Tag Archive for: intermodal shipping

Calhoun Truck Lines Honors its 2012 Driver of the Year

/in /by

Delivering the goods, day in and day out. That sums up an average day for a truck driver of an intermodal trucking company. Punctuality, patience and persistence help, too.  

Truck driver of the year Calhoun Truck LinesDrivers at Calhoun Truck Lines begin their days with lines at depots and rail yards. During the course of a typical day, these drivers might encounter equipment problems, weather issues, long unloading/loading times, and not least of all, sharing the road with the average distracted driver. And then there is also the side of the job that deals with paperwork, business expenses, regulations, and other variables that are a necessity in running one’s trucking business.  

On the flip side, there are many components that must work properly in order to produce work to keep the trucks moving and comply with regulations. Drivers often have to put up with long hours and sleepless nights. They also need the ability to meet the demands of customers on a daily basis.   

One of the shining examples in 2012 for this work is our 2012 Driver of the Year – Mark Rea. Based from our Omaha terminal, Mark consistently exhibits a high level of professionalism, while going with the flows that come with running intermodal freight. He has shown responsibilities towards driver safety and properly servicing our customers. Mark is a good example of the high quality we expect from our drivers and the recognition that comes with the work.  

Mark typifies in some ways the unique relationship that exists between Calhoun Truck Lines and all the drivers that contract with Calhoun. There are countless obstacles to deal with when getting loads delivered on a daily basis, and managing a strong cooperation between drivers and Calhoun employees is needed to get the job done.  

Many of Calhoun’s employees who work behind the scenes make sure payments are made, orders are billed, and safety measurements are met. Everyone plays an important role in making sure we continue to move forward as a company.  

In this work, certain drivers stand out as going beyond what’s asked of them, while displaying acts of professionalism. Many of these drivers have been nominated or received “driver of the month” honors over the past year. Yet, Mark was one driver that stood out above all the rest. Because of these strong assets, we’re happy to honor Mark Rea as the Calhoun Truck Lines Driver of the Year.

Thanks for everything you do Mark!

Intermodal Shipping Cargo Chaos Averted with Settlement in ILA Talks

/in /by

Some of the best news of last weekend didn’t come from New Orleans and had nothing to do with the Super Bowl. For intermodal cargo shippers in the United States, the best news of all came from New Jersey, where labor mediators for the ILA and US Maritime Alliance were working all last week to come to an agreement on labor disputes.   intermodal cargo, Calhoun Truck Lines

The International Longshoremen’s Association and United States Maritime Alliance hammered out a tentative agreement for a new Master agreement between the two groups. This was huge news to cargo companies all over the country, as it helped to ensure that for the next six years, there will be no economy crushing coast-wide strike.  

Along with other leading intermodal cargo shipping companies, Calhoun Truck Lines has been carefully watching the labor talks and contract negotiations taking place between the International Longshoremen’s Association and United States Maritime Alliance.  And the fallout has been terrible for the intermodal freight economy.  

The continued threat of a coast-wide port shutdown has wreaked havoc on the supply chain for the past year. Difficulties in planning cargo shipments because of possible striking workers has forced U.S. retailers, manufacturers, farmers and shipping companies like Calhoun Truck Lines to build contingency plans into its supply chain disruption, affecting their normal business plans and monthly goals. It’s been a difficult operating time for the firm, as we’ve had to continually adjust plans to make sure our cargo reached its destination.  

The National Retail Federation released a statement over the weekend that said its members were pleased with the agreement. “The retail industry, which supports one in every four U.S. jobs, is pleased to hear that the ILA and USMX have reached a tentative, long-term master contract,” said NRF CEO Matthew Shay in the statement. “We urge the parties to quickly complete any outstanding negotiations, including local negotiations at each of the individual 14 ports, and quickly ratify the new labor agreement.”    

Calhoun Truck Lines is relieved that the talks have come to a seemingly successful resolution. An agreement was needed by the February 6th deadline, and we’re pleased it came over this past weekend. Frankly, we’re not fans of down-to-the-wire, last minute finishes. We’re sure some football fans we know on the opposite coasts aren’t fond of those types of outcomes either.

Shipping, Cargo Companies Watch East Coast Industrial Action

/in /by

Along with other leading intermodal cargo shipping companies, Calhoun Truck Lines has been carefully watching the labor talks and contract negotiations taking place between the International Longshoremen’s Association and United States Maritime Alliance.   shipping yard, Calhoun Truck Lines

If these contract negotiations are not settled very quickly, it could lead to a threatened East Coast port strike, which could seriously impair cargo shipments all around the United States. Even leading cargo transport companies like ours could lose business as a result of a breakdown in talks.  

