Commerce Express Weekly Road Map: April 12th, 2022
Keeping you informed on the latest news/insights in our industry.
Commerce Express Blog
Behemoth mobile wireless carriers, including Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T, are retiring their 3G cellular networks. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), each company has its own plans and timing on when it will phase out 3G services, however most of them will shut down these networks throughout early 2022. The latest being T-Mobile, who plans to pull the plug by July.
Trucking Update
- National Work Zone Awareness Week is this week (April 11th-15th) which is a yearly campaign in the spring to encourage safe driving throughout highway work zones, this year it is hosted by the Virginia Department of Transportation. The theme this year is “work zones are a sign to slow down”, which is to highlight the risk for highway workers, as well as bringing awareness and attention to the driver’s responsibility to slow down and pay attention to work zones.
- Last week, President Biden spoke about the Trucking Action Plan – which is aimed to help strengthen and improve the supply chain. During the event, the President spoke on how important truck drivers are to the supply chain and the economy. The Trucking Action Plan includes a load of initiatives aimed to improve the retention and hiring of truckers, including but not limited to connecting veterans to trucking careers, issuing out more CDL’s, and more apprentice programs to help train new drivers. Read more here to get a deeper dive into the Trucking Action plan.
- In a potential new bill (the Strengthening Supply Chains Through Truck Driver Incentives Act), qualified commercial truck drivers (who drive at least 1,900 hours a year) could receive $7,500 in tax credit, Truckers News reports. This bill would create more incentives for Americans to enter registered trucking apprenticeships. The bill has to go through an approval process that could be lengthy as it must be approved by the House, Senate, and then the White House for the President to sign.
- South-central Canada and the Rockies are expected to get hit with a blizzard this week, with Tuesday and Wednesday being the worst days. Drivers in these areas should be prepared for heavy snow (12-24 inches), high wind gusts, and the potential for zero visibility and whiteout conditions to occur – specifically on parts of Interstate 94 and U.S. Highway 2, Freightwaves reports. This snowstorm could cause notable disruptions involving road/airport closures, possible rail interruptions, power outages, with business operations potentially being impacted with workers having difficulties making it to work in these conditions.
- Major lanes of concern, according to Freightwaves
- Interstate 25 from Buffalo to Casper, Wyoming
- Interstate 29 in North Dakota from the Canada border to Fargo
- Interstate 70 in Colorado west of Denver
- Interstate 90 from Gillette, Wyoming, to Missoula, Montana
- Interstate 94 from Billings to Fargo
- Major lanes of concern, according to Freightwaves
Industry FAQ's
What are some ways truckers can drive safely through construction zones?
-Be prepared for the unexpected
-Act in accordance with all flagger directions
-Be patient and stay alert
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Rail Update
- BNSF Railway is struggling to deliver ocean boxes from Los Angeles to Chicago due to lack of manpower amidst a continuance of rail backlogs. In the last few weeks the railroad has seen increases in intermodal volumes and are in the works in hiring around 1,000 extra train personnel within this year in order to address the need for more crew availability, the Journal of Commerce reports. Last Friday BNSF came out with an update detailing that some progress has been made involving the reduction of backlogs at their merchandise and intermodal terminals but still are continuing to combat the challenges in generating significant overall velocity, inventory level and fluidity improvement, the JOC reports.
- Canadian National Railway (CN) is partnering with the Montreal Port Authority (MPA) to set up a new intermodal rail service to and from a new container terminal at the port, the Journal of Commerce reports. The new container terminal (Contrecoeur terminal) will be built in phases from 2023-2024, and will add 1.15 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEU) in annual handling capacity to the port, the JOC reports.
- March was a mixed month for U.S. rail volumes. In March 2022, U.S. railroads had 1,169,546 carloads – which is up a little over 1 percent, from March 2021 – the Association of American Railroads reports. U.S. railroads had 1,338,138 containers and trailers in March 2022 – which was down almost 6.5 percent from March 2021 – the AAR reports. For the week ending on April 2nd, total U.S. rail traffic was 502,194 carloads and intermodal units, which is down almost 3 percent from the same time last week – the AAR says. Carloads for the week ending in April were down over 5 percent, as backlogs continue to be a problem at the ports.
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