Transportation

The NGFA this week worked to oppose a railroad-led effort on Capitol Hill designed to undermine the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) initiatives to implement meaningful rail rate reform. NGFA was alerted that Class I railroads had approached members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and House Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, and perhaps others, urging that they sign on to a railroad-inspired letter to the STB urging that the agency incorporate “thorough cost-benefit analysis” into “any significant rulemakings, including any of the changes proposed in ... Read More

Agency would require rail customers to file individual cases to obtain relief By Randy Gordon, President and CEO The Surface Transportation Board (STB) on Oct. 7 issued a proposal under which it would issue broad policy principles and guidance, rather than formal rules and determinations, to address Class I railroads’ demurrage and accessorial practices and charges. The STB’s 25-page proposal contains principles on seven broad topics concerning demurrage and accessorial practices and charges that the agency said it “expects” will “facilitate more effective private negotiations and ... Read More

By Max Fisher, Director of Economics and Government Relations The NGFA is proposing a more comprehensive definition of “agricultural commodity” to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) as part of the agency’s rulemaking on revising the hours-of-service (HOS) rules that apply to commercial truck drivers. This definition is a critical element of the agricultural exemption to the HOS rules. Under the agricultural exemption, the HOS regulations do not apply to the transportation of what it defines as “agricultural commodities” by truck ... Read More

The NGFA and 30 other trucking stakeholder organizations called on Congress to halt the advancement of four bills that would “impose tens-of-billions of dollars in unfunded mandates on American businesses engaged in trucking.” In a Sept. 16 letter to leaders of House and Senate transportation committees, the groups urged the committee leaders to reject the proposed bills when developing the next surface transportation reauthorization bill. The letter outlined details of the following four bills: H.R. 1511/S. 665, the Stop Underrides Act, which would require the installation ... Read More

A damaged lock on the Columbia River that has stalled the flow of grain and other commodities through the U.S. Pacific Northwest will reopen on Sept. 30, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a Sept. 11 statement. The Bonneville navigation lock will return to service, allowing vessels to pass through the lock, beginning at 10 a.m. Sept. 30, according to officials at the Corps’ Portland District. “This lock closure is significant, which is why our engineers, experts and contractors are working tirelessly to ensure we get the locks back in service as quickly as possible. It is not lost ... Read More

By Thomas Wilcox, NGFA Transportation Counsel and Partner, GKG Law PC, Washington, D.C. [Editor’s Note:  In its Aug. 30 NGFA Newsletter, NGFA published an article reporting that the federal Surface Transportation Board had issued a decision discontinuing its long-running proceeding on rail fuel charges and its so-called “safe harbor” provision. In this follow-up article, NGFA Transportation Counsel Thomas Wilcox provides his perspective on the implications of that decision for rail customers, including the importance of the STB establishing a workable rate-challenge process. The author ... Read More

By Randy Gordon, President and CEO The federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) on Sept. 12 launched two separate proceedings and announced a public hearing that, in tandem, are intended to simplify, make timelier and reduce the costs for rail customers to challenge unreasonable freight rates. The proposals reflect several of the recommendations made by an STB Rate Reform Task Force, established by STB Chairman Ann Begeman, that issued a far-reaching report in May. The NGFA in 2014 had submitted a comprehensive proposed approach to the STB to create a new, simplified approach for use ... Read More

By Randy Gordon, President and CEO The federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) on Aug. 28 issued a decision discontinuing its long-running proceeding on rail fuel surcharges and its so-called “safe-harbor” provision. The proceeding was triggered by a complaint submitted to the agency by Cargill Inc., in which it  challenged the fuel surcharges imposed by the BNSF Railway Co. over a five-year period. In a decision issued in 2013, the STB dismissed Cargill’s complaint even though it found that BNSF had charged $181 million more than what it actually paid in terms of higher fuel ... Read More

By Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Aug. 28 released a significant new study that quantifies the cost savings and competitive advantages that would accrue from investing in long-delayed improvements to inland waterways locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois River system. Concluding that “higher and consistent inland waterway funding is needed to ensure the long-term prosperity of U.S. agriculture,” the study, Importance of Inland Waterways to U.S. Agriculture, found that the inland waterways system ... Read More