Commerce Express Weekly Road Map:
April 30th, 2024
Keeping you informed on the latest news/insights in our industry.
Domestic Market Updates –
- Diesel update: As of April 29th, the average price of diesel was $3.947 a gallon. Seeing a 4.5 cent decrease from last week – per the EIA.
- Container operations: The Port of Portland will end their container operations effective this October, due to lack of state funding, financial losses increasing, and a failed search to find a permanent third-party operator.
- Wait times: Trucker wait times at Norfolk Southern’s Chicago terminal are making some progress after facing some congestion earlier this year.
- Wait times: Truck safety inspections have resumed at the border entry in El Paso, Texas. This creates longer wait times for truckers, as Texas DPS continues to stop and inspect all commercial vehicles arriving from Mexico.
- Labor: Daimler Truck North America and United Auto Workers reached a tentative agreement just mere hours before the prior contract was going to expire.
- Labor: More participants, American Train Dispatchers Association and BNSF Railway, are set to join US DOT and FRA confidential close call reporting system.
- Equipment: Chassis production is being scaled back from some intermodal chassis manufacturers due to weak demand.
U.S. CBP Rules on Investigation Involving Chassis Manufacturer
In the ruling issued by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, they found that chassis manufacturer CIE Manufacturing, did not evade tariffs or duties on Chinese-made chassis or violate any trade regulations between the years 2021-2023.
While the U.S. CBP investigated the company, CIE suspended all imports of chassis and chassis frames. Now with the investigation over and no wrongdoing was found, CIE is able to pick operations back up.
FMCSA Set to Make Changes to Their Registration Process
While in the early stages, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans to make changes and develop a new online registration process. The hope is to reduce fraud, improve transparency and efficiency for the registration of motor carriers, brokers, and others, reports state.
This potential new registration process would need to be approved by the Office of Management and Budget but is slated to be implemented sometime early next year, an official with the FMCSA said.
Have questions? Reach out to our team today.
Commerce Blog
The American freight rail network is operated by a few, but powerful, carriers. The U.S. has some 140,000 miles of track, the most expansive of any other country in the world, which is owned and operated across four companies referred to as Class I railroads.
By definition, Class I railroads exceed an operating revenue of $490 million (adjusted for inflation annually).
The Probe on Union Pacific Embargoes is Closed, Monitoring Continues
A recent announcement from the Surface Transportation Board stated they have closed the proceedings in relation to UP’s embargoes.
Brief refresher: Back in December 2022, the STB held a public hearing in which they examined UP’s use of more than 1,000 embargoes to relieve congestion on its network, which was almost ten times more embargoes than any other railroad, the STB said.
What’s next: UP has made several changes to combat and reduce their over-usage of embargoes. However, the STB expects UP to continue to keep in check their use of embargoes and they will continue to monitor UP’s progress.
Total Weekly Rail Traffic for the Week Ending April 20th, 2024:
- Total weekly rail traffic in the U.S. last week was 474,544 carloads and intermodal units – seeing a little less than 1 percent (0.8) increase from that same time last year, per AAR data.
- U.S. weekly intermodal volume also saw an increase (8.2%) with 257,599 containers and trailers.
- Commodities of motor vehicles and parts, petroleum and petroleum products, and forest products all saw increases. While coal, non-metallic minerals and metallic ores and metals all saw decreases.
- In the first 16 weeks of this year, North American rail volume saw a 2.1% increase – 466,666 carloads and intermodal units – from last year.
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