The National Motor Freight Traffic Assn. (NMFTA) has established a new Weighing & Research (W&R) Training and Support Program and named Don Newell to head the effort.

The program was developed to help motor carriers more accurately weigh, measure and classify freight.
Newell, who joins NMFTA from Roadway Express, said: "With estimates that as many as one in four shipments transported by common carriers are described, weighed or measured incorrectly, a W&R program can help shippers and motor freight carriers meet legal obligations related to the description, measurement and weight of freight being transported as well as more accurately reflect shipping costs."
He said that basic W&R training could help shippers as well as motor freight carriers.
The new program can be customized for a particular business need -- whether it's to start a W&R program from scratch, take an existing program to a new level, or for continuing education to provide additional training and support for W&R personnel. The new NMFTA W&R training program builds on the motor freight transportation association's extensive freight classification training and freight packaging workshop program.
NMFTA is a nonprofit membership corporation headquartered in Alexandria, Va. Its membership is made up of more than 1,000 motor carriers operating in interstate, intrastate and foreign commerce. NMFTA's National Classification Committee develops and maintains the National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC), which is a pricing tool that provides a comparison of commodities moving in interstate and intrastate transport. Based on an evaluation of density, stowability, ease of handling and liability, the commodities are grouped into one of 18 classes. The NMFC provides both carriers and shippers with a standard to begin pricing negotiations and greatly simplifies the comparative evaluation of the many thousands of products moving in today's marketplace.
For more information, visit http://www.nmfta.org.