Freight Worldwide
Transportation
Legislation
Introduced for New Freight Program...
Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), with co-sponsors Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), today introduced the Focusing Resources, Economic Investment, and Guidance to Help
Transportation Act of 2010 (FREIGHT Act), a landmark bill, leading the charge to transform America’s transportation
policy and investment by focusing on the freight network that enables goods and commodities to move about and reach
their markets.
The FREIGHT Act provides a visionary,
comprehensive, systemic approach to infrastructure investment that addresses the nation’s commerce needs while
providing a solid foundation that will also help our nation meet its energy, environmental and safety goals. The
bill also calls for the creation of a new National Freight Infrastructure Grants initiative – a competitive,
merit-based program with broad eligibility for multimodal freight investment designed to focus funds where they
will provide the most public benefit.
The FREIGHT Act of 2010 directs the
Department of Transportation (USDOT) to develop and implement two institutional advances that will improve and
coordinate policy within the federal government and the states. The first is a National Freight Transportation
Strategic Plan to guide and inform goods movement infrastructure investments in future years. In addition, it calls
for the creation of an Office of Freight Planning and Development, led by an Assistant Secretary for Freight
Planning and Development. The bill instructs USDOT to develop baselines, tools and methods within two years to
measure progress.
In developing the National Freight
Transportation Policy, the FREIGHT Act also encourages concurrent improvements in air quality impacts, carbon
emissions, energy use and public health and safety by establishing environmental goals to complement goals for
reducing delays and improving travel time reliability on freight corridors, at gateways and heavy freight
population centers. Similarly, the grant program sets criteria to prioritize projects that improve freight mobility
and enhance economic growth, while incentivizing environmental improvements.
NMFC Update...
The bump clause in the NMFC is the item that allows a shipper to declare extra weight on a shipment to increase the
density and take advantage of shipping their product at a lower class on items whose class is dependent on
density.
As an example, if a client ships plastic articles and the density of the shipment is 3.98 (which is class 250 at
2-4 PCF) , the NMFC allows the shipper to "bump" the weight of the shipment and declare that the shipment weighs
enough so that the resultant density is 4.0 PCF which ships at class 150.
Here is a copy of the item:
Item 171
APPLICATION OF CLASSES-ARTIFICIAL CONSTRUCTION OF DENSITY TO OBTAIN A LOWER CLASS (BUMPING)
Where commodities are subject to Classification provisions which assign classes based upon density, a shipper may,
at its option, increase the weight of the package(s) or piece(s) to artificially increase the density of the
package(s) or piece(s) and apply the next lower class in the density scale to that increased weight, where the
result would be a lower charge. THIS MAY ONLY BE DONE WHERE THE APPLICABLE PROVISIONS MAKE SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO
THIS RULE AND MAY ONLY BE DONE AT THE TIME OF SHIPMENT.
Bumping is accomplished by determining the actual cubage of the particular package(s) or piece(s) and multiplying
that cubage by the lowest density named in the density group which provides the next lower class. The following
example demonstrates the application of this rule.
A commodity which is classified per item 156600, naming 'Plastic Articles, NOI, other than expanded,' is shipped in
a package which measures 40" x 48" x 54" and has a cubage of 60 cubic feet. The package weighs 300 pounds, thus the
actual density (weight divided by cubic feet) equals 5 pounds per cubic foot (pcf).
Commodities with densities of 5 pcf are classed per sub 4 of item 156600 (4 but less than 6 pcf) which provides a
class 150. The next lower class of 125 is provided in sub 5 of item 156600 (6 but less than 8 pcf).
To bump, the actual cubage of 60 cubic feet must be multiplied by 6 (the lowest density named in sub 5) to
determine a declared weight for billing purposes of 360 pounds.
In each instance where the provisions of this rule are utilized, the shipper must show on bills of lading and
shipping orders at time of shipment the:
(1) actual cube,
(2) actual weight,
(3) density group (sub) embracing the actual density,
(4) declared density, and
(5) resultant weight for billing purposes (declared weight) of the package(s) or piece(s) for which density is
being bumped.
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