Man on Truck Hood Politely Asks Driver to Call Police
I ve never been hit by a car, but I imagine it s a pretty stressful situation. I m not sure I d be able to stay as calm as this gentleman seems to be. According to the video, this man was hit by a rather large truck, and jumped on that truck s hood as it tried to flee the scene. Another driver pulls up alongside the truck, and the man politely asks the other driver to call the police. That s poise under pressure.
(via YouTube1, featured image via CBS and MacGyver2 because MacGyver is great)
Relevant to your interests
References
- ^ YouTube (www.youtube.com)
- ^ CBS and MacGyver (www.cbs.com)
05/07/2013: Trucking company to pay $83,500 for gasoline spill in …
Release Date: 05/07/2013Contact Information: Darcy O Connor, EPA, 303-312-6392, oconnor.darcy@epa.gov Matthew Allen, EPA, 303-312-6085, allen.matthew@epa.gov
Penalty marks the final chapter for EPA cleanup action near Flathead Lake from hauling accident(Denver, Colo., May 7, 2013) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that Keller Transportation, Inc. (Keller) has agreed to pay penalties totaling $83,500 to settle Clean Water Act claims related to a 2008 tanker truck spill approximately 500 feet from the shores of Flathead Lake and within the exterior boundaries of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) of the Flathead Nation. The tanker spill resulted in more than 6,300 gallons of gasoline entering springs along Flathead Lake, impacting groundwater as well as the lake. The proposed settlement addresses violations of the Oil Pollution Act, which prohibits the discharge of oil to waters of the U.S.
Truck accidents can have a significant impact on the environment and in this case caused a threat to public health, said Mike Gaydosh, EPA enforcement director in Denver. This penalty serves as a strong reminder that every effort must be taken to avoid accidents and spills when hauling hazardous materials. EPA will take necessary steps to protect the public.
The tanker truck accident occurred on April 2, 2008 and was determined to have been caused due to excessive speed around a curve on Montana Highway 35 in Lake County, Montana, resulting in the second tanker trailer striking a rock embankment causing the trailer to rupture. Gasoline from the tanker discharged onto the embankment directly up gradient from Flathead Lake, impacting the seeps, springs, and adjoining shorelines of the Flathead Lake. Fumes from the spill resulted in the evacuation of five homes along the lake for nearly a year.
EPA, in coordination with CSKT, has been working with Keller on the clean up at the site since April 2008. In May 2008 and amended September 2008, EPA issued an administrative order to Keller for the remediation activities that were necessary at the site. Remediation activities have included installation of air abatement systems in the affected homes, ongoing air monitoring, removal and appropriate disposal of contaminated soil, and installation of a groundwater collection trench and permanent water treatment system to treat the contaminated groundwater.
Annual air monitoring has indicated that the abatement systems are working properly as there have been no identified indoor air violations in the affected homes in the past three years. Groundwater sampling shows that the area of contamination is decreasing, but there are still high levels of contamination in the main spill pathway. Keller will continue to operate the water treatment system under the requirements of EPA s administrative order until such time as EPA determines that appropriate clean up levels have been met. Keller has complied with all the cleanup requests that have been required by EPA.
For more information on the Oil Pollution Act requirements:
http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/content/lawsregs/opaover.htm1
http://epa.gov/oem/content/reporting/index.htm2
References
- ^ http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/content/lawsregs/opaover.htm (www.epa.gov)
- ^ http://epa.gov/oem/content/reporting/index.htm (epa.gov)
Trucking Along
Here s a quick rundown of where we are with that big ol list of 2013 s Atomic Robo projects1.
All New Super Rad Merch: Gettin there. March, I think. You guys will kinda go nuts for what we re brewing up. It ll be worth the wait.
Real Science Adventures (vol 2): Totally written, 33% drawn and colored. Looking great so far!
Atomic Robo: Last Stop: On schedule for mid-2013 worldwide release.
Atomic Robo: the Action Science RPG: I believe the game text is done? Some small changes and additions here and there as we move on to layout, proofs, etc. come March/April. But should be on schedule for a summer release.
