Posts Tagged ‘cargo shipping’
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
Trucking transport drivers operating on the roads of North America that have gotten use to ingesting so-called energy drinks in order to fight drowsiness might want to rethink this strategy. Older owner operator trucking professionals in decades past certainly were guilty of using coffee as a stimulant to try to fight drowsiness, but there are reports coming in of a new generation of trailer trucking drivers on the roads of North America that could be implementing so-called energy drinks more and more in order to combat fatigue.
There’s a growing belief in some sectors of the freight carrier industry and scientific world though that so-called energy drinks could be a load-gun of sorts for drivers who decide to skip a few hours of sleep in favour of a stimulating drink. This could mean that there could be a growing problem with the use of so-called energy drinks by transport drivers that we need to be aware of and researchers and scientists are preparing studies to see if they can find out the facts concerning the use of so-called energy drinks.
Researchers at the John Hopkins University of School of Medicine are currently calling for eye-catching labeling for energy drinks listing caffeine doses and warning of potential risks for users. They are also calling for doctors and other professionals to become informed about the symtoms that can be associated with the use of so-called energy drinks, like nervousness, anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, upset stomach, tremors, tachardia (rapid heart beat) and agitation.
Tags: cargo shipping, freight, freight forwarders, freight shipping
Posted in Freight Industry News | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
When we were serving as our own trucking service last week moving back to Michigan and had a van full of clothes and personal effects sitting outside a hotel, I noted that the hotel warned people to bring their valuables inside and that they weren’t liable for lost property. That might not be a huge risk for us with nothing much that would be pawnable to steal, but the same isn’t true of trucks. Truck drivers often leave their trucks unattended to eat, use the restroom and sometimes sleep; that makes their trailer a possible target for cargo theft.
A new online database of theft data called CargoNet is being set up to try and track trends in cargo theft and to set up procedures for certifying truck stops for their security. One of the things that I could see happening at a truck stop or hotel is that if a thief knows that a trucker is going to have to sleep for eight hours and be off-duty for ten hours based on hours-of-service rules, he won’t be around to check on his trailer. The thief has literally all night to wait for the right moment to bring up a van, pop open the back of the trailer and offload the goods; if they can break in quietly at 3AM, no one would notice.
The job of a good truck stop security plan would be to make sure that right moment never happens. Video surveillance can help prevent theft, but better police interest in such cases can help; since the victim is likely from out-of-town, the police might not be as interested.
Getting people to use such secure facilities can be a problem, since that will add to the cost of a truck stop. Penny-pinching owner-operator trucking firms might opt for less expensive facilities, but better off trucking transport firms could be more likely to afford such facilities.
Sources: http://www.securitydirectornews.com/?p=art…=sd201001TRglZn
http://www.iso.com/Products/CargoNet/Cargo…ry-Network.html
Tags: cargo shipping, freight, freight forwarders, freight moving, freight shipping, freight transport, heavy haul, moving freight, owner operator trucking, shipping freight, trucking service, Trucking transport
Posted in Auto Industry News, Freight Industry News, Momentum Freight, Momentum Freight News, Shipping News, freight shipping | No Comments »
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
British freight transportation firms moving goods and materials to market in England and around the world work with the British International Freight Association to enable the movement of freight along the air, road, rail and sea routes of the United Kingdom. The British International Freight Association is an organization that works with freight transport firms in England to help facilitate freight transport.
Presently, the British International Freight Association has around 1400 members that are referred to as freight forwarders that provide a large variety of freight transport services to British firms, along the various freight transport systems of England.
The members of the British International Freight Association operate throughout the territory of the British Isles and currently allow customers to transport freight using the British freight transport system. The services provided include freight transport along European road and rail routes, efficient and useful ocean freight transport and air freight forwarding. They also work with customs officials and will consult with British freight transport firms on the transport of freight, take care of packing of exported goods, the storage and distribution of freight, and the planning of logistics and supply chain management. British freight forwarders work independently and can help British customers select the best freight transport method for the customers’ needs.