It’s an important issue affecting business and commerce across the country. It’s so crucial that the Journal of Commerce has a continuing section on the ongoing ILA labor negotiations. In continuing contract negotiations that started in March 2012, the ILA and USMX agreed in late December to a second contract extension, through Feb. 6. The extension temporarily halted a threatened East and Gulf Coast port strike on Dec. 30. While the two sides came to a tentative agreement on container royalties, they still haven’t finalized talks about the contentious issue of work rules and productivity.

Calhoun Truck Lines is concerned enough to have addressed some of these points in a recent blog post on our site. However, we are somewhat encouraged by a late week story that wrote: “A federal mediator said three days of bargaining on an East and Gulf Coast dockworker contract yielded progress and that the International Longshoremen’s Association and employers have agreed to continue negotiations.”  

That’s a positive step, considering contract talks had earlier broken down. However, the two sides still need to come together by the Feb. 6 deadline date for a new contract with the ILA. As we wrote earlier, the effect of a strike is already being felt. Our Midwest trucking firm Calhoun Truck Lines is hearing about recent cargo cancellations, contingency plans being made or cancelled loading of containers already underway via NY/NJ ports from Detroit to Omaha. These cancellations are hurting the companies in intermodal cargo transport, as well as the drivers who operate the cargo transport.  

We hope that the two sides are able to come to an agreement before the end of January. Damage has already been done, now is the time to seek damage limitation.

Top Truck Drivers in the U.S. named to America’s Road Team

/in /by

One of the essential and crucial parts of a professional truck driver’s job is to drive safely. Making America’s highways safer for all who travel them is a paramount concern for many of us in the industry, and especially to the American Trucking Association.  

Because of this, the American Trucking Association (ATA) names a new team of professional truck drivers every two years to an elite team of drivers called America’s Road Team. The new group of 19 drivers was named as the 2013-2014 America’s Road Team this week by the ATA.  

A salute to the America’s Road Team Captains from Calhoun Truck Lines! We value and appreciate the way in which you all represent our industry and congratulate all of you for the success you’ve had behind the wheel.  

All of these drivers share common characteristics when it comes to safety on the road. They share millions of miles without any accidents, according to Transport Topics. Not only do they have clean driving records, but they all have strong trucking industry expertise, good communication skills, solid community service and lifetime safety records.   America’s Road team will spend the next few years carrying out the ATA’s message of driver safety in various outreach and events aimed at the motoring public.   

“America’s Road Team represents the best our industry has to offer:  pride, professionalism and dedication to making our highways safer for all who travel them,” ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said in the ATA press release. “Today as we honor our newest captains, I want to congratulate not just these fine individuals, but all those hardworking drivers who strive every day to deliver America’s most essential goods safely and efficiently.”  

Representing America’s 3-million-plus professional drivers, the team serves as an example of the professional dedication and teamwork needed to deliver America’s freight safely and on time, Graves added.  

At Calhoun Truck Lines, we are proud of all these drivers and their ability to move freight safely and swiftly across the country. Calhoun Truck Lines’ operational facilities at our five Midwest trucking facilities are fully equipped to handle your intermodal trucking needs, for whatever freight assignments you might have. We deliver a level of service that consistently meets our customers’ expectations by providing a professional working environment for our employees, and maintaining a safe truck fleet.

What Is Our Shipped Cargo Worth to America?

/in /by

If you recall, the 8-day strike at the Port of Long Beach in December 2012 disrupted the flow of containers inland right in the middle of the holiday season. For many of us in the intermodal freight industry, the unwarranted strike had a tremendous knock-down effect that impacted many cargo and freight operations all across the United States.  

According to the NY Times article, some 600 clerical workers were responsible for $650 million in idled trade each day of the strike. Because of the clerical worker’s demands, 10 of the 14 shipping container terminals at the two ports were closed down, and many union longshoremen dared not to cross the picket lines.  

This action ended up costing our country’s economy a lot of money, and disrupting the flow of goods across our nation’s interstates. Now we seem to be heading toward our version of a ‘fiscal cargo cliff’ on the East Coast that looks to affect our business in all markets.   

According to this week’s Journal of Commerce, contract talks about work rules and staffing between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the New York Shipping Association have broken down. The two sides were hoping to come to an agreement on these matters before the Feb. 6 deadline date for a new contract with the ILA.  

The talks broke down to to a call for ‘revolutionary changes’ in work practices sought by the NYSA. For more than two years, according to the article, they planned to use the current negotiations to seek changes in the port’s work rules and practices, some of which predate containerization.  

