Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.
The court, with one exception, upheld the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) 2011 rules for drivers'
hours of service, known in the trade as HOS. The court overturned a FMCSA provision requiring a 30-minute break for short-haul
drivers, defined in this instance as local delivery drivers such as those working for companies like FedEx Corp. and UPS Inc.
The ruling is a blow to the American Trucking Associations (ATA), which sued the FMCSA in an effort to overturn the rules.
Enforcement of the new rules went into effect July 1, 18 months after the policy was proposed.
In its December 2011 rules, FMCSA reduced a driver's seven-day workweek to 70 hours from 82 hours, a 15-percent cut. For
the first time ever, drivers also have limits placed on their traditional 34-hour minimum restart period, requiring it to occur
once every seven days and to include two rest periods between 1 am and 5 am over two consecutive days. The 2011 rule bars truckers
from driving more than eight hours without first taking at least a 30-minute off-duty break.
In its revisions, the agency left unchanged a key provision allowing 11 hours of continuous drive time after a driver has
spent 10 consecutive hours off duty, instead of reducing the number of continuous driving hours to 10. That sparked opposition
from safety advocacy groups, notably Public Citizen, which said the language would continue to jeopardize the public on the roads.
THIRD TIME'S A CHARM?
Today's decision marks the third time in 10 years that the appeals court has ruled on the issue of driver hours.
At the end of its 22-page decision, the court, perhaps tongue in cheek, said, "the third time's a charm." In an
effort to add historical context, the court said its action "brings to an end much of the permanent warfare
surrounding the HOS rules."
Still, the court couldn't resist chiding the FMCSA, saying the Department of Transportation's truck safety subagency
prevailed "not on the strengths of its rulemaking prowess, but through an artless war of attrition." Those following the
battle for years have said the FMCSA has not done a stellar job in the past of defending its position in court.
While the court ruling was not a ringing endorsement of the merits of the FMCSA policy, it found that the agency did not
behave "arbitrarily and capriciously" in weighing the merits of the restart provisions. The judges added that FMCSA "acted
reasonably, if incrementally, in tailoring the restart to promote driver health and safety."
In its statement,
ATA chose to focus on the court's decision denying the rest provision for the local delivery drivers. The group also noted that
although the court found various flaws with FMCSA's rationale, it declined to second-guess the agency's methodologies and
interpretations and instead deferred to its technical expertise in the issue.
Dave Osiecki, ATA's senior vice president of policy and regulatory affairs, said in the statement that the ruling should "serve
as a warning to FMCSA not to rely on similarly unsubstantiated rulemakings in the future."
Osiecki said the evidence presented in the rulemaking process made clear that driver fatigue is a minor factor in the cause of
crashes involving a truck. "ATA hopes FMCSA will work with the trucking industry to address more pressing safety and driver
behavior issues, including those than can be directly affected through proven traffic enforcement activities aimed at unsafe
operating behaviors," he said.
Thomas E. Bray, an HOS expert at J.J. Keller & Associates Inc., a Neenah, Wis.-based consultancy that has been working with
carriers to prepare for the changes, said today he was surprised by the decision because of FMCSA's past inabilities to sway the
courts. Bray said the court essentially found that the FMCSA finally has enough valid data points to support its policy.
The 2011 rules have become some of the most publicly reviled policy changes in transportation history. Carriers say the rules
cut into their productivity and require them to deploy more resources to move the same amount of freight they handle now. Shippers
say the new rules have led to a 3- to 5-percent decrease in vehicle miles driven, forcing them to reconfigure their manufacturing
and distribution networks if they want to get their goods to market in a timely fashion. Drivers claim the rules curtail their
ability to earn a living and force rest upon them when they don't need it.
State regulators worry that carriers will put more trucks on the road to offset the productivity losses, straining their
enforcement capabilities. Some in Congress have argued the rule creates a safety hazard by forcing commercial drivers onto the
highways at the same time as millions of morning rush-hour commuters.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The U.S. manufacturing sector has become an engine of new job creation over the past four years, thanks to a combination of federal incentives and mega-trends like nearshoring and the clean energy boom, according to the industrial real estate firm Savills.
While those manufacturing announcements have softened slightly from their 2022 high point, they remain historically elevated. And the sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of the November U.S. presidential election, the company said in its September “Savills Manufacturing Report.”
From 2021 to 2024, over 995,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs were announced, with two thirds in advanced sectors like electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries, semiconductors, clean energy, and biomanufacturing. After peaking at 350,000 news jobs in 2022, the growth pace has slowed, with 2024 expected to see just over half that number.
But the ingredients are in place to sustain the hot temperature of American manufacturing expansion in 2025 and beyond, the company said. According to Savills, that’s because the U.S. manufacturing revival is fueled by $910 billion in federal incentives—including the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—much of which has not yet been spent. Domestic production is also expected to be boosted by new tariffs, including a planned rise in semiconductor tariffs to 50% in 2025 and an increase in tariffs on Chinese EVs from 25% to 100%.
Certain geographical regions will see greater manufacturing growth than others, since just eight states account for 47% of new manufacturing jobs and over 6.3 billion square feet of industrial space, with 197 million more square feet under development. They are: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee.
Across the border, Mexico’s manufacturing sector has also seen “revolutionary” growth driven by nearshoring strategies targeting U.S. markets and offering lower-cost labor, with a workforce that is now even cheaper than in China. Over the past four years, that country has launched 27 new plants, each creating over 500 jobs. Unlike the U.S. focus on tech manufacturing, Mexico focuses on traditional sectors such as automative parts, appliances, and consumer goods.
Looking at the future, the U.S. manufacturing sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of November’s presidential election, Savills said. That’s because both candidates favor protectionist trade policies, and since significant change to federal incentives would require a single party to control both the legislative and executive branches. Rather than relying on changes in political leadership, future growth of U.S. manufacturing now hinges on finding affordable, reliable power amid increasing competition between manufacturing sites and data centers, Savills said.
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.