Summer Slowdown Shows on Canadian Spot Market Index - Source Today's Trucking

 Summer Slowdown Shows on Canadian Spot Market Index

Posted: Aug 16, 2012 04:31 PM | Last Updated: Aug 16, 2012 04:31 PM

TORONTO — TransCore's Canadian Freight Index for the spot market declined 21 percent in July.
The decrease is due to the traditional summer slowdown, TransCore said, noting summer construction, vacations and company shut-down periods.
July also marked the third lowest volumes of any month this year, however, TransCore noted, it was the fourth most active July on record.
Cross-border postings dropped two points and accounted for 73 percent of overall load postings.
Intra-Canada postings made up 23 percent of total load volumes, and increased one percent from June.
Equipment postings rose nine percent over June, and were up significantly year-over-year with a 21 percent increase. Equipment-to-loads ratio also increased, marking the highest levels of 2012 so far.

Here's the breakdown:

Top Destinations for Loads Imported into Canada were:
Ontario 54 percent
Western 23 percent
Quebec 20 percent
Atlantic 3 percent
Western Canada increased three percent, while Quebec decreased three percent.
The remaining regions remained unchanged.
Top Regions for Import Equipment into Canada were:
Ontario 53 percent
Western 23 percent
Quebec 21 percent
Atlantic 3 percent
Western Canada decreased one percent, while Quebec increased one percent.
The remaining regions remained unchanged.
Regions of Origins for Loads within Canada were:
Western 44 percent
Ontario 26 percent
Quebec 22 percent
Atlantic 8 percent
The regions remained unchanged from last month.
Top States of Origin for Loads Destined for Canada:

1. Pennsylvania
2. Ohio
3. California
4. Illinois
5. Texas

Top U.S. Destinations for Freight Originating in Canada:

1. New York
2. Texas
3. Pennsylvania
4. California
5. Michigan

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US-Canada Border Delays, Rules Cost $19 billion a Year - Source HDT

 US-Canada Border Delays, Rules Cost $19 billion a Year

VANCOUVER —The Canada-US border is costing Canadians over $19 billion a year, according to a new study by the Fraser Institute.
Researchers added up the lowest values from the estimated ranges for all three types of costs: trade, tourism, and government programs, equaling the $19.1 billion. For its part, trade was $16.2 billion of that number.
Pointing to post-Sept 11 security regulations, traffic bottlenecks, and administrative costs for various programs, the report's authors are calling on both the U.S. and Canadian governments to provide detailed descriptions of costs and expenditures for specific border programs.
One of those programs is the Beyond the Border Action Plan, announced last December.
"While the vision provides specific benchmarks and timelines for measuring progress, it does not tie these guidelines to government expenditures or reductions in border crossing costs," the authors write in the report. "The Canadian and American governments need to tie specific border infrastructure improvements and other expenditures to specific gains, as manifest in lower border crossing costs for Canadian and American businesses engaged in cross border trade, as well as individual travellers."
For the most part, the authors praise the Border Action Plan, but "there is room for improvement." Once both governments provide detailed descriptions of costs and expenditures for specific border programs and security measures, they also must be evaluated in terms of performance, namely, whether the expenditures made by the public sector are producing savings for individual travellers and traders." The costs and results evaluations should be done on a year-to-year basis and made public, advises the report.
Either we're going to continue "with incremental and uncoordinated programs as we have often done since 9/11" or we're going to create "a new border regime" the report stresses. "In order to do the latter we need to hold governments accountable in terms of costs and savings."
The report also noted the recent announcement of a new Detroit-Windsor crossing, that, they say, should have a "very positive impact on the future costs of crossing the border in this industrial hub."




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Verizon Enhances Fleet Management Tools - Source Trucking Info

Verizon Enhances Fleet Management Tools

Verizon is enhancing its Field Force Manager and Fleet Control. The enhanced offerings combine location management, cloud services and tablet-based solutions.

The offerings feature:

- A new version of Verizon's Field Force Manager, the company's flagship workforce management application, to help companies manage and empower employees in the field with mobile work tools and applications and new enhancements for use on 3G and 4G LTE smartphones, tablets across various mobile operating systems as well as enterprise-grade barcode-scanning devices.

- An enhanced Verizon Fleet Control application, which can now be combined with a secure enterprise tablet pre-loaded with transportation and company-specific applications to help manage fleets and operations in the field.

Field Force Manager Empowers Employees in the Field

Working with Xora, which makes mobile workforce management solutions, and mobile solutions provider DecisionPoint Systems, Verizon is rolling out an advanced version of its workforce management solution that uses smartphones and tablets to give employees more work tools and mobile applications in the field, including electronic forms, location-based services, mobile timecards and job dispatch.

