Free Republic

American truckers, and the big rigs they drive, are literally the lifeblood of this nation, transporting food, raw materials and finished goods from one end of the country to the other and back again, delivering what is needed where it is needed when it is needed on a daily basis. But those truckers just had a major roadblock placed in their way, courtesy of President Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency, and the consequences for not only the trucking industry, but America as a whole, could be devastating. According to The Daily Caller, the EPA just announced on Tuesday that it...

Michael Snyder June 23rd, 2016 When less stuff is being bought, sold and shipped around the country with each passing month, how in the world can the U.S. economy be in “good shape”? Unlike official government statistics which are often based largely on projections, assumptions and numbers seemingly made up out of thin air, the Cass Freight index is based on real transactions conducted by real shipping companies. And what the Cass Freight Index is telling us about the state of the U.S. economy in 2016 lines up perfectly with all of the other statistics that are clearly indicating that...

Steve Jobs went ballistic when public shipping manifests leaked the existence of the iPhone 3G. That’s about the only time something exciting happened in the freight forwarding business. The circulatory system of the global economy is a trillion-dollar industry, yet no one really talks about it, or builds tech for it. That’s what makes freight such a massive disruption opportunity for a startup like Flexport. Transparency begets data, which begets efficiency. Smarter shipping shrinks the physical world the way faster internet shrinks the digital one. New businesses emerge. High bandwidth connections paved the way for Netflix. Now Flexport could make...

We continue to get more evidence that the U.S. economy has entered a major downturn. Just last week, I wrote about how U.S. GDP growth numbers have been declining for three quarters in a row, and previously I wrote about how corporate defaults have surged to their highest level since the last financial crisis. Well, now we are getting some very depressing numbers from the rail industry. As you will see below, U.S. rail traffic was down more than 11 percent from a year ago in April. That is an absolutely catastrophic number, and the U.S. rail industry is feeling...

First, let’s take a look at the reports, then we will take a look at what this may mean for the economy. Class 8 Truck Orders Plunge 39% The Wall Street Journal reports Truck Orders Fall in April. Last month, trucking fleets ordered just 13,500 Class 8 trucks, the big rigs used on long-haul routes, down 16% from March and 39% from a year earlier. It was the fewest net orders in any April since 2009, FTR said. DAT Solutions, an Oregon-based transportation data firm, reported that loads available for dry vans, the most common type of tractor-trailers used for...

292 Union Pacific engines idled in Arizona Desert Total US rail traffic in April plunged 11.8% from a year ago, the Association of American Railroads reported today. Carloads of bulk commodities such as coal, oil, grains, and chemicals plummeted 16.1% to 944,339 units. - snip - Only five of the 20 commodity categories saw gains. Of the decliners, coal was the biggest. But petroleum products also plunged 25%, and grain mill products dropped 7%. Even without coal, carloads were down 3% year-over-year.

Few things are as essential to economic growth and development as our nation’s roads. In a state as expansive as Arizona, riders understand the importance of having sound infrastructure, especially when it fails, as it did with the recent bridge collapse on I-10 in California not far from the Arizona border that continues to impact travelers across our state and region. Throughout history, providing for our nation’s infrastructure has been a central priority for both political parties. And, since President Dwight Eisenhower created the Interstate Highway System in 1956, our roads and bridges have served as the backbone to our...

Business is booming, fuel prices are down. So it’s time to start thinking about the next threat to the industry: 3D printing. Advocates of 3D printing have said it can transform manufacturing. This week, a new startup company announced a new 3D printing technique it says may actually deliver on that promise. In traditional 3D printing, the machine "prints" layers of material to create a 3D object. This takes time and leaves ripples showing where those layers were laid down. But what if you could "grow" an object out of a pool of liquid, much like the T-1000 rising from...

This is really interesting........ he freight rail across Eurasia officially launched on Thursday night, with a cargo train leaving on its journey from Chongqing to Duisburg, Germany, filled with laptops and LCD screens scheduled to arrive in Europe two weeks after leaving China. The 11,179 kilometers long track will be running through the far western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, and Poland, before finally reaching Germany. China Daily reports that the rail link to Europe will cut transportation time dramatically, compared to the sea trade route: The route offers a major shortcut to the more traditional sea trade...

China will "top out" a new skyscraper every five days for the next three years as it continues to embark on the biggest building boom in history, according to newly published research. The 2011 China Skyscraper City List shows the speed with which China is redrawing the skylines of its major cities as it builds houses and offices for the millions of people migrating from a rural to urban lifestyle over the coming decades. Compiled by "Motian City", a Chinese website for skyscraper enthusiasts, the list finds that China and Taiwan currently boast five of the world top 10 tallest...

