GHY Tradelines

(STR Trade Report)

The Department of Transportation is expanding its monthly reports on the value of trade between the U.S., Canada and Mexico to include shipments by air and vessel. Previously these reports focused on trade by surface transportation, which includes trucks, rail and pipeline. Statistics released March 27 reveal the following information.

Total
Trucks carried 59.3% of the $90.5 billion in trade between the three NAFTA partners in January 2013, followed by rail at 14.3%, vessels at 9.8%, pipelines at 8.1% and air at 3.8%. The value of total U.S. trade with its NAFTA partners by all modes of transportation:
- rose 6.9% in January from the month before, including increases of 11.8% for trucks and 29.0% for pipelines along with decreases of 5.8% for rail, 3.2% for vessels and 6.4% for air;
- grew 3.5% from January 2012 to January 2013, including increases of 3.0% for trucks, 4.8% for rail, 3.2% for vessels and 1.5% for air and a decrease of 0.9% for pipeline; and
- was up 76.5% in January 2013 compared to January 2004, including a 66.5% rise in imports and a 90.3% gain in exports.

Canada
U.S.-Canada trade totaled $51.0 billion in January, including 53.1% carried by truck, 16.2% by rail, 13.9% by pipeline, 6.1% by vessel and 4.4% by air. For the month there were increases in the value of freight carried by truck (8.6%) and pipeline (30.5%) but decreases for rail (3.7%), vessel (9.1%) and air (8.5%). For the year ending in January there were gains in the value of freight carried by truck (2.5%), rail (4.6%), vessel (27.3%) and air (3.5%) but a decrease for pipeline (1.0%).

Mexico
U.S.-Mexico trade totaled $39.5 billion in January, including 67.4% carried by truck, 14.5% by vessel, 11.8% by rail, 3.1% by air and 0.7% by pipeline. For the month there were increases in the value of freight carried by truck (15.3%), pipeline (1.1%) and vessel (0.3%) but decreases for rail (9.3%) and air (2.3%). For the year ending in January there were gains in the value of freight carried by truck (3.5%), rail (5.1%) and pipeline (0.7%) but decreases for vessel (6.3%) and air (2.1%).
 

(CTL / Nulogx)

Results published today by the Canadian General Freight Index (CGFI) today indicate that the Total Cost of ground transportation for Canadian Shippers increased by 0 .575 % in January when compared with December results.

The Base Rate Index, which excludes the impact of Accessorial Charges assessed by carriers, increased marginally by 0.38 % when compared to December 2012. Average Fuel Surcharges assessed by Carriers have seen an increase from 19.66 % of Base Rates in December 2012 to 20.36 % in January 2013.

“Cross border Truckload saw an increase while the other segments (Domestic LTL,TL & Cross Border LTL) had decreases.” said Doug Payne, President & COO, Nulogx. “Of particular note, Total Costs are still trailing behind a year ago levels.”

The CGFI tracks changes in freight costs for Canadian Shippers. The index is published monthly and the results are based on a statistically valid sample of transactions taken from the Nulogx database of more than $750M in annual freight transactions.
 

(Reuters)

Demand for long-lasting manufactured goods surged in February, though a gauge of planned business spending slipped after surging the previous month, suggesting factory activity continued to expand at a moderate pace.

Durable goods orders jumped 5.7 percent as demand for transportation equipment rebounded strongly, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. The rise last month in durable goods orders, which range from toasters to aircraft, reversed January’s 3.8 percent plunge.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected orders to rise 3.8 percent after a previously reported 4.9 percent fall in January. Read more here.
 

(Journal of Commerce – Mark Szakonyi)

Freight Policy Council was called for by Congress through recently passed surface transportation bill

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Thursday launched a council tasked with creating a national freight policy.

The creation of the Freight Policy Council, which is chaired by Deputy Transportation Secretary John Pocari, was a key provision in the recently passed $104 billion transport bill. Transportation analysts welcomed the move, but were dismayed that Congress balked at spending a proposed $4 billion to improve a designated freight network of 27,000 miles and roads. Read more here.
 

