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Tensions Rise as White House and GOP Struggle to Reach Infrastructure Bill Agreement

June 18, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

The Biden Administration is making efforts to work with Republican Senators–who have made known the little wiggle-room they have in regards to their $568 billion proposal–with the goal to come to some bipartisan conclusion surrounding President Biden’s $2.25 trillion infrastructure plans.

Democrats have expressed worries that the amount of time for both parties to finally reach an agreement is coming to an end. However, Republicans have noted that they have in fact raised the number in their plan and have also tried to cooperate with the White House.

“Productive conversations” have been in the works, according to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, and senators were expected to work toward a constructive conclusion alongside White House officials Louisa Terrell, head of legislative affairs, and Steve RIcchetti, senior adviser.

“We’re looking forward to constructive conversations,” Psaki added.

Biden, who has been prioritizing a comprehensive infrastructure plan and has stated his goal to “build back better” in his pledge to help boost the economy following the COVID-19 pandemic era, has been looking to Republicans for cooperation in regards to a bipartisan method of reaching these goals. Because majorities in the House and Senate are Democrats, Biden has sought Republican support instead of solely leaning on his party.

However, Republicans are strongly opposing the corporate tax hike that would come with Biden’s funding plan.

“If they’re willing to settle on targeting an infrastructure bill without revisiting the 2017 tax bill, we’ll work with them,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell in relation to collaborating with Democrats on the issue. Still, though, McConnell noted that a $2 trillion–or larger–package “is not going to have any Republican support.”

This comes while Republicans are clamoring to hold onto the 2017 tax reductions they accomplished during Donald Trump’s presidency, when they brought corporate tax rates down from 35% to 21%. According to McConnell, raising taxes on wealthy Americans or on corporations is never going to receive any backing from Republicans.

As of now, Biden plans to raise corporate taxes back up to 28%.

Because Biden has proposed the two parties find ways to negotiate, Republicans met with White House-dispatched transportation and commerce secretaries in late May to discuss recently-requested additional details on Republicans’ plan for the package. West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito said she felt good about these discussions and planned to hear back from the White House sooner than later.

Still, though, following the White House and Republican meeting which took place just weeks ago, there was “not a significantly changed offer.”

Regardless, Biden has been faring well in the party-to-party discussions, and has not given up on efforts to reach a bipartisan agreement–even though Republicans’ counter offer had no change from their proposal of $568 billion. It does seem, though, that optimism from some of the GOP’s negotiators, such as Capito, has encouraged White House officials.

In regards to possible strategies that have been brought to light, one includes Biden coming to terms with a much more limited road, highway, bridge, and broadband infrastructure bill that would have the potential to please both parties–likely leaning more towards Republicans’ wishes. If this were to take place, Democrats would need to independently focus on climate change proposals and investments pertaining to education, hospitals, and child care.

Some Republicans have suggested dipping into unused coronavirus aid package funds to allocate toward potential infrastructure projects, with further funding coming from public-private partnerships or uncollected tax revenue.

However, a solely infrastructure-based bipartisan proposal, which would consist of far fewer funds than those which Biden has proposed, could mean many Democrats would withdraw their support while under the impression that Biden missed this major opportunity to set forth heavily innovative, transformative, and community-minded legislation.

Biden surely knows this and will likely do what he can to ensure climate change-fighting funds are included in the deal. But, as of now, the two parties have not little-to-no progress in reaching an agreement as both are holding strong to their two differing ideas about the size of the infrastructure package and how to acquire the funding necessary to see it through.

Post-Pandemic Roadways Seeing More Traffic Once Again–What Does That Mean for Safety?

June 17, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 22: Rush hour traffic fills the 101 freeway on March 22, 2006 in Los Angeles, California. According to a recent report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Los Angeles ranks only behind New York with the dirtiest and most hazardous air to breathe. Although Angelinos breathe cleaner air than they did in the 1970’s, they face a cancer risk that is about twice the national average. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

At the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, we reported on data showing that although stay-at-home orders had cleared up a majority of traffic congestion throughout the nation’s roadways, overall levels of road safety had remained incredibly low.

“Unfortunately, the pandemic has exposed our road safety culture for what it is,” explained National Safety Council President and CEO, Lorraine Martin, at the time. “We did not reap the safety benefits we should have experienced.”