Land is being cleared, leveled for new bypass track in Vancouver Excavators are eating into a slope above BNSF Railway’s main line in the Fruit Valley neighborhood. The work is to prepare the site for a 3.2-mile-long set of bypass tracks designed to help ease a railroad chokepoint in Vancouver. The new line will run along the east side of the BNSF main line from downtown Vancouver all the way to the Fruit Valley Road overpass. Contractors demolished two old houses on the west-facing slope last week. BNSF is contracting to do the earthwork north of the 39th Street overpass,...

Freight And Truck Traffic Point To Recovery by: Edward Harrison June 10, 2010 One common metric used by analysts to gauge how the economy is doing comes from freight or rail tonnage. If the economy is doing well, then more goods will be shipped via trucks and trains. This is exactly what is happening. Andy Lees showed this via a few Bloomberg charts in a note earlier today. Of note: The seasonally adjusted truck tonnage index is at its highest level since September 2008. US railcar container index which is just 4% off its all time high. The ConTex container...

Shippers Are Blowing Off European Problems And Rushing Vessels Back Into Action Vincent Fernando, CFA May 25, 2010, 1:20 PM Despite the concerns about Europe, global trade continues to show signs of a continued rebound. For example, average freight rates and volume reported by the container shipping company NOL (a leading player) have both continued to rise thanks to strength between North America and Asia. Moreover, ship owners are bringing vessels back into action based on demand growth expectations. Fearnly Fonds: The idle container fleet fell to 4.1% or 549,000 TEUs (263 ships) from 5.3% or 306 ships two weeks...

On rail lines, freight trains have priority over passenger service, which frequently causes delays for Amtrak customers. Freight also appears to have the upper hand when it comes to money for improving service and infrastructure. Recent federal grant awards to Western Pennsylvania have included $35 million for improvements for cargo-hauling trains and just $750,000 for those that move people. But people stand to benefit from the freight investment because it will mean fewer trucks on congested highways, less pollution and lower road maintenance costs, railroad officials told a state House committee on Wednesday. ~~~SNIP~~~ The money will be used to...

The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation on Tuesday to impose sanctions on foreign companies that help supply gasoline to Iran, a move lawmakers hope will deter Tehran from pursuing its nuclear program. The bill authorizes President Barack Obama to levy sanctions on energy companies that directly provide gasoline to Iran along with the firms that provide insurance and tankers to facilitate the fuel shipments. The Senate is likely to approve a similar bill, but it is uncertain how soon it will vote.

High speed rail is a glamorous idea -- it's fun to imagine a train streaking through the cornfields from Chicago to St. Louis in four hours. Less glamorous are some of the fixes that need to be made to Chicago's notoriously slow freight rail system. Talk about projects like "signalize interlocking" and "grade separation," and eyes glaze over. But the promise of faster passenger rail is inextricably linked to the down-and-dirty business of freight. To make passenger and commuter trains move faster, you have to get the boxcars out of the way. And to do that, there needs to be...

U.S. Rail Freight Volume Down During Thanksgiving Holiday Week 3 Dec 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For More Information Contact: AAR Communications Holly Arthur 202-639-2100 harthur@aar.org U.S. Rail Freight Volume Down During Thanksgiving Holiday Week Increases Seen in Nine Freight Commodity Groups WASHINGTON, D.C. – Dec. 3, 2009 – The Association of American Railroads today reported that freight rail traffic was down for the Thanksgiving holiday week ended Nov. 28, 2009. U.S. railroads reported originating 246,133 carloads for the week, down 3.9 percent compared with the same week in 2008 and down 29.3 percent from the same week in 2007. The...

While we have gotten several economic reports in a row that indicate the economy is stabilizing, if not starting to expand, there is one indicator of the real economy that is not budging, namely rail traffic. The table below comes from Railfax, which tracks activity on the nation's rails. It shows very little change in activity. Look at the 4-week rolling average (the weekly numbers can contain a lot of noise, the 4-week average smooths them out) relative to the year-to-date numbers. For total rail traffic, there has been only a 0.2% difference in the year-over-year rate of decline, down...

Rail Freight Traffic Slides During 2nd Week of 2009 WASHINGTON, January 22, 2009 — The economic slowdown continued to affect U.S. railroads as freight volume declined during the second week of 2009 in comparison with same week last year, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported today. Carload freight totaled 267,063 cars, down 17.9 percent from 2008, with loadings down 13.2 percent in the West and 24.4 percent in the East. Intermodal volume of 199,117 trailers or containers was off 13.7 percent from last year, with container volume falling 10.2 percent and trailer volume dipping 27.0 percent. Total volume was...

Already, some shippers, truckers and others who don't want to make changes are choosing other ports, according to Knatz, who said port traffic could drop 10 percent to 15 percent.