Diesel prices up 14.3 cents per gallon

Not good. Citing unrest in the Middle East, diesel prices increased 14.3 cents to settle in at a national average of $3.716 per gallon, the highest since 2008.

Via JOC.com:

Oakland truckers plan a strike at the port Dec 15-18, 2009

Update: 9:00am PST – Received reports that police presence in and around the port/terminals is pretty heavy. Also rumors that the strike might only last through today.

I received a copy of a flier that’s been circulating amongst the drivers at the Port of Oakland. Supposedly it’s being organized by the Northern California Port and Rail Truckers Association as well as the National Port Drivers Association in Los Angeles. I’ve heard of the National Port Drivers Association but must plead ignorance regarding the Northern California Port and Rail Truckers Association. A quick Google search of both turned up some news articles, but failed to produce a web site for either. If you stumble across sites for either or both, let us know and we’ll be happy to link.

Bottom line, now that the deadline for retrofitting trucks to meet new CARB (California Air Resources Board) and BAAQMD (Bay Area Air Quality Management District) emission regulations is fast approaching (December 31st) a number of drivers who either could not, or did not bother, to get grants or pony up to retrofit their trucks are panicking at the fact that they will be barred from entering the port to pick up and drop containers. An overview of the new air regulations can be found at CARB’s website here:

Trucks with model year 1993 or older engines are no longer legal at ports and intermodal rail yards starting January 1, 2010.

Trucks with model year 1994 – 2003 engines must be equipped with an ARB approved Level 3 control device (e.g. a particulate filter) starting January 1, 2010.

While I have a great deal of sympathy and respect for owner operators in general, this regulation has been long in coming and well publicized by the Port of Oakland, terminal operators, CARB, BAAQMD, local media, politicians, etc. Lots of outreach and communication was done on behalf of the trucker community over the past year not only advising them of the upcoming regulation but also educating them about how to secure grants or funds for retrofitting 1994-2003 year trucks. There are certainly plenty of struggling drivers who tried but could not get money to retrofit their trucks, but there’s also plenty of drivers who either did not care to be informed or couldn’t be bothered to keep up with the regulations. Not to mention plenty of fly-by-night drayage companies who did not bother to think about their drivers and what will happen when they can’t enter the ports.

It will be interesting to see how things pan out at the port today. As we hear more, we’ll let you know how much support this has gotten amongst the drivers and whether there is any significant disruption.

Cargo Free Fall

I just did a quick scan of logistics related headlines and a common theme is the drop in cargo volumes many companies and ports are reporting. Here are a few of the headlines:

Kuehne & Nagel CEO: Doesn’t See Cargo Mkt Recovery

Air France-KLM Jun Passenger Traffic -6.4%;Cargo Traffic -0.4%

Port of Portland numbers continue to drop

Shipper NOL moves 14 pct less cargo in 4 wks to June 26

Jaxport Cargo Drops in June

Air France-KLM posts 41.5pc Q2 cargo drop

AA Cargo Drops 42 Percent

Ugly. Anyone else ready for a recovery?

C.H Robinson Acquires London Based Forwarder

Eden Prairie, MN based logistics provider, C.H. Robinson, has acquired London based freight forwarding company Walker Logistics Overseas, LTD (“Walker”).

Walker, established in 1977, is a global, fully integrated import and export door-to-door provider specializing in air and ocean freight, warehousing, courier, and logistics solutions. Walker has over 75 employees in five offices throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

Walker’s customers are primarily in the electronics telecommunications, medicals, sporting goods and military industries.

“We are continuing to invest in C.H. Robinson’s global network to enhance our service offerings to our customers. Walker expands our capabilities in the Asia to Europe trade and strengthens our distribution and gateway capabilities for two key European markets–London and Amsterdam,” said Jeff Scovill, C.H. Robinson vice president. “Walker’s team has extensive knowledge of the local market which will provide strong competitive advantages and benefits to our customers.”

Company press release.

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