Trucking Groups Urge NAFTA Negotiators to Support Trade

ORLANDO – Three of North America's largest trucking associations – American Trucking Associations, the Canadian Trucking Alliance, and Mexico's CANACAR – have come to the defense of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which they see as a business driver.

In a joint statement released during ATA's annual Management Conference & Exhibition this week, the groups urged negotiators to “update the trade agreement in a manner that continues to benefit trade.”

Motor carriers haul the vast majority of trade by value across international borders, supporting the supply chain for everything from cars to agriculture and pharmaceuticals, the statement notes.

“Trucking and trade are synonymous,” said Bob Costello, the ATA's chief economist, during a session at the meeting. Every year, 46,000 U.S. trucking jobs can be linked to trade with the Canada and Mexico, he said.

NAFTA negotiations have been extended into 2018 after hitting an impasse on several issues such as the process used to resolve disputes, and a U.S. proposal to include a sunset clause that would require the agreement to be renewed every five years.

The trade agreement has had an undeniable impact on the trucking industry, with trucks moving 71% of the value of surface trade across the Canada-U.S. border and 82% of the value across the U.S.-Mexico border.

“NAFTA truck-transported trade supports tens of thousands of trucking industry jobs across the continent and generates billions in revenue annually,” notes the joint statement. “Trucking jobs created from North American trade are good-paying jobs, from our professional commercial drivers, to dispatchers, sales personnel, managers, and many others,” it reads. “In fact, our industry demonstrates how trade creates good, solid long-term jobs across the continent. The ripple effects are significant, too. In order to haul all the trade across our borders, our industries have to buy a significant amount of goods and services, ...Read the rest of this story

U.S.-NAFTA Freight Rises for 10th Straight Month

U.S.-NAFTA freight value percent change from previous year. Graphic: U.S DOT

The value of freight moved between the U.S. and its North American Free Trade Agreement Partners totaled $97.4 billion during August as all five major transportation modes carried more freight, according to the U.S. Transportation Department.

The 4.6% rise is the 10th consecutive month in which the year-over-year value in current dollars of U.S.-NAFTA freight increased from the same month of the previous year.

The value of commodities moving by pipeline increased 13.2%, air by 8.4%, vessel by 4.5%, truck by 3.6%, and rail by 3.2%. The large percentage increase in the value of goods moving by pipeline is due in part to an increase in the volume of mineral fuel imports, according to the department.

Trucks carried 64.7% of U.S.-NAFTA freight and continued to be the most utilized mode for moving goods to and from both U.S.-NAFTA partners. Trucks accounted for $31.9 billion of the $52 billion of imports, or 61.4%, and $31.1 billion of the $45.4 billion of exports, or 68.5%.

Rail remained the second largest mode by value, moving 15.1% of all U.S.-NAFTA freight, followed by vessel, 5.8%; pipeline, 5.5%; and air, 3.9%.

The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 85.3% of the total value of U.S.-NAFTA freight flows

Comparing August 2016 to August 2017, the value of U.S.-Canada freight flows increased by 4.7% to $49.5 billion as the value of freight on four major modes increased from a year earlier.

The value of freight carried on pipeline increased by 20%, air by 7.1%, truck by 3.4%, and rail by 1.1%. Vessel decreased by 5.3% due in part to a decrease in the volume of mineral fuel shipments.

Trucks carried 58.9% of the value of the freight to and from Canada. Rail carried 15.9% followed by pipeline, 10.3%; air, 4.8%; and vessel, ...Read the rest of this story

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At ATA, Thoughts on Policy-Making and Politicking

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) speaking to ATA committee in Orlando. Photo: David Cullen

You could certainly be forgiven if you were attending the American Trucking Associations' annual confab here in Orlando this week and thought you'd made a wrong turn and stumbled into one of those partisan party retreats that Capitol Hill denizens hold somewhere outside the Beltway every now and then.

In this case, you might have thought you had fallen in among a conclave of roaring elephants. And why wouldn't you, what with the carefully spaced array outside the exhibit hall of regally tall and handsomely mounted posters displaying blown-up photos of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence interacting with various ATA leaders over the course of this year, each accompanied by a quote underscoring how the industry's top lobby has literally parked itself at the White House.

In ATA President and CEO Chris Spear's second state-of-the-industry address, he vividly recalled the photo-op friendly to the max White House visit ATA's leadership enjoyed with President Trump back in March as well as the appearance by some ATA leaders at a campaign-style rally the president held earlier this month in Pennsylvania.

At the latter meeting, Trump floated a proposal to cut corporate tax rates by 20% and to eliminate the estate tax. “With the president now championing our best interests, the entire nation is paying attention to what we have to say,” Spear remarked. He also declared that, “With the president now championing our best interests, the entire nation is paying attention to what we have to say.”

If they wasn't enough to get folks trumpeting like a bellicose herd of you-guess-what, at this meeting ATA also executed something of a double coup, booking-wise, in that not none and not one but two members of the Cabinet addressed standing-room-only crowds at ...Read the rest of this story