Transportation Roundup: The truth behind the numbers

Two ocean common carriers have reached agreement with the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) to resolve allegations of misconduct.

Ocean Network Express (ONE) resolved allegations of assessing detention charges when appointments were unavailable during allocated free time to return equipment by paying the $1.7 million civil penalty. ONE will also pay back the impacted shippers with refunds and waivers.

The FMC also reached an agreement with Wan Hai Lines, paying $950,000 in civil penalties for failing to observe and enforce just and reasonable practices regarding charges related to empty container returns. Wan Hai also refunded the detention charges to the shippers impacted.

Read more from the FMC.

Headlines in the shipping industry lately show extreme numbers and while the year-over-year declines are factual, this article from Freightwaves reminds us to read the fine print on those numbers.

The historically high 2022 statistics make this year’s numbers, like the Port of Long Beach’s 22% import drop year-on-year in April, or first-quarter profits from several carriers down 90% or more, look staggering. But U.S. imports this year are actually similar to 2018-2019 and imports this summer are estimated slightly above pre-pandemic levels, according to the Global Port Tracker by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

Over in the trucking industry, U.S. Reps. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) and Henry Cuellar (D- Texas) introduced a bill to ease requirements for 18- to 20-year-old drivers interested in the Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot program. The program currently has fewer than 12 drivers enrolled when it was intended for up to 3,000 drivers. The American Trucking Associations attributed the low participation on unnecessary U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) requirements that weren’t included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The proposed bipartisan bill, called the DRIVE Safe Integrity Act, urges the DOT to provide detailed reports on the program status and corrective action to improve participation. The bill also directs DOT to review the safety data and regulations for a permanent apprenticeship program after the pilot program ends. Read more from the American Trucking Associations.

Class I railroad unions are calling out employers for misleading efforts for hiring more employees. In a filing to the Surface Transportation Board (STB), a representative of several rail unions said that the number of railroad employees is still far below the number needed to grow network capacity and provide exceptional rail service.

Class 1 railroad reports to the STB show the number of employees is the highest since May 2020, but the unions argue that these numbers don’t tell the whole story. The data is reported by department, not by craft, and the data doesn’t consider the rate of attrition. Read more about this data from Freightwaves.