Atomic Robo Free Comic Book Day 2013: Done! It ll be at your local shop on Free Comic Book Day. Enjoy!
Vol 8, ATOMIC ROBO AND THE SAVAGE SWORD OF DR. DINOSAUR: Totally written and Scott s complaining about every page of the first issue now. That s another way to say he s working on it.
Real Science Adventures (vol 3): Still a toss up between three different ideas. Maybe four. Don t see why we would not get started on it this summer.
Vol 9, Atomic Robo and the Knights of the Golden Circle: Still conceivable we ll get to this toward the end of the year. Of course, I should finish writing it first.
References
- ^ that big ol list of 2013 s Atomic Robo projects (www.atomic-robo.com)
Top Trucking Economist Warns Q1 Will Be Weak – Business Insider
Truckers saw the Great Recession1 coming before anyone else. So it pays to pay close attention to what they have to say.
According to the latest release from the American Trucking Associations2, the advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 2.8% in December, after surging 3.9% in November.
This back-to-back increase was the best of gain of 2012.
For all of 2012, tonnage was up 2.3%. In 2011, the index increased 5.8%.
But not all the news was bullish: compared with December 2011, the index was off 2.3 percent the worst year-over-year result since November 2009.
And the numbers are likely to continue to dip in the short-term as a result of new taxes, ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said in the the association’s statement.
As paychecks shrink for all households due to higher taxes, I m expecting a weak first quarter for tonnage and the broader economy. Since trucks account for the vast majority of deliveries in the retail supply chain, any reduction in consumer spending will have ramifications on truck tonnage levels.
Here’s a historical look:
SEE MORE: What America’s Biggest Companies Are Telling Us About The Economy >3
References
- ^ Great Recession (www.businessinsider.com)
- ^ American Trucking Associations (www.truckline.com)
- ^ What America’s Biggest Companies Are Telling Us About The Economy > (www.businessinsider.com)
Goldman, UBS On China Data Discrepancy – Business Insider
Daniel Goodman / Business Insider
Jan. 14 (Bloomberg1) — China s unexpected surge in exports last month renewed concern from analysts at Goldman Sachs2 Group Inc., UBS3 AG and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. that statistics from the nation can be unreliable.
The 14.1 percent jump from a year earlier was the biggest positive surprise since March 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The increase didn t match goods movements through ports and imports by trading partners according to UBS, while Goldman Sachs and Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. cited a divergence from overseas orders in a manufacturing index.
Smaller trade gains could signal a less robust recovery from a seven-quarter slowdown just as Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan says the economic rebound is a sign of improving global demand. Accurate statistics from the world s second-biggest economy are increasingly important for domestic and foreign investors and for China s government, ANZ s Liu Li-Gang says.
China s influence on the global economy has become bigger, so not only Chinese policy makers but also business people and the rest of the world need better data, said Liu, Hong Kong- based chief economist for Greater China, who formerly worked for the World Bank4. Unreliable data could have a negative impact on resource allocation and business planning.
The Beijing-based customs administration, which reported the December trade figures on Jan. 10, said it couldn t immediately respond to a faxed request from Bloomberg News for comment on the banks skepticism.
The Shanghai Composite Index, China s benchmark stock gauge, rose 0.1 percent as of 10:01 a.m. local time.
Economy Stabilizing
China s economic growth may have recovered to 7.8 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, after sliding to a three-year low of 7.4 percent in the previous period, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey ahead of the data release on Jan. 18.
Evidence that China s economy appears to be stabilizing is one cause of optimism that global demand will improve this year, Swan said in his weekly economic note yesterday. China is Australia s largest export market.
The median forecast for China s December exports in a Bloomberg survey of 40 economists was for a 5 percent gain, with the highest estimate at 9.2 percent, after November s 2.9 percent growth. Goldman Sachs, ranked by Bloomberg as the most accurate forecaster for the indicator, projected a 7 percent rise.
