North Texas Tollway Authority voted to increase toll rates effective Sept. 29 and to begin converting its toll roads, including the Dallas North Tollway and the President George Bush Turnpike, to all-electronic collection next year.
New York State Thruway Authority is considering increasing tolls and reducing
E-ZPass discounts to offset slower-than-expected traffic growth, the Associated Press reported Sept. 25. Most commercial and passenger drivers could see toll increases of less than 5 percent phased in over several years, AP said. Tolls on the New York City-to-Buffalo highway rose substantially in 2005 for the first time in 17 years.
National Motor Freight Traffic Association (www.nmfta.org) released ClassIT 2.0, the latest version of the online National Motor Freight Classification, a pricing tool that evaluates and classifies all the commodities shipped and handled by motor freight carriers moving in interstate, intrastate and foreign commerce.
IdleAire Technologies Corp., which offers truck-stop electrification and other cab comfort and entertainment services, filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission Sept. 18. The Knoxville, Tenn.-based company did not disclose the estimated number or price range of the shares to be offered, but indicated the offering price could total up to $100 million.
The American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index decreased 0.8 percent in August, after increasing 0.3 percent in July. The not-seasonally adjusted index jumped 8.2 percent from July to 120.1.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the tonnage index fell to 110.0 in August. Despite August’s sequential decrease, tonnage was up 0.9 percent from a year earlier, marking the first year-over-year increase since March of this year. Year-to-date, the tonnage index was 2.2 percent lower than during the same period in 2006.
ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said the August tonnage reading points to continued softness in the trucking industry, specifically as it relates to the weight of goods shipped, and to the slow start of the 2007 fall freight season. Costello noted that the positive gain in the year-over-year reading has more to do with sluggishness in August 2006 rather than strength this August.
