Bulk Freight News & Industry Updates - Stay Ahead in Trucking

(WJLA) - Annaleah and Mary Karth were just teenagers when a crash on Georgia Interstate took their lives last May. Their family vehicle was struck, propelling it under a tractor trailer and killing the two girls. Continue reading "Their lives were abruptly ended, and we want to see that same thing does not happen to others," said their mother, Marianne Karth. On Monday, their parents brought thousands of petitions from their home in North Carolina to the U.S. Department of Transportation, ask

By: Fil Alvarado - bio | email Mansfield police arrested a trucker on Monday who led them on a chase, but who claimed his brakes weren’t working. The driver finally came to a stop on I-20 in Arlington on Monday morning after being chased for 20 minutes at speeds up to 65 miles per hour by authorities. The driver, who hasn’t been named by police, was ticketed for evading arrest and remains in jail. The chase finally ended in Arlington when the driver was able to pull off and stop t

By Kylene Scott Not much has changed in the construction of grain silos and elevator bins throughout the years, and it's no different for a new facility near Canton, Kan. All the concrete is pumped up the construction platform where workers fill wheelbarrows to dump into forms building the sides of the silos. (Journal photo by Kylene Scott.) Not much has changed in the way grain elevators are built, except they are bigger and taller now than they have ever been. Workers are working around th

By David Tanner, Land Line associate editor One regulatory action that actually makes sense from a professional truck driver’s perspective would prohibit motor carriers, shippers, receivers and brokers from coercing drivers to violate the rules. The FMCSA’s proposed rule against coercion cleared an administrative hurdle on Wednesday, April 30, but is not a final rule just yet. A clampdown on coercion of drivers could be a big step to addressing problems associated with detention time at the

TORONTO, ON — Heavy trucks not required to be plated or pay commercial vehicle registration fees, provincial taxes and certain tolls will no longer be exempt, the Ontario government stated in the Budget’s Transportation Infrastructure Funding Plan. For years, certain heavy trucks involved in commercial operations – such as mobile cranes, vacuum trucks and concrete pumper trucks, among others – were designated as so-called “road-building machines” under the Highway Traffic Act, sparing their

SHEA JOHNSON, STAFF WRITER APPLE VALLEY • Even as California air quality officials ease diesel engine regulations intended to meet state emission standards, local trucker Michael Velez says he’s still in the same place as five months ago. Velez, 51, is a self-employed contract driver with Sully-Miller Contracting Co. Late last year, he was prepared to lose his job while the California Air Resources Board pushed for most heavier trucks to be retrofitted by Jan. 1, 2014 with costly diesel part

Avery Vise http://fleetowner.com/ Lost productivity and other costs associated with drivers idled by congestion on interstate highways cost the trucking industry than $9.2 billion in 2013, according to a report released by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI). Not surprisingly, congestion costs rose with truck mileage, ATRI found. A truck driven for 12,000 miles in 2013 saw an average congestion cost of $408, while a truck driven for 150,000 miles had an average cost of $5,0

James Dornbrook Reporter- Kansas City Business Journal The Scoular Co. acquired a corn processing facility based in Dexter, N.M., from Hi-Pro Feeds Inc. for an undisclosed amount. Scoular is a 120-year-old commodity supply-chain company based in Overland Park, with more than 700 employees at offices in 70 countries. It buys, sells and transports grain and other food ingredients for customers around the globe, generating more than $6 billion in annual sales. The corn processing facility it

By Claire Zillman FORTUNE -- Protesting years of alleged wage theft and unfair treatment, more than 100 port truck drivers went on a 48-hour strike this week at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The group behind the strikes that ended Tuesday, union-backed Justice for Port Truck Drivers, says that port truck drivers haul nearly $4 billion worth of cargo every day for companies like Walmart (WMT), Ikea, and Home Depot (HD), yet they often receive paychecks below the minimum wage. At t

The Trucker News Services 4/28/2014 Small business truckers got a bit of a reprieve from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on some of their pollution regulations last week, or at least a deadline extension, but some carriers who have already complied say it’s unfair. CARB voted last Thursday to give small fleets, lightly used trucks and those operating in rural areas more time to upgrade from older, more polluting models to newer, cleaner trucks and engines or install filters to rem

