Posts Tagged ‘owner operator trucking’
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
Owner operator trucking professionals that have been operating a trucking transport in the Port of Los Angeles might see a little light at the end of the legal tunnel they see before them. The legal battle that has been brewing between the American Trucking Association and the Port of Los Angeles could take several years before any final decision is reached according to many legal eagles watching this affair. A little light appeared in the tunnel before the American Trucking Association the other day as a preliminary injunction against the concession banning owner operator trucking professionals from operating within the Port of Los Angeles was granted.
The legal battle will surely escalate now and the Port of Los Angeles will have to spend more money it doesn’t have during a time when many report that the port could be in serious financial hot water. The port was apparently able to access public funds in its battle to implement its concession against owner operator trucking in the Port of Los Angeles and has to date spent many millions on litigating this affair. The legal costs are probably just beginning to pile up though as it appears that we’re probably going to see this legal battle go a few rounds that will take years to complete. The tax payers can look forward to a large legal bill and very little could be accomplished other than wasting time and money in the end. Hopefully, the two parties involved come to their senses and work something out that allow them to reach common ground before this legal affair gets out of hand. Otherwise this legal battle could get a little heated and it could lead to complications for all involved.
http://www.todaystrucking.com/news.cfm?intDocID=23806
Tags: freight, freight forwarders, freight moving, freight shipping, freight transport, heavy haul, moving freight, owner operator trucking, shipping freight, trucking companies, trucking services, Trucking transport
Posted in Auto Industry News, Freight Industry News, Momentum Freight, Momentum Freight News, Shipping News, freight shipping | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
There could be probably 399 disappointed owner operator trucking professionals making plans to apply for the Slice of Life program again, next year, after it was recently announced that Freightliner Trucks had made their choice of the trailer trucking driver who is the winner of the Slice of Life 2: Reloaded for 2010 program. Gina Angsten is the lucky lady who was selected by Freightliner Trucks to get a feeling for the Slice of Life that a brand new Freightliner Cascadia can provide. Gina will take part in the program that will see her blog about her trucking life on the Slice of Trucker Life website, while taking a new Freightliner Cascadia out on the road with her. This lucky lady had to fight her way through 399 other applicants and was selected after a long and torturous process, so she must be a trucker for the history books.
Gina’s new Cascadia will be carrying the 2010 Detroit Diesel DD15 engine that has been equipped with BlueTec SCR Emissions technology and Detroit Diesel’s exclusive 1-Box configuration. She apparently was lucky enough to get behind the wheel of a new Cascadia at the Mid-America Truck Show awhile back and was impressed. She must have been really surprised to have been selected and will soon get to meet the three previous owner operator trucking professionals that were selected in the first season of Freightliner Trucks Slice of Life program. She must be excited thinking about the year ahead of her and how the new Freightliner Cascadia is going to change her trucking life in the months ahead. Good luck to you lady!
http://www.freightlinertrucks.com/inside-f…ail.aspx?id=986
Tags: freight, freight forwarders, freight moving, freight shipping, freight transport, heavy haul, moving freight, owner operator trucking, shipping freight, trailer trucking, trucking companies, trucking services, Trucking transport
Posted in Auto Industry News, Freight Industry News, Momentum Freight, Momentum Freight News, Shipping News, freight shipping | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
The city of Los Angeles has been trying to keep owner-operator trucking firms out of the Port of Los Angeles, trying to do so under the aegis of environmental safety rules. Thus, when I saw a case with an LA dateline dealing with independent contractor law in trucking, I wonder if it had anything to do with that movement.
As it turns out, state attorney general Jerry Brown, a former governor and presidential candidate in the 70s, had a righteous bust in the case in the news, where the company in question, Pacifica Trucks LLC, settled a case where they were trying to treat drivers as independent contractors when Pacifica supplied the truck and other tools.
