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Transportation Industry News
Domestic equipment volume surged to all-time record in 4Q IANA says, Intermodal Traffic Takes First Dip in a Year, Alameda Corridor Gets $83.7M Federal Loan, Hours of Service Session Scheduled for Feb 17, Fine Tuning Tech Requirements for Onboard Recorders
In the fourth quarter, the North American intermodal industry exceeded 1.6 million total domestic units, an 8.9 percent gain compared with fourth-quarter 2009's level and the highest quarterly domestic volume ever recorded by the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA), according to the association's latest Intermodal Market Trends & Statistics Report. Total fourth-quarter volume jumped 12.8 percent to 3.4 million units while quarterly trailer volume rose 7.3 percent to 445,853 units and domestic container volume increased 8.9 percent to 1.2 million units. Fourth-quarter domestic container traffic helped make 2010 the best growth year for overall domestic business since IANA started reporting intermodal statistics in 1996, the report states. "Unlike international volumes, domestic container volumes never declined during the recent recession," IANA officials said in the report.
Intermodal traffic fell last week for the first time in a year, largely due to winter storm disruptions, the Association of American Railroads reported.
Traffic fell 1.5% to 198,249 units, led by a 2.5% downturn in containers to 166,313 units. Trailers rose 4.1% to 31,936 units. Railroad carloads for the week were flat, at 267,682 carloads for the week ended Saturday, AAR said in its weekly report.
The Federal Rail Administration approved an $83.7 million loan for the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority that should delay until late 2012 the need for assistance from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to help ACTA pay its debt obligation. The Alameda Corridor, a 20-mile, grade-separated project that expedites the flow of intermodal containers from the nation's largest port complex to the transcontinental rail networks, was covering its $1.7 billion debt obligation through operating revenue until container volume plummeted more than 20 percent during the global trade recession of 2008-2009. The sharp drop in container volume significantly reduced ACTA's revenue. ACTA last year applied to the Department of Transportation's Federal Rail Administration for a Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing loan of $553 million. Although the federal agency has billions of dollars at its disposal, it noted ACTA's request was twice the amount the FRA has ever granted through the assistance program, so ACTA last month reduced its loan request to $83.7 million. The FRA on Tuesday approved the request.
Members of the trucking industry will have their first opportunity to make an in-person case for preserving the current hours-of-service rules on Feb. 17 when the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration conducts a listening session in Arlington, Va.
In the wake of a federal proposal to replace driver logbooks with electronic onboard recorders at most motor carriers, technology companies said they are preparing for another round of meetings with federal officials to fine-tune the technical requirements for these devices.
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President Obama is asking Congress for a six-year surface transportation spending plan that would spend $556 billion, including a $50 billion quick-start investment piece similar to what he proposed in September.
