Good day,
A bill has been filed in the U.S. House yesterday that if made a law would introduce reforms to the HOS regulations for certain segments in the freight industry and would also tone down the number of supporting documents that drivers need to maintain as per the ELD mandate.
As with the bills preceding this, it includes specific amendments to the livestock and ag sector. Then again, the bill is not looking for sweeping reforms but only small changes that would allow drivers that haul livestock and agricultural goods to be exempt of HOS limits and duty status records throughout the year when operating within a 150-mile radius from the place of departure.
Though the existing rule does allow for this procedure, it does so only during the state-designated harvesting and planting seasons, which the proposed bill is looking to overturn and make it all year around.
Did you know?
Spot truckload rates on the DAT Solutions network of load boards rose again for the week ending June 16 and are on track to achieve the highest ever monthly average for van, refrigerated, and flatbed freight, according to the freight matching service provider. Despite a 6% drop in posted loads and 5.4% jump in the number of available trucks from the week before, national average rates gained for all three equipment types. Van load posts fell 5% while truck posts increased 4% compared to the previous week. The van load-to-truck ratio declined 8% to 10.3 to 1.
Quotable:
“The kids that are born today will probably never learn to drive, and will only be driven in a car that is a zero-emission vehicle. They would never know some of the experiences that we have had in our lives.”
– Stephen Voller, CEO & founder of ZapGo while envisioning the future of transportation
In other news:
OPEC Edges Closer To Production Agreement
A successful OPEC agreement in Vienna is looking increasingly likely, with Iran toning down its rhetoric and Saudi Arabia intent on ensuring broad support for an oil production hike within the cartel (Oilprice)
FedEx, UPS Say Local Sick-Pay Laws Don’t Apply to Them
Fed up with state and local laws that require private employers to offer paid sick days, the airlines and railroads have filed suit, claiming that the interstate nature of their businesses should make them exempt. (Transport Topics)
US ELD mandate tightens Canadian trucking markets
Many Canadian businesses were surprised by the breadth and depth of the electronic logging device’s (ELD’s) impact: shippers dependent on cross-border trade with the US experienced significant disruption starting Dec. 18, when the ELD rule took effect. (JOC)
Shippers convert cargo to rail as trucking capacity tightens
Shippers are used to converting truckloads to rail when rates go up. But this time around, volumes may never revert back. (Supply Chain Dive)
This is why jackup rig dayrates will double
Jackups in service are decades old and are getting phased out and when the demand for newer jackups and utilization of existing jackups increase, the dayrates are bound to double (Splash247)
Final Thoughts:
The Future of Transportation World Conference happened this in Cologne, Germany where a bulk of the discussions revolved around making transportation sustainable with a discernible push towards electric vehicles – be it on the ground or in the skies. Electric air mobility, dubbed ‘eVTOLs’ was one of the prominent topics discussed, with companies like Airbus betting its money on technology that it believes could make ‘air taxis’ as commonplace as the underground metro in the future.
Autonomous vehicles and its impact on the society was discussed, with a dedicated discussion on the need to amend laws to suit the times and if robots could really be blamed for accidents on the road. Experts envisioned on how the next generation would probably never learn to drive a car, and might be commuting only via zero-emission vehicles.
The conference also drove home the importance of mobility as a service (MaaS) and how “a car in every household” would be unsustainable to the environment as we move forward. MaaS has already dawned in Europe, with carsharing and ridesharing being popular ways through which people commute across cities.
Though the future would be really hard to peg down, it is evident that technology in transportation is going to give us the ride of a lifetime.
Hammer down everyone!
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