Headline News & Articles

Economic Rebound, Firms' Selectivity Spur Driver Shortage

Trucking Companies' Quandary

The Ledger/TheLedger.com – August 31, 2011

CAPTION: Charles Retzer teaches the driver orientation class at CCC Transportation this week in Auburndale. There is a nationwide shortage of truck drivers because the economy is picking up and demand is up at the same time the industry is adjusting to stricter federal regulations for screening applicants.

LAKELAND | More than 100 people apply every day to Comcar, a trucking company based in Auburndale.

But from that big pool of potential truck drivers, only two or three make the cut.

For trucking companies, the slow pick-up of the economy has revived an issue left on the back burner during the recession.

There's a shortage of qualified truck drivers. It's a nationwide issue, and local companies say the shortage of qualified drivers has already hit or is coming to Polk County. Finding those drivers isn't an easy task for recruiters. They say the industry is still adjusting to stricter regulations from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for screening a driver's criminal, employment and driving history. The main difference is crash and inspection records will now follow a driver from one job to the next.

"Today, I'd say if you have a truck open you need to fill, it's not that you aren't getting applications to fill that truck, but there's a huge amount of people to exclude," said Bob Costello, chief economist for the American Trucking Association...

International Trade is a Bright Spot for Florida

Trends and challenges at Florida's airports, seaports, and free trade zones.

Florida Trend/FloridaTrend.com – August 15, 2011

CAPTION: Gov. Rick Scott in March directed the Department of Transportation to give the Port of Miami the $77 million it needs to dredge its harbor to 50 feet to accommodate post-Panamax ships. Legislation eliminates redundant state security requirements for port workers and mandates creation of a statewide transportation plan identifying road, port and rail needs.

A Bright Spot—With Challenges

The recession ended early for international trade, and the sector continues to perform well even as much of Florida's economy continues a slow slog out of the recession. In 2010, Florida-origin exports grew to an all-time high of $55.2 billion. Trade in goods and services plus direct foreign investment now accounts for 16% of Florida's economy and supports one in five jobs.

Foreign trade isn't just a sandbox for big firms. Florida's small and midsized businesses account for more than half of the export trade, finding markets for their products abroad even as the domestic economy lags.

For all the good news, the state will have to work hard to keep its edge. Following are snapshots of the major trends and challenges facing the international trade sector moving into the second half of 2011...

First Coast businesses expect boost from being in foreign trade zone

They will get fast-track process; trade zone will encompass 5 counties.

The Florida Times Union/Jacksonville.com – May 11, 2011

A newly expanded foreign trade zone for Northeast Florida will give businesses a fast-track process for obtaining the benefits that come from being in the zone.
JaxPort on Wednesday announced the U.S. Department of Commerce and its Foreign Trade Zone Board approved the port authority's application for a zone that covers Duval, Nassau, Clay, Baker and Columbia counties.
JaxPort officials have pushed to expand the zone to foster the growth of Northeast Florida businesses that would use the port for importing and exporting their goods.
The Northeast Florida zone is the first of its kind to win approval in Florida and the 31st in the nation, said JaxPort spokeswoman Nancy Rubin. There are 272 foreign trade zones across the country...

Honing in on Inland Port

Plum Creek Timber and regional leaders expect increased flow of international goods through the Port of Jacksonville.

Florida Trend/FloridaTrend.com – October 1, 2010

Off U.S. Highway 90 outside Columbia County's Lake City, a big white sign stands incongruously in front of a forest of young pine trees: "Future Site of Inland Port." After years of work, the state and 14 counties launched the 2,500-acre industrial-development project this fall to create a catalyst for business investment in a region that suffered low wages and high unemployment rates well before the economic downturn.

Despite its location at the crossroads of Interstates 75 and 10, with rail spurs that link up to CSX and Norfolk Southern, Lake City has never attracted much industry. The region's business and civic leaders hope to change the area's fortunes by focusing their energy on one major inland port project rather than scattershot economic development efforts.

While this year's Legislature funneled $300,000 for engineering and site work, the inland port would not have taken root without Plum Creek Timber, the largest private landowner in the United States and the largest in Florida. Seattle-based Plum Creek owns the site and surrounding land and will develop the port as its first master-planned industrial project in the United States.

