American Trucking Assns.' advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index slipped 2.5% in April, following a 1.1% decline during March. (March's percentage decrease was slightly more than reported on April 18, ATA said.) In April, the index equaled 134 (2000=100), down from 137.4 in March. The all-time high was 142.7 in February 2016.
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...Read the rest of this storyPresident Donald Trump on Tuesday pushed for elusive peace between Israel and the Palestinians, calling on both sides to put aside the "pain and disagreements of the past." Trump met with both ...
A surge seen early this year in the nation's manufacturing sector continued to lose steam this month, hitting an eight-month low.
The Flash U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) from the financial information services provider IHS Markit showed manufacturing sector business conditions improved at the slowest pace since September 2016.
At 52.5 in May, down slightly from 52.8 in April, the lower PMI reading was driven by softer rates of output, new order and employment growth. A reading above 50 indicates manufacturing is expanding while below 50 shows contraction.
A final reading for May and the more closely watched but similar report from the Institute for Supply Management are both set to be released on June 1.
Production volumes have increased in each month since June 2016, but the rate of expansion eased further from the peak seen at the start of 2017, according to the report.
Some manufacturers suggested that domestic clients had adopted a “wait-and-see approach to investment spending.” Meanwhile, new export sales increased only marginally in May, which pointed to a sustained drag from subdued external demand.
More cautious inventory policies were recorded across the manufacturing sector, with stocks of purchases falling at the most marked pace since September 2016. Meanwhile, manufacturing job creation eased since April and remained only modest.
According to Chris Williamson, chief business economist at HIS Markit, historical comparisons of the PMI against gross domestic product (GDP) indicates that the PMI is running at a level broadly consistent with the economy growing at a 0.4% quarterly rate or 1.5% annually, however once second quarter numbers come in they could be better.
“Actual second quarter GDP numbers are likely to be considerably stronger, in part reflecting seasonality in the official data and the weak first quarter,” he said.
In the first quarter of the year, the U.S. GDP grew ...Read the rest of this story
Wide-base single tires could start showing up on vocational trucks such as refuse haulers under GHG Phase 2. EPA likes the fuel efficiency, while operators like the weight savings. Photos: Jim Park
">Wide-base single tires could start showing up on vocational trucks such as refuse haulers under GHG Phase 2. EPA likes the fuel efficiency, while operators like the weight savings. Photos: Jim Park
">Could the next round of greenhouse gas reduction rules push more fleets over to wide-base single tires? It seems likely, given not only their relatively low rolling resistance but weight savings as well. While weight reduction is not necessarily a stand-alone criterion for the truck makers to gain build credits under the rules, it can be factored into the overall composition of the finished product.
“Weight savings remains the primary benefit of using wide-base truck tires,” explains Brian Buckham, general manager of product marketing at Goodyear. “Wide-base tires mounted on aluminum rims can reduce a truck's GVWR by up to 1,100 pounds.”
In years past, fuel savings was touted as one benefit of running wide-base tires, but that dynamic is now less prevalent, thanks to the rise of super fuel-efficient duals that offer even more fuel efficiency, Buckham says. “In fact, super fuel-efficient duals have virtually eliminated the fuel savings advantage that wide-base tires enjoyed since their inception. This makes it tougher to quantify wide-base tires' return on investment when it comes to reduced fuel consumption.”
But that's not deterring the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from putting them high on the list of credit-generating equipment specs. For the purposes of GHG Phase 2, the low-rolling-resistance attributes coupled with the overall weight savings make wide-base single tires a compelling choice.
“Product planners for the tire companies are looking at these rules very carefully right now,” says Tom Clauer, Yokohama's corporate manager of commercial and OTR product planning. “It takes three years of development time to get a new tire to market. It's trickier this time around because it's ...Read the rest of this story
U.S.-NAFTA freight value percent change from the previous year. Graphic: U.S. DOT
">U.S.-NAFTA freight value percent change from the previous year. Graphic: U.S. DOT
">The value of freight moved between the U.S. and its next door neighbor countries has spiked as all five major transportation modes carried more cargo in March compared to the year before, according to new Transportation Department figures.
U.S.-North American Free Trade Agreement freight totaled $100.3 billion, the first time since October 2014 it has exceeded the $100 billion level.
The 10.9% rise from March 2016 is the fifth consecutive month in which the year-over-year value of U.S.-NAFTA freight increased from the same month of the previous year. It is also the first double digit year-over-year percentage increase in 33 months.
Despite this increase, trucking reported the smallest gain, up 5%, compared to increases of 81.3% for pipeline, vessel by 38.2%, air by 13.5% and rail by 12.6%.
The large percentage increase in the value of goods moving by pipeline and vessel is due in part to a 31% increase in the year-over-year price of crude oil between March 2016 and March 2017, according to the department.
Trucks carried 63.7% of U.S.-NAFTA freight and continued to be the most heavily utilized mode for moving goods to and from both U.S.-NAFTA partners. Trucks accounted for $32.6 billion of the $54.3 billion of imports, or 60%, and $31.3 billion of the $45.9 billion of exports, or 68.1%.
Rail remained the second largest mode by value, moving 15.8% of all U.S.-NAFTA freight, followed by pipeline, 5.9%; vessel, 5.6%; and air, 4.1%. The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 85.4% of the total value of U.S.-NAFTA freight flows
U.S.-Canada Freight Value Surges More Than 10%From March 2016 to March 2017, the value of U.S.-Canada freight flows increased by 10.4% to $51.2 billion as the value of freight on all five major modes increased from a year earlier.
Back in the 1980s I was working at Eaton in corporate research. A popular topic in industrial automation at that time was Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs). They are still around; of course, they have their own website (http://www.automaticguidedvehicles.com/). There were systems that used wires in the floor to provide paths to follow, something like Elon Musk's hyperloop tunnels with fixed paths.
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...Read the rest of this storyApple has settled a patent dispute with Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia and agreed to buy more of its network products and services, sending Nokia shares up 7 percent. The deal means Nokia will get bigger royalties from Apple for using its mobile phone patents, helping offset the impact of waning demand for its mobile network hardware. Under the deal announced in a joint statement from the companies on Tuesday, Nokia will also supply network infrastructure products to Apple, and Apple will resume sales of Nokia's digital health products in retail and online stores and look at further collaboration in health.
