Transport, Trade and Regulation News

Canadian truck drivers are bristling at a U.S. proposal to more than double the fees they pay to authorities at the border.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will no longer require the air cargo industry to report its pre-screened volume monthly, saving shippers and forwarders hundreds of hours of time.

The Wal-Mart truck driver that earlier this month slammed into a limousine van, killing one comedian and badly injuring TV star Tracy Morgan, was speeding but wasn’t in violation of federal rules on how long he could be behind the wheel, according to a preliminary federal investigation.

WASHINGTON — The only U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner to cast a vote against the P3 Network said Chinese authorities might have done the agency “a favor by forcing us to look at our regulatory standards within this new world” of massive vessel-sharing agreements.

WASHINGTON — With few short-term solutions available to solve the nation’s highway funding crisis, some in Congress are willing to back raising and indexing the federal fuels tax to inflation despite the political risks.

WASHINGTON — A former head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has blasted truck critics for “political opportunism” in falsely implying a recent high-profile truck accident is tied to an effort to rollback new federal rules for truck drivers.

The furor over the truck crash with a limousine van that killed James McNair and injured comedian Tracy Morgan is spurring demand for tougher truck safety regulation, including stricter hours of service rules for truck drivers.

Tough screening regulations applying to air cargo being flown into the European Union will be enforced from July 1, but with just two weeks to go the industry has little idea which carriers, airports and forwarders have met the security requirements.

The U.S. Congress is considering taxing oil companies to pay for federal highway construction, as legislators debate whether to save the primary engine of surface transportation infrastructure funding with a short-term fix or something more ambitious.

Debate over driver fatigue and how many hours truck drivers should spend behind the wheel exploded on the national stage this week after an accident claimed the life of one celebrity and injured another.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will assess cybersecurity at ports across the nation after a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office that showed the DHS wasn’t doing enough to stop cyber threats.

The U.S. trucking industry scored a rare victory against new federal hours of service rules after a Senate committee voted to suspend the revised restart provision.

Roughly 70 shipper and transportation provider groups are urging the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to ask Congress to repeal a controversial container scanning mandate.

The US Congress is rummaging through the stamp drawer to find dollars for federal highway construction.

Congressional appropriators, or those with the purse strings, aren’t bound to follow the guidance set forth by the Water Resources Reform and Development Act, which President Barack Obama is expected to soon sign into law.

Gil Kerlikowske oversees the largest U.S. law enforcement agency and the second-largest revenue-collecting source in the federal government.

The Senate’s vote for the Water Resources Reform and Development Act has sent the long-delayed port and waterway bill to President Obama for his likely signature.

U.S. shippers haven’t been this optimistic about volume growth in the coming 12 months since The Hurt Locker won the Academy Award for Best Picture and an Icelandic volcano disrupted flights to and from Europe.

The Japanese economy posted strong growth in the first quarter of this year as consumer spending, a key driver of expansion, surged ahead of the sales tax hike on April 1, according to a preliminary report released by the Cabinet Office last week.

WASHINGTON — There’s plenty of bad news coming from Washington when it comes to long-term highway funding. With the federal Highway Trust Fund, the main engine of highway construction, set to dry up as soon as late August, states are already shelving long-term projects. In other words, trucking companies shouldn’t expect any relief to congestion, even if there is still enough money to fill potholes left by the brutal winter.

For years, truck drivers have complained about being pushed by dispatchers and others to violate federal regulations to meet unrealistic delivery deadlines. Soon, truckers may have a way to push back.

WASHINGTON — Long-delayed legislation agreed to by House and Senate leaders yesterday will allow U.S. ports to take on deepening projects without congressional approval and obtain federal reimbursement later.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he is pushing legislation that would force U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide measurable benefits to members of trusted trader programs and would require other federal agencies to speed cargo clearance at ports of entry.

Attorneys for Thomas Farmer claim the former Crowley Liner Services vice president’s antitrust conspiracy indictment is invalid because Puerto Rico is neither a state nor a nation.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in Chicago last week it’s “plausible” that Congress will reform the nation’s corporate tax system by the end of the year, giving President Barack Obama the $150 billion he needs for his four-year, $302 billion transportation plan.

Japan and the United States failed to reach a deal in bilateral negotiations over the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement during President Barack Obama’s three-day visit to Tokyo, which ended on April 25.

While agribusiness investments are a thriving sector for multinational expansion, Ukraine’s more mature sectors — energy, mining and metallurgy — remain highly inefficient and subject to corrupt practices, according to Anders Aslund, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

ORLANDO, Fla. — The severe capacity constraints shippers experienced on U.S. roadways in the first quarter will become the norm unless the federal government acts to offset the impact of new regulations with productivity-enhancing measures.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Booming U.S. oil and natural gas production is “one of the most underappreciated megatrends,” a senior equity research analyst told the Transportation Intermediaries Association conference here.

Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and David Vitter, R-La., are calling for a six-year transportation bill that would maintain current spending levels but adjust for inflation, while drawing funding from tax reform — not higher fuels taxes.

The Senate yesterday confirmed President Obama’s nomination to the Surface Transportation Board, thrusting Debra Miller into the rail regulatory agency as it grapples with a myriad of issues.

Opponents of allowing larger and heavier trucks on the nation’s highways are already calling foul on a yet-to-be-released study by the U.S. Department of Transportation and want President Obama to put the research on hold.

Australia has secured a significant competitive advantage in the lucrative Japanese beef market over its main rival, the United States.

Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood doesn’t have much faith in Congress getting it act together soon to pass a surface transportation bill.

Foreign investment in the five founding members of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, last year topped $128.4 billion, five times the 2001 level, Merrill Lynch economist Chua Hak Bin said in a report carried today by the South China Morning Post.

Changes coming to Mexican customs regulations in October will give maquiladoras, or manufacturers focused on exports, more competitive pricing on brokerage and allow brokers to expand the number of ports of entry where they manage cargo.

One of the largest Mexican rail shippers said it supports more regulation of the country's three major railroads but is against a proposal being debated in Mexico City that would require the country’s two rail concession holders to share their lines with third parties.

DHL Global Forwarding, named on April 1 by Singapore’s competition watchdog as one of 11 forwarders involved in 2002 to 2007 price-fixing of Japan to Singapore shipments, said the economic effects of its activities were “minimal.”