More than 100 drivers who haul goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and their supporters protested three Harbor Area trucking companies Monday, calling for the firms to improve working and wage conditions for truckers and to stop retaliating against drivers who want to unionize. At the center of the grievance is the misclassification of drivers as independent contractors instead of employees, a practice they said allows the companies to skirt labor laws and avoid paying them fair wages. 

A state audit has shown the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey waited more than a year to conduct 47 inspections on bridges identified as having conditions that could become dangerous if ignored, the Associated Press reported. The authority has said the findings amount to a disagreement about inspection standards. Most of the problems were on the George Washington Bridge. 

New Century Transportation, Inc., a trucking company in Westampton, told its nearly 1,500 workers Monday the business had filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors. Stunned drivers and workers milled around the New Century parking lot Monday morning, talking and planning their next move. Some said they received letters from New Century about the closure, others heard the news after pulling their semi rigs into the Rancocas Park East industrial site that houses the trucking firm. 

Upcoming negotiations between West Coast dockworkers and the Pacific Maritime Association is putting shippers on edge as the July 1 expiration of the six-year labor contract looms. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union represents 13,600 dock workers on the West Coast. The big sticking point in this year’s talks will be who pays for a so-called “Cadillac tax” that comes due in 2018 under Obamacare on the most lucrative of health care plans which is what the longshoremen currently have. 

A new bill has been introduced in the House that’s being dubbed the Freight Infrastructure Reinvestment Act of 2014 (FIRA). The bill would establish a 1% tax to be added to the cost of all shipments of freight cargo within the United States to be paid by the shipper.

United States ports and inland waterways have experienced years of neglect, resulting in a rapidly deteriorating waterborne trade infrastructure that is likely to have a severe impact on economic conditions. Experts estimate that America will need investments totaling around $30 billion to repair these key structures, but currently there’s only $14 billion earmarked for that purpose. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers “unless America’s infrastructure investment gaps are filled, transporting goods will become costlier, prices will rise and the United States will become less competitive in the global market.” 

There has been congressional hearings on autonomous vehicles (Driver-less trucks). There is allot of discussion on this issue, could this solve a driver shortage problem? Could this solve then hours of service issue? Will this cut back on Tractor Trailer faulty accidents? Could a driver less truck enter Route 80 in New Jersey and travel to California and only have to stop long enough at a fueling station located within easy access to the interstate? 

Lost hours of driving time cost shippers more than money. The new hours of service are disrupting delivery windows concerning appointed freight. The high service expectations are changing. Distribution centers were built around how many hours a driver could drive, now less hours and less miles means not meeting those original expectations. 

How do you feel about driver shortage, is this a myth or reality?

Has government involvement helped the position we are in when considering this issue?

The law which was enacted (MAP-21) to protect the motoring public from Commercial drivers being able to obtain a driver license in more than one state, not being able to hide behind poor driving records, worth the added cost these new regulations will generate?

This past weekend the transportation industry received a big surprise! YRC had been looking for the Teamster rank and file to approve a new labor contract. That labor contract contained concessions that YRC’s ownership and management felt critical to stabilizing the organization’s financial condition and future sustainability as a going concern. The Teamster members apparently were unwilling to concede and voted down the contract. What happens now? If YRC were to cease operations what do you think will happen to capacity? What about rates? What do you think the overall impact will be on shippers?