Bulk Freight News & Industry Updates - Stay Ahead in Trucking

http://www.truckinginfo.com/ The American Transportation Research Institute has released a new white paper showing a majority of the nation’s truck drivers do not have an understanding of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance Safety and Accountability program. CSA was rolled out nationally just over three years ago after it was a pilot program in several states. On average, drivers responded to the CSA knowledge test with 42.4% accuracy, suggesting that after three yea

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KNOXVILLE, Tennessee — Three former employees of Pilot Flying J, the truck stop owned by the family of Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and Tenn. Gov. Billl Haslam, pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges involving a scheme where trucking companies were cheated out of promised fuel rebates. The three are among 10 former Pilot Flying J employees to plead guilty since federal agents raided the company's Knoxville headquarters last year. They have agreed to cooperate

By Jim Wallace ALBANY, GA (WALB) - Two of the men indicted and arrested as part of that MCLB Albany trucking fraud investigation have been granted bond. Shawn McCarty and Bradford Newell Monday afternoon were arraigned in Albany Federal Court. McCarty was given a $2500 dollar bond, while Newell was given a $1500 bond for their release. Federal prosecutors say United Logistics trucking company owner Christopher Whitman paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to McCarty and Newell a

by Paul Carpenter The U.S. trucking industry raked in around $610 billion in 2013, and those riches are expected to nearly double by the end of next year, according to the legal profession's Legalinfo.com website. Meanwhile, the website said, 98 percent of the fatalities in crashes involving trucks and passenger vehicles "occur to the individuals in the passenger vehicles." That can hardly come as a surprise to anyone who contemplates the effects of a 40-ton object squashing an object that

Jeannine Otto, Field Editor Saturday, January 25, 2014 8:45 AM Sleep apnea, recordkeeping and hours of service are some of the topics that Anne Ferro, the head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, will be discussing with truckers and hearing from them as she keynotes the 2014 Mid-West Truck and Trailer Show at the Peoria Civic Center. Ferro will speak at 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 31. Sleep apnea, recordkeeping and hours of service are some of the topics that Anne Ferro, the head of

By Robert Patrick [email protected] 314-621-5154 EAST ST. LOUIS • A trucking company owner was sentenced to 33 months in prison Friday and ordered to pay $273,000 to the drivers that he had underpaid, federal prosecutors said. William “Pat” Clark, 40, of Worden, Ill., owned Clark Trucking and Excavation LLC, and filed false payroll certifications to the Missouri Department of Transportation claiming to have paid drivers $35.45 an hour for work on Interstate 64, prosecutors said.

MUNCIE, Ind. (WISH) – Central Indiana communities are experiencing problems getting new shipments of salt to treat roads. Many get their salt from a national supplier, Cargill. Cargill officials said Friday customers are experiencing shipment delays due to high demand, and extreme weather. In Anderson, officials say they briefly ran out of salt, and had to scramble to find new vendors. In Muncie, officials decided not to wait for shipments to come to them this week. Instead, they sent t

By Don Gardner, The Macomb Daily Leave all of the chicken jokes on the side of the road. Maan Korkis just wants his truck back. Warren police say Korkis’ semi truck containing 33,000 pounds of chicken was stolen from a storage lot in the 24000 block of Mound sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning. The lot is located on the east side of Mound, south of 10 Mile Road. For Korkis, 35, of Sterling Heights, the semi was his lifeline. As a self-employed driver with his own truck,

Don't annoy the dispatcher By John G. Stirling, You look out your car/pickup window on your way down the freeway, and there is a big commercial rig sharing the road with you. Have you ever given any thought as to why it is where he is? Is the driver just out for a joyride? Is that trailer/container empty or loaded? When it gets to his destination, will the trailer be dropped or stay with the cab? Will the driver grab a few minutes of shut-eye while it is unloaded? A lot of questions.

Overdrive Staff Is trucking the easiest industry for regulators to pick on? Could be, says Overdrive Executive Editor Jack Roberts, who poses the question in a blog post on OD sister site CCJ. The motive is simple, Roberts writes: The public is afraid of trucks, and politicians therefore aren’t afraid of throwing regulations at the industry and its carriers and drivers in the name of protecting the public, thereby scoring them points with voters. RELATED Electronic log mandate rul

U.S. grain industry groups are urging Syngenta AG to stop selling genetically engineered corn varieties that aren't approved in China, a key importer of U.S. grain. The National Grain and Feed Association and North American Export Grain Association sent a joint statement Thursday requesting that Syngenta, a Swiss maker of agricultural products, halt sales of its biotechnology-enhanced Agrisure Viptera and Agrisure Duracade corn varieties until the Chinese government approves them for import.