(International Freighting Weekly – Pete Goldin)

Groundbreaking research pinpoints chokepoints nationwide

The US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released new freight data yesterday pinpointing key traffic chokepoints on some of the nation’s busiest roads.  The research shows congestion increased at 61 of the 100 identified freight bottlenecks between 2009 and 2010.

The data is generated by the Freight Performance Measures (FPM) initiative, conducted in collaboration with the American Transportation Research Institute. The programme is designed to capture information on truck speeds, gathered from GPS and satellite devices onboard commercial trucks. Read more here.
 

(Business Without Borders – Paul Gallant)

The latest iteration of ‘Incoterms’ will help you avoid costly misunderstandings when sending your products

“When was the last time you saw a truck floating?” asks Joy Nott, the president of the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters. “I don’t think you have.”

But when Canadian companies import or export goods internationally, Nott estimates that 90% of them use the shipping code FOB – short for “Free On Board” or “Freight On Board.” The vast majority of Canadian international trade is by truck; international guidelines state that cargo sent FOB must be carried by a sea vessel. For international land and air transportation, shipping cargo FOB invites only confusion and possible legal headaches. Yet Canadian companies can’t seem to part with the term. Understanding shipping, and the terms that define it, is crucial for any business sending goods abroad.

Nott hopes an update of the International Commercial Sales Terms, known as Incoterms, could persuade Canadian businesses to look more carefully at what they’re agreeing to when they draw up shipping contracts with international suppliers and customers. The 11 revised Incoterms, which come into effect January 1, 2011, are aimed at making the responsibility of buyer and seller even more clear in an era where multimodal transportation has become the rule, not the exception. Read more here (membership required).

Related: Incoterms® 2010 Overview

(Journal of Commerce Online – R.G.Edmonson)

ATC likes results, NITL expresses disappointment with brief report

The Federal Maritime Commission’s Dec. 8 announcement that it would use a combination of working groups and alternative dispute resolution to smooth conflicts between ocean carriers and shippers drew mixed reviews from trade groups.

The National Industrial Transportation League expressed disappointment with the two-page summary of the commission’s plan. According to Executive Vice President Peter Gatti, members hoped that the FMC would publish a report of findings from Commissioner Rebecca F. Dye’s nine-month inquiry into alleged service contract violations around the beginning of 2010. Read more here.

(Prime Minister’s Office)

One of Canada’s top-20 international air travel markets, Switzerland is an important aviation partner for Canada. In this context, Canada and Switzerland have successfully concluded negotiations toward an Open Skies-type air transportation agreement, which modernizes the 1975 agreement (last amended in 2002) to better reflect today’s market realities.

The agreement now contains expanded operating rights for airlines from Canada and Switzerland to operate air transportation between each other’s territory and third countries, in conjunction with scheduled passenger and/or all-cargo air services between the two countries. It also enables airlines to adjust their prices with greater flexibility to meet current market conditions.

Overall, the agreement provides more flexibility for airlines and airports to consider commercial opportunities, facilitates greater economic activity, strengthens ties with Switzerland and ultimately benefits passengers and shippers by allowing more flight options and routings. Read more here.

