Security & Safety Briefs - Feb. 3 - Feb. 9
The Latest Headlines:
- CSX Seeks Overturn of D.C. Hazmat Ban
- NITL Creates Security Committee
- Celadon Gains ACE Border Status
- Border Security Official to Resign
- FMCSA Streamlines Motor Carrier Registration
- NITL Creates Security Committee
CSX Seeks Overturn of D.C. Hazmat Ban
CSX Corp. has asked the federal Surface Transportation Board to overturn the District of Columbia’s 90-day ban on shipments of hazardous materials, arguing it is an unconstitutional restriction of interstate commerce, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.The action could lead to lengthy and expensive legal fights, the paper said, citing comments by the city’s attorney general Tuesday that he was already planning an “aggressive battle” to defend the ban, the paper said.
CSX said that since last spring it has voluntarily rerouted shipments of hazardous materials that usually travel through the city and that it continues to confer with federal homeland security officials on that and other security measures, the Post reported.
(Click here for previous coverage.)
NITL Creates Security Committee
The National Industrial Transportation League has created a new Select Committee on Security.Membership of the SCS will comprise each of the chairpersons from the NITL’s air, highway, rail, information technology, domestic waterways, ocean, hazardous materials and ocean committees.
The shippers’ group said the committee will develop recommendations for NITL on current and new security programs and plans to make domestic and international supply chains safer.
NITL Chairman Mick Barr, associate director of global cross border organization for Procter & Gamble Co., said in a statement that Bill O’Connor, eastern regional operations manager for the northern U.S. border with UPS Supply Chain Solutions, would chair the new committee.
O’Connor’s experience includes working for IBM Corp.’s logistics services and more than 10 years with the U.S. Customs Service, now the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, NITL said. Transport Topics
Celadon Gains ACE Border Status
Celadon Group Inc. said its Celadon Trucking Services and Celadon Canada subsidiaries became the first truckload carriers to be fully certified participants in the Automated Commercial Environment, or ACE, system created by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.ACE is a commercial trade processing system being developed to enhance border security and expedite border crossing time for cargo.
The program is intended to improve how CBP processes goods imported into the United States by providing an automated information system to enable collection, processing and analysis of commercial import and export data.
Celadon Group is No. 49 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers. Transport Topics
Border Security Official to Resign
C. Stewart Verdery, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for border and transportation security policy and planning, said he would resign effective March 4.The department did not announce a successor.
Verdery “championed policy development in substantive areas under border and transportation security,” DHS Secretary James Loy said in a statement. Transport Topics
FMCSA Streamlines Motor Carrier Registration
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said Friday it combined two of its Web sites to provide companies with faster, easier access to agency information.Users may now file for U.S. Department of Transportation number registrations, operating authority registrations or update their registrations at one time, in one place.
This new registration process can be accessed on FMCSA’s Web site by clicking on “FMCSA Registration & Updates.” Transport Topics