The increase, which was the biggest since May, could indicate exporters rush to finish year-end orders and government pressure to report exports before the end of the year to reach the government s 2012 target of 10 percent growth, Shen Jianguang, Mizuho s Hong Kong-based chief Asia economist, said in a Jan. 10 note.
Rushed Shipments
It is possible that local governments may have tried to boost exports data by either making round trips in special trade zones or by exporting earlier than otherwise in an attempt to improve the annual exports data, Goldman Sachs Beijing- based economists Yu Song and Yin Zhang wrote the same day.
Rushed shipments and even faked exports to secure tax refunds may have contributed to the stronger growth data, according to Alistair Thornton and Ren Xianfang, Beijing-based analysts at IHS Inc.
UBS economists led by Hong Kong-based Wang Tao pointed to a quite obvious discrepancy in the growth of China s exports to Taiwan and South Korea and those economies reported imports from China in recent months, even as historically they have tracked each other well.
Export Index
A sub-index tracking new export orders as part of the government s manufacturing purchasing managers index was at 50 in December, the dividing line between expansion and contraction and down from 50.2 in November.
Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, a private gauge of Australian inflation advanced in December on costlier gasoline, travel and rent while home-loan approvals unexpectedly fell in November for the first time in four months.
The Indian wholesale-price index probably climbed 7.37 percent in December from a year earlier, a Bloomberg survey showed.
In Europe, a report may show euro-area industrial production fell in November from a year earlier for a 13th month, according to a Bloomberg survey.
ANZ s Liu and colleague Louis Lam published research last week that underscored doubts about the quality of China s economic data. They found that quarterly GDP, industrial production, fixed-asset investment and inflation data published in percentage terms failed to conform to Benford s Law, which holds that in any series of numbers certain patterns will be found only if the statistics are naturally generated.
WikiLeaks Cable
Li Keqiang, who may succeed Wen Jiabao as premier in March, was quoted in 2007 as saying he watched figures on power, rail cargo and loans because gross domestic product numbers were man-made. Li s remarks were in a U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks5 in late 2010.
After China s statistics bureau reported third-quarter GDP in October, Standard Chartered6 Plc analysts said the 7.4 percent increase was too good to be true when compared with the slowdown in electricity production and the readings of a manufacturing index, while London-based Capital Economics Ltd. said its own analysis indicated expansion of about 6.5 percent.
Some trading companies are turning to transportation providers like Shenzhen Global Express Logistics Ltd. for help in shipping goods through so-called bonded zones to claim export tax rebates or charge higher import prices for goods without them physically leaving the country.
One-Day Tour
Shenzhen Global offers customs clearing and other freight services including a one-day tour, Lin Yongtai, a manager with the company in the city bordering Hong Kong, said in a telephone interview.
For a fee of 1,000 yuan ($161) per vehicle per day, the company will drive trucks into warehouses in bonded zones, where cargo must clear customs, so that businesses can obtain a refund of value-added tax on the export of their products or boost sale prices for goods that carry the cachet of being imported.
A poor villager can boast he has thousands of yuan of turnover every day, but people later discover he only has one bull — he takes the bull out every morning and brings it back every evening, Lin said. The same applies to some parts of China s foreign trade.
Such practices aren t unknown to the customs administration. In March 2009 it issued a statement that some local governments and enterprises were trying to move goods in and out of bonded zones to inflate their export and import numbers and said such shipments would not be included in official data.
–Nerys Avery, Zhou Xin. With assistance from Sharon Chen and Rina Chandran in Singapore. Editors: Scott Lanman, James Mayger
References
- ^ Bloomberg (www.businessinsider.com)
- ^ Goldman Sachs (www.businessinsider.com)
- ^ UBS (www.businessinsider.com)
- ^ World Bank (www.businessinsider.com)
- ^ WikiLeaks (www.businessinsider.com)
- ^ Standard Chartered (www.businessinsider.com)
export documentation in shipping line | Waytogulf.com
Academics QUALIFICATION:
INTERMEDIATE (Science) from Board of Higher Secondary Education Karachi
MATRICULATION(Science) fromBoard of Secondary Education Karachi
Working Experience:
SOURCING CONCEPTS (Mar, 2010- Till )
:
Nature of Business : Textile Buying Agency
Presently working as an Asst. Manager Export
:
My responsibilities are:
- Maintaining Export Documents
- Preparation of weekly, monthly & annual reports as per requirement of foreign customers
- Interaction with Warehouse for Cargo / Loading Status
- Correspondence with EPB, KCCI, P.H.M.A & Banks etc.
