Archive for the ‘Freight Industry News’ Category

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Domestic Freight Shipping of oil

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

America’s domestic freight carriers of bulk crude oil have to keep the oil moving to destination in the United States for the gears of industry, business and life to continue in America and the world. The crude oil must continue to flow in America for the present time, if we’re to keep the wheels of business greased, and eventually change over to alternate forms of renewable energy, but the change-over is going to have to be gradual for it to be feasible.

ExxonMobil is one dometic freight shipping firm of crude oil operating on the waters of this great nation that has been busy keeping the oil flowing in America. ExxonMobil has been busy working on new ways to increase production from its existing wells, of late, rather than concentrating on finding new sources of oil, which still have to be developed.

ExxonMobil appears to be having some success in increasing production from its existing wells, which considering the number of wells in production in the United States, could represent a significant volume of crude oil, if their new ideas work to increase production in America’s existing wells.

ExxonMobil announced the other day that it has completed the world’s longest extend-reach oil well from an existing fixed platform, which according to ExxonMobil will increase their ability to produce barrels of oil from the company’s Santa Ynez facility off of Southern California. Sources indicate the well platform in question to be the Heritage platform, which now extends more than 9.65 kilometres (six miles) horizonally and more than 7,000 feet below sea level, using ExxonMobil’s Fast Drill technology. ExxonMobil claims that its Fast Drill technology improves drilling rates by up to 80 percent and decreases the cost of drilling.

Reports around the freight shipping industry of the United States indicate that ExxonMobil might be able to produce an additional 5.8 million barrels of oil using this new extended reach well. This is equal to the yearly energy consumption of about 144,000 Californians, from a well that has already produced more than 450 million barrels of domestic oil for America.

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Reduce the Carbon Wheel-Print of Freight Trucking

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Long haul professionals, including the freight forwarder and the agent providing customers with a great freight quote, will be glad to hear that another page was turned in the freight trucking industries journey down the road to reducing the carbon wheel-print of the roro and ltl freight trucking industry in the century of the environment. The latest page deals with Detroit Diesel’s Engine Manufacturing Center in Redford, Michigan, which has been recently recognized by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as one of the first manufacturing facilities in American to meet the ENERGY STAR Challenge for Industry.

In fact, Detroit Diesel’s Engine Manufacturing Center was able to go beyond the expectations of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 10 percent reduction within five years or less, by decreasing the center’s energy use by 17 percent in one calendar year. At the same time, Detroit Diesel was being recognized for Outstanding Achievement during the DTE Energy and the Engineering Society of Detroit’s Energy Conference and Exhibit, for the Industrial Sustainability Energy Program of the Year award, which recognizes the Michigan-based industrial firm that has made the most contributions in the area of energy conservation.

This is great news for the freight shipping heavy haul industry of the United States and is definitely a road marker on the highway before the trucking industry that indicates the battle to reduce the carbon wheel-print of thefreight trucking industry is building momentum. All sectors of the freight transport industry of the United States and the world are beginning to weigh-in on the battle and things are really starting to get rolling in the carbon emissions reduction arena.

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Freight Load of Pharmaceuticals Recovered

Monday, July 5th, 2010

Heavy haul professionals will be glad to hear that a full truckload of pharmaceutical products stolen from a truck stop along the I-81 at 9 p.m. in Glade Springs, Virginia were recovered by the security provider for the load FreightWatch International on the I-81 in Tennessee on June 25. Apparently, the truck and load was stolen while the two man team driving the long haul rig in question were having dinner in a restaurant close by, while the thieves were busy stealing their truck and its freight load of valuable pharmaceutical products. The drivers must have been surprised to find their freight shipping vehicle missing when they came back from dinner, but apparently they had little to worry about as the truck was apparently quickly recovered.

Sources indicate that the truckload of pharmaceuticals had a tracking device embedded in the load that allowed FreightWatch to track and pinpoint the location of the load and truck. All FreightWatch had to do was contact the local police, who found the truck and its load waiting at a truck stop along the I-81 in Tennessee. FreightWatch indicated that the company had helped recover tens of millions of dollars in stolen pharmaceutical freight over the past few years. That tracking devices like the one used in this instance were only part of their layered security solutions their customers implement in order to prevent theft of pharmaceutical freight and recover it once stolen.

This is great news for the drivers and trucking company they work for, but it’s particularly important for people that might unknowingly end up using these pharmaceuticals once stolen. Hopefully, the investigation leads to an arrest and they find the individuals responsible for the theft, before they strike again. The next time they might find the tracking device and remove it from the freight load or find away to shield it from detectors, which is always possible once they know the tracking devices are being used.