The British International Freight Association is a non-profit organization that has been recognized by British and the international freight transport industry as the representative for the British freight forwarding industry. The goals of the organization include providing useful and effective support for British firms conducting freight transport and to improve freight transport services being provided by members in the United Kingdom.
The British International Freight Association is known around the freight transport industry as the British representative in area of freight transport. The organization has yearly events to help keep the British industry in tune and an online website and monthly newsletter that they use to help keep members informed.
Tags: cargo shipping, cargo transport, container freight, freight forwarders, freight hauling, freight transport, freight transportation, heavy haul
Posted in Auto Industry News, Freight Industry News, Momentum Freight, Momentum Freight News, Shipping News, freight shipping | No Comments »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Here’s a different type of LTL load being carried by an owner-operator trucking out of Los Angeles- marijuana. Darnell A. Allen was caught with 390 pounds of pot at a weigh station on I-65 in Kentucky, reportedly heading north to Indianapolis. He was sited with “various state safety and regulatory violations” on top of the obvious drug trafficking charges; 390 pounds puts it well out of the personal-use category.
I’m surprised that truckers even try to use trucks to ship freight of that nature; just one open weight station and a drug-sniffing dog or sharp-eyed DOT guy will be the end of the trip, and that large of a load of pot is hard to hide. It would me much safer to put it in the back of a pickup truck or van that would not be subject to weigh stations and the scrutiny that comes with them.
However, times are tough for owner-operators. Since Mr. Allen was from LA, it may have been especially tough, given that OOs have been frozen out of the port of LA and seen tighter regulations go up at the port of Long Beach. That would make the remaining market for OOs in the LA area much tougher. He might have been tempted to supplement his income with some unorthodox interstate transport or been pressured into doing so by one of the Mexican cartels, who have been known to give truckers a bribe-or-bullet option.
We may find out the motivation when the case goes to court; if he was pressured into taking on the load, it may come out at trial.
Source:http://www.louisvillemojo.com/blogs/Louisv…ana_Trafficking
Tags: cargo shipping, freight transport, interstate shipping, ship freight
Posted in Freight Industry News, Momentum Freight, Momentum Freight News, Shipping News, freight shipping | No Comments »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
China has long been a seagoing nation, as traders had been active developing markets in the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas for centuries. That tradition has continued into the present, as many of the large container transport lines are China-based.
That presence on the shipping lanes means that Chinese ships are now in the sights of Somali pirates along with the rest of the world’s fleet. In the past, the Chinese navy has been used to protect individual Chinese vessels, but China has now offered to become part of the Shared Awareness and Deconfliction group that has sent ships to the area to combat the pirates..
Geopolitical experts in the west have been nervous about China’s development of a “blue water” naval fleet that gives the Chinese navy the capability of going beyond its territorial waters; the fear was that China might use that against some of its neighbors like Japan and the Philippines down the line. This case shows that, as a maritime nation active in the world economy, China has a benign use for its blue-water fleet, protecting its merchant fleet as they ship freight around the world.
Given that 47 ships were hijacked in the waters off Somali last year, China is now becoming part of the mercantile nations of the world. A half-century after Mao would rail against capitalist running-dogs, China has joined the pack in protecting their blossoming merchant fleet; you could solve China’s energy problem by putting a transformer at Mao’s grave; the founder of the People’s Revolutionary Army is doing 10,000 revolutions per minute.
http://www.handyshippingguide.com/shipping…r-shipping_1223
Tags: cargo shipping, container shipping, container transport, freight shipping, ship freight
Posted in Freight Industry News, Momentum Freight, Momentum Freight News, Shipping News, freight shipping | No Comments »
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
The port of Dover has been in the news this winter as bad weather has played havoc with the English Channel tunnel, diverting freight carriers and cars alike to the traditional ferries that call Dover home. While most ports are privately owned in Britain, Dover is publically owned, working under a “trust port” charter issued by King James I in 1606; yes, that’s the King James Bible guy.