Trucking companies can treat owner-operators as independent contractors, since they are providing a service with their own equipment. If the trucking transport company owns or leases the tractor that the driver is using, they are likely to be considered an employee, which is what Pacifica found out the hard way.
Treating drivers as independent contractor keeps firms from having to pay Social Security taxes, worker’s comp insurance and unemployment taxes, so there is always a temptation for managers and accountants to try and push the envelope and try to get some workers in as contractors. However, if they’re using your stuff to do the job, they are probably going to be treated as employees; then you’ll have to pay back taxes with penalties and interest, which won’t help the bottom line. OOs are contractors, other drivers generally aren’t.
Source: http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/225377-t…sifying-workers
Tags: freight, freight forwarders, freight moving, freight shipping, freight transport, heavy haul, moving freight, owner operator trucking, shipping freight, trucking companies, trucking services, Trucking transport
Posted in Auto Industry News, Freight Industry News, Momentum Freight, Momentum Freight News, Shipping News, freight shipping | No Comments »
Friday, February 12th, 2010
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the largest container transport hub on the east coast, is taking a more incentive-driven approach to cleaning the air around its seaports, creating a $28 million program to replace older trucks servicing the ports; the federal EPA is providing $7 million of the funding with the rest coming from the port authority itself. Other ports, especially those in California, have similar subsidies as well, but have also opted for more strenuous regulations that have forced older trucks to either stop serving the ports or to have them retrofitted to meet current emission standards.
To this point, the Port Authority has opted not to force trucks out of service or to ban owner-operator trucking, as the port of Los Angeles has done. That will allow a broader array of trucking companies to use the port, especially the Auto Marine terminal, where a number of smaller car haulers could use the port for used car exports.
The structure of the Port Authority, run by commissioners appointed by the governors of the two states, tends to create a management that is more focused on maintaining the operation of the ports, bridges and tunnels under its watch; that has produced a framework that is more user-friendly to the shippers, railroads and trucking firms that use the ports.
One interesting problem that the Port Authority is running into is the Bayonne Bridge, which is too low for many container ships to pass under to get to the main container facility. Replacing the bridge is one option, as is raising the roadway so that the bigger container ships can pass through.
Sources:http://www.joc.com/node/416319
http://www.seaportsinfo.com/panynj/
Tags: container transport, freight, freight forwarders, freight moving, freight shipping, freight transport, heavy haul, moving freight, owner operator trucking, shipping freight, trucking companies, trucking services, Trucking transport
Posted in Auto Industry News, Freight Industry News, Momentum Freight, Momentum Freight News, Shipping News, freight shipping | No Comments »
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Getting the goods and materials Europeans need to survive to destination using container transport is an expensive, and profitable business, if you can do the job in a timely and efficient manner. The French channel port of Dunkirk recently put a smile on the faces of officials at Eurotunnel as the firm announced that Eurotunnel would be the new operator for its company rail network for the next seven years, with an option for an extra four years should both parties agree.
The deal should put about $36 million American into the coffers of Eurotunnel, after unforseen costs, and expenses, but could be worth far more in terms of business connections and other considerations for Eurotunnel. The opportunity for other business deals and relationships might turn out to be far more valuable for Eurotunnel in the years ahead.
Eurotunnel should be able to just step into the role as they have years of experience operating similar lines and currently operate the terminal at Calais, a 30 km hop and skip away from the rail line of the port of Dunkirk.
The deal is partly being driven by the French governments desire to use rail as a sustainable form of freight transport and this can be seen in the growth of rail in and around the port of Dunkirk. Presently they’re constructing new rail infrastructure and preparing to use rail more and more as part of their plan to use intermodal transfer services to enhance rail freight transport in the port of Dunkirk beyond the 15 million tonnes it has been moving each year.
How will this affect the trucking transport industry of Europe? This is a good question that the European owner-operator trucking industry and road freight transport firms will be asking themselves. The French road trucking industry has been pretty quiet about the situation, so maybe they don’t think it will mean much to them.
