SCAC Code Problem
February 17, 2005

The National Motor Freight Transportation Association (NMFTA) who provides U.S. Customs with the SCAC carrier database decided to purge from the approved SCAC database, any and all carriers who have not paid their annual fee. This resulted in many carriers' SCAC codes being deactivated and held up shipments at the border.

This, of course, caused major problems for carriers and brokers nationwide.

The database has been "unpurged" and all previously approved SCAC Codes should be working again.

Customs has informed us that the NMFTA will be purging their system again in the very near future but will be giving the importing community a warning before they do it.  Please inform carriers, that to avoid having their SCAC deactivated (when this purge finally happens), they need to renew their SCAC by paying their annual fee to the NMFTA.  

This can be done at www.nmfta.org.

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Advance Electronic Cargo FAQ- Updated Jan 28, 2005
January 28, 2005

U.S. CBP Initiative under the Trade Act 2002:

Frequently Asked Questions about Advance Cargo Reporting can be found here:

Questions 9, 20 and 22 have been updated

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U.S. to reinstate Seaway tolls, 09 Feb 2005, JOC

The Bush Administration plans to restore tolls on the St. Lawrence Seaway starting next year, two decades after Congress dropped the charges.

The fiscal 2006 budget proposals President Bush sent to Congress this week seeks authority for the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. to collect tolls as part of a plan to wean the agency from federal funding.

The budget proposal calls for $16,284,000 for the agency in 2006, up $577,000 from fiscal 2005 allocation. The office is currently funded through the Harbor Maintenance Tax on imports. This would change in 2006, with about $8 million coming from tolls and $8 million from appropriations.

"The budget request would have our corporation start collecting tolls and over time go back to being fully self-sufficient, based on tolls and, marginally, some other fees such as tolls on pleasure craft," [said] Albert Jacquez, U.S. Seaway administrator.

Canada and the United States together charged tolls when the Seaway opened in 1959.

Congress dropped the tolls in 1987 in a bid to spur more shipping through the Seaway. Canada's St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. retained its tolls. It is a government-owned, but private sector-operated commercial entity forbidden by law from receiving government funding. It charges tolls on ships and cargo for the Montreal-Lake Ontario section of five Canadian and two U.S. locks and on the Welland Canal section of eight locks.

Jacquez said there was no intention of moving the U.S. agency out of the Department of Transport as a "commercialized" agency, like its Canadian counterpart.

The American tolls would match those of Canada, reached, as before, by negotiation between the two Seaway administrations. The Canadian agency has a business plan permitting it to increase the tolls by 2 percent a year, as it last did in 2004.

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Trucking facing capacity crunch again, 09 Feb 2005, JOC

NORWALK, Calif. -- The long-haul trucking industry could again find itself short of capacity during the peak-shipping season this year, a trucking executive said.

Truckers suffered a severe capacity crunch in 2004, particularly at West Coast ports (schedules) where the volume of import shipments rise to almost three times that of exports during the summer and fall, creating equipment imbalances throughout the transportation network. Those problems could resurface as early as spring, said Stephen Russell, chief executive of the Celadon Group, in an address to the Los Angeles Transportation Club.

U.S. truckload capacity has dropped 20 percent over the past four years, due largely to an industrywide driver shortage, Russell said. Harbor drayage is also hurting. Independent drivers who are paid by the load are shunning long lines at congested terminals that have made it difficult for them to pay for rising fuel costs and health benefits.

While long-haul drivers are paid by the mile, receive benefits and earn an average of $48,000 a year, long trips away from home and related issues are forcing carriers to find new ways to put the brakes on employee turnover that averages about 125 percent annually.

Russell said Celadon, based in Indianapolis, has one of the better retention rates in the industry, with 79 percent annual turnover.

Celadon pays drivers a $1,000 bonus for every 3,000 miles driven. Russell also said the company pays its driver promptly, ensuring them that if they turn in their paperwork by Tuesday, they will be paid for the entire period on Thursday. It also pays for standby time if a driver waits more than two hours for a trailer to be unloaded.

Even with these incentives, it is difficult to prevent turnover in long-haul trucking. "No one is growing," Russell said. When a motor carrier buys a competitor that is going out of business, it is usually to acquire the drivers rather than the trucks."