Martin noted that the clearer roadways motivated many drivers to drive much more carelessly than usual, and drivers are often tempted to reach dangerous speeds when roads are empty–they often may also fail to use a seat belt due to a false sense of security.

“It’s clear that our open roads have created somewhat of an open season for reckless driving,” Martin added.

Now, it seems that even those who did drive safely–or stayed home completely–during the pandemic have had trouble adjusting to roadways getting crowded once again as more drivers return to work, according to industry experts.

“What we’re observing is that as the rest of us get back on those roads, we’ve forgotten how to share the road,” said Geotab’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, Colin Sutherland. ”We see cars pulling in directly in front of heavy-duty trucks on the highway, forgetting that heavy-duty trucks need more room for braking than the car does.”

In an effort to boost overall roadway safety, Geotab–a vehicle tracking service–collaborated in a campaign with Together for Safer Roads during the United Nations’ recent Global Road Safety Week. During the campaign, the two organizations called on commercial fleets to help bring an end to speed-related road accidents.

As we approach the Summer months, Sutherland warns that these days are the most important to stay particularly safe and aware while driving, as the number of road trips rises and more people than usual hit the road.

“That’s being borne out [of] the increase in accidents that are happening on the road today,” he explained. “An increase over pre-COVID, which is very scary.”

In 2020, America’s roadways saw more vehicle crash deaths than they have in the past 13 years–42,060 people are believed to have died in fatal crashes–8% more than in 2019, even though fewer people were driving throughout the year. All motor vehicle total miles driven even fell by 13% in 2020 from 2019.

The Safety Management Council of American Trucking Associations is currently studying the traffic changes and their effects from the COVID-19 pandemic while we wait for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to release its official 2020 truck and bus accident report.

“We are starting a benchmarking group and will hopefully have this data more readily available,” said ATA’s Safety Management Council executive director, Jacob Pierce. “There are [fewer] cars on the road, so you’d figure that there would be [fewer] accidents. However, [fewer] cars on the road equals probably more passenger vehicles driving [with more risk], driving faster, [and] really not paying attention.”

In regards to the differences that are expected between roadway activity as people return to the roads after lockdown and how drivers behaved on the roads during the pandemic, there is no way to make any real predictions.

“It could go either way,” explained Angela Savino, a business law attorney at Perez Morris. “There certainly was more trucking activity. So, [given] that alone, you might think there was an uptick. But It was a whole different set of circumstances–just the congestion on the road was different”

Many industry experts were genuinely shocked at the data coming from roadway traffic accidents in 2020.

“The last year had a surprising amount of activity–from my perspective–[more] than would have been expected,” said Bluewire’s chief legal officer, Doug Marcello. “Anecdotally, I had more accidents that we were engaged to deal with immediately over the first month of the pandemic than I did most other months, and all of them were situations where four-wheelers had thrown caution to the wind and ended up striking the truck in some way.”

New Surface Transportation Bill Introduced by Republicans

June 16, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

The Surface Transportation Advanced Through Reform, Technology, and Efficient Review (STARTER) Act 2.0 is likely to replace an expiring highway law. This legislation would allocate $400 billion over five years for surface transportation programs.

On May 19th, Republican lawmakers released the outline of the bill, which would implement or extend programs for the trucking industry, autonomous technology, self-driving vehicles, and overall highway funding.

The bill would also work to make the process easier in regards to federal environmental permitting as part of the surface transportation proposal backed by Democrats. Such a highway policy bill aligns with the infrastructure-related plans of the Biden Administration, and the House transportation panel’s Democrats are likely to assess their version of the bill by the end of May.

“Our bill focuses on the core infrastructure that helps move people and goods through our communities every single day, cuts red tape that holds up project construction, and gets resources into the hands of our states and locals with as few strings attached as possible,” explained chief sponsor of the bill, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee ranking member Sam Graves of Missouri.

Many supporters of the bill have noted its capacity to draw backing from both parties.

“As the process for considering legislation on infrastructure moves forward, I am eager to see these proposals become part of a robust bipartisan effort, just as the president continues to call for,” Graves added.

The measure also aims to set forth an efficient infrastructure grants program, as well as mandate that organizations create an environmental review permitting timetable. It would also work toward updating the current national highway freight plan.

