Surface

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ union members at UPS Freight, UPS’s less-than-truckload unit, have voted to reject a five-year contract proposal that was already approved by the company and union leadership.

Truck owners in Russia are threatening to set up road blocks to protest new fees for 12-ton trucks using federal roads, The Moscow Times reports.

In a slow-growth economy, truck pricing will rise anywhere from 0.5 to 6.5 percent over the next two years, but could shoot much higher if demand surges, Stifel Nicolaus analyst David Ross warns.

Port Canaveral is pursuing the development of an inland port near the north end of Brevard County, Fla., in conjunction with the start this fall of the widening and deepening of the Florida port’s 3.5 mile channel.

HNA Group Co. of China has agreed to acquire GE Capital’s TIP Trailer Services, a European trailer leasing and rental business, as part of its investment strategy.

Russian president Vladimir Putin unveiled plans to spend nearly $14 billion on three large rail and road projects to ease transport bottlenecks and stimulate a slowing economy.

TransCore Link Logistics’ Canadian Freight Index volume rose 10 percent in May compared with the previous month, following weak results in April, but dropped 16 percent year-over-year.

Shippers aren’t only scaling back how much freight they plan to move this year and in early 2014, but also how much they plan to pay to transport their goods by rail, truck, air and sea.

Surface transportation shippers expect trucking companies and railroads to ease up on the pricing pressure through 2013 and into early 2014, but their expectations on securing space for freight vary widely by mode, according to a quarterly survey by New York-based transportation research and consulting firm Wolfe Research. Shippers’ expectations of a deceleration in pricing growth comes despite their forecasts of same-store volume rising slightly under 3 percent this year, according to the survey.

Canadian Pacific has hired Robert Johnson as vice president of U.S. operations.

Canadian Pacific has launched a new intermodal service between Toronto and Calgary, Alberta, that is 20 hours faster than previous schedules.

C.H. Robinson Europe is expanding into Turkey to respond to growing demand for logistics services in the region.

FTR Associates’ Shippers Conditions Index for April improved slightly from the previous month to a reading of negative 6.9.

Indian Railways carried 171.91 million metric tons of revenue-earning freight traffic in April and May, the first two months of fiscal year 2013 to 2014, increasing 4.6 percent or 7.53 million metric tons from...

Slow-steaming by shipping lines, the shift of production centers in China inland and the easing of customs barriers in Eastern Europe are rapidly opening up overland transport routes between Asia and Europe.

Freightliner, the United Kingdom’s second largest rail freight operator, today announced its acquisition of ERS Railways, the pan-European intermodal rail company, from ocean carrier Maersk Line.

The South Carolina Ports Authority board of directors approved its fiscal year 2014 plan, which includes volume increases across business segments and $123 million in capital spending on a number of projects.

Deutsche Bahn and Bombardier Transportation have signed a frame contract for the delivery of up to 450 electric locomotives by the year 2020.

The American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Trucking Tonnage Index jumped 2.3 percent to 126.0 in May, after falling 0.2 percent in April to 123.2, making it the highest level on record.

The new Canadian National-Indiana Rail Road intermodal service to Indianapolis will offer export “matchback” opportunities for steamship lines and shippers when it launches on July 1.

Old Dominion Freight Line will increase its base rates for intrastate, interstate and cross-border lane charges, effective July 1.

Indian Railways reported its revenue from April 1 to May 31, 2013, was Rs. 22,439.30 crore (about US$3.9 billion), increasing 12.7 percent from $3.4 billion during the corresponding period last year.

AECOM Technology Corp. has won a $148 million, three-year contract to provide construction supervision and design review services for the portion of the Doha Expressway program in Qatar known as Group 7.

Roadrunner Transportation Systems’ outbound, less-than-truckload service center operations have commenced in Kansas City, Mo.

North American truckload pricing in May increased 1.4 percent from the same month in 2012, but fell 2.4 percent from April, according to the Cass Truckload Linehaul Index.

Norfolk Southern has officially unveiled its Franklin County Regional Intermodal Facility in Pennsylvania.

The Railway Association of Canada has applauded the Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s request for installation of in-cab video cameras and voice recorders in all mainline controlling locomotives in the nation.

Train passengers and the family of one of the three engineers who died in last year’s VIA Rail derailment in Burlington, Ontario, are joining the Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s call for improvements in rail technology.

Con-way Freight will raise its less-than-truckload base rates 5.9 percent on average June 24, along with minimum charges and accessorial fees.

Class 1 railroads are making a big push to convert over-the-road freight to intermodal, and for CSX Intermodal, its 2-year-old Northwest Ohio hub is proving to be a force multiplier in that strategy.

The China Railway Corp., a spinoff of China’s former Ministry of Railways, has launched a new express cargo service to allow it to better compete in the logistics market, Global Times reports.

John Spencer, chairman of KiwiRail, along with the KiwiRail’s board, have announced that they will not renew KiwiRail Chief Executive Jim Quinn’s five-year contract when it expires in February 2014.

The European Commission’s Transport Council has plans to introduce a single European authority for placing railway vehicles in the European Union market and reinforce the central role of the European Railway Agency.

The latest round of general rate increases points to higher contractual pricing to come as LTL carriers seek to regain lost pricing levels.

Six trucking companies have sued Los Angeles and the Port of Los Angeles Harbor Commission to block the construction of a recently approved $500 million railyard near the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex.

A consortium of Japanese conglomerate Sojitz Corp. and domestic infrastructure major Larsen and Toubro has won a contract to develop the first phase of India’s long-planned rail freight corridor between Delhi and Mumbai.

A study by the nation’s Advisory Council on Rail Safety’s Working Group on Locomotive Voice and Video Recorders calls for the voluntary installation of voice and video recording devices on locomotives by railway companies.

FedEx Freight will raise its general tariff rates 4.5 percent on average July 1, following a route blazed by UPS Freight and ABF Freight System in May and June.