By James Jaillet http://www.ccjdigital.com/ A study from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville concludes that carriers shouldn’t pass on the extra costs of complying with the July 1 hours-of-service rules to shippers or customers, lest they want to potentially “fatigue” their relationship they have with them, the study says. Carriers should instead seek ways of making their operation more efficient, such as extend lead time for some customers, increase customer delivery windows, improve

The Associated Press 1/22/2014 ESCALON, Calif. — The soaring value of California's nut crops is attracting a new breed of thieves who have been making off with the pricey commodities by the truckload, recalling images of cattle rustlers of bygone days. This harvest season in the Central Valley, thieves cut through a fence and hauled off $400,000 in walnuts. An additional $100,000 in almonds was stolen by a driver with a fake license. And $100,000 in pistachios was taken by a big rig driver

By Oliver Patton The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s newest enforcement tool is a shutdown order for carriers that flagrantly disregard the safety rules. Under a final rule to be posted this week, the agency can suspend or revoke the authority of willful repeat violators, and impose civil or criminal penalties. The rule also says the agency can target carriers that give employees who are egregious violators control over their operations. GFX Click Here And it goes after

RED BUD — A southern Illinois man has died after falling into a grain bin filled with corn. Randolph County Coroner Randy Dubenbostel said the victim of the Monday accident is 44-year-old Jeff Guebert, of Red Bud. An autopsy was planned for today. A cause of death is under investigation. Emergency responders were called to Guebert Farms at about 11:30 a.m. on Monday. Dubenbostel said Guebert's body was found in a grain bin. Authorities said Guebert was missing for about 30 minutes. Red

By Lee Stoll SKAGIT COUNTY, Wash. — A truck driver is blaming bad permits for putting him on a local bridge that should have collapsed right under the rig. The truck, hauling a power transformer, almost made it from Texas to Canada but it broke down on a Skagit county road in Mount Vernon. That's how state patrol learned the driver's directions were illegal. In order to get it off the road, the driver had to go through a roundabout—breaking street signs, and tearing up the concrete. State Pat

BY CHINTA PUXLEY, THE CANADIAN PRESS WINNIPEG - Ottawa is chipping in half the cost of a $3-million transportation study to tackle huge rail backlogs that have left a bumper crop of grain still sitting on some fields. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says last year was a record for Canadian grain — the harvest was up about 20 million tonnes — but that has posed some serious challenges. Such big crops are the "new normal" and Canada's economy depends on a reliable way of getting them to mark

BY JOHN MONK [email protected] COLUMBIA — Since 2007, a major trucking company and an affiliate allegedly have bilked the U.S. government out of millions by making false claims about the weight of belongings of military personnel – including soldiers based at Fort Jackson, according to a civil lawsuit filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbia. Covan World-Wide Moving, and its affiliate, Coleman-American Moving Services, are paid by the government based on the weight of items moved.

By Beth Anne Heesen In addition to a parade of snowstorms, bad batches of road salt have made clearing roads extra difficult this winter, some Berks municipal leaders and road crew members say. Now those officials want compensation for some of the $1.13 million they spent on salt from Cargill Deicing Technology, a division of Cargill, the multinational corporation based in Minnesota. "They're distributing material that is crappy, let's put it that way," said Brian Potts, Bern Township

An explosion and partial building collapse at an animal-feed processing plant in Omaha on Monday left at least two people dead and 10 injured, authorities said. About 38 employees were working at the International Nutrition plant at midmorning when there was an explosion and the building collapsed, authorities said. A specialized search-and-rescue team was sent to the site. Interim Fire Chief Bernard Kanger said that at least 10 people were taken to hospitals in Omaha and Lincoln, Neb., an

By JOSH FUNK Associated Press At least 10 people have been hospitalized and others could be trapped after an explosion and partial building collapse Monday at an Omaha animal feed processing plant. Interim Omaha Fire Chief Bernie Kanger said he's not sure how many workers could be trapped in the wreckage of the International Nutrition plant. The fire that followed the explosion around 10 a.m. has been extinguished, but firefighters gingerly searched the structure, fearing that more debris

By ALGIS J. LAUKAITIS / Lincoln Journal Star http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska/explosion-rocks-omaha-industrial-plant/article_fc2905bf-0c36-56b0-9c15-8c1c80f55396.html View Original Article

