NEW ROUTES FOR 53 FOOTERS IN NC
Condensed from news from the NC Trucking Association: the NC Department of Transportation has released the new STAA maps for routes on which 53 foot trailers are now allowed. Many new routes have been approved. For a new STAA map of the routes please click here. 

The League is grateful to NCTA President Charlie Diehl and the NC Trucking Association for their continued and relentless work in representing our truckers in the NC Legislature. All truckers and shippers benefit from their accomplishments whether they are members of the NCTA or not. We also acknowledge the fine support of Jim Hardman and Dart Transit Company. The penalties for being off route with 53 footers are stiff and can even result in the assessment of 2 driver license points. Unfortunately there is still stiff opposition to 53 footers in NC. A recent editorial in the Charlotte Observer stated that an “unnamed” Highway Patrol spokesman said: “a 53-foot trailer is really going to present a problem in our opinion”. The Easley administration is going to conduct a study to determine whether some routes are so hazardous that the 53 footers should not be allowed after all. If so, the state could re-impose more restrictions. The opposition to 53-foot trailers by certain political and government factions could result in damaging blows to truckers and retailers alike. Some retailers have stores in small towns that formerly were off-route to 53-foot trailers. Off route drivers were often fined and cited by the Highway Patrol. As professionals in this industry will attest, the 53 footers have become the common trailer of choice, replacing the 48 footers, making it impossible for carriers to switch a load to a 48-foot or smaller trailer. Governor Easley claims to be a champion for attracting new business to NC so it is hoped that there will be no further restrictions for 53 footers in NC. What this state really needs is a commitment from government to build better roads and improve existing roads and to provide our businesses with more incentives. It sure wouldn’t hurt to quit abusing the Highway Trust Fund. Perhaps the next administration will be more committed to NC Transportation.

STILL NO GO ON TOLLS IN NC
Various persons, newspapers and agencies continue to release statements and opinions concerning the tolling of NC Roads and Bridges and the building of new toll roads and bridges. A recent comment stated that specific lanes of Interstate Highways could be tolled during rush hours and that the toll amount charged would be flexible to take into consideration the number of vehicles on the highway during particular times during the rush hours. How about that! We also hear that some persons what to make specific lanes on Interstates “toll lanes”, so if you don’t wan to pay for the toll lane, you get to experience even further congestion. There is also continued talk of the widening of I-85 on either side of the Yadkin River and the building of a new bridge over the Yadkin River and various other projects throughout the state. Interesting observation: The Toll Commission has yet to make a firm decision to either build any toll roads or bridges in NC or to petition the Legislature or Congress to toll existing routes. Local, state and Interstate Truckers and other drivers could sure benefit from some relief on the Monroe by-pass and connector for example. From what we hear the heal-splitter is still surviving in Union County streams and creeks. Has any member ever seen a heal-splitter? Would you be willing to swap a heal-splitter for a 30 minute quicker trip to the beach or to get a load of freight to the NC Ports faster, or to just get to work or back home faster? As stated before Union County is the fastest growing county in NC and is in the top 20 fastest growing counties in the US.

TEAMSTERS REACH AGREEMENT WITH DHL EXPRESS
The Teamsters announced on February 27 that its national negotiating committee has reached a tentative national agreement with DHL Express, a unit of Deutsche Post. The agreement will cover thousands of DHL workers nationwide. In accordance with Teamster procedure, the first step in ratifying the agreement is to present the pact at the national two-man meeting, consisting of 2 representatives from each local with DHL members. Once the agreement is approved, materials concerning the national contract will be mailed to members’ homes and posted to the Teamster Website, according to the union. 

TEAMSTERS ENDORSE BARACK OBAMA
Teamster President James Hoffa met with Presidential candidate Barack Obama and will endorse Obama in his bid to be elected president. The Teamsters represent 1.4 million members. Obama has also received endorsements from the 1.9 million Service Employees International Union and the smaller United Food and Commercial Workers. Senator Clinton has 12 endorsements from Unions affiliated with the AFC-CIO, the nation’s largest union. Obama also has endorsements from the Transport Workers Union and the National Weather Service Employees Organization. 