The effect of a strike cannot be understated. Our Midwest trucking firm Calhoun Truck Lines is already hearing from clients we currently work with that they are already making contingency plans or are making plans to cancel the loading of containers for export via NY/NJ ports from Detroit to Omaha. These cancellations will have a massive impact on trucking companies hauling containers throughout the country and more importantly, on the livelihoods of the drivers that haul the freight.  

We ask our readers to get in touch with their state representatives or Congressional leaders to step up and get involved in these negotiations. We cannot let these discussions negatively impact the still fragile and slightly growing U.S. economy spread across the country. We need your support.

NTSB Outines Top Transportation Priorities for 2013

/in /by

Preserving the integrity of our nation’s transportation infrastructure, enhancing pipeline safety and eliminating substance-impaired driving are just a few of NTSB’s top transportation priorities outlined by the agency this week.

The National Transportation Safety Board today identified its top transportation challenges for 2013,  with six of the ten issues focusing on highway travel where most transportation fatalities take place. The list also includes substance-impaired driving, which the NTSB described as the “number one killer” on the list.
driver safety
The NTSB’s 2013 Most Wanted List of transportation priorities includes:

  • Improve Safety of Airport Surface Operations 
  • Preserve the Integrity of Transportation Infrastructure 
  • Enhance Pipeline Safety 
  • Implement Positive Train Control Systems 
  • Eliminate Substance-Impaired Driving 
  • Improve the Safety of Bus Operations 
  • Eliminate Distraction in Transportation 
  • Improve Fire Safety in Transportation 
  • Improve General Aviation Safety
  • Mandate Motor Vehicle Collision Avoidance Technologies

Ending distractions in all its forms of transportation for drivers is the key focus for this annual list of the independent federal safety agency’s top advocacy priorities. According to the NTSB, distraction was the cause of multiple accidents investigated by the agency in recent years. The agency reasons that effects of distraction that cause some 35,000 annual deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries on the roads will only continue to grow.

Calhoun Truck Lines stands right alongside these priorities. Our service is to maintain the highest level of transportation safety for each truck we put on the road. We achieve DOT compliance for our drivers and support our field operations to enhance working relationships with our truck fleet. Calhoun Truck Lines rewards drivers for their ongoing compliance and set disciplinary action for those who receive violations.

The list covers all transportation modes. There are six new issue areas — distraction, fire safety, infrastructure integrity, pipeline safety, positive train control and motor vehicle collision avoidance technologies.

NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman said that the NTSB was releasing the list now to make driver safety a key topic available to policymakers at the state and federal levels as well as industry groups as they craft their priorities for 2013.

What’s Next for the Trucking Industry and Intermodal Transportation?

/in /by

The 2012 presidential election is history. The voters have affirmed a second term for the incumbent president. The congressional makeup of the House (Republican majority) and the Senate (Democratic majority) remain mostly the same and American still faces great challenges on all fronts to its prosperity and its future.  

However, there are some encouraging signs for our trucking industry. Third-quarter results for domestic intermodal container volume were released during election week. The Intermodal Association of North America reported a 11.3 percent increase in domestic containers, which were chiefly responsible for the gains in intermodal. Volumes were higher in the Northeast and Midwest intermodal trucking industry, with growth in numbers of up to nearly 15 percent higher.   Midwest trucking industry Calhoun truck lines

While reports of strong domestic container growth is welcome, weak port volume was the largest overall cause of modest international intermodal volume increases, according to the IANA. An anticipated rebound in imports should help to “…deliver higher levels of overall intermodal performance in the coming months,” the IANA reports.   

At last month’s American Trucking Association’s conference, ATA President Bill Graves said that intermodal transportation industry can be stimulated by job growth and more jobs, but the U.S. government has to get its act together to bolster a weak economy. At Calhoun Truck Lines, we are hopeful that the economy will continue to grow, container volumes will rise and we will be able to move more freight from our five Midwest trucking facilities.  

Each of Calhoun Truck Lines’ operational facilities is fully equipped to handle your intermodal trucking needs. The company is dedicated to delivering a level of service that consistently meets our customers’ expectations. Our responsibility continues with providing a professional working environment for our employees and maintaining a safety conscious truck fleet to share the roads with fellow motorists.  

With the help of our elected officials, sound transportation initiatives can be developed. For instance, Midwestern states’ governors brought forth regional recommendations for the federal transportation bill signed into law in July 2012. By working along with these guidelines for states in the country’s midwest, we can try to use transportation to help propel the Midwest’s energy, people and products.

American Trucking Association’s ATA Management Conference & Exhibition This Week In Las Vegas

/in /by

One of the most important trade shows of our industry is taking place this week in Las Vegas – American Trucking Association’s ATA Management Conference & Exhibition.  

