Jeff Lantz, president, spent last week in Washington, DC. Some of his comments: It was with honor that I was able to participate in a historical moment in the transportation industry and actually see and work from behind the scenes on how legislation and a bill get passed. “It was a full day” walking the halls.

My view point on how this all affects us as a broker:

1) The language in the bill the increases the bond to $100,000 for brokers. This is a good thing that will continue the process of cleaning up our industry. It will make the barriers of entry more difficult in the brokerage business and we will see people entering with a true vested interest. “You can’t start a TCBY franchise for less.” This will also limit the amount of competition, although competition is a good thing that creates better ways of doing business.

2) Moving the weight limit up. The U.S. is the last country to have 80,000 lbs. gross weight limits. Our foreign competitors all have over 100,000 lbs. weight limits. This will allow shippers to get more product on trailers. Creating higher revenue and allowing for higher pay to drivers. This will hopefully make the career of diving an attractive profession.


Also, notice the title of the bill. There is a push for green and reducing the carbon footprint – Smartway.

3) Hours of service. This is also important to keeping the pay scale up for drivers and to gain more equipment utilization. The truck payment is based on the month not the hours of running time.

The President, Jeff Lantz, says, “SmartWay Certified carriers will be our preferred carriers.”  C. L. Services, Inc. is committed to serving our SmartWay Certified Shippers with the most environmentally friendly carriers in the United States, those Certified by the EPA’s SmartWay partnership program.

What is SmartWay Certification? Well, it’s a bit different for shippers, logistics companies and carriers. The common thread is companies committed to reducing their Carbon Emissions. You can find the specific details at www.epa.gov/smartway or by visiting our website and clicking on the SmartWay logo in the right column of each page.

The U.S. economy relies on shipping goods. However, these freight shipments have an environmental cost. Freight trucks and locomotives consume 35 billion gallons of diesel fuel each year, and burning this fuel produces over 350 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

The SmartWay Transport Partnership aims to significantly reduce these emissions. By 2012, the Partnership will cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 33 to 66 million metric tons per year, and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions by up to 200,000 tons per year. This will save the equivalent of up to 150 million barrels of oil per year. That’s the same as removing up to 12 million cars from the road each year.</br

C. L. Services, Inc. is working with the EPA to partner with carriers and shippers who are concerned about the environment. We are committed to assisting our customers and carriers in achieving their goal of reducing carbon emissions.

We presently have over 500 Smartway certified carriers in our database, under contract, who meet our strict due diligence requirements. At a shipper’s request, we have the capability of only utilizing a certified carrier on their shipments, increasing their Smartway score in addition to ours and that of the carrier. The higher your score the better partner you become to the entire transportation industry.

As a member of the transportation community, if you are interested and preserving the environment and working with the shippers who share your concerns, please take the time to visit www.epa.gov/smartway and start the process to become certified yourself. It takes a bit of time and data gathering, but it’s worth the effort knowing you will become a company working for the environment, not against it. And, as mentioned above, we will give priority load selection to our carriers who are certified. That is a great way to keep you loaded and rolling.