| IGSA Newsletter, May 2009 |
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| Monday, 11 May 2009 16:09 |
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CTP Update- The IGSA thanks all who have shown support for the Coalition for Transportation Productivity. This Coalition is gaining support daily from new associations and companies and now members of congress from many states. In late March, Congressman Michael Michaud from Maine introduced a new bill to the house, HR 1799 called the “Safe and Efficient Transportation Act of 2009”. This bill is a “state opt in” bill which will allow states to increase the GVW from 80,000 to 97,000 pounds on trucks with an additional 6th axle. On April 1st, associations like the IGSA and many companies visited the hill in an effort to gain support from as many Congressman as possible. 85 people were there that day and over 100 meetings were held with different offices. The meetings went well and since then, there have been many congressmen that have signed onto this bill to show support. Idaho’s Congressmen, Mike Simpson has signed onto this and Walt Minnick is very close to showing support as well. Many feel that we still have an uphill battle on this but that we are gaining ground. Chairman Oberstar who chairs the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has gone from fairly negative on this issue to at least listening to the CTP and asking many questions. The IGSA is on the Coalition Development Committee for CTP and if you know of any organizations or companies that might be willing to show support, please let us know. More information can be found at www.transportationproductivity.org.
State Dedicated Funds- Recently, the IGSA was made aware that the State of Idaho had inquired about the use of the potato industries dedicated funds used for inspecting potatoes. There had been talk of the state considering using these funds for other purposes and perhaps looking into controlling the hours worked by the inspectors and or limiting over time. IGSA recognizes that these funds are for a specific purpose and the industry needs inspectors for specific times and hours and does not need the State of Idaho trying to control this. Lee Stacey attended our board meeting in March and spoke of the difficult time he has had in communicating this program and its purposes to the state. Lee believes they finally do understand why this program was started and its purpose and that these funds are paid for by the potato industry and used by the potato industry. A motion was made in the IGSA's March board meeting to have a letter drafted and sent to the state requesting monthly expense reports to be sent to the IGSA. The IGSA will now monitor this closely to assure these funds are being used for what they were intended for. In our upcoming May board meeting, Lee Stacey and Kelly Nielsen from the Deparrtment of Agriculture will attend to go over any questions that might arise on this report. IGSA will now be monitoring these reports on a monthly basis. Intermodal Update- We are officially 3 months in to the intermodal/trailer on flat car program for the IGSA members. As anticipated, capacity in the area has steadily increased and there are currently 20-25 trailers per week moving fresh potatoes for the membership to a variety of points in the Northeast region of the country. With this increase in a new source of capacity more truckload carriers have been freed up to haul additional loads to the Northeast or other regions of the country. The program has proven to be a success in the eyes of the shippers, receivers, and of course the carriers involved. Service with respect to both transit and on-time percentage and has certainly proven to be a legitimate substitute for truckload service. Due to these factors the expectation is that this equipment will be available long term and capacity in to the area should only increase. Traceability- Everywhere I go, this is the hot topic. You are probably all aware of the initiative that United Fresh Association, Produce Marketing Association and Canadian Produce Marketing Association have put together. It’s called the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI). Many companies are behind this such as Krogers, Wegmans, Wal-Mart, Safeway and Food Lion. The goal here is to have full traceability of cased product by 2012. There are seven milestones to this goal each with specific steps and timelines. Some of you might have been informed about this from your customers. More information about this can be found at http://www.producetraceability.org. The IGSA has been to many meetings about this and could help with questions if needed. Also, at our Sun Valley convention this year, we are hoping to have a PTI specialist there that can answer any questions that you might have. Sun Valley Convention- The IGSA Sun Valley Convention Committee has met twice and the convention is starting to come together. This years theme is "Grown in Idaho...An American Tradition." This year we will be inviting Growers and Shippers to this 81st Annual Convention. Wednesday will again be our education day and we will have workshops for both growers and shippers in mind. Growers can look forward to hearing about crop insurance, potato storage technology and best practices as well as an update on the PCN eradication efforts in Shelly. Shippers will learn about the latest in motor carrier transportation and rail transportation. There will also be a USDA Market News Representative do help us all with some training on their website. Dates of the convention this year are September 2-4. More will be coming out shortly concerning this event. New Associate Members- The IGSA has 2 new Associate Level Members, KPG Solutions and Hansen & Rice Construction. We thank them for their support. Below is some information about them.
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| Last Updated on Monday, 11 May 2009 20:59 |