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Heavy Haul Job of Massive Proportions

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Plans of Exxon Mobil Corp. to transport massive pieces of freight starting this fall from the Port of Lewiston is being looked at suspiciously by American citizens concerned about a possible environmental disaster if one of the massive pieces of heavy haul freight should happen to end up in the Clearwater or Lochsa rivers. The Idaho Transportation Department has stated that it’s their job to issue permits for long haul loads of large size, such as the ones in question, as long as the loads in question can be transported without damaging roads or bridges along the proposed transport route. They want to have freight shipping services take the freight loads along US 12 through the Lochsa River canyon, over the Lolo Pass and then through northwestern Montana, before finally reaching the Kearl Oil Sands in northeastern Alberta.

This is a trip that would make any trucking company proud to complete as this job entails hauling 200 oversized loads of Korean-made freight along transport routes that travel across rough terrain in many areas, according to sources. Sources surrounding this affair also indicate that the largest load would weigh in the neighbourhood of about 580,000 pounds and be up to 210 feet in length, which is going to be a massive transport job for any firm. These shipments would in fact exceed legal weight limits for the Idaho stretch of the transport as a typical tractor-trailer is around 90 feet in length and weighs about 80,000 pounds. This fact is certainly one that’s going to catch the eye of observers looking on and this is certainly the case as a few concerned politicians have also been heard recently commenting on the proposed transport of these massive pieces of freight.

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Long Haul Drivers & Human Smuggling

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Long haul truck driver Tyrone Williams is back in the news after a federal appeals court in Houston recently overturned the multiple life sentences without parole this Jamaican immigrant was given back in 2003 in a failed May 2003 human smuggling case that turned deadly. The deadliest human smuggling attempt using heavy haul trucking services in America, 19 illegal immigrants were discovered in a freight trucking unit driven by Tyrone Williams dead from dehydration, overheating and suffocation, after Williams decided to abandon the truck at a truck stop near Victoria, about 100 miles from Houston.

The prosecutors in this case did actually originally go after a death sentence for Tyrone Williams in this case, but the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that William’s crimes didn’t meet the legal criteria for the death penalty. The appeals court also said that a judge, not a jury, should have sentenced Williams on the counts in question. The jury in question had originally decided that Williams should spend life in prison without parole for his crimes, but it appears that after this appeals court ruling, Williams will be going back to court to be re-sentenced by the Houston federal judge who originally presided over his trial.

The trucking industry was probably hoping they had heard the last of Tyrone Williams and the 19 illegal immigrants that unfortunately died during this human smuggling attempt. This kind of affair puts a black stain on the trucking industry in the United States and we need to learn from this unfortunate incident and get beyond it. We also need to make sure we take a look at improving the security measures in place in order to prevent the smuggling of illegal immigrants into the United States on transport trucks and educate truckers on the legal problems associated with this practice.

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Trucking Industry Fights Cancer

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Heavy haul professionals from the freight shipping industry were well represented at the CancerCare Manitoba Challenge for Life 20K Walk recently held in Winnipeg, Manitoba on June 12. This year trucking company professionals pulled out all the stops in order to fight cancer and proudly collected the most during the days walk, raising a total of $93,223 for the battle to defeat cancer. This was in addition to the long haul professionals that showed up for the Canadian Cancer Society 12-Hour Relay for Life on June 4, which included a freight forwarder or two, according to the latest reports. The money that was raised from this walk was also added to the total raised for the CancerCare Manitoba Challenge for Life 20K Walk and the desire to finally find a cure for cancer.

Cancer is a disease that most of us have had some experience with, either personally or through someone we know or love being effected by this disease. The freight trucking industry is no different and it’s good to see trucking professionals coming together with other concerned individuals around the world to raise money to combat cancer. Unfortunately, the freight quote that cancer gives those afflicted is a price that ends up costing too many humans the ultimate price, but hopefully the money raised in this walk helps find a solution that in years ahead will save lives.

The trucking industry has always had a big and caring heart for those that are suffering and this is just another example of humans in the business of transporting freight reaching out to others in the world to help out when they can. Together we can and will find a cure for cancer and raising the money we need to do the research is just part of the bigger picture.

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Domestic Freight Shipping of Oil

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

There are freight shipping professionals that think there could be some fallout from the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon falling on the offshore oil transport industry in the days ahead in the century of the environment. The consequences of the sinking of the Transocean rig Deepwater Horizon for the offshore oil freight industry have yet to be assessed. Domestic freight carriers of oil can certainly expect the fallout from the oil and debris floating in the Gulf of Mexico. Fallout that could include increased operating costs after the nation’s most significant offshore environmental accident in decades. Higher costs that could result from increased safety regulations for freight shipping professionals in the business of transporting domestic oil to destination in the United States to cover increases in safety training, additonal safety equipment and higher insurance premiums that could result for domestic transporters of oil.

