AFTER agreeing to pay more for trucking services, logistics companies will ask their partners to enhance their safety measures by using better tires and proper lights and acquiring newer vehicles altogether.

In an interview Thursday with reporters, Francis Llanes, transport committee head of the Supply Chain Management Association of the Philippines (SCMAP), said the group’s request “is part of a give-and-take situation.”

“After we agreed to the increase, we will seek extra value-added service on the part of the truckers through better road-safety standards,” he said, adding safety should always be a priority to avoid delays in carrying and transporting goods.

Although the logistics group has recognized that surging oil prices merit a trucking-fee increase, SCMAP has yet to decide on how much the rate hike should be. The group is still computing whether the new rates proposed by trucking companies will affect the prices of their goods sold to the public.

A few weeks ago, the Manila North Harbor Trucking Association, led by the Allied Transport Group, implemented a 16-percent rate increase even without SCMAP endorsement.

The alliance now charges P5,915 for carrying a 20-foot metal container for 40 kilometers roundtrip to and from Metro Manila. Truckers claim that the increase only involves direct costs and excludes indirect expenses such as interest and depreciation charges as a safety net to cushion the impact of higher fees on consumers.

In May 2006, North Harbor truckers, SCMAP and the Philippine Liner Shipping Association had agreed to implement an 18-percent increase in trucking rates, which was lower than what the group initially proposed.

CA junks PPA bid to dismiss damage suit by Batangas residents in port zone

THE Court of Appeals (CA) has junked a petition filed by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) seeking to dismiss the complaint for damages filed by another group of residents whose properties were expropriated to allow the expansion of the Batangas port zone.

TOKYO—Most Japanese people oppose whaling expeditions to the Southern Ocean and are unaware the government provides a subsidy of about ¥500 million ($4.6 million) for its research program, a Greenpeace survey found.

CHICAGO—Transocean Inc., the world’s largest offshore oil and gas driller, said fourth-quarter net income jumped 70 percent as record crude prices and a scarcity of deep-water rigs lifted rents. The company’s shares had their biggest gain in more than five years.

AFTER agreeing to pay more for trucking services, logistics companies will ask their partners to enhance their safety measures by using better tires and proper lights and acquiring newer vehicles altogether.

BARGES carrying crude shipments were advised to shift to moving other types of fuel if they fail to provide additional protection against oil spills, a shipping official said.

LONDON—The cost of shipping Middle East crude to Asia, the world’s busiest route for supertankers, may curb a two-day decline because refineries still need to book most of the ships they need for March loading.