BY LYDIA DEPILLIS http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ELIZABETH, N.J. -- It’s a few minutes into a run carrying a load of scrap copper from the Port of New Jersey to a waste transfer station outside Philadelphia, and Miguel Tigre reaches over the dash of his maroon-and-yellow cab to grab a folder stuffed with the receipts squeezing him dry. He reels off calculations: He gets paid $400. It’s about 150 miles round-trip, and his truck gets 5.2 miles per gallon, so that's $180 in fuel. Tolls are $20.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Obama administration put forward their transportation plans today, and American Trucking Associations (ATA) officials are not happy. “President Obama has talked more about the need to address our critical infrastructure deficit than any president in the past 20 years,” said ATA president and CEO Bill Graves. “While the President’s plan supports a growing program, we cannot help but be very disappointed in much of the plan his administration has put forward. “Any pr

By Keith Goble, Land Line state legislative editor A bill halfway through the Missouri statehouse is intended to settle potential disputes over classification of independent contractors, including owner-operators. The House voted 99-50 to advance a bill that gives small-business truck drivers the benefit of the doubt on independent contractor status. Specifically, the bill introduced by Rep. Kurt Bahr, R-St. Charles, would require the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to provid

RESERVE, La. - Sandra Remondet's family has lived in Reserve for generations. But she says dust from the grain elevator that looms over her home is destroying her quality of life. “It's bad,” said Sandra Remondet. “It's sticking to my lungs. It's sticking to my chest. It hurts my chest. I can't breathe at night.” Remondet was diagnosed with throat cancer at age 41. Now 63, she speaks through a voice box. Almost all of her neighbors have respiratory problems. “They call it cancer alley here,”

(GARY) - Northern Indiana police say truck drivers pulled a Gary police officer from his burning squad car following a crash along a highway overpass that injured the officer. Gary Police Chief Wade Ingram tells The Times of Munster that passing truck drivers stopped and pulled the 26-year-old Officer Michael Mitchell from his squad car after Thursday night's fiery crash. Mitchell was taken to a local hospital with injuries to one of his legs. The Lake County Sheriff's Department says Mitchell

http://www.kmbc.com/news/grain-elevator-falls-on-rail-cars-in-hammond-kans/25688958 View Original Article

By: Chris Fankhauser Chadron)- West Plains LLC of Kansas City, MO has recently begun upgrades at six of its western Nebraska and South Dakota grain elevators. In Chadron, West Plains will be developing a new greenfield grain elevator with three 150,000 bushel steel grain bins, a 50,000 bushel steel grain bin and a reclaim system from all bins to the grain leg. The grain leg will be a 20,000 bushel per hour capacity serving both a truck and rail load out; the elevator will also be able to

By Keith Goble, Land Line state legislative editor A new law in Kentucky covers unfair clauses in trucking contracts. Gov. Steve Beshear signed a bill into law to do away with indemnification clauses in trucking contracts. The clauses are set up to protect shippers or hold them harmless from anything that happens with a shipment. Effective July 15, provisions in contracts are outlawed that provide for shippers to be indemnified for losses caused by their own negligence and make them “void

By: Sara Schafer, Farm Journal Media Business and Crops Editor As of April 20, USDA estimates 6% of the U.S. corn crop is planted, which compares to a five-year average 14% by this time. Unfortunately, the weather forecast doesn’t look favorable for planting conditions in the coming week. Severe thunderstorms and isolated tornadoes are a possibility from April 26-29 across a broad area stretching from the central and southern Plains into parts of the Midwest, Mid-South, and Southeast, acco

Given how nervous the ATA seems to be about the “driver shortage,” they may have reason to reconsider their staunchly pro-EOBR stance. A recent poll of Overdrive Online readers who were asked what their response would be to the implementation of the proposed EOBR/ELD mandate revealed that 71% of all independent truckers claimed that they would hang up their hats and quit OTR trucking for good. The results of the poll were based off of the responses of over 2,300 independent truckers, defined

By Dr. Jennifer S. Batchelor http://blogs.dcvelocity.com/ Guest Post By Rico Fleshman, Corporate and Strategic Manager for Transportation, Logistics and Supply Chain at American Public University The first federal, multi-year transportation bill enacted since 2005, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), was signed into law in July 2012. The bill funded surface transportation programs for FY-13 and FY-14 at just over $105 billion and transformed the national transportation

