Federal Motor Carrier’s field operational test of the effectiveness of technology in strengthening the security of hazardous materials transportation found performance of the technologies was good, except for biometric login and electronic seals. According to the report, both technologies require more development to be acceptable. Visit this site.
American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted for-hire Truck Tonnage Index rose 3.4 percent to 116.5. The increase over December represented the largest month-to-month gain in several years. The January index was 6.4 percent higher than January 2004.
Freight Transportation Services Index fell 0.4 percent to 128.4 in December from the November level of 128.9, according to the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The decline follows three consecutive monthly increases, although the December level is 4.5 percent higher than December 2003.
GE Commercial Finance completed the $4.6 billion acquisition of CitiCapital’s Transportation Financial Services Group. The combined entity finances approximately 431,000 commercial trucks, tractors and trailers.
XTRA Lease has purchased from GE Commercial Finance the trailer rental business formerly owned by CitiCapital. Separately, XTRA Lease is adding 4,000 trailers to its product line devoted to the storage and cartage requirements of for-hire carriers and private industry.
The U.S. House of Representatives last month quietly adopted a mandatory truckload fuel surcharge as part of the major highway bill (H.R. 3) working its way through Congress. The measure was included in an amendment offered by House Transportation Committee leaders that was described in the Congressional Record as making “a number of adjustments and technical changes.” Separately, the House-passed bill does not include language sought by the Bush administration to codify current hours-of-service regulations. (See “Journal,” March 2005.)
As drafted, the fuel surcharge provision would require that any carrier, broker or freight forwarder using fuel it didn’t pay for – when an owner-operator provides actual transportation, for example – pass along the fuel surcharge to the person responsible for paying for fuel. That means, for example, that a carrier would have to pay a surcharge to an owner-operator even if the carrier did not collect a surcharge from its customer.