In his opening keynote address, ATA President Bill Graves discussed the theme of ‘American Crossroads’. Graves said, “Our industry is not at a crossroads as much as today’s trucking companies”. It was his overall view that the U.S. trucking industry is moving forward and it is up to American trucking companies to decide what direction to take when faced with decisions on technology, safety, the driver shortage, and other pressing industry issues. The ATA president drew a comparison to the transition into deregulation and said, ” those unwilling to embrace change will not survive.”

In identifying trucking’s challenges, Graves pointed his finger squarely at Washington.

“Three of our nation’s biggest problems are the sluggish economy, a very dysfunctional federal government and the people of this nation who lack confidence that the economy will get better and that our government as its currently assembled in Washington isn’t capable of getting the job done,” he said.

Concurrent with the conference, the ATA announced an initiative with Truckers Against Trafficking aimed at how professional truck drivers can help combat illegal human trafficking while on the job. The group seeks to educate, equip, empower and mobilize truckers to help combat trafficking by being more alert at what happens in our travel rest stop areas, travel plazas and more.

Calhoun Truck Lines is one of the thousands of trucking and transportation industry executives attending this week. We’ve already seen trade show floor exhibitors like Freightliner, Mack Trucks, Volvo, Bose and others, as well as government agency officials and trucking industry suppliers.

Besides a slew of exhibits showing trucks and supplier tools for truckers, there is also a high tech component, with booths offering  phone, GPS devices and other tech gadgets on display you can imagine that would be useful for long-distance driving.

There are a number of discussion panels covering a range of trucking-related issues, including taxes, communications technology and the U.S. economy, all happening at the conference. Many of these panels are of great interest to Calhoun, especially regulatory issues that affect our work as one of the Midwest’s leading intermodal shipping and transportation company.

We’ve got on our agenda this week to attend seminars from government officials and other trucking experts, as they provide information on truck leasing, natural disasters, lawsuits, regulations and additional subjects. The Calhoun Truck Lines team wants to learn more about regulations and how changes in industry regulations will translate into changes in daily intermodal traffic business.

Calhoun Truck Lines at ATA Management Conference

/in /by

The American Trucking Association’s ATA Management Conference & Exhibition this week continues to yield many benefits for those in attendance. Businesses in trucking, intermodal shipping, suppliers to the trucking and shipping industry and other interested participants are finding much to share between each other at the conference.

On Tuesday (Oct. 8) at the show, Stuart Varney of Fox News’ Varney & Company program moderated an interesting ATA conference panel discussion that focused on the economy, the outlook up to the presidential election, and its impact on the intermodal transportation industry. The panel consisted of Bob Costello (chief economist ATA), Gregory Daco (HIS Global Insight), and Lawrence Yun (National Association of Realators). The panelists shared a variety of viewpoints, with the general consensus from the group that the U.S. economy is still in slowdown mode, and will not be able to accelerate until more certainty is established in Washington and our country has a decision on presidential leadership.

The panel discussed the often-used phrase ‘the fiscal cliff” as well. Greg Daco said he anticipated that any real movement on the fiscal cliff would likely “get kicked down the road six ATA Management Conference & Exhibition Calhoun Truckingmonths” after which point Congress will know what measures to put into place after the November elections. He said he feels that Congress will not allow America to go off this ‘cliff’. The panel also spent time talking about Europe and the fiscal crisis they face there as well. Daco suggested that the single biggest issue impacting our U.S. economy (aside from the fiscal cliff) is the health of foreign economies. He also remarked that Greece will ultimately drop out of the Euro in the second half of next year.

ATA’s Bob Costello made a very interesting comparison between the impact the price of diesel has had on our industry and how the price of equipment will have a similar impact over the next five to ten years.

“Equipment is becoming the new diesel in our industry,” Bob said, taking the stance that industry regulations are driving up the cost of equipment and smaller fleets are turning to leasing instead of buying. He said that it’s imperative that truck fleets continually improve the quality of their equipment to attract more drivers to their company. Unfortunately, many small carriers will have a difficult time obtaining proper financing for purchasing better trucks, unless current borrowing conditions improve.  They will also likely find it more difficult to compete for a limited driver pool in the future.

One last impression from the panel was a spectator asked Fox’s Stuart Varney for his prediction of  the upcoming presidential election. Not surprisingly, Varney said that he thought Romney would win the presidential election by five points.

Calhoun Truck Lines is one of the thousands of trucking and transportation industry executives attending the ATA conference this week. We’re learning much from the panels about trucking-related issues, intermodal shipping and the U.S. trucking industry.

© Copyright – Calhoun Truck Lines