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Minnesota-based agriculture company was fined $211,000 by federal safety regulators who said Wednesday it had repeatedly failed to ensure workers weren't exposed to grain-dust hazards in Montana. CHS Inc. was cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for 19 workplace safety violations at grain elevators in Cut Bank, Glendive, Denton and Valier. A company spokeswoman said CHS will challenge the violations. Three were repeat violations, including fai

By Mike Wiser, Lee-Gazette Des Moines Bureau DES MOINES — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has asked the Iowa Department of Transportation for permission to erect a 10-foot-tall memorial to the turkeys that perished in a Sioux City truck crash on April 12. “The (Department of Transportation) doesn’t permit memorials at all,” Iowa Department of Transportation Director of Traffic and Safety Steve Gent said. “When they go up, we try to contact people to remove them to the right of

Here's How Stuff Gets Shipped Across America ANDY KIERSZ There are many ways to track U.S. economic activity. Billionaire Warren Buffett likes to follow railroad traffic. However, rail isn't the only means by which goods get transported around the country. In fact, you could argue that trucking is a much more sensitive to the economy. The Bureau of Transportation statistics runs the Commodity Flows Survey every five years (most recently in 2012), tracking what kinds of goods are shippe

By DOROTHY COX The Trucker Staff 4/22/2014 WASHINGTON —The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is doing a good job of collecting data on trucking carriers and motorcoach companies but they need to act on the information more quickly and put bad actors out of business before they cause fatalities, said outgoing National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman. Hersman came to the board in 2004. She’s leaving to become president and CEO of the National Safety

ARLINGTON, VA - -The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has just released an analysis of the hours-of-service restart rules that went into effect July, 2013. But according to the renowned American transportation consultants American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), they should really get back to the drawing board. “ATRI’s analysis [of the FMCSA report] raises enough questions about FMCSA’s own study that should compel a comprehensive review of the entire rule,”

The Associated Press 4/22/2014 LOS ANGELES — California air quality officials are considering giving small trucking operations more time to comply with new rules to clean up diesel emissions. The proposal would push back deadlines by a few years for small fleets, lightly used trucks and those in rural areas with cleaner air, and offer other adjustments to assist truck owners, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday (http://lat.ms/1rfppR1 ). The state Air Resources Board said even with the ch

Could the implementation of the electronic logging device mandate cause huge numbers of drivers to simply bow out and leave the industry out of frustration with perceived overregulation? According to results from a recent survey done by CCJ publisher Randall-Reilly, a big chunk of drivers are threatening to leave the industry if the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s proposed ELD mandate comes to fruition, which could be as early as 2016. The public comment period for the ELD ma

Nixa, MO (PRWEB) April 21, 2014 BulkLoads.com, a load posting website for the dry and liquid bulk freight industry, added two new load search options to refine the way carriers search for loads, making finding loads quicker and more convenient. The release comes as the fast-growing load board reaches a record number of loads posted. Load postings are reaching record highs online as shippers continue to overcome various challenges from this past winter from the heavy demand of rail freight to

By James Dornbrook Kansas City Business Journal In a city better known as the home of Sprint Corp. and Hallmark Cards Inc., it can be easy to forget that Kansas City remains a leading agricultural hub. Five of the largest private companies and the second-largest public company based in the area do business related to agriculture or food. Companies such as Dairy Farmers of America, Lansing Trade Group LLC, Seaboard Corp., The Scoular Co., and Bartlett and Co. are not only reminders of Kans

The U.S. Department of Transportation expects developments for three new trucking related rules in the rest of 2014. The rules deal with driver coercion, a system for identifying carriers that need safety intervention, the use of speed limiters and an increase in minimum insurance coverage for carriers. A rule which would help prevent driver coercion was expected to clear the White House’s Office of Management and Budget earlier this week, but it has not yet been released. The rule could be pub

Wendy Parker http://www.overdriveonline.com/ It’s time again to put a little list together for the people who are officially unaffiliated with the industry. This statement alone is a fallacy: trucking is everyone’s business, as I have found myself reminding people time and again. Which brings us to number one on the list of things the Facebook readers, who just happen to also be professional drivers, wanted me to get out to the general public. 1. When we asked drivers what they wanted kno

Jim Grawe, jgrawe@kwch.com CANTON, Kan. - Along Highway 56 east of McPherson is something you don't see every day, and it's growing by a foot every hour. "I've never seen anything like it," Moundridge resident Richard Morgan says as he watches from his car. Sightseers are just parking and marveling at the sight of a giant grain elevator appearing before their eyes. "Just the size of it and the way it's all coming together--it's an amazing project!" Morgan adds. Construction start

