The likelihood that truck drivers will have different hours of service rules and more time on the road next year increased when Congress included a rider that would suspend a portion of the 2013 HOS rules in its omnibus spending bill.  The House is expected to vote on that $1.013 trillion bill by midnight Dec. 11, though a very short-term extension of one or two days may be required to get the bill through the Senate, according to Reuters. Unless President Obama vetoes the bill, the HOS rules will change.  A battle has been raging over the inclusion of an amendment that would suspend for one year the requirement that drivers include two back-to-back 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods in any 34-hour "restart" period. That restriction was included in the July 2013 hours of service rules.  Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, first introduced the amendment in June, and it was approved by the Senate appropriations committee. The rider quickly fell into legislative limbo after a highly publicized truck accident and gridlock that derailed the Senate's fiscal 2015 spending bill.  The Collins amendment also suspends a once-in-seven-days limit on the use of the restart, which was introduced in 2004 to allow drivers to begin a new 70-hour work week more quickly. Previously, truckers were required to be off-duty 48 hours between work weeks.  In addition, federal regulators would be required to study the safety effect of the restart provision, taking into account the impact of more day-time driving and less night work. The change to the restart provision would take effect immediately once the bill is law.

The ports of Seattle and Tacoma are scrambling to improve intermodal access to protect the discretionary cargo they have, and, perhaps, even regain business lost to Southern California and Canadian ports.  They have their work cut out for them. Shippers have already diverted goods away from Puget Sound to Port Metro Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert, because of cheaper and often more reliable intermodal services to Chicago. The pull of the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex and better availability of empty containers it provides Midwest exporters has also cost the Pacific Northwest duo market share.  Seattle and Tacoma had a 10.7 percent combined market share of North American west coast container volume in the first three quarters of this year, compared with 11.4 percent in the same period in 2013 and 11.9 percent in the first three quarters of 2012, according to data collected by JOC.com from the individual ports.  "If we hope to grow, it has to come from intermodal," said Linda Styrk, managing director of the seaport division at the Port of Seattle. "We are a secondary port and unless our population base morphs, we are going to have to work at least twice as hard to grow our volume."

Diesel Prices in 2015 Expected to be Far Less Expensive - 

A new U.S. Energy Department forecast is calling for far less expensive diesel prices in the new year.  On-highway retail diesel are projected to average $3.07 per gallon in 2015, compared to this year's expected average of $3.82 and 2013's average of $3.92. The forecast for next year is 31 cents per gallon less than expectations a month ago, according to the DOE's Short Term Energy Outlook.  The fuel is expected to average $3.05 for the first quarter of 2015, falling to $2.98 in the second quarter before rising slowly with a fourth quarter 2015 average of $3.17.  The average price for diesel fuel this week, according to the department is $3.535, down from a high for this year for the year of $4.021 hit in March.  U.S. regular gasoline retail prices are projected to continue declining for the remainder of the year, averaging $2.61 per gallon in December. The DOE expects prices, which averaged $3.51 in 2013, to average $3.37 in 2014 and $2.60 in 2015.  The new 2015 forecast is 35 cents lower than one a month earlier while these prices compares to national average this week of $2.679.  The DOE is expecting lower fuel prices is due to a 40% falloff in the price of oil since peaking in June. On Wednesday crude in New York trading closed at a new-five year low of $60.95 per barrel with Iran's oil minister saying on Tuesday he could see the price falling to as low as $40 per barrel.  This comes as the OPEC oil cartel has seen oil demand at is lowest level in 12 years yet recently decided to keep production levels unchanged while U.S. production of crude oil has been increasing, all leading to a worldwide glut of oil as some overseas economies are slowing.