“Streaming the federal permitting and environmental review process absolutely must be a part of an infrastructure package,” Rodney Davis, ranking member of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, noted.

For states looking to find ways to fully optimize truck parking capabilities, the bill could also boost the resources available. Additionally, it could also implement an interstate driving training program for commercial driver’s license holders between the ages of 18 and 20–an initiative that would also create higher standards for carriers’ best practices.

For livestock haulers and farm operations, this legislation would also be able to increase hours-of-service regulation flexibility and allocate specific funding solely to programs based in rural regions.

To do this, the bill “provides greater flexibility and supports greater mobility in rural areas by increasing the federal share of project costs for projects located in qualified opportunity zones, in medically underserved areas, or areas with medically underserved populations,” explaining a summary of the measure.

Through this legislation, the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) grant program regarding the aid of areas affected by natural disasters would come into play, as would a nationwide vehicle-miles-traveled fee system and a connected vehicle applications-based competitive grant program.

“This legislation puts true transportation infrastructure first and prioritizes building a resilient transit system,” explained co-sponsor of the bill and ranking member of the Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee, Rick Crawford of Arkansas.

For committee chairman Peter DeFazio, the ideal version of the legislation would set forth mobility grid upgrades–especially in regards to transit systems. For his five-year 2015 highway law update, DeFazio recommends $100 billion for transit state-of-good repair criteria needing attention.

“America is facing serious challenges: crumbling infrastructure, the threat of climate change, inequality and racial justice, a rising China that threatens our domestic workforce and manufacturing,” he explained. “We can’t solve these problems by doing the status quo.”

Still, Republicans want to focus on surface transportation policies and have been collaborating with the White House to determine the best courses of actions in regards to funding and infrastructure policy negotiations.

“We believe we can find a bipartisan deal on infrastructure,” said President Biden. “But we’ve made one thing clear: We’ll compromise, but doing nothing is not an option.”

Senate Republicans recently released their strategy which would center upon a $600 billion policy plan, while Biden’s plan requests $2.25 trillion and aims to do acquire such funding by boosting corporate taxes.

Railroad Cost-Cutting May Mean Lower Safety Levels

June 16, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Businesses are seeing decreased employment numbers even as the nation’s railroads run often particularly long freight trains. Because of this, industry experts are concerned that the actions intended to boost earnings may in fact lower safety capabilities–even bringing about potential catastrophes.

Many railroad roles at companies like CSZ, Norfolk Southern Corp., and Union Pacific Corp were removed over the last few years following the railroading-scheduling system put in place by CSZ–a cost-reducing program referred to as ‘Precision,’ which was so successful that it caused many other railroads throughout the country to utilize similar systems. Even railroads that haven’t implemented such a program, like BNSF, have nevertheless reduced employee numbers in an effort to enhance system performance and continue to be competitive in the industry.

The Federal Railroad Administration has explained that it is currently monitoring such modifications and that, up to now, records do not depict any unsafe operation methods. Still, unions have explained that a new program can be dangerous with such large implications if a train should derail.

Railroads still assert that their changes meant to lower overall costs and lengthen trains have not boosted any potential risks.

“Every time the wheels come off the rail, it’s kind of like buying a lottery ticket to the big disaster,” explained Transportation Communications Union’s carmen division official, Jason Cox.

A majority of railroads utilize a more strategic schedule with fewer less-profitable–or shorter–routes but with fewer overall stops. With Precision, longer trains with a variety of cargo have been able to lower the number of locomotives and employees required to ship the nation’s goods. Railroads have also been able to lower their numbers of trips and engines needing maintenance, as well as the number of workers, when train lengths are extended–some reaching more than 2 miles long.

Because Union Pacific began implementing the new program in 2018, its railroad can utilize longer trains and expanded track sidings, which now allows its longest trains to reach lengths of 9,250 feet–30% more than before the model’s upgrade.

Overall railroad safety has seen improvements over the last few years, with the most predominant railroads releasing statements depicting network investments and safety records. These railroads also explain that they follow federal guidelines in regards to regular inspections–which are often aided by innovative technology programs to scan for defects more easily and efficiently.

“Across the board, I do not see evidence of our workforce at Union Pacific being rushed, overworked, or put in harm’s way,” noted railroad company CEO, Lance Fritz.