By Thomas Black http://www.bloomberg.com/ The U.S. shale oil boom is putting millions of tons of sand onto North American railroads, enabling carriers to pack trains full instead of hauling just a handful of cars at a time. With help from Union Pacific Corp. (UNP) and Warren Buffett’s BNSF Railway Co., the sleepy silica sand industry that once mostly supplied glassmakers now ships more than 20 million tons of the material a year. Buyers including Halliburton Co. (HAL) and Schlumberger Ltd

By Karen E. Klein http://www.businessweek.com/ In 32 years as a truck driver and seven years as a transportation broker, DuWayne Marshall has seen it all: brokers who pay late or not at all; brokers who go bankrupt; brokers who run outright scams. “You’ve got a pile of somebody else’s money and there’s great temptation to use it for yourself, since you’re always paying backwards,” says Marshall, the owner of Watertown Refrigerated Logistics, based in Watertown, Wis. And the victims are,

Spend Matters welcomes another guest post from John Bauman, Principal Economist at IHS. IHS anticipates that 2014 will see weak prices for trucking, with the truckload sector experiencing flat prices and the less-than-truckload (LTL) sector experiencing only mild gains. The second half of the year is expected to be stronger than the first, but this improvement may be delayed, resulting in a weaker 2014 than forecasted before. This is particularly true in the truckload sector, where rates have ha

A trucking company has filed a lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Revenue over it disallowing the states rolling stock sales tax exemption on one of its pieces of equipment. At issue is the department's disallowance of a rolling stock exemption claimed by Illinois-based Seggebruch Trucking on the purchase of a Peterbilt truck, according to the Mid-West Truckers Association. The suit was filed after the company had paid a notice of tax liability issued by the department under protest.

By Josh Wood The Associated Press 4/15/2014 WILLISTON, N.D. — North Dakota officials say a Wyoming-based trucking company working in the state could face fines of more than $1 million for operating without a license and illegally dumping saltwater, a byproduct of oil production. The state's health and mineral resources departments announced the possible fines Tuesday. A Health Department official says Black Hills Trucking Inc. could be fined up to $1,000 for every day it operated without

On Monday, Mid Kansas Cooperative (MKC) offered a tour of the slip construction of the Canton Rail Terminal, a grain shuttle loader facility with the potential to load 110-car unit trains in less than 12 hours. Once loaded, grain will be exported to facilities in the Pacific Northwest, Gulf Coast and Mexico. The Canton Rail Terminal is on Avenue 25, just north of U.S Highway 56 between Galva and Canton. The necessity for a new elevator developed through two paths: current and potential grain c

http://www.truckinginfo.com/ The U.S. Transportation Department’s Federal Highway Administration is holding a webinar next month to provide an update on the progress of its Comprehensive Truck Size and Weight Limits Study. What’s described by the department as this third public outreach session will take place on May 6 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Eastern time. The current federal highway funding authorization, known as MAP-21, requires the DOT to conduct a study addressing differences in saf

By Amy Dalrymple WILLISTON, N.D. – Criminal charges have been filed against a truck driver accused of illegally dumping oilfield waste in western North Dakota, and the trucking company he worked for could face more than $950,000 in civil penalties for repeat offenses, officials said Tuesday. Leo Slemin, a driver with Black Hills Trucking of Wyoming, has been charged with a Class C felony for allegedly illegally dumping saltwater, a byproduct of oil production and an environmental hazard.

Seaford, DE (PRWEB) April 15, 2014 Trinity Logistics has recently acquired Legacy Transportation, Inc. of Gladstone, Missouri. The Legacy staff, led by former President Harold Elliot, has joined the Trinity team in their location on Ambassador Drive in Kansas City, Missouri. Since 1991, Legacy Transportation served their customer base with full truckload shipping services. In order to meet the growing needs of their shippers, Legacy identified the opportunities of aligning themselves with

KIMBALL, SD - The railcar shortage is hitting hard across KELOLAND. As a result, a grain elevator near Kimball isn't able to ship out its corn and grain. "It's an issue I never thought we'd see, but here it is," farmer Brad Veurink said. The corn and milo piling up outside the Gavilon Liberty Grain near Kimball is creating a mountain that could soon rival the elevator itself. Manager Todd Yeaton says he's dealt with railcar shortages before, but never like this. "This widespread in multi

http://www.dcvelocity.com/ Study finds shippers are no longer satisfied with standard-issue IT offerings from their logistics service providers. By James A. Cooke In the face of ever-increasing shipper demands, carriers and third-party logistics service providers (3PLs) find themselves jumping through hoops to devise special information technology (IT) solutions. For that reason, the results of a recent survey of chief information officers (CIOs) for logistics and transportation servic