- Dealing with Shipping Lines & various Freight Forwarders
- Dealing / Coordination with Clearing Agents for shipment execution
- Coordination with Port Authorities
- Managing & Process Letter of Credit / Documents.
APPAREL CONNECTION (Jun, 2008- Feb, 2010 )
Company Status : Proprietorship
Nature of Business : Textile Buying Agency
Presently working as an Export Incharge:
My responsibilities are:
- Maintaining Export Documents
- Preparation of weekly, monthly & annual reports as per requirement of foreign customers
- Interaction with Warehouse for Cargo / Loading Status
- Correspondence with EPB, KCCI, P.H.M.A & Banks etc.
- Dealing with Shipping Lines & various Freight Forwarders
- Dealing / Coordination with Clearing Agents for shipment execution
- Coordination with Port Authorities
- Managing & Process Letter of Credit / Documents.
FAZAL GARMENTS. (1st Sep, 2005 30th May, 2008)
Company Status : Partnership
Nature of Business : Manufacturers & Exporters of Knitted Garments
Presently working as an Export Manager:
My responsibilities are:
- Preparation monthly, quarterly, half-yearly & annual reports.
- Correspondence with Buying Houses, EPB, (P.H.M.A) & Bank etc
- Managing & Process Letter of Credit documents & negotiation etc
- Managing & Process Duty Draw Back (Rebate) refund
- Managing & Process Research & Development Support (R&D) cases
- Managing & Process Sales tax refund cases
- Processing documents for refinances loans and reporting its performance under Part 1 & II & EE & FE
HASNI FABRIC PVT LTD. (1st March, 2005 Aug 2005)
Company Status : Partnership
Nature of Business : Manufacturers & Exporters of Knitted Garments
Working as an Export Manager:
My responsibilities are:
- Preparation monthly, quarterly, half-yearly & annual reports.
- Correspondence with Buying Houses, EPB, (P.H.M.A) & Bank etc
- Managing & Process Letter of Credit documents & negotiation etc
PakistanHosiery Manufacturers. (1st Sep 2000 Feb 2005)
Company Status : Semi-Govt
Nature of Business : Textile Trade Association
Working as an in charge Transfer Quota Servicing:
My responsibilities are:
To maintain Status of Quota respective books
TrackBack – South East Shipping News – Typepad
PortMiami office tower for Chinese firms under construction while larger Pacific cargo carriers are discussing long term access to PortMiami s largest cargo terminal
Posted on September 21, 20121 by China Briefing2
- Several large Pacific trade carriers are courting Miami for a long-term access agreement for Port Miami s largest cargo terminal, according to Lynskey.
- Miami has been approached to work with Chinese business interests as a principal access point for Asian imports into the southeast United States.
- The proposal incorporates a massive mid-state rail-served logistics park for distribution of Chinese-made products, as well as related light manufacturing activities.
- Under consideration is a dedicated on-port office tower for Chinese multi-national firms ( China 1 ) located in the midst of a downtown Miami World Trade Center complex.
Sept. 21 Miami has always been a major center for international trade by both water and air. Port Miami s new foreign trade zone, featuring a planned World Trade Center complex, represents an opportunity for Chinese multi-nationals to display goods for the entire market of the Americas, as Miami is the center of trade and commerce for Latin America as well as the southeast United States.
We are much like Hong Kong in our trade patterns. A significant amount of Port Miami s international trade is re-export trade bound for Latin America, said Port Miami Assistant Director Kevin Lynskey.