By Keith Goble, Land Line state legislative editor Unfair clauses in trucking contracts are the subject of a bill introduced in the Kentucky Senate. Sen. Ernie Harris, R-Crestwood, introduced a bill for consideration that would do away with indemnification clauses in trucking contracts. The clauses are set up to protect shippers or hold them harmless from anything that happens with a shipment. The provisions in contracts that would be outlawed provide for shippers to be indemnified for lo

Say goodbye to Port Richmond's truck eater Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/transportation/20140117_Port_Richmond_s__truck_eater__to_disappear.html#Rtl8uPd8XV7CG3uL.99 Joseph A. Gambardello, Inquirer Staff Writer Over the years, firefighters have been called many times to Richmond Street just under I-95 in Port Richmond. There, where four rail lines cross the roadway, lurks a long-haul trucker's nightmare - a set of trestles with low clearances and a tendency to rip t

WINDSOR, Ont. -- An Edmonton trucking firm and its Markham, Ont.-based driver have been fined a total of $75,000 for trying to bring live Asian carp into Ontario. Alltheway Trucking and Yong-Sheng Zhang were each found guilty under the federal Fisheries Act, of possessing live invasive fish, according to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. The bulk of the fine, $70,000, was assessed to the trucking company. On Jan. 25 2012, a truck from Alltheway Trucking was stopped at the Ambassad

By David Tanner, Land Line associate editor OOIDA is hoping a bill in Congress that would tax truck shipments goes nowhere fast. The proposed Freight Infrastructure Reinvestment Act would add a 1 percent tax to ground shipments of more than 50 miles, with the money slated for infrastructure projects. In effect, it would target shippers who use trucks to bear the cost for rail, port and intermodal improvements. The bill would include some highway, bridge and tunnel improvements, but only t

BY JOSH KERNS Some state patrol troopers are going to be pretty sore after they had to clear several hundred bags of grain by hand following a crash Wednesday near Olympia. A truck carrying 200 80 pound bags of feed overturned on US 101 when a car in the right hand lane made an abrupt lane change and crashed into it as both drove northbound, said Trooper Guy Gill. That car overturned as well. The collision closed both lanes near Crosby Road. "We couldn't get any machinery out there so

By Greg Grisolano, Land Line staff writer A Kentucky man is charged with three felony counts of receiving stolen property in connection with hijacking shipments of scrap metal from a Virginia company, according to the Kentucky State Patrol. James Scott Hale, 30, of Philpot, Ky., was charged Tuesday with three counts of receiving stolen property over $10,000, a class C felony. According to Kentucky State Police Trooper Corey King, the investigation began after a local Owensboro trucking

Tranport Toppics WASHINGTON — People who study shippers said senders and receivers of freight want predictability — even as the economy and technology change rapidly. Truck makers and other manufacturers, meanwhile, said their engineers are pushing scientific advances to improve transportation operations, all during several sessions at the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting. The logistics manager of a retail chain, for instance, said Jan. 14 that he uses as much software te

The system gives state officials a way to verify if truckers are reporting mileage accurately By Jack Moran The Register-Guard A set of metal, camera-rigged arms that extend out and above Highway 99 W’s traffic lanes near Junction City Pond aren’t there to put the squeeze on passenger vehicles, state transportation officials say. They were quietly installed last fall as part of a so-called “virtual weigh station” that will soon keep tabs on commercial trucks that travel through an area

ANNABEL HEPWORTH THE AUSTRALIAN THE nation's 548,000 trucks could be required to install GPS devices so they could be charged for the distance they travelled and the roads they used under a controversial proposal being considered by a high-powered advisory group. The Heavy Vehicle Charging and Investment Reform group - whose work has been singled out by Tony Abbott and state leaders as a priority for the infrastructure agenda - has issued a stinging critique of the system for funding roads

By Larry Peirce Last fall, representatives from Frontier Cooperative Company, Brainard, and Husker Coop, Columbus, announced a definitive merger agreement to consolidate into a unified cooperative. The newly consolidated company has assumed business as Frontier Cooperative Company effective Jan. 1. “After four months of intensive preparations, the unified company is up and running full force,” said General Manager Randy Robeson. “The merger has gone into effect and neither of companies, no