NEW BERN - A grain broker from Whiteville has been sentenced to serve two years in prison for a scheme to defraud a pork production company, U.S. Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced Friday. John Paul Smith, 48, was ordered to serve three years of supervised release after serving his active sentence on a guilty plea to mail fraud, a news release from the U.S. Attorney said. A U.S. district judge imposed the sentence Thursday, and Smith was ordered to report to prison no later than July 15. A f

By Herald staff A Salinas trucking company owner was ordered to spend 300 days in jail and pay more than $60,000 in fines for falsifying the number of his employees and the scope of their work Monterey County Superior Court Judge Russell Scott sentenced Ricardo Casillas, 33, on charges of insurance fraud, workers' compensation fraud and payroll tax evasion, the District Attorney's Office said. Casillas owns Desert Express Transportation Lines and Casillas Transportation Services. Cas

By César G. Rodriguez Laredo Morning Times A man arrested Thursday afternoon is accused of pocketing more than $23,000 in forged checks from a local trucking company, according to court records. Laredo police served an arrest warrant on a 54-year-old man, charging him with theft (embezzlement), a third-degree felony in the 3500 block of Paradise Drive in South Laredo. On Nov. 4, a representative of Royal Express Inc., 12115 Doc Adams Drive, reported that someone had stolen $2,464.11 b

The railroad problems that disrupted grain shipments throughout much of the winter may spill in to spring and delay the delivery of fertilizer that farmers need to plant spring crops, grain industry officials testified this week. During a hearing on Thursday, the Surface Transportation Board was told by grain officials and farmers that railroads need to restore service to levels a few years ago. One railroad, however, told the board it may take some time before they can add enough cars and c

GRANTS PASS, OR -- Hauling a truckload of logs to a Southern Oregon mill last fall, Chris Hill noticed a sheriff's deputy behind him and flashed his lights to warn a UPS driver coming the other way. The deputy pulled over Hill on U.S. Highway 140 in White City and handed him a $260 ticket for improperly using his headlights, saying another deputy had seen the flashing lights from behind the UPS truck and alerted him to stop the log truck because of the signaling. Outraged, Hill decided to

By RYAN ROBINSON | Staff Writer A truck overturned in Earl Township on Thursday, spilling a large amount of feed in a field. It happened along Tobacco Road, between Route 322 and Reidenbach Road, at 10:14 a.m. New Holland police said Dennis Becker, 54, of New Holland, was driving the truck and he told an officer his air brakes stopped working properly. Becker said he drove into a field to avoid traveling through a stop sign, police said. He was transported to Ephrata Community Hospital to

by Sean Kilcarr in Trucks at Work While the U.S. economy remains sluggish and a tough nasty winter left much of the nation’s highway networks a pot-holed, scrambled mess, things still seem to be looking up for trucking over both the short and long term. Indeed, the freight apple may be about as ripe as it’s ever going to get where trucking is concerned. For starters, let’s recognize that even though U.S. economic activity remains tepid – even after escaping the rough clutches of Old Man Wi

http://www.etrucker.com/ By James Jaillet Mega fleets Con-way (No. 4 in the CCJ Top 250), Werner (No. 10), Old Dominion (No. 12), Knight (No. 25) and Marten (No. 46) were among Forbes’ annual 100 Most Trusted Companies list, released this week. Con-way, Knight, Old Dominion and Werner all ranked in the Mid Cap category, which consists of companies with a market cap between $1 billion and $5 billion. Marten scored in the Small Cap category, companies with a market cap between $250 mil

http://www.railwayage.com/ At a morning news conference April 9, 2014 in Washington, D.C., findings from a recent report, An Analysis of Truck Size and Weight Issues, Phase I – Safety, were officially released, detailing the risks and detrimental impacts of increased truck sizes and weights on the nation's roadways and the American motoring public. The report, conducted at Marshall University by the Multimodal Transportation and Infrastructure Consortium (MTIC), a University Transportation

