Near the end of March Excelerate Energy announced a trade deal with Argentinian utility firm Enarsa. The company has also stepped up its purchase of vessels by buying out the stake partner Exmar had in two new vessels that are set to be delivered later in 2010. Reports indicate that at present the partnership between Exmar and Excelerate Energy has 8 LNG regasification vessels and 1 conventional LNG carrier. Versatile vessels that have proven to be flexible, efficient and reliable, and we could see these vessels competing for more and more business in the future.

Excelerate Energy has a head start of around two years in the transport of gases and this could give them an advantage that could be difficult to match for freight carriers just starting in the LNGRV business. New firms just getting into this business could we a little overly optimistic thinking they can compete right away. There’s a lot of different aspects that go into building and operating floating facilities such as LNGRVs and Excelerate Energy has already done the ground work and the job before.

The other day there were more reports of congestion problems in the Durban Container Terminal, which must be slowing down the job of trucking services in the terminal, and causing a little frustration for all involved in this affair. It doesn’t appear, so far at least, that the wait times and length of the line of trucks waiting to make it into and out of the container terminal is as long as back in February, but they still have time to see what they can do about setting a new record.

American truckers working in the container ports of American that complain about their wait times and the length of the line of trucks they wait in while working can read this and realise what a wonderful trucking life we have in America as compared to many parts of the world. It might even make them aware that waiting in line can be an opportunity to take care of other tasks or even to do a little light reading or paperwork. The best lesson of this situation being that attitude on the job is important and the things we think on the job often determine our mental attitude and the way we work.

http://www.worldcargonews.com/htm/n20100420.810815.htm

This is great news for the trailer trucking industry of North America and the world. The next generation of Peterbilt Class 8 tractors could be running an engine that’s regarded as one of the best in the business for helping reduce a trucking firm’s carbon-wheel print. Only the first step down the road to maybe one day not using carbon based fuels at all in the trucking industry, but a good first step for Cummins Engines. The question in the end for truckers will be just how efficient and useful will any new engines be for reducing carbon emissions, while still allowing the business of trucking freight to grow and prosper in the future.
Cummins would like to improve the mileage of the new engine by about 40 percent through this initiative in partnership with the US Department of Energy and hopefully go far beyond the current 2010 EPA emissions requirements for new diesel transport trucks.

http://fleetowner.com/green/archive/cummin…-projects-0111/

The operators of the Eurotunnel did recover beautifully and despite falling volumes of freight for their trucking transport service they have been busy at work finding customers that are different than the customers they were after before. This time they are diversifying their business by trying to attract medium and smaller companies to their services, rather than the larger firms that they were servicing before. This strategy appears to be working as they have reported better numbers in the fourth quarter of 2009. They also looking forward to growing their business even further in 2010 with medium and small trucking firms, which should give them a better financial base upon which to conduct their business operations.

Apparently, the Eurotunnel has found new customers to keep the truck shuttles moving at a constant rate through the tunnel and pay the bills that keep adding up if you don’t pay them. Things are looking a lot better for the Eurotunnel, now that they have a few new customers, and they expect the numbers to keep going up as we head further into 2010.

http://www.ifw-net.com/freightpubs/ifw/ind…tid=20017751651

Hannon Transport recently recieved an order for ten of the latest refrigerated trucking trailers being made by Schmitz Cargobull that will be operating out of Hannon Transport’s business in the Netherlands. The new refrigerated trailers will be put to work taking flowers and plants from some of the world’s largest flower auctions to buyers that hail from all parts of Europe.

Hannon Transport currently operates around 90 trucking units in their fleet, but they have been adding to their fleet lately and appear to be thinking about making moves to improve business in 2010. Hannon Transport is a trucking transport firm that should be watched in the years ahead. They appear to have big plans for their particular business profile and could be making a few moves in the trucking transport industry in the years ahead that will be unique and particularly interesting.

http://www.mhwmagazine.co.uk/LatestNews/Sc…sport-6008.html
http://www.hannontransport.com/company.htm

http://www.ifw-net.com/freightpubs/ifw/ind…tid=20017751618

The sound of laughter might be heard in many freight trucking lunchrooms, when they read this, but the use of natural gas to power trucks is a feasible scenario that scientists are definitely looking at. While it’s true that the infrastructure to allow for the implementation of natural gas as a fuel source for every day cars isn’t feasible, it’s feasible to use natural gas for fleet operations because they don’t need as many stations and such operations use a large volume of fuel.

Electric powering a truck on the other hand would require the use of heavy batteries, which studies show can reduce the amount of freight a truck can carry by as much as twenty percent. The implementation of a hybrid electric-diesel system in a large truck has similar problems, so natural gas is one of the obvious energy sources we have available to do the job.

In America, incentives to help individuals or firms thinking about making a switch to natural gas already exist in the form of tax credits for those who purchase natural gas and vehicles powered by natural gas. The environment hasn’t been the focus of the administration, lately, but natural gas has been noticed by the administration and we might even see a few more incentives for those thinking about switching to natural gas usage.