However, that 17th-century charter makes it harder to raise 21st-century capital, so the port is looking for permission to privatize, so they can sell stock and thus raise the funds needed to modernize the port. The Chunnel seemed to have made the port of Dover somewhat moot, but the problems of last month point out that Dover is far from being an antique.
Even in the Chunnel era, there is still a place for the RORO service out of Dover; the ferry is still economical and some types of trucking loads are ill-suited for sending through a long tunnel. Dover wants to build a second six-ship hub to handle cross-Channel traffic; that will help fend off the kind of backlogs that had Operation Stack kick in to park the trucks on the incoming highway.
The question that the Dover management might be wondering is how best to get that capital. An existing port management firm like Hutchison Whampoa or DP World might be interesting in buying the port, or Dover might opt for an IPO and sell stock to the investing public. An improving stock market makes an IPO much more viable than it would have been a year ago.
Source: http://www.joc.com/node/416304
Tags: cargo shipping, container transport, freight carriers, freight shipping, trucking loads
Posted in Auto Industry News, Freight Industry News, Momentum Freight, Momentum Freight News, Shipping News, freight shipping | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
An interesting story of development-versus-quaintness is going on in Britain, where locals are fighting over a ferry terminal in Penzance in Cornwall in the far west of England and whether trucking loads will be offloaded elsewhere or allowed into the new terminal. Contrary to what Gilbert and Sullivan fans might think, the only Pirates native to Penzance in real life are the city’s rugby team.
What is native to the beach in downtown Penzance is a historic Battery Rocks, where fortifications were posted in the 1700s to fend off the French from the other side of the English Channel. The proposed terminal would not only bring a RORO ferry terminal to that site, but some of the vehicles rolling on and off would be trucks.
Preservationists are hoping to scrap plans for the new terminal or at least keep the trucks away, routing their ferry service to the neighboring Isles of Scilly 40 miles up the road to Falmouth. While the friends of Penzance would like the business from the tourists coming to and from Scilly by car, the freight carriers aren’t as welcome; the truckers wouldn’t be likely to stop and shop in town and the negative externatlities of the trucks help ruin the quaint mood of the town.
This isn’t just a British problem. Many small towns in the US market themselves to tourists are aren’t all that interested in economic development, especially noisy trucks and trains, and will strive to keep their quaintness, even if it means surrounding areas are growing slower.
Sources:
http://www.handyshippingguide.com/shipping…l-decision_1204
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penzance
Tags: cargo moving, cargo shipping, freight carrier, freight hauling, freight moving, trucking loads
Posted in Freight Industry News, Momentum Freight, Momentum Freight News, Shipping News, freight shipping | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
The price of freight transport along the roads of Canada decreased a little in October, according to the Canadian General Freight Index (CGFI). This is a surprise after the costs went up in September, but is certainly a nice trend that they would like to continue. The price of freight transport using trucking transport in Canada went up eight of the first ten months of 2009 and increased by a total of 9.6 percent during this time. Hopefully, this isn’t just a temporary change and the costs will continue to move down, which will be a great help to firms during the current financial crisis.
The Canadian General Freight Index indicates that the overall industry results went down during October in Canada, despite an increase in base rates of 0.3 percent, which represents only the second increase in 2009. Industry experts think that the benefits of the increase in base rates was partially offset by the decrease in fuel surcharges, but resulted in overall costs that were less than previous months. Whatever the reason, this is good news and hopefully a trend that will continue to build momentum moving into 2010. Any decrease in costs will help firms deal with the future and problems that are coming down the track and will improve business. The Canadian General Freight Index is brought to us by Nulogx, an industry leader in Transportation Management Solutions. They help shippers and freight carriers improve services, make plans to help improve future business and make sure their customers sign business deals that are competitive.
Tags: cargo shipping, feight transport, freight carrier, freight shipping, freight trucking, Trucking transport
Posted in Momentum Freight, freight shipping | No Comments »