloyd and CSAV just need approval from Ukraine and China to merge and create the fourth-largest container lines, after Mexican regulators gave the tie-up the green-light this week.