p style=”LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto” class=”MsoNormal”span style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt”(Nulogx)/spanbspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA”?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /o:p/o:p/span/b/pp style=”LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto” class=”MsoNormal”span style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold”Results published [last week] by the Canadian General Freight Index (CGFI) indicate that the trend of increasing ground transportation rates continued through the July 2010 period.o:p/o:p/span/pp style=”MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0pt; BACKGROUND: white”span style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt”Overall Freight Costs increased by 3% in July when compared to June. Base Rates, which exclude the impact of Fuel Surcharges assessed by carriers, also increased by 3.2% while Average Fuel Surcharges decreased slightly 13.42% of Base Rates to 13.13% during the same period. /spanspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: #000066; FONT-SIZE: 10pt”o:p/o:p/span/pp style=”MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0pt; BACKGROUND: white”span style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt”"The information provided by the CGFI continues to indicate that we reached a floor in transportation costs for Canadian Shippers in April of this year, says Doug Payne, President of Nulogx. Since then we have seen 3 consecutive months of increases, led primarily by activity in both the Domestic and Transborder Truckload sectors”./spanspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: #000066; FONT-SIZE: 10pt”o:p/o:p/span/pp style=”MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0pt; BACKGROUND: white”strongspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”a href=”http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=sjwhe7cabamp;et=1103757191472amp;s=2561amp;e=001Y3ufSBFEaHmAIbOIx639IDDM_Aop3x2fl5PitSDvH_H2Adksm6nQyU5qvnBSTITFUZ_D6JuAlWllJVKNL4zkVPjNZ2KUSYPWW_xOvKKqmW61GTPUAju8IkzV3arr2Zz9zzBXZ89ZFSs=” shape=”rect” target=”_blank”span style=”color:#0000ff;”Click here/span/a/span/strongspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial” to view July’s results./spanspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: #000066; FONT-SIZE: 10pt”o:p/o:p/span/p

pspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”(Journal of Commerce Online – Joseph Bonney)?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /o:p/o:p/span/pp style=”MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt” class=”MsoNormal”emb style=”mso-bidi-font-weight: normal”span style=”LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic”Surface transported trade falls 12.3% from June to July/span/b/emb style=”mso-bidi-font-weight: normal”i style=”mso-bidi-font-style: normal”span style=”LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”br //span/i/bspan style=”LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”br /The value of trade moving by surface transportation between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico totaled $61.3 billion in July, an 18% increase from a year earlier, but the business declined from June to July, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported Thursday.br /br /The value of surface transportation shipments between the U.S. and its NAFTA partners fell 12.3% in July from the previous month. The DOT’s Bureau of Trade Statistics noted that month-to-month changes can be affected by seasonal variations and other factors.br /br /U.S.-Canada trade totaled $36.3 billion in July, up 17.1% from a year earlier. U.S. surface trade with Mexico totaled $24.9 billion, up 21.5% from July 2009. Read more a href=”http://www.joc.com/logistics-economy/nafta-trade-value-climbs18-percent-july-2009″span style=”color:#0000ff;”here/span/a. o:p/o:p/span/p

pspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”(Canadian Transportation amp; Logistics)/spanspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /o:p/o:p/span/ppspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”Results published by the Canadian General Freight Index (CGFI) indicate that the cost of ground transportation for Canadian shippers increased slightly during the first six months of 2010.br /br /Overall freight costs increased by 1.8% from December to June. Base rates, which exclude the impact of fuel surcharges assessed by carriers, also increased by 2.2%. Average fuel surcharges decreased marginally from 14.7% of base rates to 13.4%, which buffered the effect of the increasing base rates.br /br /In addition, overall freight costs for June trended upward, increasing 1.9% when compared to May and 3.2% compared to April. Read more a href=”http://www.trucknews.com/issues/story.aspx?aid=1000383981″span style=”color:#0000ff;”here/span/a.o:p/o:p/span/p

pspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”(Transport Intelligence – John Manners-Bell)/spanspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”br /br /b style=”mso-bidi-font-weight: normal”Canada ranks 10supth/sup in survey ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /o:p/o:p/b/span/ppspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”Ahead of its Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2010 in Tianjin, China, the World Economic Forum has published its emspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011/span/em.br /br /Switzerland tops the overall rankings whilst the United States falls two places to fourth position, overtaken by Sweden (2nd) and Singapore (3rd), after already ceding the top place to Switzerland last year. [Canada ranks 10th, see a href="http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Global%20Competitiveness%20Report/index.htm" target="_blank"here/a.] o:p/o:p/span/ppspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”The report takes into account a wide range of different factors in assessing the level of each country’s competitiveness. The most relevant from a logistics perspective is ‘infrastructure’, although of course more generalised factors such as, ‘goods market efficiency’, ‘macroeconomic environment’ and ‘technological readiness’ have an indirect impact on the sector. Read more a href=”http://transportintelligence.com/briefs-feeds/wef-report-brands-brazils-transport-infrastructure-appalling/1945/”span style=”color:#0000ff;”here/span/a.o:p/o:p/span/p

pspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”span style=”mso-spacerun: yes” /span(American Shipper)?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /o:p/o:p/span/ppspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”President Barack Obama in a Labor Day speech in Milwaukee outlined an ambitious six-year agenda for investing in transportation infrastructure as a way to help create construction jobs and lay the foundation for long-term economic growth.o:p/o:p/span/ppspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”He called for rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads, laying or repairing 4,000 miles of rail lines; restoring 150 miles of runways; funding the Next Generation Air Traffic Control System, which will allow more planes to fly in congested airspace while improving safety; investing more in high-speed rail; creating an infrastructure bank to help seed private investment; and consolidating more than 100 different transportation programs into a few that are managed according to performance-based outcomes. Read more a href=”http://www.americanshipper.com/NewWeb/news_page_SNW2.asp?news=168432″span style=”color:#0000ff;”here/span/a.o:p/o:p/span/p

span style=”LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-: EN-USfont-family:Calibri;font-size:8;color:black;” (Canadian Transportation amp; Logistics)br //spanspan style=”LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-: EN-USfont-family:Calibri;font-size:10;color:black;” br /TransCore’s Canadian Freight Index continued to show improvement in June, posting its sixth consecutive month of double digit growth in spot market freight availability. The index indicates spot market freight availability was up 59% year-over-year in June.br /br /The index was 11% higher than in May. June, notes TransCore, is generally a peak month for spot market freight. For the second quarter, spot market freight was up 39% over the first quarter and 70% better than Q2 2009. Cross-border load postings were up 68% year-over-year while equipment availability dropped 15% from June 2009, indicating a tightening of capacity.br /br /TransCore’s Canadian Freight Index is derived from its Loadlink freight-matching service, which features more than 12 million loads and trucks per year. Read more a href=”http://www.ctl.ca/issues/story.aspx?aid=1000380843″span style=”color:#0000ff;”here/span/a./span

span style=”font-size:85%;”(Canadian Transportation amp; Logistics)/spanbr /br /The latest results from the Canadian General Freight Index show the cost of ground transportation for Canadian shippers decreased slightly in March, erasing February’s gains.br /br /Overall freight costs dropped 2.6% in March, according to the index. Base rates, excluding fuel surcharges, decreased 1.9% with average fuel surcharges dropping 4.5% from the prior month.br /br /The Canadian General Freight Index is compiled by Nulogx. More info is available a href=”http://www.cgfi.ca/” target=”_blank”here/a.

span style=”font-size:85%;”(Transport Intelligence – Thomas Cullen)br //spanbr /The American transport economy is creeping back towards growth. The American Trucking Association (ATA) ‘For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index’ climbed 0.4% in March after falling slightly in February and the highest level since November 2008. The seasonally unadjusted figures were 19.1% higher than in February. The ATA’s Chief economist Mr Bob Costello suggested that “both the demand and supply situations are steadily improving” driven in great part by re-stocking. He added that “For most fleets, freight volumes feel better than reported tonnage because the supply situation, particularly in the truckload sector, is turning quickly.”br /br /This theory received a degree of support from Werner Enterprises, whose first quarter figures reported revenues up 8%, to $425.1m, although the trucking element of this actually declined by 1%. Operating income margin also increased on a year-on-year basis from 3.6% to 5%. Werner’s management commented that, “(the) recent improvement in the freight market can be attributed to decreasing supply than rising demand. We have observed an increase in the size and quantity of carrier failures in recent months. Gradually improving demand is also helping, and we anticipate that steady improvement will continue as we progress throughout 2010”. Read more a href=”http://www.transportintelligence.com/briefs/decreasing-supply-aids-us-transport-recovery/1885/”here/a.