Still, though, the current safety research isn’t necessarily reliable, explained University of Tennessee’s Center for Transportation Research director, David Clarke.

“Right now, I just haven’t seen anything to demonstrate that it’s definitely having a negative impact on safety,” he said.

Maintenance work times have been significantly reduced, though, many unions have said. The signalmen overseeing railroad crossing safety signals have noted their areas growing by at least 150%, with less time for repair following completed tests.

“As maintenance gets neglected, then obvious the failures go up,” added Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen vice president, Tim Tarrant.

Additionally, the carmen inspecting a train’s cars have lamented that the time they have to inspect has been cut in half, and with fewer employees, inspections are often conducted by staff with less experience or training.

“From the conductor’s side, we’re basically finding things that are just obvious,” said SMART-TD union national legislative director, Greg Hynes.

For unions, the work now is to make efforts in boosting employment opportunities, but many have noted that the bigger reason for increased staffing is to help ease the potential accidents that could occur because of fewer and less-trained staff maintaining this kind of safety.

“I was hoping to stay a lot longer, but if it means my safety, it’s not going to do me any good staying another day if that means I’m not going to come home,” said Kasondra Bird, a former CSX employee who explained that her worries over safety caused her to resign in December after more than two decades working on the railroad. “Safety and the well-being of employees have definitely taken a backseat to production.”

Capacity Under Intense Pressure With Various COVID-19-Related Obstacles

June 15, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

The capacity market is seeing major additional obstacles regarding the high-demand trends brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

As manufacturers and retailers continue to boost their inventories in the booming era of e-commerce (made much more prevalent during the country’s stay-at-home orders), the economy is beginning to finally recover–but capacity is under more pressure than ever.

“There are short-term and longer-term implications,” said CH Robinson’s vice president of retail and supply chain solutions, Noah Hoffman. “The retail space continues to put demand on all suppliers. The retail community can’t keep up with both inbound and outbound constraints and e-commerce continues to fuel that space. So, certain inventory for retailers are at record lows.”

Economic growth is being boosted, currently, by government stimuli and the opening-up of the economy after the COVID-19 vaccine has been more widely distributed. This means that the ways in which consumers purchase their goods is shifting–rapidly–including the kinds of items people are beginning to buy again.

“This is going to compound the demands on capacity that’s already not readily available,” Hoffman added.

Additionally, now, infrastructure spending is coming back at a rapid rate, and construction efforts are now underway on a large scale.

“What we’re seeing right now versus last year is capacity is coming back,” explained Hoffman. “This is positive news. The thing is, it’s just not fast enough to keep up with demand.”

In mid-2020, nationwide lockdowns caused the marketplace’s supply to plummet, with many truck drivers out of work. Now, capacity improvements have come often at the hands of small carriers, and capacity itself is seeing major shifts in a positive direction although it isn’t meeting the current demand as much as the industry would like–yet.

“As it relates to the Southeast region of the U.S., we had the cold snap in February,” Hoffman noted. “That delayed the production season–call it two to three weeks. On top of that, we had a rebound floral season that led to a $2.6 billion Mother’s Day and floral season–which is a record high. And so, you have compounding volumes of looming produce season, [and] a blooming floral season that puts a ton of pressure on the [temperature] control capacity.”

Still, with capacity under so much stress, new challenges are arising–especially with the recent shutdowns along the oil pipeline affecting pallet availability.

“I would say it’s not only just the increase in demand, it’s the volatility and the unanticipated levels of the demand,” said Douglas Kent, Association for Supply Chain Management‘s executive vice president of strategy and alliances. “Managing the supply chain networks for known demand is much easier than managing unknown demand.”

Now, with difficulty in predicting the long-term effects of these changes, there is a wide array of disruption possibilities.

“So, we’ve got variability and volatility in demand,” Kent added. “When you combine that with the concerns around capacity in the overall network, this is like the perfect storm of chaos.”

Although a variety of consumer trends can change demand, the key to capacity is equipment and drivers. Not only has the nationwide driver shortage been a long-term obstacle for the trucking industry, but the current shortage in semiconductor chips has been an added difficulty.

