Safety

I recently started receiving Transport Topics and was especially interested in what you had to say the Feb. 22 p. 1 story, “Transportation Firms Must Improve Recruiting to Satisfy Customers’ Desires, Leaders Say.”

ABF Freight System and the Teamsters union appear to be heading toward talks that could result in wage, health or pension concessions for the nation’s fifth-largest less-than-truckload carrier, officials from both sides have said.

A new diesel-emissions-reduction program at the Port of New York and New Jersey that will ban pre-1994 trucks beginning in 2011 will be costly and burdensome for motor carriers and comes at a time when fleets are reeling from the recession, state trucking officials said.

Congress should include comprehensive funding policies in the upcoming transportation reauthorization bill both to modernize freight transportation and reduce diesel emissions, an environmental group said in a report last week.

Industry groups and some state governments hailed the decision blocking all states from collecting Unified Carrier Registration fees until the federal government sets fee levels for 2010, but other states said the move could hamstring their safety programs.

Manufacturers and their dealers sold 19.1% more big trucks in February than they did a year earlier, marking the second consecutive month in which Class 8 sales beat their year-ago totals, according to WardsAuto.com.

The owners of more than two-thirds of the 2,200 new Class 8 trucks bought with the assistance of $20,000 each in Port of Los Angeles grants face financial penalties because their trucks will not make the required 300 gate moves during their first year of operation, port officials said.

FedEx Corp. posted a 146% increase in quarterly net income driven by explosive growth in returns at its air express division and a nearly one-third increase in ground parcel delivery profits, the second-largest company in North American freight transportation said March 18.

Electronic onboard recorders should be mandatory for all truckers operating in North America, the president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance said.

DHL said that it has partnered with American Airlines Cargo to help pharmaceutical industry shippers prepare for new Transportation Security Administration screening guidelines set for Aug. 1.