span style=”font-size:85%;”(CIFFA eBulletin)/spanbr /br /The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday released to Congress a comprehensive report on agricultural transportation in the United States, the first ever of this magnitude.br /br /The report, emStudy of Rural Transportation Issues/em, was mandated by the 2008 Farm Bill and covers the four major modes of transportation commonly used by agriculture in the United States-truck, rail, barge, and ocean vessel.br /br /The report examines some of the major issues facing agricultural transportation, including: the dramatic effect of deregulation on the rail industry, a growing gap for funding the inland waterways and highway systems, availability of containers and ocean vessel capacity, and the infrastructure that may be needed to support a projected increase in bio-fuel transportation.br /br /The report also discusses the current approach to transportation policy in the United States, in which each mode of transportation is often considered separately without an overarching view of the flow of freight through all the modes. emStudy of Rural Transportation Issues/em may be found on the Agricultural Marketing Service website a href=”http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/RuralTransportationStudy” target=”_blank”here/a.

span style=”font-size:85%;”(Journal of Commerce Online – Bill Mongelluzzo)/spanbr /br /strongRail likely to benefit as shippers cut transportation costs, carbon footprint/strongbr /br /Domestic intermodal rail weathered the economic recession better than most transportation modes, and the industry appears now to be on the verge of experiencing unprecedented growth. The growth in domestic intermodal will be driven by shipper requirements to reduce transportation costs, improved reliability of intermodal services by all rail carriers and corporate America’s desire to reduce its carbon footprint.br /br /“The changes are so profound I believe we are at an inflection point,” Brian McDonald, vice president of intermodal at Union Pacific Railroad, told the Los Angeles Transportation Club.br /br /UP is a case in point. Domestic intermodal was the only sector of UP’s 40 commodity lines to grow during last year’s recession. In fact, UP handled a record number of domestic intermodal units in 2009.br /br /Changing customer requirements will be a primary driver of domestic intermodal growth. Traffic managers are acting under a mandate to reduce transportation costs, and substituting domestic intermodal for over-the-road trucking is the quickest way to cut costs over longer distances, McDonald said. Read more a href=”http://www.joc.com/rail-intermodal/domestic-intermodal-primed-growth”here/a.

span style=”font-size:85%;”(Journal of Commerce Online)/spanbr /br /strongWinter storms disrupt freight movements from Great Lakes to Atlantic /strongbr /br /Winter storms Wednesday stopped or slowed freight traffic and closed facilities from the Great Lakes to the East Coast. An expansive area of wintry precipitation is “moving from the Mississippi River Valley into the Midwest and toward the Mid-Atlantic,” said the National Weather Service. “Widespread heavy snows are likely over the next few days from the Great Lakes, upper Ohio Valley, central Appalachians, northern Mid-Atlantic, and into the New York City metro area/southern New England region.” Read more a href=”http://www.joc.com/node/416594″here/a.

span style=”font-size:85%;”(Journal of Commerce Online – John D. Boyd)/spanbr /br /strongMore than half of high-speed rail grants will go into freight corridors to build up inter-city passenger service/strongbr /br / It took nearly a year and a stubbornly high unemployment rate before the Obama administration recast its long-awaited $8 billion in rail system grants as part of a jobs strategy.br /br /But when the White House unveiled its list of winners for high-speed rail funding, to boost passenger train service between cities, it quickly became clear large parts of it would go into the freight rail corridors that also carry Amtrak trains.br /br /For instance, of the 13 funding corridors that traverse parts of 31 states, just two would be true high-speed passenger lanes with “bullet trains” that would need their own walled-off tracks away from freight operations. Read more a href=”http://www.joc.com/node/416496″here/a.