By Gale Rose Pratt Energy presented their case for an economic development exemption to the Pratt County Commissioners Monday. Pratt Energy is asking for a 50 percent exemption on $20 million invested in the purchase of the plant and for upgrades to the plant over a period of 10 years, said Shelia Lenagh, director of tax for Scoular and Pratt Energy. Lenagh researched seven other ethanol plants in Kansas and offered comparisons on their individual exemptions including some plants that rece

By ROSE BOUBOUSHIAN (CN) - A truck driver who caused a fatal crash when he pulled onto a dark highway without signaling owes more than $2.1 million to a Pennsylvania family, a federal judge ruled. The evidence showed that Sukhwinder Singh had been driving a tractor-trailer on Interstate 78 in Lebanon County, Pa., when he missed a turn during the wee hours of Nov. 13, 2009. After pulling over and stopping the truck, Singh allegedly failed to turn on his flashers or check for traffi

Transport Topics This story appears in the December 2013/January 2014 issue of iTECH, published in the Dec. 16 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today. A new “blue paper” by the research department of investment bank Morgan Stanley estimated that autonomous — “self-driving” — vehicles could save the freight transportation in¬dustry $168 billion annually, through pro-ductivity gains and lower costs for labor, fuel and accidents. Written by Morgan Stanley research

Trucker Gene Guillory, 60, chafes at what he describes as increasingly heavy-handed government regulation of the work he’s done for 39 years. For example, Guillory said he does not need to be told when to rest. “I don’t want to kill nobody, and I don’t want to die myself,” Guillory said. He said he knows better than to drive under the influence. “The drunk driving, the drugs, it’s the civilians who do that,” he said. Guillory, an owner-operator with a Freightliner truck, spoke Dec. 18 while

Indiana enacts new rules on overweight truck permits INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Department of Transportation and Indiana Department of Revenue published new permit rules and fees for overweight vehicles hauling metal and agricultural commodities over state highways from the farm, a mill or storage to market for further processing. The permit rules are more consistent with neighboring states and with the infrastructure resources being consumed. The permit rules govern loads of metal coil

Commodity trading company Lansing Trade Group L.L.C. has announced plans to construct a high-speed shuttle train facility on a Union Pacific Railroad line near Grayridge, Mo. Construction is expected to begin later this month on the facility, which will begin receiving grain by fall. Designed to load 110-car shuttle trains, the facility will feature high-speed truck receiving capabilities and a high-capacity dryer. The facility will be Lansing Trade Group's second shuttle facility in the r

ROOSEVELT — A Roosevelt trucking company owned in part by a Duchesne County commissioner has agreed to pay a fine for spilling an unknown amount of cow manure into a stream. The $2,039 fine for Winterton Trucking is the subject of a public comment period set to expire later this month. It stems from a June 5 incident that environmental regulators stumbled across entirely by chance. "Our district engineer just happened to be at (a gas station) investigating another matter when he happened

Cargill returned to profits growth, as much-improved North American harvests stoked demand for its marketing and handling services, but improvement was held back by overcapacity in the oilseed crushing industry. The agribusiness giant, one of the world's biggest privately held companies, said that earnings soared 36% to $556m in the September-to-November period, "supported in part by 2013's improved crop production". Cargill - whose profits the previous quarter were dented by a dearth of c

OVERLAND PARKS, KS — One of the world's largest LTL carriers, the financially-troubled YRC Worldwide, hopes to borrow $1.15 billion to refinance its debt, according to Bloomberg News. Bloomberg News reports the deal, led by Credit Suisse Group AG, includes a $700-million term loan and a $450-million asset-backed portion, both due in five years. YRC, which is the parent of several trucking companies, including YRC Freight and Winnipeg-based YRC Reimer (formerly named Reimer Express), has r

By PETER SALTER / Lincoln Journal Star(3) Comments Fairmont grain elevator embraces future from ground up The new, 2-million bushel capacity elevator comes at a time when storage space is at a premium but new elevators are rare. Read more Related Links Fairmont elevator construction A corner of the new grain elevator in Fairmont collapsed Tuesday afternoon, sending a wall of concrete and an avalanche of grain to the ground. “Well, it’s quite a mess,” said Jeff Neiman, chief of the

ERIC ATKINS The Globe and Mail Ask Alberta grain grower Gary Stanford about his biggest desire for the coming year and the answer might surprise you: He wants more locomotives, rail cars and oil pipelines. A record crop of wheat and other grains in Western Canada in 2013 has highlighted the weaknesses in the transportation system that moves the commodities from fields to foreign markets. INVESTIGATION Video: From the U.S. to Lac-Mégantic: Inside the massive growth of oil by rail