“Now, with this chip situation, which is fallout from the pandemic and China, they’re not able to make enough [semiconductors] for the demand out there,” explained chief operating officer for Aim Integrated Logisitics, David Gurska. “Fortunately, we have a leasing arm, Aim NationaLease, so we’re fortunate to have slots and everything available, but if you’re just the average company, trying to buy a semi right now isn’t the easiest thing.”

This limitation within capacity means the industry needs to boost its overall optimization–any volatility will make it difficult to efficiently allocate resources and employees when they are readily available.

“A lot of it is course-correcting the last couple of years,” said FourKites’ senior vice president of customer success, Glenn Koepke. “So, it was a buyer’s market for a couple of years. And then, typically, what happens is there’s some sort of…black swan event that triggers the change because it was a buyer’s market for so long.”

Additionally, motor carriers have seen more of an ability to increase compensation for workers with the disruptions coming at a time of such high demand–and this isn’t likely to stop any time soon.

“Why is capacity continuing to crunch? A lot of it is just [an] imbalance of supply,” explained Koepke. “There’s always talk over whether we have a true trucking shortage or not. I think one could argue it’s just an imbalance.”

Colonial Pipeline Cyberattack Brings Array of Waivers at State and Federal Levels

June 14, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

The recent Colonial Pipeline cyberattack is causing state and federal government organizations to take effective courses of actions in response, including methods to help ease disruptions in truck movement. The ransomware attack, which is believed to have ties to a criminal gang, caused the network reaching from Texas all the way to New Jersey to immediately cease its operations.

For states that have been particularly impacted, a solution to help these effects is being offered by the U.S. Department of Transportation. States covered by presidential declarations of disaster–declarations released within the last four months–are able to transport overweight fuel and gasoline loads by using interstate highways, DOT announced.

“Each state must continue to follow its own procedures for issuance of special permits authorizing the loads, but the added flexibility announced today lawfully permits these trucks to run on the interstate highway system and other federal highways,” explained DOT in its announcement.

This state comes after another recent announcement released by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration aiming to offer hours-of-service regulation relief to truck drivers operating within East Coast petroleum supply chains. The hours-of-service flexibility applied to the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington D.C., and West Virginia.

To efficiently assess the capacity of railroad operators to transport fuel between inland communities and coastal ports, the Federal Railroad administration has implemented a specific emergency action plan, and other DOT organizations have been actively making efforts as well.

For the permission of trucks to operate on interstate highways, previous presidential declarations have allowed such emergency protocol updates to last for up to four months, and those instated will be expiring at different times throughout the year. For example. Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia are covered for a while, but Maryland’s 120-day period will end in early June and Virginia’s in early September.

Pipeline operator qualification regulations have been temporarily relaxed for emergency workers needed to help the partial manual of the system get back up and running. This announcement, set forth by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, is only applicable to places operating without appropriate resources for the Colonial Pipeline–a result of the recent cyberattack.

The incident has brought forth responses from many state officials, including Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s signing of a state of emergency which suspended state fuel taxes and permitted fuel haulers to bypass weigh stations. The state of emergency also prohibited fuel price gouging. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a state of emergency allowing the Florida Department of Transportation to waive restrictions on weight and size for divisible loads on vehicles that are actively helping in emergency response efforts.

Additionally, executive orders were signed by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to allow state agencies to offer waivers to marshal public resources, by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper to suspend motor vehicle regulations in an effort to allow state fuel supplies to be sufficient, and by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to waive hours-of-service requirements and weight restrictions for carriers.

“Many states are working in concert to minimize the disruption of fuel supplies,” said Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Secretary Jim Gray. “Our cabinet is doing its part to help ensure that needed relief gets to the affected areas.” Gray signed an order to suspend motor carrier restrictions involving the transportation of ethanol and petroleum to states that have been impacted by these interruptions.

A multi-agency response has also been implemented by the Biden administration, and includes the departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Treasury, Energy, and Defense; the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and the Department of Transportation.  To gain a better understanding of the cyberattack and its effects on energy and fuel supply, these organizations have been meeting regularly.

“ATA is aware of some locations being temporarily out of diesel fuel, but we are not hearing reports of it being a widespread issue yet,” said spokesman for American Trucking Associations, Sean McNally, who noted that other freight industry members are also doing their part to solve this problem. “We are closely monitoring the situation and are providing information to our members as needed.”

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