Plum Creek and regional leaders hope the flow of international goods...

Jacksonville Port Authority looking inland to gain allies

Regional shipping hubs viewed as part of deepening project.

The Florida Times-Union/jacksonville.com – September 23, 2010

The possibility that cargo moving through Jacksonville’s port could go up the highway—and rail lines—to neighboring counties brought officials from across the region to Jacksonville for a meeting about creating a united front in lobbying for federal dollars.

Officials from Baker, Columbia and Nassau counties attended the meeting of the Logistics Advisory Group, which is affiliated with the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The group heard presentations about inland ports, which are large-scale shipping hubs connected by highway or rail lines to seaports...

Northeast – Connecting to the World

Northeast Florida offers international companies the right mix of amenities and global connections.

Business Florida/FloridaTrend.com – September 21, 2010

CAPTION: fDi Magazine has ranked Jacksonville's Foreign Trade Zone the third best port zone in the world. Shanghai and Tangier, Morocco, ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively. Foreign Trade Zone #64 covers 1,400 acres in Jacksonville, including several industrial parks, Jacksonville International Airport and JAXPORT's three cargo terminals, as well as freezer and cold storage facilities at the Talleyrand Marine Terminal.

Peter Denoncourt says there wasn't one particular thing that stood out about Northeast Florida when Saft America Inc. went looking for a new location to build a manufacturing plant for its lithium-ion batteries; it was a combination of factors that made this seven-county region attractive.

Jacksonville proved to be the perfect low-cost entry point city for Saft America's new $200-million manufacturing plant. Two-thirds of the 50 million people living in the southeastern United States are within 600 miles of this region, which is home to more than 80 corporate, regional and divisional business headquarters; a combination of quiet neighborhoods and bustling urban centers; miles of pristine Atlantic coastline; and a wealth of cultural and recreational opportunities, not to mention America's oldest city — St. Augustine. And with three interstate highways, three major rail lines, two deepwater ports and four marine terminals, Northeast Florida offers some of the best transportation options available...

Florida business leaders peg economic recovery on international trade

St. Petersburg Times/tampabay.com – May 20, 2010

A group of Florida business leaders on Wednesday launched a campaign to double state exports in the next five years, singling out international trade as a key catalyst for the state's economic recovery.

"As important as agriculture and construction and tourism have been and always will be, the truth is our economy has changed and we're never going back to the economy we used to have," Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, said in a conference call with reporters.

Manuel Mencia, senior vice president of international trade and business development for Enterprise Florida, backed him up.
"This is a sector that holds the potential not only to lead Florida out of the recession, but to be the growth sector in Florida, certainly for the next decade and years to come," Mencia said...

Freight State

Florida's largest landowners are planning to capitalize
by changing the way freight moves around the state.

Florida Trend/FloridaTrend.com – March 1, 2010

When state lawmakers met in Tallahassee in December for a special session on rail, the headlines were all about passenger trains: The law that emerged from the session cinched the SunRail commuter system for central Florida, upped funding for south Florida’s Tri-Rail system, and set the stage for a long-coveted high-speed passenger train between Tampa and Orlando. A month later, when President Barack Obama came to Florida to award the initial $1.25 billion for the Tampa-Orlando link, the news again was about moving people.

But passenger trains are just part of the transportation story in Florida. Changes in the way freight moves around the peninsula could be even more significant for Florida’s future.

Changing global trade patterns, driven in part by the supersized cargo ships that soon will begin traveling through the widened Panama Canal, may create a boom in freight-related and light manufacturing industries in the state.

And five of the top 10 private landowners in the state are angling to cash in by developing integrated logistics centers (ILCs), facilities where containers of freight are moved from railcars to trucks and vice versa. Along with freight-handling facilities, the logistics centers — sometimes called "inland" logistics centers or "inland ports"—typically include warehouses, distribution centers and often manufacturing operations near a major rail line...

LCCC scholarship winner

Lake City Journal – January 2010

Rebecca Edenfield, a business major, was selected by the North Florida chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar to receive a $1,000 scholarship check. Edenfield is majoring in one of the college’s newest programs, Supply Chain Management and Logistics. Her son, B.J. Thomas, is enrolled in the Introduction to Business class with her.

