Baltimore Metropolitan Council staff would like to wish all freight stakeholders and friends a very Happy New Year!

The Freight Movement Task Force is a forum for Baltimore region freight stakeholders to provide input into the transportation planning process, conduct freight planning studies, and share information and network. Rick Crawford of Norfolk Southern Railroad currently Chairs the Task Force.

The Freight Movement Task Force welcomes all freight stakeholders to participate in quarterly meetings. Task Force members and attendees also are encouraged to participate by providing ideas for future meeting topics and freight planning studies.

At our November 2006 meeting, Senior Associate Alan Meyers of Cambridge Systematics provided a captivating presentation on how congestion impacts the freight industry. Several attendees were interested to obtain a copy of this presentation. Please click on the link to view Mr. Meyers’ presentation.

In 2006, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the U.S. interstate system and the 50th anniversary of the freight shipping container invention, both of which contributed to tremendous advancement and growth of the U.S. economy.

U.S. Interstate System—In June 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Federal Aid Highway Act (National Interstate and Defense Highways Act). The vision to connect the nation with a state-of-the-art interstate system strengthened the nation’s freight economy by linking water ports, airports, and rail-yards to the nation’s metropolitan areas.

Shipping Container—In 1956, U.S. trucking entrepreneur Malcom McLean put 58 containers aboard a retrofitted tanker ship and sailed them from Newark to Houston. McLean’s innovation was the idea of using large containers that never opened between origin and destination, between shipper and consignee, and that were transferable on an intermodal basis among trucks, ships, and railcars. The vision to containerize goods set in motion the growing intermodal freight system.

In December 2006, the Department of Homeland Security released the Secure Freight Initiative. The program will start in 2007 at six ports in Pakistan, Honduras, United Kingdom, Oman, Singapore, and South Korea. All containers leaving those ports for the United States will be scanned for radiation before they leave. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said “[T] his initiative advances a comprehensive strategy to secure the global supply chain and cut off any possibility of exploitation by terrorists.”

Traffic World 12-18-06

In January 2006, after Bush approved the transfer of several terminals owned by London-based P&O holdings to Dubai Ports World, Republicans and Democrats on Capital Hill rejected the deal. DP World is owned by Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem. Political pressure forced DP World to sell its U.S. port terminal assets to American International Group, the world’s largest insurance firm and based in New York. DP World plans to transfer ownership of its U.S. terminals to AIG in the first quarter of 2007. This includes container terminals at the Port of Baltimore. DP World plans to focus new investment in Europe, and is presently a contender to purchase a sizable stake in a leading German container stevedore, Hamburg-Haven und Logistik at the Port of Hamburg.

Traffic World 12-18-06