By KYLE BARNETT GRETNA – A woman who claims she entered into a contract to sell a refrigerated trailer to a trucking company and its owner in which they would pay her $30,000 in installments, claims breach of contract. Alma J. McKay filed suit against Dexter Varmall and Dexter Varmall Trucking in the 24th Judicial District Court on March 20. McKay alleges that on Nov. 1, 2009 she entered into a verbal contract with Varmall and Dexter Varmall Trucking in which they purchased a 1999 Wabas

KC Colby, CTV Barrie Drivers hoping that a diesel engine will save them some money have been sorely disappointed lately, especially truck drivers. The price of diesel is far outpacing the cost of regular gasoline. “Well put it this way, to fill up my truck you're looking at over $1,000,” says independent trucker Lee Ingratta. Ingratta is an independent trucker who spends most of his time hauling loads to and from the US. “Fuel is a heck of a lot cheaper over there,” he says. “It's ab

Young leaders in the freight brokerage industry discuss the future TEXT SIZE bigger text smaller textBy: Sonia Straface 2014-04-08 MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -- Delta Nu Alpha Transportation Network, a non-profit Mississauga, Ont.-based association, held a seminar March 27 and called the night a “perspective from the next generation.” Set up as a panel discussion with four young industry professionals (both carriers and freight brokers, all under the age of 40 were represented) its aim was to provi

BY ROD NICKEL (Reuters) - Canadian legislators on Monday amended a bill designed to ensure grain moves smoothly by rail by allowing the government to order railways to compensate shippers for poor service. The government's Canadian Transportation Agency currently has authority only to arbitrate matters on which the parties mutually agree. Railways can avoid paying compensation simply by refusing to negotiate a service level agreement with shippers that includes penalties, said Jeff English

The head of S.C. Trooper Association plans to travel Wednesday to Washington to put the brakes on a move to allow larger, heavier trucks on the nation's highways. David Latimer, executive director of the Troopers Association, said he strongly opposes any increases to truck sizes or weights because of the safety threat. South Carolina had more than 2,300 collisions involving large trucks in 2012, and 82 people were killed. Congress is debating whether to allow bigger trucks as it works o

By BARBARA WALLACE WOODLAND, Calif. (CN) - A man was buried alive in grain for five hours while unloading grain from a silo, he claims in court. Hector Sanchez sued Adams Grain Company and the Adams Group, in Yolo County Superior Court. Sanchez was an employee of nonparty T & T Marketing Services, which was providing labor services to Adams Grain and Adams Group when the accident happened, according to the 14-page lawsuit. Sanchez "was instructed to enter the grain silo and

Renee Bernard VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Some trucking companies are hoping to deal with the shortage of drivers by hiring temporary foreign workers. But a BC labour leader says that’s not the way to address a shortage of drivers. The trucking industry expects to lose 20 per cent of the work force due to retirement over the next ten years, and some are hoping driving will be designated a skilled trade, to make it easier to hire foreign workers. But Jim Sinclair with the BC Federation of

A rule proposed under the Food Safety Modernization Act regarding animal feed would unnecessarily limit the centuries-old practice of beer brewers donating or selling their spent grain to farmers and ranchers by classifying them as feed producers, contend the Beer Institute, American Malting Barley Association, the National Milk Producers Federation, and other stakeholders. Animal feed rule would limit grain donation "Brewers' spent grain exists as a natural and necessary result of the brewing

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota mandate that most diesel fuel sold in warm-weather months be a blend containing 10 percent biodiesel faces an uncertain future. Minnesota currently requires a year-round 5 percent blend known as B5 for most diesel sales. The B10 mandate is to begin in July, and then rise to 20 percent by next year. But there have been delays as state officials worked to ensure adequate supplies and set up regulatory protocols. Those delays might continue, the Mankato Free

Grain shippers in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States are getting poor rail service and it’s about to get a whole lot worse, says a transportation consultant. Terry Whiteside co-authored a report for the Western Organization of Resource Councils that forecasts a massive increase in coal and oil shipments on railways in the region. The report, Heavy Traffic Still Ahead, forecasts 74 to 99 million tonnes of coal exports by 2018. “That’s all new tonnes,” said Whiteside. To

