Tag Archives: infrastructure

State of Freight II Report

Posted on December 9, 2016 by | Leave a comment

The second State of Freight report is out.  We should listen to it because one thing Trump expects to do is spend big money on, guess what, infrastructure construction projects.   If he gets rid of EPA regulations, we can see these move forward quickly, for better or worse.  Reports such as this will provide important input to the choice process.

The report comes a year after Congress made dedicated freight funding a priority, with almost $11 billion in funding for freight mobility in dedicated freight funds as part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, the report also notes how states will have a key role in how the U.S. plans for freight movement and what projects will be completed.

Source: State of Freight II Report Takes Wide-Ranging View of U.S. Infrastructure’s Needs – Supply Chain 24/7

Here’s the actual report in PDF format: aapa_state_of_freight_reportii

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Posted in Logistics, Ports, Rail, Supply Chains, Trucking

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STB rolls out proposed reciprocal switching regulations

Posted on July 29, 2016 by | Leave a comment

The proposed new regulations are opposed by the AAR as we might expect. Rules have not been updated since 1985. The finding is a small modification. Rails who want switching from another line need only show it is in the interest of lowering overall costs, not that the other line is behaving monopolistically.

Something must be done to loosen up the switching rules.  Rails argue that it would be costly and prevent them from making large capital investments. But when you consider that since the 1880’s rails have benefited from free land …

I agree with the last paragraph in the article:  this rule should keep the lawyers busy!

www.logisticsmgmt.com 2016-07-29 09-49-14  New regulations focused around reciprocal switching were proposed by the Department of Transportation’s Surface Transportation Board (STB) yesterday.

Source: STB rolls out proposed reciprocal switching regulations

Thanks to author Jeff Berman for the article!

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Posted in Production Operations, Rail, Supply Chains

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Terminal partnerships may respond to larger container shipping alliances?

Posted on June 25, 2016 by | Comments Off on Terminal partnerships may respond to larger container shipping alliances?

And why shouldn’t port terminals form alliances?  The rationale is the same as for liners: it might save capital expense for the ports and terminals when it isn’t being used.  And the problems are the same: how can we keep an alliance together for long enough for realized gains to  be seen by everyone, at lest enough so they won’t depart the alliances.   It’s a classic cooperative game scenario.  I don’t believe it’s been looked at yet.  One thing you can be sure of:  a pricing scheme will not guarantee stability of any alliance coalition.  There will need to be side payments, or a scheme based on some other algorithm than easily measured price.

I have a paper to be presented at IAME2016 in Hamburg on a similar problem with equipment pools for ports.

   The creation of larger container shipping alliances is proving a headache for terminals as the deal with growing volatility

Source: Could terminal partnerships answer the challenge of larger container shipping alliances? – The Loadstar

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Posted in Ports, Supply Chains

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