The U.S. Coast Guard's Chemical Transportation Advisory committee will meet Dec. 11-13 to discuss marine transportation of hazardous materials in bulk, it said in a Federal Register notice for publication Nov. 26. The committee wants public comment on the issues to be considered. Comments are due by Nov. 29 and can be submitted to http://www.regulations.gov, or mailed to Docket Management Facility (M-30), U.S. Department of Transportation, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590-001. For further information contact Commander Michael Roldan or Lieutenant Sean Peterson, 202-372-1403.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Unified Carrier Registration Plan Board of Directors will meet Dec. 6. to continue work on developing and implementing the unified carriers registration plan and agreement. Public participation is by conference call: 1-877-820-7831, passcode 908048.
Federal Maritime Commission said the following have filed applications for a license as a Non-Vessel-Operating Common Carrier (NVO) and/or Ocean Freight Forwarder (OFF)-Ocean Transportation Intermediary (OTI) pursuant to section 19 of the Shipping Act of 1984. The FMC also gave notice of the filing of applications to amend an existing OTI license or the qualifying individual for a license. Interested persons may contact the Office of Transportation Intermediaries, Federal Maritime Commission, Washington, D.C. 20573, at 202-523-5843 or at OTI@fmc.gov.
The American Trucking Associations' seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index contracted 3.8% in October after falling 0.4% in September, it said. The 0.4% Sept. drop was revised from a 0.1% gain reported on Oct. 23, 2012, it said. October's decrease with the third consecutive, totaling 4.7%. As a result, the SA October index was the lowest level since May 2011, it said. Compared with October last year, the index was off 2.1%, the first year-over-year contraction since November 2009, ATA said. Year-to-date, compared with the same period last year, tonnage was up 2.9%, it said. “Clearly Hurricane Sandy negatively impacted October's tonnage reading” although it's impossible to determine the exact effect, said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello.
There were no fatalities in 2011 from runway-related accidents involving scheduled commercial operations, the International Civil Aviation Organization said Nov. 19. Overall fatalities from air transport accidents also dropped, from 707 in 2010 to 414 in 2011, it said.
The International Air Transport Association said it successfully tested the electronic consignment security declaration (e-CSD) in the U.K. and Netherlands. The e-CSD meets regulatory demands for evidence that appropriate security measures have been applied to air cargo and mail by detailing how, when and by whom a consignment of cargo or mail has been secured, IATA said. By standardizing the process and documentation of such evidence, e-CSD will replace redundant security declarations in various formats and make it easier to implement security emergency amendments, it said. Plans are now under way to run live operational shipment trials over coming months, it said. These will give industry and regulators more findings and allow for fine-tuning based on live data. Once the live trial period ends, industry will be able to replace its range of security declarations with a globally harmonized electronic one, IATA said.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration scheduled a public meeting for 9 a.m. November 28 to prepare for the 42nd session of the U.N. Sub-Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, to be held December 3-11 in Geneva, Switzerland. During the meeting, PHMSA will solicit comments about potential new work items to be considered for inclusion in its international agenda. Attendees may pre-register at http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/hazmat/regs/international. Specific information on conference call-in and live meeting access will be posted when available (here) . Further information: Vincent Babich or Kevin Leary, 202-366-8553.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration wants comment and information to be used for an assessment to improve the collection, analysis, reporting and use of data related to accidents and incidents involving the transportation of hazardous materials, it said in a FederalRegister notice for publication Nov. 21. The Hazardous Materials Regulations require an immediate report and a detailed incident report, information PHMSA uses to evaluate regulatory effectiveness, determine the need for regulatory changes to address changing transportation safety problems, chart trends, and for other purposes. The “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century” Act requires the Department of Transportation to determine how to better the collection, analysis, reporting and use of this data. Comments are due Dec. 28 to docket number PHMSA-2012-12-10 via http://www.regulations.gov, or by mail to Docket Operations, U.S. Department of Transportation, West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Routing Symbol M-30, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E., Washington, DC 20590. Further information: David Lehman or Yolanda Braxton, 202-366-1074.
The Federal Maritime Commission released a notice of the filing of the following agreement under the Shipping Act of 1984. Interested parties may submit comments on the agreements to the Secretary, Federal Maritime Commission, Washington, DC 20573, within 10 days.
The trucking division of H&M International Transportation Inc. is changing its name to H&M Terminals Transport Corp., effective Jan. 1, it said. The change is part of its on-going efforts to better serve the shipping community, it said. Company ownership remains unchanged, and day-to-day operations in all current H&M locations won't be affected by the name change, it said.