Ottawa's decision to implement new regulations on grain shipments by rail is aimed at improving service for Canadian farmers. But the new rules may have another unintended beneficiary: billionaire Warren Buffett. The federal government has proposed a series of changes to the way railways are allowed to operate in Western Canada in legislation it tabled last week. Among the changes in the Fair Rail For Grain Farmers Act is a proposal to extend the distances for the country's interswitching pr

http://www.truckinginfo.com/ A new report shows business conditions in the trucking industry remain positive, despite a slight downturn, amid caution of a possible capacity shortage. The Trucking Conditions Index reading of 7.54 for February continues to reflect good news for trucking fleets, but is also a warning to shippers seeking carriers to move their goods, according to the freight forecasting firm FTR. It notes the severe winter weather likely had a bigger impact and is not getti

By Sara Hooker, Daily Herald Business Ledger Writer Thursday, April 03, 2014 9:30 AM NAPERVILLE -- Saying it’s an “imminent hazard to public safety,” federal regulators shut down the trucking company responsible for a semi involved in a crash in late January that killed a tollway worker and seriously injured a state trooper. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ordered Naperville-based DND International to pull all trucks off the highways until further notice, according to a re

By Mitch Smith and Kim Geiger Tribune reporters 7:03 p.m. CDT, April 2, 2014 Federal regulators have ordered a Naperville trucking company off the road, calling the carrier with a history of serious safety violations an "imminent hazard to public safety." The inquiry into DND International started after trucker Renato Velasquez was charged with breaking transport rules and causing a fiery January wreck that killed an Illinois Tollway worker and injured a state trooper, who remains in int

EMPORIA, Va. (WTVR) – The manager of Simmons Travel Plaza off Interstate 95 near the Virginia-North Carolina line said he’s never seen anything like it. A truck driver pulled up to the pumps Sunday night, spent 25 minutes filling multiple fuel tanks and then drove off without paying. The bill? More than $1,500 for 414 gallons of fuel. The truck, which was not hauling a trailer, was described as Freightliner Cascadia or Colombia with a moose grill on the front. The back wheels had black inser

The DOT says all drivers must now have their exams performed by a certified medical examiner of DOT physicals. "The one big change is that they won't be able just to go to any provider, they'll have to find a provider that is certified and there is a list on the national registry website where drivers can use a simple Google search function to find providers in the area," says medical examiner, Andrea Malucky. One of the main reasons for some of the changes that are happening is because

By: Katherine Grandstrand, Forum News Service HEBRON, N.D. — Before there were barrels and barrels of oil coming out of North Dakota, there were amber waves of grain covering the prairie. A new elevator in this west Morton County town has found a way to marry North Dakota’s two biggest industries. After its first full year of business in an agriculture-based community, Archer Daniels Midland Co. has found an oil field niche at its Hebron grain elevator. Not only does it take wheat, s

Farmers unable to move crops this winter have had plenty of time to notice the difference between what grain companies are paying in the country and selling for off the West Coast. “Our calculations demonstrate the grain companies have taken over $1.6 billion in excess profits from wheat alone so far this crop year,” said CWBA spokesman and former Canadian Wheat Board director Kyle Korneychuk last week. University of Saskatchewan agricultural economist Richard Gray independently reached a

Todd Dills http://www.overdriveonline.com/ Over the past several years, James Lamb, a former DOT investigator, current head of DOTAuthority.com and self-described “volunteer president” of the small-broker advocacy group/business league AIPBA, has been outspoken on the increased broker bond (now at a $75K minimum for all registered freight brokers and forwarders). At times, his thoughts on the bond, which he opposes as a one-size-fits-all requirement, have seemed designed to drive a wedge betw

http://www.truckinginfo.com/ Newly published results from a survey conducted by the trucking consultancy group Transport Capital Partners show increased optimism among trucking executives when it comes to higher freight rates and volumes. Reflecting a better outlook for the economy at large, coupled with counter seasonal capacity shortages, more and more carriers expect volume increases over the next 12 months. Volume expectations grew from 44% in 4th quarter 2013 to 77% in the first quart

Producers hauling grain long distances due to limited rail capacity at terminals Reported by Aaron Stuckel Just a day after the federal government tabled legislation to change the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act, truckers hauling crops to a terminal near Balgonie said they still aren’t seeing enough train cars opened up to get grain moving. The Saskatchewan Government says Ottawa isn't going far enough to get the grain moving on the rails. Rail companies argue the new legislation forcing

Coyote gets bigger. Will the small get smaller? By Mark B. Solomon Those waiting for the consolidation needle to be moved in the deeply fragmented U.S. truck brokerage field need not wait any longer. On March 18, Chicago-based Coyote Logistics LLC acquired rival Access America Transport (AAT) in what is viewed as a significant first step towards concentrating the $50 billion-a-year brokerage industry into the hands of fewer players. Terms of the transaction were not publicly disclosed.

