WEATHER TROUBLES WORLDWIDE * Australia - Patience needed in flood crisis

David Simon: “As the floods recede there will be a vast number of damaged roads and bridges”

Sydney,Australia -ATA Friday Facts -14 Jan 2011: -- The ATA is urging trucking operators to be patient as the effects of the devastating floods in Queensland, northern NSW and the Gascoyne region of Western Australia continue... With a major clean up now underway in some areas, ATA Chairman David Simon said it’s important operators work with road authorities and to understand it will take time for roads to be reopened... The ATA has released a fact sheet setting out the flood assistance for small trucking businesses available from the Australian, Queensland and New South Wales governments... The Australian Government has announced a Disaster Income Recovery Subsidy of about $500 per fortnight for employees and small business operators who live in or derive an income from a flood affected area and have lost their income... The NSW and Queensland governments have announced grant schemes for small businesses who have directly suffered damage to their premises and equipment as a result of the floods. Low interest rate loans are available for small businesses that have exhausted all other sources of finance... The Australian, NSW and Queensland governments have also announced a range of hardship payments to help individuals and families... The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has deferred the December Business Activity Statement deadline for flood affected businesses until 21 February 2011... The Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (DTMR) has considered a request for a relaxation of the registration requirement for vehicles registered under the FIRS scheme in the current flood recovery period... The request would permit FIRS registered vehicles to undertake intrastate delivery activities during the current state of emergency... The ATA has called on Australia’s banks to be understanding in the way they deal with owner drivers and small fleet operators affected by the floods... In a letter to the Australian Bankers’ Association, ATA Chief Executive Stuart St Clair said many small trucking businesses were currently unable to generate revenue because of the floods...

* Toowoomba,Australia - Honouring trucking bravery in the flood crisis

Toowoomba,Australia -ATA Friday Facts -14 Jan 2011:  --  The ATA is looking to recognise acts of bravery by the country’s truck drivers during the flood crisis... ATA Chairman, David Simon, said there are many stories of truck drivers going above and beyond the call of duty to ensure the safety of people trapped in the flood waters... The ATA and Continental Tyres Australia are presenting the new award as part of this year’s National Trucking Industry Awards... David said the ATA was seeking stories such as the one of the John Kelly & Son Transport driver who helped rescue a motorist during the flash floods in Toowoomba on Monday (see image above)... “The driver displayed remarkable bravery in driving his truck into the flood water to rescue a woman at the corner of James and Kitchener streets,” David said. “Despite the attention, this driver doesn’t consider himself a hero. He told me he just drove the truck into the water and threw a strap to the car driver to secure around herself, in case the car was washed away..."

* USA - Massive Nor’easter snowstorm forces road closures as it tracks north

(Video from YouTube, by RiverheadLOCAL -28 Dec 2010: RiverheadLOCAL photographer rode on a Riverhead Town plow truck with Highway Superintendent Gio Woodson during the blizzard on Monday, Dec. 28, 2010, as highway crews struggled against the wind to keep town roads passable)

New York,NY,USA -Fleet Owner, by David Cullen -Jan 12, 2011: -- A powerful snowstorm that developed in the Southeast and is now in its third day is leaving road closures and snarled traffic in its wake as it tracks north today into New England, where Boston is experiencing blizzard conditions...  Even 48 hours after the storm barreled through Albany in southwestern Georgia, a report posted this morning on local TV news station WALB Channel 10 stated “the remnants of the storm are still affecting travel. That's hurting some businesses in south Georgia. Operations at area trucking companies slowed down tremendously because many drivers simply can't get where they need to go” ...   The report went on to note that Atlanta highways are still backed up as well ...   It’s much the same story straight up the East Coast, as the storm came out of Georgia and began steaming northeast hugging the coast. The heavy snows it dumped along the way put at least 10 states under winter weather alerts, from Delaware and Maryland out to Pennsylvania and up into coastal New Jersey and the New York City metro area and on into Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire...

* UK - Pre-Christmas snow cost Stobart Group £1.5m

Langford Way, Appleton Thorn,WA,UK -Road Transport, by Christopher Walton -21 January 2011: -- The extreme weather before Christmas cost Stobart Group an additional £1.5m in running costs, according to an interim statement released to investors today...  However, the multi-modal operator says its performance is continuing at a rate that is "significantly ahead" compared to last year and it has met the majority of its revenue expectations for its current financial year, which ends on 28 February...

* Canada - Truckers delayed by avalanche risk

Video from YouTube, by CanadaManDan -31 March 2010: -- Kicking Horse Pass (5339 feet) is a high mountain pass across the Continental divide of the Canadian Rocky Mountains

Golden, B.C.,CAN -Today's Trucking -17 Jan 2011:  --  Trucks are still lined up on the side of the Trans-Canada Highway, waiting for the section between Lake Louise and Golden, B.C. to reopen...  The stretch of highway was closed last week due to risk of avalanche ... and officials say it may stay that way until Tuesday...  The main risk is in the Kicking Horse Canyon. Semi trailers lined the highway through the mountain parks...  Highway 93 is usually the detour around Trans-Canada closures, but this road is shut down too...  An avalanche buried the road Saturday night...  On Sunday afternoon a section of the Trans-Canada from Golden to Revelstoke was reopened to traffic...   But for all the travelers and truckers on the east side of the B.C. border that's small consolation, and they prepare to wait another day or two, before restarting their trips...