NEW TEAMSTER GOALS
Now that YRC, ABF and the MCLAC contracts have been ratified, the Teamsters want to go after other LTL companies and also truckload companies, including UPS Freight according to Tyson Johnson, director of the Teamsters National Freight Division. Johnson wants its LTL trucking employees to seize new business opportunities. For example he wants the LTL companies to reduce the amount of freight that is shipped on rail and that could be a seed for a new unionized truckload company. “When we say grow, we want to go after the nonunion carriers”, teamster President James Hoffa stated. The new contract will provide wage increases of $2.20 an hour and 5.5 cents per mile over the life of the agreement, including 50 cents per hour in the first year, for an average of 3.9% in increased wages and benefits. Employees at a minimum will receive $40,000 through the life of the contract and some employees as high as $75,000 to $80,000. The contract also includes a cost of living adjustment to keep wages in line with inflation. This will probably translate into 6 figure salaries for some teamster member carriers. 

SAIA ANNOUNCES GENERAL RATE INCREASE
Following the suite of most LTL freight carriers, Saia has announced a general increase of 5.4% along with a minimum charge floor increase of $2.00 minimum. The Saia 5700O 2/18/08 rates are available on the Website at www.saia.com. 

GENERAL LTL RATE INCREASES
Many shippers were surprised to receive notice of LTL general rate increases so early this year. Most were expecting the increases to come about April, as was the case in 2007. The average rate increase this year amounts to an average of about 5.4% compared to about 5.6% last year but some carriers took another increase after 9 months for 2008, so shippers had to bear an extra cost for some 3 months. Some carriers have still not announced a general rate increase for 2008 but are expected to follow suit. 

YRC WORLDWIDE EARNS FORTUNE TOP PLACE
YRC Worldwide has been ranked number one in its industry for the sixth consecutive year in the Fortune Magazine annual list of America’s Most Admired Companies, the company announced March 3. In addition YRC Worldwide ranked number one in all eight categories, recognition achieved by only 13 other companies. Bill Zollars, Chairman, President and CEO, YRL Worldwide said “we are honored to receive this prestigious recognition for the sixth year in a row”. The reputation attributes are innovation, people management, and use of corporate assets, social responsibility, and quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment and quality of products/services. To create the industry lists, Fortune and its survey partner, Hay Group, asked executives, directors, directors and analysts to rate companies in their own industry on eight criteria. A total of 622 companies and 65 industries were surveyed. 

OCEAN CARRIERS LAUNCH COMMON SERVICE
The world’s three largest ocean shipping companies have launched a common service between Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and the US West Coast in response to the global market situation in an announcement February 29. Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping and CMA CGM are reorganizing their services between China and the US West Coast with two joint services in April 2008: the Yang Tse, serving Central and South China, and the Bohai Rim, serving Central and North China. The two new services will deploy ten 8,000 Teu vessels creating a weekly direct service between China and the US. Justification is the rising cost of bunker fuel and the distances traveled. 

FRENCH PORT FACES RAIL STRIKE
A scheduled strike by rail workers in France is expected to disrupt the movement of ocean containers to and from the ports of Le Havre and Marseilles. The CGT union called for a 36-hour strike beginning March 11 after President Nicolas Sarkozy singled out freight as one of the key areas for reform at national rail operator SNCF, fueling fears of several thousand job losses and radical changes in working practices at the money-losing cargo division. Sarkozy wants a reform program to be presented by summer. The carrier continues to lose money despite a $3 billion government bailout in 2005, as it continues to lose business to trucking. It is facing a further loss of cargo, including containers, as foreign railways and private freight companies take advantage of the EU campaign to open u the 27-nation bloc’s rail freight market. 

COAC URGES CHANGES TO THE 10+2 RULE
The trade advisory committee known as the COAC has formally requested Customs and Border Protection to withdraw proposed reinterpretation of valuation rules, and released a detailed list of recommendations that members believed would facilitate the implementation of the so-called 10+2 security filing rule. According to Adrienne Braumiller, a Dallas trade attorney and member of the Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Functions, claims that customs exceeded its authority when it published a proposal that would eliminate “first sale” valuation on January 24. First sale allows and importer to establish the value of imports by the sale price between a foreign manufacturer and a foreign middleman before the goods are exported to the US. The method usually saves importers substantially on duty payments. Ms. Braumiller said that Customs didn’t have the authority to change effective duty rates by rulemaking, when it was Congress authority to change the law. Other COAC members said that Customs had violated terms of the 2006 SAFE Port Act, which requires the agency to consult with COAC on substantial policy changes.