The enhancements includes design, functionality and feature enhancements that make the software even easier to use and provide faster and easier ways to access and share critical data about the business, including giving managers near-real-time visibility into operations through a cloud-based management application.

Workers in the field can now clock into shifts, accept jobs and update status when completed, and submit electronic forms with barcodes, pictures and signatures for proof-of-service. At the same time, their managers - using cloud-computing technology - can keep tabs on business activities in the field and make quicker decisions, such as rerouting the nearest worker to a new job when a customer needs service.

Verizon is working with DecisionPoint Systems to offer Field Force Manager as a turnkey mobile business solution.

Fleet Control Keeps Fleet Operations Rolling

Working with mobile fleet optimization provider XRS (formerly Xata) and DecisionPoint Systems, Verizon is making its Fleet Control solution available on the secure enterprise blank tablet - a "blank slate" that can be tailored for individual customer needs.

By combining Verizon's wireless network with XRS Turnpike fleet management software, mobile workers and fleet managers can benefit from a mobile work tool designed for use in and out of the truck.

With Fleet Control, which is a build-to-order solution for both private and for-hire fleets, transportation and distribution businesses can use technology to monitor vehicles and drivers, optimize routes, simplify driver inspections, manage speed and fuel consumption, and stay compliant with regulatory reporting requirements.

Fleet Control also comes with a series of optional applications that can improve business operations and can integrate with new or currently used proof-of-delivery applications.

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Diesel Prices Still on the Rise - Source HDT

Diesel Prices Still on the Rise

Truckers are continuing to dig a little deeper into their wallets as diesel prices continue to climb, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

According to the Energy Information Administration's weekly report, the national average for a gallon of diesel fuel jumped 6 cents this week, which is a 22-cent increase over last year's prices. The average price for a gallon of diesel reached $4.03.

Gasoline prices continued to increase as well, up nationally an average 2 cents per gallon to $3.74. This is an increase of 16 cents over last year's national average.

The largest increases for diesel were again seen on the West Coast, with an average increase of more than 10 cents per gallon this week. Gas prices have reached an average of $4.25 per gallon in the region.

In related news, crude oil futures dipped lower on Monday. Brent crude oil dropped to $113.70 a barrel, a decrease of 1 cent over last week's update. Meanwhile on the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude fell to $95.97 a barrel.



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Minnesota Uses New Bridge-Building Tech to Slash Road-Closure Time - Source Trucking Info

 Minnesota Uses New Bridge-Building Tech to Slash Road-Closure Time

The Minnesota Department of Transportation used a giant automated machine called a Self-Propelled Modular Transporter to move a finished bridge into position over the weekend, and reduced the overall road closure time by two months.

A first for MnDOT, the move took place Aug. 18 over Interstate 35E in St. Paul at the Maryland Avenue Bridge site, where crews have been working all summer long building the bridge deck and structure on the west side of the roadway.

The two 105-foot spans that were built about 1,000 feet south of the crossing. The SPMT, with 352 wheels, took about two hours to move each span into place. Traffic was diverted beginning a few hours earlier.

Saturday's event was a pilot demonstration of SPMT technology that has cut the duration of highway construction-related road closures in Utah and Arizona nearly in half. As a result, MnDOT shaved about two months from road closures in St. Paul.

"With traditional construction methods, the Maryland Bridge would have been closed for twice as long, nearly four months," said MnDOT Commissioner Tom Sorel. "Instead, the closure will be reduced to about 60 days."

Crews have additional work to finish before the bridge is open to traffic in mid-September.

Watch a time-lapse video compressing the 12-hour process into just over a minute:




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http://www.logisticsmgmt.com/article/second_quarter_intermodal_volumes_are_on_the_right_track_says_iana/

