alliances
Kiva Systems has signed a deal with drugstore.com to automate its order fulfillment operations. The Internet drug retailer will use the Kiva robots to distribute
health, beauty, and general merchandise items. … Blue Giant Equipment Corp. has
entered into a strategic partnership with Big Lift LLC to be the exclusive distributor of Big Joe brand material handling equipment in Canada. … Toyota Material
Handling USA has added B&J Lift Truck Services Inc. (which does business as All Pro
Alaska) to its network of Toyota Industrial Equipment dealers. Based in
Anchorage, All Pro Alaska offers forklifts, warehouse equipment, parts, service,
and rentals throughout the state.
WAREHOUSE
Obama, Calderon announce deal to end
U.S.-Mexico truck fight
The United States and Mexico
announced a tentative resolution of a
cross-border trucking dispute that has
cost U.S. exporters millions of dollars in
business and created significant ill will
between the two countries.
The agreement, announced March 3 in
a joint statement by President Barack
Obama and Mexican President Felipe
Calderon, establishes what the countries
call a “reciprocal, phased-in program” to
allow U.S. and Mexican carriers to operate on both sides of the border. In return,
Mexico, which two years ago began
imposing tariffs on 89 U.S. imports in
retaliation for its carriers being denied
access to U.S. markets, will reduce those
tariffs by 50 percent at the time a final
agreement is signed and suspend the
remaining 50 percent when the first
Mexican carrier is granted operating
authority under the program, according
to the statement. Mexico will terminate
all current tariffs once the program is
“normalized,” the statement said.
U.S. and Mexican negotiators expect
to soon complete work on a final agreement, which will then be presented to
Congress and put out for public comment in the United States. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and U.S.
Trade Representative Ron Kirk, both of
whom were involved in negotiating the
deal, have said they expect a final
agreement by mid-year.
The agreement would require
Mexican truckers looking to operate on
U.S. highways to obtain approval from
the U.S. government and to demon-
strate they meet the same safety stan-
dards as U.S. fleets. They would be pro-
hibited from hauling freight between
destinations within the United States.
MIXED REACTION
The American Trucking Associations (ATA),
which represents the nation’s largest
for-hire carriers, applauded the move.
“We hope this agreement will be a first
step to increasing trade between our two
countries, more than 70 percent of which
crosses the border by truck,” said ATA
President Bill P. Graves in a statement.
The Owner-Operator Independent
Drivers Association (OOIDA), which represents small, owner-operator truck
fleets and which has long opposed
efforts to open the U.S. market to
Mexican truckers, expressed outrage.
“Simply unbelievable,” said Todd
Spencer, executive vice president of
OOIDA, in a statement. “For all the pres-
ident’s talk of helping small businesses
survive, his administration is sure doing
[its] best to destroy small trucking com-
panies and the drivers they employ.”
Spencer added: “Small business truck-
ers are in the midst of dealing with an
avalanche of regulatory rulemakings
from the administration. They are also
struggling to survive in a very difficult
economy. This announcement is tanta-
mount to rubbing salt in wounds
already inflicted.” ;
STORAGE
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