Welcome to Fall. Now that we are finished with the heat of the summer it is back to business. This month we report:
CARGO THEFT – Freightwatch has released its latest quarterly report and Florida and Texas have taken the lead as the target cargo theft areas, beating out California. The report states that there were 185 reported incidents of cargo theft during the quarter. The average loss-value per load increased roughly 5.6 percent, to $17,415. Florida had 45 of the 185; Texas had the second-most theft incidents with 29, with California following closely behind with 28. The top five included Georgia and Illinois with 15 each. Unsecured parking once again topped the list of locations where theft was most likely to occur, accounting for 113 reported incidents, primarily at truck stops. Thefts of trailers and containers accounted for 75 percent of all reported incidents. The product type most often stolen was food/drinks with 19% of all incidents. Electronics regained its position at the second place spot with 32 thefts, or 18% of the total, while the personal care category recorded triple the amount of thefts year-over-year, with 15 thefts or 8% of the total. The building/industrial sector experienced the third most thefts with 19 or 11% of total thefts. The category of pharmaceuticals had by far the highest of any category when it came to the average value of each heist at $2.8 million, while the electronics category was ranked second at nearly $305,000.
VEHICLE MILES TRAVELED – The Federal Highway Administration says that we are all on the road. The FHA reports that miles traveled from July 2013 to June 2014 were at their highest point since 2008 with travel of 2.97 trillion miles. In the first half of this year, 1.466 trillion miles have been driven, the largest number since 2010 and the fourth-highest in the report’s 78-year-history. FHWA’s report “Traffic Volume Trends” reveals that 261.7 billion vehicle-miles traveled were driven in June 2014. June has not hit such numbers since 2010, and June 2014 marks the largest single-month gain this year.
DELAYED RULEMAKING ON INSURANCE LIMITS – The DOT is not yet ready to announce its proposed rules on raising the minimum insurance requirement for interstate motor carriers and whether to require speed limiters on new heavy trucks. The proposal to raise the insurance minimum, originally scheduled for publication later this month, has been delayed until Oct. 22 and the proposed speed-limiter rule has been delayed until Jan 12. The minimum financial responsibility rule has been fast-tracked by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration since the agency released a study in April indicating the required minimum insurance for most carriers is not adequate to cover many fatal and serious-injury crashes.