The oil sector analysts at Jefferies & Co in Houston took a look at the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon this week? What did the oil sector experts at this United States investment bank conclude? The analysts pointed to the recent criticism of the domestic oil freight shipping industry in America and the future possibility that the Deepwater Horizon disaster could have definite financial consequences for the business of transporting domestic oil in the United States. They did point out that at the moment any firm consequences for the industry are difficult to determine, but that higher costs are certainly part of the equation as the domestic oil shipping industry travels further into the century of the environment.

The consequences of the Deepwater Horizon sinking could be significant for domestic freight carriers of oil that were planning on doing more business in Florida’s offshore oil market in the years ahead. Florida Governor Charlie Crist’s previous stance on offshore drilling in Florida appears to have changed course after the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon? This week he pubicly withdrew all support for offshore drilling of domestic oil in Floria, after reportedly flying over the devastation in the Gulf of Mexico that according to sources covers at least 1,800 square miles, at present.

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New RoRo Rail Loading Ramp in Port of Everett

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Heavy haul trucking professionals will be rolling roro freight onto the rail cars using a new 70-ton rail loading ramp that Port of Everett Marine Terminals maintenance crews built to the standards of the United States military in order to enhance intermodal freight shipping services in the ports terminal facilities in the future. This news should definitely decrease the amount of time it takes to move the roro freight onto and off of the rail cars and once news gets out of the enhanced roro freight services in the Port of Everett, we should see more customers show up at the port with freight to transport to destination in the months ahead in the century of the environment.

This announcement also has a number of other benefits, such as being able to drive heavy machinery onto the rail cars, instead of lifting the equipment with a crane, which is a lot more dangerous for the workers involved. This news also means that the Port of Everett can help serve the needs of the United States military since Naval Station Everett is located in the port and the new ramp will allow tanks and other heavy military equipment to quickly and efficiently be loaded onto rail cars should the need arise. One thing is for certain, we can certainly expect to see military transports loading roro freight onto rail cars more often in the Port of Everett in the future, and the volume of freight that can be moved through the ports terminals should increase significantly with this new rail loading ramp.

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UK Heavy Haul Services Wants Changes Made

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Heavy haul services in the United Kingdom during the winter is a dangerous activity that has been an area of concern for long haul drivers in the United Kingdom. The Freight Transport Association (FTA) recently urged government officials in the United Kingdom to be flexible in the working hours of drivers during the winter months in the United Kingdom. The association also indicated that there needs to be an overhaul of driver working hours during the winter months, especially for freight carriers of essential goods, and they might look at putting a little more salt on the transport roads in the United Kingdom.

The need for salt became critical last year in some regions of the United Kingdom and the Freight Transport Association thought it might be a good idea to see if they can shorten up the supply lines for salt for the roads this year. Freight shipping services on the roads of the United Kingdom was crippled at times last year because of shortages of road salt in critical trucking regions, according to sources, and they obviously want to make sure this doesn’t happend again. They want to look at making road salt more available on a region basis and this might certainly help the situation at times in the United Kingdom.

The FTA also asked that a system like the one used in container ports to book transport vehicles be implemented in the future and that they look at adding more vehicle parking near the vital Cheshire salt mine. The association wasn’t finished with its suggestions for the Department of Transport as it was suggested by the FTA that the department needs to be on top of these things in the future and quicker to respond to the need for change.

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Heavy Haul Trucks Idle for One Minute in Future

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Freight trucking drivers idling for three minutes while conducting freight shipping services in Toronto have a new reason to try to avoid the City of Toronto in the future. The City of Toronto introduced a bylaw last week that will limit the amount of time heavy haul transports can idle while operating in Toronto to one minute that’s expected to come into force in the fall. You can probably add this to other reasons you have often hoped customers in Toronto would ask for a freight quote less often, which would mean you wouldn’t have to be trucking in the City of Toronto as often. For the moment you can still idle for three minutes legally while operating in the City of Toronto, but after the bylaw under goes a few amendments and is returned to city council for a vote sometime in July, according to sources, we can probably expect that within a month it will be illegal for you to idle for more than a minute while operating your truck while in the City of Toronto.

This is great news for the city accountants that have probably been wishing they had access to another source of quick income. The City of Toronto only issued a total of 88 tickets to vehicles in the city that were caught idling for three minutes or longer last year, so this one minute idling law should definitely increase the number of tickets that are handed out, just on pure statistics. This isn’t the best news for freight shipping companies that need to delivery freight to destinations in the City of Toronto on a regular basis however and it might even catch a trucking company or two off guard who aren’t aware of the upcoming changes to the idling laws in the City of Toronto.

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