TRANSPORT POLICIES * USA - White House Releases Partial Highway Reauthorization Bill

Washington,DC,USA -Expediters On Line, by Oliver B. Patton -May 4, 2011:  -- The White House released a partial proposal for a six-year transportation reauthorization bill that would, among other things, begin the process of testing a mileage-based funding system... The draft proposal, called the Transportation Opportunities Act, is being billed as a trial balloon for ideas that the administration would like to see included in a reauthorization bill that Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, has said should be on President Obama's desk by August... Besides a pilot test for the new funding mechanism, the bill proposes new tolling options, ways to speed up the delivery of infrastructure projects, program reforms at the Department of Transportation, creation of a National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance Fund, and creation of an Office of Freight Policy at DOT...

TRANSPORT POLICIES * Europe - EU plan to restrict day time freight deliveries

Brussels,Belgium -Biglorryblog (UK), by Laurie Dealer -April 1, 2011: -- The EU is looking to extend the practise carried out by local authorities in the UK of restricting high street deliveries during the day to cover all day time deliveries... Many local authorities enforce a 10 to four pm ban on high street deliveries, according to the EU, this cuts day time congestion, claims the EU, and it wants to extend this to all deliveries to homes and businesses not based on established trading estates... It argues that all deliveries should be made in two time slots; 4am to 10am and 4pm to 10pm... The consultation paper, labelled Diminution of Day Time Freight Delivery is also keen to focus on localism, and suggests that only freight businesses based within 50 miles of a delivery destination should be allowed to travel the 'final mile'... The consultation also argues that local government should foot the bill if local businesses choose to have its freight delivered by rail exceeding the 50 mile radius, in an effort to further reduce road congestion, and boost an ailing rail freight industry...

TRANSPORT POLICIES * Europe - Commission's White Paper: back to forced modal shift

The European Commission its new White Paper on Transport, a transportation vision on the horizon

Brussels,Belgium -Truck & Business, by Claude Yvens -29 March 2011:  ...  For freight transport, the watchwords of this new version, which will shape European policies in the years to come, are the modal shift, the abolition of barriers, new methods of financing infrastructure and wide application the polluter-pays principle... Here some points:
- Options chosen for the transport of goods in urban areas: "The interface between transport over long distances and the 'last mile' should be organized more efficiently. We must limit individual deliveries, which is the less efficient route"

* Encourage the vehicles clean, safe and quiet for all modes of transport

* Aim city logistics 'zero-emissions' in 2030

* Promote the procurement of low emission fleet vehicles for delivery

- Selected options for transporting goods over medium distances (less than 300 km): "It is unlikely that more efficient vehicles and cleaner fuels are sufficient to reduce emissions sufficiently. In addition, they do not solve the problem of congestion. But these items will remain mostly on the road"


- Selected options for transporting goods over long distances: "Beyond 300 km, the decarbonization of technical solutions are limited, and multimodality becomes more attractive to shippers" ...

Transport Policy * USA - A Chairman Makes Trucking’s Case for Highway Bill at Congressional Hearing

"The trucking industry needs a new surface transportation bill"

Washington,DC,USA -Transport Topics -30 March 2011: ...  American Trucking Associations Chairman, Barbara Windsor, told a congressional panel Tuesday that the trucking industry needs a new surface transportation bill, with a focus on highways, as soon as possible... Windsor, president of Hahn Transportation, New Market, Md., said “our current highway system no longer meets our needs”, speaking before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s highways and transit subcommittee... Windsor said the next highway funding authorization should fund non-highway items like transit from the General Fund, rather than fund that with fuel tax receipts, and should maintain the prohibition on tolls on currently untolled interstates...