GLG News by Rail Shipping Service Experts

BNSF railroad recently announced that the company would install Positive Train Control (PTC) technology across its entire system by Dec. 31, 2015 and in the Los Angeles basin by 2012. BNSF had been given approval by the Federal Railroad Administration to install the Electronic Train Management System...

A major group of transportation officials has adopted recommending that Washington spend $545 billion in federal-aid highway spending, or just about double the current five-year spending plan of $286 billion. It would allow the nation to address its infrastructure needs, fix freight bottlenecks, improve...

How quick can one get in and out of a Chapter 11 filing? Pretty quickly if one has their ducks lined up. It does say something about trying to roll up a bunch of companies, carrying a lot of debt - and then being faced with a trying marketplace.

Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) has made decision to eliminate their Sterling brand. This has some interesting implications, but it means little - in the big scheme of things.

Truck capacity is being pulled out of the truckload sector at an alarming rate. J.B. Hunt has cut more than 1,400 trucks from its fleet, a 30 percent reduction, in about 18 months. Werner Enterprises and Swift Transportation have also reduced over-the-road capacity by about 10 percent. When the economy...

    The year-to-date and outlook for many of the items transported by the U.S. railroads are down, coal transportation has been positive.  The discussions that follows list some of the positives for the railroads.

    Coal companies have issued force majeure declarations to customers due to various production-related issues.  These are discussed in the section below.

The “Green” movement in the trucking industry should be an evolution, following normal equipment life-cycles. Mandates for new equipment have ended up being expensive with retrofits even moreso. The way to think about trucking companies wanting to become more green - is to think about it in terms of...

New logistics, load planning and other supply-chain approaches are being taken to lower cost. Those doing it the same old way are being squeezed. As our colleague Mr. Schultz notes, freight has slowed and trucking company failures continue. Load makeup is changing and some are actively addressing it....

    As the referenced article states, there are many benefits in the Emergency Stabilization Act for the coal industry.  One not discussed is the refund of the coal excise tax.  The commentary section discusses this.