Pictured are: Brian Dopson, LCCC Den of Liberal Arts and Sciences (from left), Michelle Borton of England-Thims, & Miller Engineering of Jacksonville and WTS representative, Niki Dana, Environmental Services, Inc. of Jacksonville and WTS representative, Rebecca Edenfield, B. J. Thomas (Edenfield’s son), and Sheri Carder, LCCC business professor. (LCCC photo)

Jacksonville port place for cargo, cruises — and careers

Florida Times-Union/Jacksonville.com – August 14, 2009

The shipment of cargo and cruises through Jacksonville’s port spurred a large increase in jobs between 2004 and 2008, according to a report released Thursday. The study, commissioned by the Jacksonville Port Authority, determined that about 23,000 jobs were dependent on the existence of businesses operating at the port in 2008. That figure includes people employed by companies at the port, the regional jobs that are created as a result of those workers spending their paychecks, and the jobs that result from companies providing services to businesses at the port.

The number of those jobs is a 35 percent increase over 2004...

Canal fever: Can we catch it?

The Gainesville Sun/Gainesville.com – June 7, 2009

...A $5.25 billion expansion of the canal is planned, and when completed in 2015, it'll accommodate even the largest container behemoths.

And that turns out to be good news for Florida and not so good news for California — because a lot of ships laden with automobiles, televisions and computers from Japan, China, Korea and elsewhere across the Pacific rim will no longer have to dock in the Golden State...

The real challenge for Florida, says Elaine Puri, director of the Lake City-based Banner Center for Logistics and Distribution, is "filling those empty containers up again and sending them back."

In other words, can Florida position itself to become a major exporter as well as receiver of the world’s goods?...

Business leaders seek road map to future

The Gainesville Sun/Gainesville.com – June 4, 2009

Florida businesses of all sizes need to get involved in state politics and rally around a unified plan to influence the policies that affect them, speakers said Wednesday at a forum in Gainesville.

Local and state business and government leaders took initial steps toward a unified plan at the first of a series of eight strategic planning forums to be held statewide on the Roadmap to Florida’s Future, an economic development planning document...

Wednesday’s forum covered a 13-county region from Madison to Marion counties. Representing the logistics and trucking industry, Elaine Puri, director of the Employ Florida Banner Center for Logistics and Distribution in Lake City, said port expansions will provide an opportunity for more high-wage trucking jobs.

She said national logistics certification and a more educated work force would help the area compete in the global marketplace...

Florida Logistics and Supply Chain Report

Moving Florida Forward: New innovations, competition and demand are challenging the state's logistics and distribution systems. Here's how Florida's business and government leaders are meeting these challenges.

Florida Trend/FloridaTrend.com – February 1, 2009

U.S. Representative John Mica from Winter Park, Republican leader of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, has noted that "every $1 billion in spending on highways and transportation projects results in 35,000 new jobs." A Florida Chamber of Commerce report cites a higher jobs figure (47,000), but there’s no question that such investments pay off in a big way.

It is no surprise then that in December 2008, Florida Governor Charlie Crist presented a $6.9 billion list of transportation projects for consideration in President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package. The return could be exponential, generating close to $40 billion in increased economic activity in the state...

Delivering jobs by the thousands

Florida Times-Union/Jacksonville.com – July 27, 2008

There is positive news as Jaxport continues to expand—it's great news for job seekers looking for high-wage careers.

The port's client, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., promises delivery of much more than tons of consumer goods to a new 158-acre container terminal under construction at Dames Point. The deal with the Japan-based shipping giant is bringing thousands of job to Jacksonville.

Ripple effects already are reaching across Northeast Florida with warehousing, logistics and transportation companies looking to be part of the action.

Currently, the number of port-produced jobs is 50,000. Jaxport projects the total will reach 75,000 to 100,000 in the next five to 10 years...

FCCJ to offer degrees in logistics, supply chain management

Jacksonville Business Journal – May 20, 2008

The Employ Florida Banner Center for Logistics and Distribution will offer associate and associate of applied sciences degree programs in logistics and supply chain management at community colleges throughout the state.

