NHTSA: Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people age 3 to 34
Washington,DC,USA -Land Line Magazine. by David Tanner -2 March 2011: -- Americans drove 3 trillion miles in 2010, a big increase over the previous year and the third-highest total on record, and yet highway fatalities remain at the lowest rate in nearly 60 years... U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday, March 2, that the increase in highway miles, which was 20.5 billion more than miles driven in 2009, underscores the need for road and bridge work to update and maintain the nation’s infrastructure... Nebraska had the biggest bounceback by state, with an 11.1 percent increase over 2009. An eight-state bloc from Texas to Kentucky saw an increase of 46.6 billion miles over the previous year, according to a Federal Highway Administration study... FHWA Administrator Victor Mendez said the data will help the DOT make decisions about spending infrastructure money in the future... As miles traveled increase, the 2009 fatality rate of 1.13 deaths per 100 million miles traveled was the lowest since 1950. Highway deaths totaled 33,808 in 2009, and despite a 9.7 percent decrease over the previous year, it’s still way too many...
* N.A. - Surface trade rises 13.8% in December
Washington,D.C.,USA -Truck News -Mar 4, 2011: -- Trade using surface transportation between Canada, the US and Mexico was 13.8% higher in December 2010 than in December 2009, reaching $66.5 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the US Department of Transportation... BTS reported that the value of US surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico fell 2.2% in December from November... The value of US surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico in December was up 12.6% compared to December 2005, and up 48.6% compared to December 2000. Imports in December were up 41.9% compared to December 2000, while exports were up 57.7%... US-Canada surface transportation trade totalled $39.8 billion in December, up 12.2% compared to December 2009. The value of imports carried by truck was 17.7% higher in December compared to December 2009, while the value of exports carried by truck was 10.4% higher during this period... Michigan led all states in surface trade with Canada in December with $4.7 billion...
* USA - Truckload Index Shows Tightening Capacity. Weather, stronger demand constrained supply, Longbow says
New York,NY,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by William B. Cassidy -Mar 1, 2011: -- Truckload capacity slackened slightly in the last two weeks of February but remains significantly tighter than in recent months, according to Longbow Research... That may keep upward pressure on truckload pricing in the first quarter... The Wall Street research firm's weekly truckload barometer declined 2.8 percent week-to-week, but was still at a level comparable to last year's second quarter... Year-over-year, the index was up nearly 80 percent, and has climbed 25.9 percent since the beginning of 2011, which indicates truckload capacity is tightening... The index is a measure of the amount of available truckload freight relative to current levels of available equipment. It climbs as capacity gets tighter... Other industry yardsticks also indicate demand for trucking is growing in early 2011, putting pressure on capacity in a period of severe winter storms... The seasonally adjusted American Trucking Associations Truck Tonnage Index rose 3.8 percent from December to January, hitting its highest level since January 2008... Spot market truckload freight volume shot up 62 percent year-over-year in January, according to the TransCore North American Freight Index, setting a new record... In late February, truckload capacity was hardest to find in the Southeastern coastal states from Delaware to Florida, according to Longbow Research... The firm's flatbed index rose for the seventh straight week, climbing 8.9 percent from the previous week to its highest level in the past two years...* USA - Highway Driving Reaches 2007 Level
Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by William B. Cassidy -Mar 2, 2011: -- Vehicle miles traveled increased for 10th straight month in December, FHWA says... Americans took to the road in increasing numbers last year, taking advantage of relatively low fuel prices as increased confidence in the economic recovery... The nation's highway traffic hit its highest level since the pre-recession era last year, as Americans drove 3 trillion miles, the Department of Transportation said... Americans drove 20.5 billion more vehicle miles in 2010 than in 2009, a 0.7 percent year-over-year increase, according to the Federal Highway Administration... December was the 10th consecutive month of increased driving, as more Americans joined the economic recovery and enjoyed comparatively low fuel prices... A bloc of eight Southern states from Texas to Kentucky saw the greatest regional increase in December, logging 46.6 billion vehicle miles traveled, the FHWA said...* USA - Trucking Leads Transport Hiring in February
Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by William B. Cassidy -Mar 4, 2011: -- For-hire carriers slowly rebuilding after deep cuts in workforce during recession. Trucking hired 11,000 workers in February, accounting for half of a monthly gain in transportation and warehousing jobs, according to federal employment statistics... The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported transportation employment increased by 22,000 in February, while total non-farm payroll employment rose by 192,000... That dropped the unemployment rate slightly to 8.9 percent but barely dented the total number of unemployed persons -- 13.7 million, according to the BLS... Those added trucking jobs amount to a 0.8 percent increase month-over-month and a 2.5 percent year-over-year seasonally adjusted increase in hiring in the sector... The for-hire trucking firms tracked by BLS employed about 1,266,200 workers of all types last month. The bureau tracks payroll headcount at about 110,000 carriers... That number falls far short of the total number of motor carriers, for-hire and private, but still represents a significant portion of the for-hire trucking industry... The February increase was the first uptick in trucking employment since November, according to the BLS data, which shows trucking jobs grew 1.5 percent in 2010... Trucking's workforce is still 12.8 percent smaller than it was in February 2007, however, a sign of deep payroll cuts before and during the recession...
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