This is not an over-the-road truck. This truck suits line-haul – routes that run between a company’s terminals, like from one regional Wal-Mart distribution center to another. When Musk made the case for a 20-percent savings over a diesel truck, he based the numbers on a 100-mile trip – fifty miles out, fifty miles back. The Semi would be perfect for port work, which involves lots of waiting, idling, stop-and-go traffic, and local out-and-back trips. This first version of the Semi will not replace the dozens of thousands of trucks on huge regional or coast-to-coast runs, clocking 2,000 to 5,000 miles per week
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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recently handed out $70 million in grants aimed at driver training and safety programs.
The grants are meant to help states and commercial vehicle training schools:
• improve states’ safety efforts
• help states comply with FMCSA CDL regulations
• help train military veterans for commercial driving jobs
The agency awarded:
• $41.5 million in High Priority grants to enhance states’ commercial motor vehicle safety efforts, as well as advance technological capability within states. A full list of HP grants awarded by FMCSA can be found here.
A uniform increase in the gate hours of the major terminals at the Port of New York and New Jersey is needed to handle the expected surge in thousands of containers loaded on and off mega-ships, industry leaders argue. Although turn times have improved at the port, the terminals and trucking community will not be able to handle the container volume within the current gate hours at the port’s four main terminals, speakers told several hundred attendees at the Port of New York and New Jersey Port Industry Day on Monday. The terminals at present open around 6 a.m. and close between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., local time, depending on the terminal and the type of cargo.
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Transportation and logistics bellwether FedEx yesterday announced rate increases for various business lines, including FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, and FedEx Freight, which will take effect on January 1, 2018.
Manufacturers and wholesale distributors are optimistic about the perceived impact of the Trump administration’s plans for trade deregulation on their businesses, according to new research commissioned by business software provider Exact. Sixty-three percent of respondents anticipate that the plans will be beneficial to their businesses.
On Sept. 13, Senator John Thune of South Dakota (R), will convene a Senate Commerce Committee hearing to examine the potential benefits and impacts of automated commercial vehicles.
Titled “Transportation Innovation: Automated Trucks and Our Nation’s Highways,” the hearing will look at the benefits of automated truck safety technology as well as the potential impacts on jobs and the economy. It will focus on trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles as part of bipartisan efforts to draft self-driving legislation.
Texas lawmakers acted earlier this year to adopt changes to truck rules that include platooning, truck enforcement, and size and weights. The changes took effect on Friday, Sept. 1. One new law covers permits for oversize and overweight loads in Chambers County. State law already permits oversize and overweight vehicles along state Highway 99 between its crossing with Cedar Bayou and its intersection with Interstate 10.
When Congress returns from its August recess Tuesday, Sept. 5, there will be two pieces of legislation seeking a delay of the electronic logging mandate waiting on them. Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, has introduced both a standalone bill and an amendment to an omnibus appropriations bill seeking delays of the logging mandate.
U.S. house prices are forecast to rise by a cumulative 10 percent over this year and next, driven by a scarcity of new homes, low interest rates and steadily-increasing demand, a Reuters poll of property market analysts showed.
Investors rediscovered a taste for the dollar and commodities on Thursday, as upbeat Chinese and U.S. economic news whetted appetite for riskier assets globally, while tensions over North Korea simmered in the background.