In fact, Miami and Hong Kong are both gateway cities to their respective regions. Already a sister port to the Port of Shanghai, earlier this year Port Miami signed a sister port agreement with the Port of Kaohsiung in Taiwan, further reinforcing economic ties between Miami and China.
Economic ties deepen with the harbor
While the Panama Canal is expanding with a third lock, Port Miami is deepening its harbor to -50 feet. Fully laden mega-ships (8,500-13,000 TEUs), commonly known as Super post-Panamax ships, will for the first time gain direct access to the southeast United States. Port Miami will be the only port south of Norfolk, Virginia, able to accept these ships fully laden.
Along with the Deep Dredge, Port Miami is undertaking a US$2 billion public and private investment in infrastructure improvements, including a port tunnel serving as a dedicated roadway connector linking port facilities with Florida s interstate system and on-dock intermodal rail for ease of ship-to-rail container transport. Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) provides seamless connections to major national railroads, enabling goods to reach 70 percent of the U.S. population within one to four days and to southeast U.S. markets before a ship can even arrive at ports north of Florida.
Port Miami and FEC are currently engaged in an aggressive joint marketing strategy, focused not only on steamship line companies, but also manufacturers, exporters, importers, 3PLs, supply chain, freight-forwarders, and custom house broker companies for the greatest market penetration.
Several major companies have worked with Port Miami and FEC on pilot import container test programs and have been very pleased with the service, even prior to the completion of the harbor dredge and on-dock rail projects, said David Banfield, director of sales and port development for the Florida East Coast Railway.
Port Miami as a key for America-Asia bilateral trade
Port Miami also serves as an efficient gateway for goods bound for Asia with 55 percent of the port s cargo trade being export-driven. Port Miami and FEC authorities agree that Miami s import/export trade with China is expected to double over the next decade for several reasons, listed below.
Balanced trade, import-export
Since Miami is at the end of the U.S. domestic supply chain, it can serve as a great transshipment hub when Asian trade is dropped at Port Miami and then quickly trans-loaded. Port Miami is actively working with the largest exporters to China, to re-fill Asia-bound containers filled with many different kinds of products. Some include:
Soybeans
Grain
Scrap metal
Paper
Resins
Frozen poultry
U.S.-manufactured automobiles
Raw-baled cotton
Alternative fuels
Import containers moving north from Miami will also benefit from attractive back-haul rates. Additionally, those same import containers, once made empty in U.S. markets beyond Jacksonville, Florida, can be reloaded with U.S. exports. In fact, a new U.S. export grain route is a near-future possibility, Banfield said.
Given the margin pressures that importers are facing in today s economic environment, Port Miami and Florida East Coast Railway will be in position to significantly reduce transportation expense, inventory investment, and carbon emissions, said James Hertwig, CEO and president of Florida East Coast Railway.
Turn-around
As China s currency appreciates against the U.S. dollar, the exchange rate has created a more balanced trade scenario with China on a long-term basis, as the emergence of China s middle class progresses.
As purchasing power gravitates to the Chinese middle class, the more their select tastes for acquiring higher-end U.S. consumer products will be, said Banfield.
The changing Chinese diet shifting to animal proteins as disposable income increases represents a substantial opportunity for the U.S. to export more filled containers to China. The U.S. has a substantial fresh-water advantage over most of the world and has its most productive agricultural sector, Lynskey added.
Partnerships
Several large Pacific trade carriers are courting Miami for a long-term access agreement for Port Miami s largest cargo terminal, according to Lynskey. Miami has been approached to work with Chinese business interests as a principal access point for Asian imports into the southeast United States. The proposal incorporates a massive mid-state rail-served logistics park for distribution of Chinese-made products, as well as related light manufacturing activities. Under consideration is a dedicated on-port office tower for Chinese multi-national firms ( China 1 ) located in the midst of a downtown Miami World Trade Center complex.
Business with benefits
FTZs and Miami are a match made in trading heaven, whether the goods were made in America or imported from China and stored in an FTZ for re-export, Lynskey said.
Asian exporters shipping into Port Miami will not be required to pay U.S. import duties, as long as the goods are heading from one foreign country to another. The port plans to set up satellite zones that would allow companies to have FTZ benefits in their own secure warehouses.