The programs will be offered initially at Lake City Community College and Polk Community College in Lakeland. Later, the programs will be taught at Florida Community College at Jacksonville, Okaloosa-Walton College and other state community colleges...

PCC Corporate College’s Supply Chain Management Institute Lands $1.2 Million U.S. Department of Transportation Grant...
Read the release

Russian Reconnaissance on LCCC business tour

Lake City Reporter – June 25, 2008

Russian business executives visited Lake City Community College for a tour of its Employ Florida Banner Center for Logistics and Distribution on Tuesday and the hit of the tour was the CDL/truck driving simulator.

Several of the foreign visitors got behind the wheel of the big-rig video simulator.

Amid raucous laughter, the group of six business executives, one 18-year-old female student and Russian interpreter/translator Alexandra Yurova took turns driving the 18-wheel tractor trailer through simulated rain storms and blizzards, "just like in Russia," said Nicolay Zmetny, of Moscow...

Florida Banner Center for Logistics and Distribution to Offer First AS, AAS Degree Programs in Supply Chain Management And Logistics Beginning this Fall at 2 Community Colleges...
Read the release

JAXPORT Report for May 2008...
Download the report

Lake City Community College awarded a federal grant of $1,885,337 for an engineering and process technology initiative from the U.S. Department of Labor...
Read the release

Career Fair sponsored by JAXPORT and the First Coast Manufacturers Association (FCMA)...
Download the flyer

Steering toward tomorrow

Gainesville Sun – February 9, 2008

LAKE CITY – Patrick Downey's recent ride was a rough one. During an icy winter storm, the 17-year veteran of driving semis had a tire blowout that rattled his seat and nearly jerked the steering wheel out of his hands. Good thing it all happened inside a classroom at Lake City Community College.

Downey is the instructor of a commercial driver's license class and was at the wheel of a $108,000 simulator designed to teach big-rig rookies how to react to dozens of real-world scenarios.

The LCCC driving program is part of a $6.2 million statewide effort by Workforce Florida Inc. to provide training for a variety of industries. The programs, sometimes referred to as Banner Centers, have…

Fortifying the future: Lake City Community College offers two-year logistics degrees

Lake City Reporter – January 12, 2008

A few years ago, Lake City Community College gazed into its crystal ball and saw that many industries moving into the North Florida corridor between Lake City and Jacksonville were mega-warehouse companies similar to the Target Distribution Center and U.S. Cold Storage facilities in Lake City.

These mega-warehouses require thousands of skilled and semi-skilled workers every year for the burgeoning logistics and distribution industry, school officials surmised...

Russian group visits LCCC

Lake City Reporter – October 20, 2007

A group of Russian businessmen got a taste of Lake City on Friday.

Hosted by the University of North Florida and the Oceanside Rotary Club, the group was in town to check out the Lake City Community College Florida Banner Center of Logistics and Distribution...

Matchmaking

Florida Trend – August 2007

Florida has lots of non-college-bound students, and employers have plenty of high-paying, skilled-labor jobs for them. The problem is matching employers with potential employees.

Nine out of 10 jobs in Florida by 2014 won't require a bachelor's degree...

Also expanding are the Employ Florida Banner Center skilled labor training centers that launched in earnest last year. The 10 centers aim to provide more workers for critical state sectors ["Banner Years"]. Some centers focus on long-established industry needs such as manufacturing while others represent a state economic wish fulfillment plan for jobs Florida wants more than has, such as in biotechnology. There's even a matchmaking website, employflorida.com. "I think we would be remiss if we didn't try to get ahead of the curve," says Andra Cornelius, Workforce Florida's vice president for business outreach...

News Talk WJTK 96.5 'The Jet' Radio Spots Announcing the Banner Center for Logistics & Distribution
Radio Spot #1 - April 2007 | Radio Spot #2 - April 2007

New Center to Boost Training of Logistics and Distribution Workers in Florida
News Release - April 11, 2007

LAKE CITY – Lake City Community College has launched the Employ Florida Banner Center for Logistics and Distribution with a $500,000 grant from Workforce Florida, Inc. The new initiative aims to develop a pipeline of well-qualified, entry-level workers and improve the skills of the industry's current workforce...