Second quarter intermodal volumes are on the right track, says IANA
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By Jeff Berman, Group News Editor
August 07, 2012
Much like the first quarter, intermodal volumes in the second quarter remained on a steady growth path, according to the most recent edition of the Intermodal Market Trends & Statistics report from the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA).
Second quarter intermodal loadings—at 3,716,321—were up 5.2 percent annually and IANA officials said it marks the best quarterly result in a year, with the annual growth rate topping the first quarter’s 2.9 percent gain.
In the second quarter, three of the four major intermodal equipment categories tracked by IANA also showed growth on an annual basis. Domestic containers—at 1,383,599—were up 12.5 percent, while trailers fell 10.2 percent to 381,151. All Domestic Equipment—at 1,764,750—was up 6.7 percent.
But the real intermodal star for the second quarter was international containers, which was up 3.9 percent at 1,951,571. Despite an ordinary annual growth rate, IANA said that this output represents international’s highest second quarter volume in absolute terms since 2008.
IANA said that quarterly international growth was “roughly in line” with overall container imports, noting that port-released figures suggest that U.S. container imports were up almost 4 percent in the second quarter, with gains on the West Coast and East Coast at about 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively. And up North, the Ports of Prince Rupert and Vancouver posted nearly 20 percent year-over-year gains in the quarter, said IANA.
Addressing the 12.5 percent gain for Domestic Containers, IANA noted that it is less than the 14.9 percent annual uptick in the first quarter but said it is still “remarkable,” when taking the softening economic climate into consideration. As an example, it observed how first quarter job growth at nearly 700,000 dwarfed the second quarter’s 328,000.
Other factors contributing to continued gains on the domestic side include improving rail service, with average intermodal train speeds of 32 mph in the first half of 2011 topping the first half of 2011 at 31 mph, as well as lower terminal dwell times which are now near recession lows when volume declines lessened congestion. Another factor highlighted by IANA is tight trucking capacity, with many truckers not willing to invest in new equipment and is playing a role in shippers turning to intermodal.
“The growth in domestic intermodal traffic is expected to continue for the remainder of this year and into 2013 without interruption,” said IANA President and CEO Joni Casey in an interview. “Factors influencing this trend are: consistent service metrics, increased terminal velocity, tight over-the-road trucking capacity, fluctuating fuel prices, and regulatory burdens on motor carriers (i.e. HOS and CSA regulations).”
Casey added that on the domestic side railroadsanticipate continued growth of intermodal moves, noting that shorter haul markets offer additional potential. And as imports pick up, albeit it marginally, she said there will be more opportunities for transloads from the West Coast that will move by rail.
Intermodal Marketing Companies had a strong second quarter performance, with intermodal loads—at 323,485—up 9.7 percent and highway loads down 7.0 percent at 128,486, and total loads up 4.4 percent at 451,971.
Intermodal Marketing Company (IMC) intermodal and highway revenue for the second quarter—at $840,753,508 and $187,797,696—were up 9.6 percent and down 9.6 percent, respectively. Total revenue—at $1,028,551,204—was up 5.5 percent. Average revenue per intermodal load—at $2,599—was down 0.1 percent and average revenue per highway load—at $1,462—was down 2.9 percent.
IANA said that the second quarter marked the second time ever that IMC intermodal volume topped 100,000 loads in all three months of the quarter, with annual growth in May the strongest month, up 14 percent annually. It added that IMC highway volumes continued to decline even as stress on trucking capacity abated somewhat due to a sluggish economy.
Many analysts have told LM that even with a flattish economy and flattening trucking volumes, coupled with no real indications pointing to motor carriers adding capacity any time soon, it stands to reason that intermodal is in a pretty good spot when it comes to its future performance prospects.
“Although intermodal has always offered shippers the opportunity to reduce cost versus over-the-road, it formerly came with an associated price tag of unreliable service that made the cost/service package unpalatable to many shippers,” said Larry Gross, senior consultant at FTR Associates. “What has changed in recent years is that although intermodal service is still slower than truck, the all-important reliability of the service has achieved an acceptable level. This is fueling an increasing proportion of shippers who now seek to take advantage of the potential savings intermodal has to offer. And intermodal has been gaining share versus truck.”
Gross added that intermodal is less sensitive to many of the factors that are working to increase trucking costs, including lower reliance on the driver pool and greater fuel efficiency. And as truck capacity continues to tighten over the next few years, he said intermodal will provide an important alternative, with substantial investments being made in new terminals, particularly in the eastern region, which will serve to open up new territories and shorter lanes to intermodal service.

Truck Tonnage Index Points to Moderate Growth - Source Trucking Today

Truck Tonnage Index Points to Moderate Growth

ARLINGTON, VA — ATA's Truck Tonnage Index rises 0.2 percent in March.

ARLINGTON, VA — The American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose 0.2 percent in March, and rose 2.7 percent year-over-year — the smallest year-over-year increase since December 2009.
The not seasonally adjusted index was 9.1 percent above the previous month, ATA reported.
“March tonnage, and the first quarter overall, was reflective of an economy that is growing, but growing moderately,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said. “The pace of freight definitely slowed from the torrid pace in late 2011.
“Most economic indicators still look good, which will continue to support tonnage going forward,” he continued. Costello repeated the message that industry shouldn't be expecting the rate of growth to mirror the last couple of years, when tonnage grew 5.8 percent in both 2010 and 2011. “Expect tonnage overall this year to be up at a more moderate rate, perhaps less than 3 percent, which is more in-line with normal growth.”




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