Flagler s South Florida Logistics Center is within the FTZ and enables companies to put warehouses, distribution centers and trans-load operations on site, where movement of containers from the rail to the facility would not have to go out onto a public highway, according to Hertwig.
Miami and Asia s win-win relationship
According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection guidelines, the following are advantages for conducting business in a foreign trade zone:
While in the zone, merchandise is not subject to U.S. duty or excise tax, and duties may be paid at the time they are transferred to the U.S. market for consumption.
Goods may be exported from the zone free of duty and excise tax.
Merchandise may remain in a zone indefinitely, whether or not subject to duty.
Manufacturing and assembly is allowed within a zone. A zone user who plans to send the merchandise into the U.S. market may normally elect to pay either the duty rate applicable on the foreign material placed in the zone or the rate applicable on the finished article, whichever is most advantageous.
When you factor in that Florida is the fourth-largest state economy in the United States, that it houses more than 19 million residents, and more than 85 million out-of-state residents annually visit, it is clear that Port Miami is well positioned to be the first port of call for ships carrying goods to and from Asia.
You can stay up to date with the latest business and investment trends across Asia by subscribing to The Asia Advantage3, our complimentary weekly update service featuring news, commentary, guides, downloads, and multimedia resources.
References
- ^ 4:29 pm (www.china-briefing.com)
- ^ View all posts by China Briefing (www.china-briefing.com)
- ^ The Asia Advantage (www.china-briefing.com)
UH-OH: Orders Of Heavy Duty Truck Have Collapsed – Business …
Almost everything everyone owns in America has spent at least some time in a truck. As such, the health of the trucking industry is a pretty reliable indicator of the health of the economy.
In July, NAFTA Class 8 truck (basically heavy duty trucks) orders collapsed 12,900 new orders were booked for trucks, short of the consensus of analysts, who were expecting 16,000-17,000.
And it’s not just seasonality that played a role. Nigel Coe, an equity analyst covering multi-industry stocks for Morgan Stanley1, alerted clients in a recent note that “the large 23% drop to 12,900 was far greater than the 11% median decline observed for the June/July period since 1996, and that, to make matters worse, the disappointing July print “came on the back of a larger than normal seasonal step-down in June, when Class 8 orders fell 7% M/M to 16,690 worse than the typical 3% M/M decline.”
Coe sees cause for concern that history will repeat itself: “This is yet another lead indicator that suggests an impending slowdown in the US in the last upturn, the peak of the truck cycle has come 19-21 months before the peak of the production cycle.”
Here is a chart showing how the peak in truck sales led the peak in the U.S. production cycle by 19 months:
And here is another chart showing the truck sales indicator doing the same thing, except preceding the peak in industrial production by 21 months:
Coe concludes with a warning on the next few truck sales numbers: “Unless truck orders break out its current 12-18k monthly range YTD within the next 2-3 months, we would have to significantly increase the probability of a double-dip in 2013.”
References
- ^ Morgan Stanley (www.businessinsider.com)
A Major American Trucking Company Has More … – Business Insider
Ryder System, one of the country’s largest transportation and and supply chain management firms, cut guidance1 today as the U.S. recovery stalls.
The company now projects earnings for the second quarter to be between $0.90 and $0.95 per share, below previous forecasts for as much as $1.12.
Ryder attributed the bulk of the cut to weakness within its commercial fleet business. The Miami-based firm said it expected tepid demand to continue through the end of 2012.
But it also blamed high health care costs for its employees.
We are responding with timely and appropriate business adjustments and cost management initiatives to address economic headwinds that are expected to continue through the remainder of the year,” Ryder Chief Greg Swienton said.
The news follows sluggish guidance out U.S. bellwether FedEx2, which disappointed investors after the company beat quarterly expectations.
Shares in Ryder are down more than 13 percent today.
References
- ^ cut guidance (investors.ryder.com)
- ^ sluggish guidance out U.S. bellwether FedEx (www.businessinsider.com)
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