Ennore passes 200k exports, starts imports
The port of Ennore reached a total of 200,000 vehicle exports at the beginning of August and also received its first vehicle imports – 110 Mitsubishi Pajero SUVs transported by K-Line from Thailand.
The port, located just north of Chennai on India’s east coast, began vehicle exports in September 2010 following a $23m investment in a multi-purpose berth and storage development.
Ennore Port’s managing director S. Velumani told The Hindu that carmakers with facilities around Chennai were interested in using the port as an alternative to the congested port of Chennai. However, access to the port is hampered by the, as yet unfinished, Ennore-Manali Road Improvement Project. According to The Hindu the haphazard parking of trailers on all four lanes along the Inner Ring Road and Tiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panchetti road have hampered the free flow of traffic.
Nissan began exporting Micras produced at its Orangadam plant from the port shortly after it opened and in April this year Toyota Kirloskar Motors began exports of the Etios from its plant in Bangalore via Ennore for shipment to South Africa
Yusen sets up division in Turkey
Yusen Logistics has set up a division in Turkey that will provide a range of logistics services from the beginning of October this year, including air and ocean forwarding as well as inland road transport and warehousing for the automotive and retail sectors.
Called Yusen Logistics Turkey Lojistik Hizmetleri Limited Sirketi and based in Istanbul, the company will establish a hub for networks in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, Central Asia and the Middle East.
According to Yusen Turkey is boosting its exports to Europe and surrounding nations and establishing itself as both a production base and consumer of global products, marking it out as a centre of logistics to support trade.
The new company will be headed by managing director, Jeremy Robin Davidson.
Yusen already has a representative office in Turkey for its Yusen Logistics (Europe) division.
Cummins and Linpac return to sender throughout UK
Cummins Turbo Technologies, a division of engine systems provider Cummins based in the UK, is now using returnable transit packaging from Linpac Allibert for the delivery of turbocharger parts from its entire supply base in the UK.
“We now send out the returnable containers to all of our UK suppliers who have been very receptive to the idea,” said Paul Harris, senior production engineer from Cummins Turbo Technologies. “As well as reducing their waste, they also get free containers to send their parts in. Where products are imported from the Far East, these are decanted from cardboard packaging into our containers at the suppliers’ UK warehouses or when it gets to site in Huddersfield.”
Over the last decade Cummins has been gradually reducing the amount of cardboard packaging it receives into the Huddersfield plant from its suppliers by extending its use of Linpac’s returnable packaging. The parts makers now sends out 11,000 attached lid containers and 7,000 foam inserted baskets to the supply base for each company to fill, label and return for picking on the factory floor.
Simon Knights, commercial director from Linpac Allibert, said: “While many warehouse and factories now use returnable transit packaging and encourage suppliers to do the same, Cummins Turbo Technologies has taken its commitment to waste reduction even further by actually providing its own containers to its UK supplier base.”
FMCSA rule challenged in US courts
The US Department of Transport’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is facing considerable resistance to its hours of service recommendation which aims to change provisions in the 34-hour restart in a driver’s working week.
Up to 15 groups including the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Retail Federation have added their weight to trucking associations to retain the current hours of service rule that allows a maximum of 11 hours of driving a day across a 70 hour week. The American Trucking Association (ATA) has said the FMCSA’s proposal is based on “sham” analysis.
Under the FMCSA’s Fatigued Driving category, one of seven that comprise its safety regulations for trucking in the US brought in under the original Comprehensive Safety Analysis programme, the administration wants to keep the 11-hour driving day but reduce the driver’s overall on-duty workweek to 70 hours within a seven-day period. In addition, drivers would not be able to work eight hours without taking a mandatory 30-minute break, which could be broken up into two 15-minute breaks.
In response the ATA filed a brief in July with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which said that federal rules further restricting drivers' ability to work and drive would add tremendous cost to the economy and undue burden onto drivers while providing minimal possible safety benefits.
"From the outset of FMCSA's review of the hours-of-service rule, ATA has contended that the rules that have been in place since 2004 have been working and have been a major contributing factor in the reduction in truck-involved crashes and fatalities," said ATA president and CEO Bill Graves. "FMCSA systematically, and without regard for science or logic, distorted the available data in order to fit it to a predetermined and arbitrary outcome.”
