Transportation

By Randy Gordon, President and CEO The five Class I railroads that petitioned the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) to create a rail rate arbitration program on Sept. 10 filed supplemental comments with the agency responding to a series of changes that had been recommended by NGFA. In its 14-page Aug. 20 statement to the STB, the NGFA had advised the agency to proceed with a rulemaking on the petition only if doing so does not delay the agency’s issuance of a final rule implementing a new, streamlined regulatory process that shippers could use to challenge unreasonable rail ... Read More

By Max Fisher, Vice President of Economics and Government Relations The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) will be conducting its annual three-day truck inspection blitz from Sept. 9-11. CVSA is comprised of local, state, provincial, territorial and federal commercial motor vehicle safety officials and trucking industry representatives. Trucking industry officials indicate some truck drivers choose to take a vacation during the annual three-day event as approximately 9,000 inspectors throughout North America will be conducting commercial motor vehicle and driver inspections at ... Read More

By Randy Gordon, President and CEO The Surface Transportation Board (STB) and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on Aug. 24 sent joint, identical letters to the chief executive officers of each of the seven Class I North American railroads citing emerging service-related issues resulting from crew layoffs and idling of equipment in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the importance of communicating with their customers as intermodal traffic increases and a big grain harvest looms. The joint letter specifically cited “missed industrial switches and excessively late or annulled ... Read More

By Randy Gordon, President and CEO The NGFA on Aug. 20 submitted a 14-page statement to the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) recommending that the agency initiate a rulemaking and seek public comment on a joint petition submitted by five Class I railroads that would create a rail rate arbitration program within the STB’s existing rail arbitration system. However, NGFA said the STB should proceed with a rulemaking on the petition only if doing so does not delay the agency’s issuance of a final rule implementing a new, streamlined regulatory process that shippers could use to ... Read More

By Max Fisher, Senior Vice President of Economics and Government Relations; Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media In an Aug. 6 letter to leaders of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, NGFA and more than 100 food and agricultural organizations identified critical trucking policies necessary for ensuring the resiliency of the food and agricultural supply chain.  During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the food and agricultural supply chain experienced major disruptions, the coalition noted. “Arguably, the disruptions to the ... Read More

By Randy Gordon, President and CEO The federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) on Aug. 3 issued a final rule implementing a streamlined approach available to rail customers to prove that a rail carrier has market dominance over traffic whose rate is being challenged as unlawfully high. The STB final rule, which takes effect Sept. 5, makes mostly minor changes to the agency’s original proposal.  The final rule retains the six originally proposed prima facie factors (with some modifications, as noted below) – and adds a seventh – which if met by the rail customer complainant and ... Read More

By Randy Gordon, President and CEO Five Class 1 railroads on July 31 submitted a 45-page petition to the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) urging the agency to create a separate set of rules under its existing voluntary, binding rail arbitration program to resolve rail rate complaints between carriers and their customers. A key overarching demand of the five carriers is that railroads agreeing to be bound by STB rail rate arbitration under the conditions outlined in the petition receive a complete waiver from having rate challenges being brought by rail customers utilizing the ... Read More

In a July 27 letter to leaders of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, NGFA and 62 other national and state agriculture and trucking groups urged lawmakers not to include any legislative increase in the existing minimum liability coverage for motor carriers. The Senate committee is working to develop the next surface transportation reauthorization bill before the current law expires on Sept. 30. Legislation proposed in the House would increase minimum financial responsibility requirements per truck from $750,000 to $2 million. (Annual insurance premiums per truck are ... Read More

By Bobby Frederick, Vice President of Legislative Affairs and Public Policy The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on July 17 notified Illinois waterway navigation stakeholders, including NGFA, that the reopening date for the LaGrange Lock and Dam on the Illinois River at Versailles, Ill., has moved from Sept. 30 to Oct. 13 of this year. In its communication with stakeholders, the Corps cited spring flooding for preventing an “efficient mobilization” to the work site. Work on the lock walls has begun, but the contractor will need an additional 13 days to complete the work, the Corps said. The ... Read More