Newark's mayor is asking for Gov. Chris Christie's help to approve new revenue sources for the struggling city.  The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, has renewed his call for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to provide more money for city-owned land the bi-state agency uses for seaport and airport facilities.  Mayor Ras Baraka is effectively holding hostage City owned land if his financial demands go unmet threatening to sell the land currently used by the Port Authority of NY & NJ and Newark Airport.  “We are continuing to push the port authority to be a better partner and a better tenant. Either we get some serious relationship counseling or we have to seek a divorce,” Baraka said in his “State of the City” speech.  “We need the airport and the seaport not to just be in Newark, but we need them to be a part of Newark,” Baraka said. “We need transparency and oversight now. And if they cannot work with us in a way that is both fair and transparent, I’m prepared to put an RFP on the street asking interested parties to buy our seaport. You cannot be in our home and cook on our stove, even if you did bring the food, and eat while we sit in the living room and starve. We want to eat, too.”  Port authority’s chairman, John Degnan, said the agency would consider the suggestion but countered with the fact that the port authority had provided the city with $1.5 billion in payments since 2005.

Not yet, but it's close. Radar and camera technology have introduced the possibility of completely autonomous vehicles. Currently in the commercial truck market vehicles equipped with this his technology are capable of self braking when a vehicle is detected too close in the trucks path. The truck is braked to a safe distance at no more than the required braking rate than necessary. The truck is then throttled up to maintain a safe following distance from the vehicle ahead. Cameras and sensors on either side allow for automated interruption of lane changes when a potential obstruction is approaching at a potentially unsafe rate on either side. Adaptive cruise control uses the same cameras and sensors to allow the truck to be fully autonomous on freeways and major interstates. This however still requires a driver to maneuver the truck on and off the major highways. Anti-Roll Stability Suspension Technology has become an industry standard. Designed to sense lateral deviations in the trucks suspension, a powerful microprocessor executes complex algorithms in fractions of a second to control damping between the vehicle body and the wheels.The algorithms use thirteen attached sensors to compute the programmed cycle of a "Pulse Width Modulated" electrical signal. All of these calculations are done in time to slow the truck to a safe speed for the particular maneuver. In todays trucks the driver is necessary but we'll explore what the next generation brings.

When government regulations come into the scene, no industry is spared, including the transportation industry. Many regulations pertaining to this industry will bring about dramatic and significant changes in the coming years. It is believed the new logistics/transportation laws being enforced will affect the bottom line of carriers, truckers, consignees and shippers. Depending on the end cost, they may even affect consumers down the line. 

Transportation disruptions come in all manner of destruction; mechanical, weather, labor and capital markets.  Savvy logistics providers come away with valuable lessons that will help manage the next service disruption and aid in the design of disruption management strategies.  The 7 month West Coast Ports strike exposed capacity and productivity limitations at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.

Land-Link Traffic Systems was established in 1979 as an international shipping organization with the goal of providing collaborative logistics and transportation services. Of course, that’s only what we have to offer on paper. In reality, our team is devoted to providing the highest-quality relationship-driven logistics services to each and every client. That’s why one of our very first clients is still doing business with us today, more than three decades later! 

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and port operators along the U.S. West Coast have finally reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract following months of talks. Since the June 30, 2014 expiration of the labor contract between the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association contentious talks have been ongoing.  International Longshore and Warehouse Union reached a deal Friday on a five-year contract, ending nine months of talks. It will take six to eight weeks to relieve cargo congestion at ports from San Diego to Bellingham, Washington, where productivity has been reduced by as much as half since November.  U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez arrived in San Francisco last week to take part in talks and pushed for a resolution on the last significant roadblock, which was the union’s demand to be able to unilaterally fire arbitrators who hear workplace grievances. 

The first vehicles with some level of self-driving capability are expected to come to market by 2020, with sales volumes for autonomous vehicles likely becoming significant by 2025, according to a new report from Navigant Research of Boulder, CO.

The North American Transportation Industry is tremendously dependent upon labor unions. From the airline industry, railroad, trucking, parcel, and ocean transportation we rely on organized labor to make everything move. Labor pains in any one segment can have a rippling effect on the entire transportation infrastructure.

In times of tight equipment availability taking steps to accommodate a carrier can go a long way in ensuring timely and consistent pick ups and deliveries. The most obvious and perhaps simplest to initiate is getting the driver in and out of your facility as quickly as possible.

Driver shortage remains a significant problem in the trucking industry. Carriers have committed a significant amount of attention of late in increasing driver pay packages and recruiting efforts, especially on the truckload side. Sign on bonuses from thousands of dollars to Caribbean vacations are common. This summer, many well-known carriers, including Swift Transportation, Con-way Truckload and US Xpress made what amounts to a full-on press regarding increasing driver wages in an effort to secure more capacity and keep their wheels moving, as well as to prevent driver turnover at a time when it is becoming more difficult to recruit and retain drivers. These tactics will mostly help recycle existing drivers among carriers.