Rail is normally better for moving freight long distances and in large amounts, while road freight transport generally deals with shorter routes and smaller loads and this hasn’t changed. There are goods that need to be transported by truck in Europe and while the need exists the trucks will continue to move along the roads.
http://www.portdedunkerque.fr/jahia/webdav…tunnel%20GB.pdf
Tags: container transport, freight, freight forwarders, freight moving, freight shipping, freight transport, heavy haul, moving freight, owner operator trucking, shipping freight, trucking companies, trucking services, Trucking transport
Posted in Auto Industry News, Freight Industry News, Momentum Freight, Momentum Freight News, Shipping News, Uncategorized, freight shipping | No 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
Whether you love it or hate it, transporting goods and materials by trucking freight is a necessary and essential part of the Canadian way of life. The speed of freight transports on the roads of Canada has been a hot topic of late and if you’re moving along the roads of Canada next to a freight transport, the question of the safety of trucking transport has probably been on your mind. The overly-large, fully-loaded freight transport next to you, whether a flatbed trailer or regular air ride tractor and trailer is of prime importance when you see if pulling up beside you on the open road. The importance of road safety becomes very apparent at times like this and more Canadians traveling the roads of Canada have become concerned about this in the past few years.
The Canadian agencies tasked with making the freight trucking transportation routes between Canada and the United States safe have become concerned about the speed of freight transports moving between Canada and the United States. In order to reduce the speeds of freight transports on the highways of Ontario, the Ontario government has put in place speed limiters on the freight transports moving along Ontario’s road transportation routes. The speed limiters are set for a maximum speed of 105 km/hr on the roads of Canada and significantly increase the travel time required for the transporting of freight along the transportation corridors between Canada and the United States.
This new policy has met with mixed reactions from the Ontario Trucking Association, which supports the speed limiters, and owner operator truckers, who feel the speed limiters don’t actually increase road safety and will make the financial life of many freight trucking firms hazardous in the future. They state that at present this new policy seems to be targeted at owner operator truckers operating out of the United States and will make work for many owner operator truckers in the United States more difficult to conduct at a financially sustainable level.
Canadian officials have put in place a six month period to help introduce freight transport truckers to the changes that will take effect in the new year. This period will be a difficult time for many freight transport truckers in the United States coming into Canada to deliver or pick up freight and we could be seeing a lot more controversy surrounding this affair.
Tags: cargo hauling, freight transport, heavy haul, owner operator trucking, trucking freight
Posted in Auto Industry News, Freight Industry News, Momentum Freight, Momentum Freight News, Shipping News, freight shipping | No Comments »
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Owner operator trucking will be a lot easier to conduct in Virginia after a set of 19 designated rest areas are reopened to the public after being closed last year due to financial limits in the budget of the agency tasked with managing and operating the rest areas. The money has been found apparently to open and make these needed rest areas available for use. The idea is helped by the fact that they plan on using the services of bored prison inmates to work at the stops, who are being employed through the “Adopt a Rest Stop” program.
They’ll have to put in place safety plans to ensure that the inmates don’t take advantage of the situation to make a break for freedom. There can be opportunities for individuals to do a little illegal shopping as sensitive and important trucking loads come through the rest areas. They’ll also have to find the funds to keep the rest areas open into the future, which could be a challenge considering the budget limits being placed on governmental agencies these days. Still, the opening of these rest areas is a good sign for drivers and commuters traveling through Virginia, and will be a welcome event once people are able to make use of them.
There are lots of other rest areas that have been closed across North America that if opened would improve life for trucking transport drivers and all commuters traveling on the highways. Hopefully, this is the first in a series of openings across North America and a sign that the financial picture in the freight industry is starting to improve.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/getthere/…?wprss=getthere
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/on…to-save-money/1
Tags: freight moving, freight shipping, owner operator trucking, trucking loads, Trucking transport
Posted in Freight Industry News, Momentum Freight, Shipping News, freight shipping | No Comments »