The State Department announced that the Shipping Coordinating Committee will conduct an open meeting at 10 a.m. ET, Dec. 18 to prepare for the 56th session of the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Sub-Committee on Fire Protection (FP 56) to be held at the IMO Headquarters, United Kingdom, Jan. 7-11, 2013. The coordinating committee will meet at the offices of the Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services, 1611 N. Kent Street, Suite 605, Arlington, Va. 22209. Matters to be considered include (1) Development of measures to prevents explosions on oil and chemical tankers transporting low flash point cargoes; (2) Development of requirements for the fire resistance of ventilation ducts; (3) Review of fire protection requirements for on-deck cargoes; (4) Development of requirements for ships carrying hydrogen and compressed natural gas vehicles.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Unified Carrier Registration Plan Board of Directors will meet Dec. 6. to continue work on developing and implementing the unified carriers registration plan and agreement. Public participation is by conference call: 1-877-820-7831, passcode 908048.

The State Department's Shipping Coordinating Committee scheduled an open meeting at 1:00 p.m. ET Jan. 23 to prepare for the February meeting of the International Maritime Organization's Subcommittee on Stability and Load Lines and on Fishing Vessels. The coordinating committee is to meet in Room 5-1224 of the U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters Building, 2100 2nd Street SW, Washington, D.C. Agenda items include: Decisions of other IMO bodies; Development of second generation intact stability criteria; Development of guidelines for verification of damage stability requirements for tankers; Development of mandatory carriage requirements for stability instruments on board tankers; Revision of SOLAS chapter II-1 subdivision and damage stability regulations; Development of provisions to ensure the integrity and uniform implementation of the 1969 TM Convention; Development of amendments to part B of the 2008 IS Code on towing and anchor handling operations; Consideration of IACS unified interpretations; Development of amendments to the criterion for maximum angle of heel in turns of the 2008 IS Code; Development of a mandatory code for ships operating in polar waters; and Biennial agenda and provisional agenda for SLF 56.

The Agricultural Marketing Service released the Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report (OSCAR) for the week of Nov. 21-27. The weekly report contains data on container availability for westbound transpacific traffic at 18 intermodal locations in the U.S.¹ from the eight member carriers of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA).² Although the report is compiled by AMS, it covers container availability for all merchandise, not just agricultural products.

The American Trucking Associations' seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index contracted 3.8% in October after falling 0.4% in September, it said. The 0.4% Sept. drop was revised from a 0.1% gain reported on Oct. 23, 2012, it said. October's decrease with the third consecutive, totaling 4.7%. As a result, the SA October index was the lowest level since May 2011, it said. Compared with October last year, the index was off 2.1%, the first year-over-year contraction since November 2009, ATA said. Year-to-date, compared with the same period last year, tonnage was up 2.9%, it said. “Clearly Hurricane Sandy negatively impacted October's tonnage reading” although it's impossible to determine the exact effect, said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello.

Federal Maritime Commission said the following have filed applications for a license as a Non-Vessel-Operating Common Carrier (NVO) and/or Ocean Freight Forwarder (OFF)-Ocean Transportation Intermediary (OTI) pursuant to section 19 of the Shipping Act of 1984. The FMC also gave notice of the filing of applications to amend an existing OTI license or the qualifying individual for a license. Interested persons may contact the Office of Transportation Intermediaries, Federal Maritime Commission, Washington, D.C. 20573, at 202-523-5843 or at OTI@fmc.gov.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration scheduled a public meeting for 9 a.m. November 28 to prepare for the 42nd session of the U.N. Sub-Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, to be held December 3-11 in Geneva, Switzerland. During the meeting, PHMSA will solicit comments about potential new work items to be considered for inclusion in its international agenda. Attendees may pre-register at http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/hazmat/regs/international. Specific information on conference call-in and live meeting access will be posted when available (here) . Further information: Vincent Babich or Kevin Leary, 202-366-8553.

The Federal Maritime Commission released a notice of the filing of the following agreement under the Shipping Act of 1984. Interested parties may submit comments on the agreements to the Secretary, Federal Maritime Commission, Washington, DC 20573, within 10 days.

There were no fatalities in 2011 from runway-related accidents involving scheduled commercial operations, the International Civil Aviation Organization said Nov. 19. Overall fatalities from air transport accidents also dropped, from 707 in 2010 to 414 in 2011, it said.

The International Air Transport Association said it successfully tested the electronic consignment security declaration (e-CSD) in the U.K. and Netherlands. The e-CSD meets regulatory demands for evidence that appropriate security measures have been applied to air cargo and mail by detailing how, when and by whom a consignment of cargo or mail has been secured, IATA said. By standardizing the process and documentation of such evidence, e-CSD will replace redundant security declarations in various formats and make it easier to implement security emergency amendments, it said. Plans are now under way to run live operational shipment trials over coming months, it said. These will give industry and regulators more findings and allow for fine-tuning based on live data. Once the live trial period ends, industry will be able to replace its range of security declarations with a globally harmonized electronic one, IATA said.