John Stearns Reporter- Wichita Business Journal Bartlett Grain Co. LP is building new offices and truck scales and improving its truck-line procedures at its Wichita truck dump in north Wichita. The $200,000 project at 3311 N. Emporia St., designed to increase efficiency at the facility, is expected to be completed in May, before the June wheat harvest, the company says. Other work includes a new grain-sampling and grading station. Wheat brought to the site is shipped to flour millers, p

By Sean Broderick, CHS With March Madness upon us, and spring hopefully not too far past that, a look back at the last month can be summarized with one word: Logistics. Railroads encountered a myriad of shipment problems due to cold, snow and overcapacity. This has been an ongoing issue west of the Mississippi but the weather really had a severe impact on the Chicago gateway and the rail lines leading to the East Coast. A lot of the ethanol had been heading east from the Midwest plants and

By Don Cazentre | dcazentre@syracuse.com It seems to be a perfect match. Brewers need a way to dispose of the wet and mushy grains that are a byproduct of making beer. Farmers are looking for inexpensive but healthful feed for their livestock. So breweries across the country -- including those here in Central New York -- donate their used grains to local farmers. It's free: The farmers just stop by the breweries and cart the stuff away, usually in large plastic containers. It's a cl

Tom Burfield While truck availability might be tight at times in some parts of the U.S. this spring and summer, shippers generally should be able to secure transportation for their loads, but at a higher price than last year, industry experts say. “I don’t see a cliff that we’re about to go over on the horizon,” said Doug Stoiber, vice president, produce transportation operations for L&M Transportation Services, Raleigh, N.C. “Trucking companies are managing to get qualified people in, get th

BARNESVILLE, Minn. – The grain elevators at Agassiz Valley Grain here are overflowing with corn and soybeans and waiting for trains to haul the grain away. Don’t bother checking a schedule, though. No one knows exactly when the trains are coming. By: Dan Gunderson, MPR News 90.3 FM, INFORUM BARNESVILLE, Minn. – The grain elevators at Agassiz Valley Grain here are overflowing with corn and soybeans and waiting for trains to haul the grain away. Don’t bother checking a schedule, though. No

Strategic Sourceror Improved road transportation tonnage shows that the United States is on a path toward recovery after a brutal winter left many drivers stuck at distribution centers. Over the arduous three-month period, managed IT services were often consulted by third-party logistics providers requiring real-time data of all assets in an attempt to figure out how they should transport materials in the adverse weather conditions. Though still consulting with those professionals, many distr

The snarl-ups in North America's rail network blamed on the cold winter have prompted agriculture groups to turn to road for crop transport, fuelling a doubling in trucking charges. Legumex Walker, the Canada-based oilseeds processing group, said it had overcome both "challenges" in its outbound transport and threats to its inward supplies of seed for crushing by turning to trucks. The first seed deliveries made under a programme for truck deliveries "have started arriving" at the group's

Nixa, MO (PRWEB) March 25, 2014 Several news sources have reported in recent weeks that BNSF railway operations in North Dakota are at least three weeks delayed (http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/bnsf-pledges-caught-ag-shipments-22885754). While BNSF President and CEO, Carol Ice, has said the delays are not a result of increased crude-by-rail shipments, other sources are skeptical and report agricultural shipments are suffering the most (http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/03/18/5659053/bnsf-c

Evan Weese Staff reporter- Columbus Business First The state’s municipalities are unable to levy income taxes on trucking companies, the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed last week in a win for the industry. Maintaining the status quo - exempting motor-transportation companies from municipal income tax - helps to avoid a major shakeup, said Marc Blubaugh, a transportation and logistics attorney with Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP in Columbus. “If this had gone the other way, it’s hard

By: Mark Koba | Senior Editor, CNBC It's not easy being a farmer in the U.S. these days and it's bound to get harder, say those who should know. "There's a growing discontent among the farming community," said John Kempf, a fruit and vegetable farmer in northeast Ohio. "We have a farming model now that is antagonistic to the enjoyment of watching seeds grow and seeing a new born animal," said the 26-year-old Kempf, who is chief executive of Advancing Eco Agriculture, a farming and crop n