INCREASE IN PANAMA CANAL TRANSIT FEE
The Panama Transit Fee (PCC) will be increasing to USD $247 per container effective May 1st, 2008. The fee will apply to all traffic not under previous contract.

LONG BEACH APPROVES CLEAN TRUCKS PLAN
The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners has voted to approve the final elements of a landmark Clean Trucks Program that will replace and modernize the entire port trucking fleet to slash truck-related air pollution by 80% within four years. The commissioners voted unanimously to adopt a truck concession requirement that will “help identify” clean trucks, ensure reliable short-haul service, and improve air quality, security and safety. Only clean concession trucks will be allowed to work at the Port of Long Beach. Environmental, public health, and labor organizations testified against the proposal. The commissioners also voted to revise the start date for the collection of the Clean Trucks cargo fee to Oct. 1, 2008, to allow time for distribution of RFID tags and reader installation.

FMC APPOINTS COUNSEL
The Federal Maritime Commission has appointed Peter J. King as acting general counsel. Mr. King has been director of the commission’s administration office since April, 2007. He is a former trial attorney in the Bureau of Enforcement, and later became deputy director of the Bureau of Certification and Licensing. He replaces Amy Larson, who left the commission to become president of the National Waterways Conference.

NEW HANOVER SALES TAX PROPOSED
Wilmington NC City Councilman Jason Thompson prodded New Hanover County leaders Thursday to hold a countywide vote this year to raise the New Hanover sales tax from 6.75 percent to 7 percent. The additional one-quarter cent tax would be used to pay for much-needed road projects. The additional tax would generate about $7 million a year. Funding road improvements with a local sales tax is very interesting.

DELAYS COST NC TAXPAYERS $152.4 MILLION
NC state auditors claim that the NC Department of Transportation is wasting tens of millions of dollars because it isn’t starting road projects on time. The DOT delays cost taxpayers $152.4 million during a three-year period in unnecessary construction cost according to the State Auditor’s office. The biggest problems: design changes, delays in getting permits and environmental reviews. When road projects fell behind schedule, inflation pushed up construction costs. The study completed from 2004-2007 revealed that of 390 highway projects, 40 percent missed their starting construction date by more than 12 months. State Auditor Leslie Merritt said, “DOT is a multibillion-dollar state agency that appears to operate on hunches and intuition rather than hard data analysis”. The audit also revealed that DOT missed completion dates on 65% of the projects. Transportation Secretary said that his agency was working to improve some inefficiencies. He also said that overruns caused by increases in asphalt and fuel prices, and delays due to lack of funding.

STEM-TO-STERN NEWSLETTER
The NC Ports Newsletter, Stem-To-Stern, is an excellent publication and is available on their Website at www.ncports.com. Many interesting articles are in the current newsletter. For more information please contact Susan Clibe at susan_clizbe@ncports.com. The League is charged with supporting our ports and we are indeed grateful to their fine service and support. 

WAL-MART TO SPEND $9 BILLION WITH CHINA
Wal-Mart Stores will probably buy $9 billion of products in 2008 directly from China, about the same as last year. Wal-Mart will build 80 percent of its 2008 global retail space in China, Mexico and Canada as it aims to get a third of growth from outside the US to offset declining American Consumer sales. Wal-Mart opened 30 outlets in China in 2007. 

SECURITY RULES FOR PRIVATE FLIGHTS
The Homeland Security Department will soon require advance information on private flights to the US to prevent a terrorist from smuggling a nuclear bomb into the country. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that the new regulations could eventually be expanded to include radiation scans at points in Europe and Asia for private planes flying to the US. Opinion: this should have been done years ago.

NCLTL ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Many persons have called concerning The Annual Conference for the NCLTL. It is set for June 19-21 at the beautiful Sea Trail Plantation, Sunset Beach NC. We are seeking event sponsors and persons interested in participating in our Transportation Education programs. We also would appreciate your questions and comments to the League office. We will be mailing out registration forms as soon as our program is complete.