Better days ahead

Better days ahead       For the past two years, the transportation industry has hoped for an eventual resurge in cargo volumes to rejuvenate idle workers and equipment.
      Now that freight volumes have started rolling in, carriers across modes have found themselves suddenly struggling to get box capacity back in service and in the right locations. This scenario has dampened their credibility among already frustrated shippers. Who would have thought that more freight would equal more headaches for starved transport providers?
      On the seas, many shippers still accuse ocean carriers of withholding container capacity just to raise their freight rates, when in reality these operators are struggling to reorganize their box flows. It also doesn't help that during the recession these carriers set aside internal improvements and watched experienced personnel exit the business.
      Similarly, the North American trucking industry, which dominates transport of merchandise coming into the continent by ocean container or plane, has struggled to jumpstart its driver and equipment pool after more than two years of near idle.
      Only the air cargo carriers, as highlighted in this issue by American Shipper, appeared to have had an easier time so far meeting shippers' transport capacity demands, albeit at premium rates. This is the benefit of a transport sector with an already engrained mindset of rapid assets deployment, when compared to other modes.
      Many industry analysts interviewed by our writers in recent weeks increasingly indicate that the worst of the capacity crisis for shippers may be over and that better days are now ahead.
      It's understandable from a business perspective that during this recovery most carriers will cautiously reintroduce capacity to the market. However, it seems old habits die hard in the shipping industry. Adding capacity irresponsibly in a sudden grab for market share will only put the carriers right back to where they started.