American Shipper

United Airlines will ramp up its flights between San Francisco and Shanghai and Chengdu, China, from May 6 to Oct. 24.

UPS has added three buildings and expanded another in North America, adding another 1.2 million square feet of capacity to its distribution network.

Sources say a comprehensive proposal was sent by management to union last week.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will form a negotiated rule-making committee to look into minimum training requirements for truck drivers.

On Second Thought with John Tabor    Supply chain risk has become a hot topic lately with concerns about rising transportation costs, regulations, and capacity issues. As I write this column in early December the Los Angeles-Long Beach port disruption has already dramatically affected this year’s holiday selling season. Tens of thousands of containers sit […]

   To say that American shippers are angry as hell with West Coast dock labor, along with their terminal employers and the liner carriers, is an understatement.    The International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association have been negotiating a new contract to replace the one that expired on July 1 with little […]

Container Analytics with Ben Meyer     One of the biggest stories in the container shipping industry at the moment is the massive congestion problems at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. As with most complex issues, there is no single cause for the delays and congestion that has been building now for […]

Shippers back Senate bill to update railroad regulatory body, but will Capitol Hill act?

Founder of cargo booking website Cargo Chief traces origins to problems he faced as a shipper.

Stochastic transportation modeling more like ‘human mind’ as it embraces variability, not averages.

   Management consultant Oliver Wyman suggests the container shipping industry needs to focus on yield management to regain profitability.    Joris D’Incà, a partner at Oliver Wyman’s office in Zurich, said liner companies have focused on restructuring, optimization and cost-cutting—taking steps such as renegotiating port tariffs, optimizing stowage, reducing the cost of overhead structure, slow […]

   In March 2006, I remember attending an event in Oakland about trade with China and hearing a dynamic speaker talk about trade compliance.    Not knowing anything about trade compliance at that point, the speaker sounded thoroughly impressive. Nearly 10 years later, every time I hear Beth Peterson speak, whether it’s at a conference, […]

   Just before Thanksgiving I spoke with Andrew Kinsey, a senior marine risk consultant for Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, who addressed a variety of issues on his radar screen.    A retired master for both Maersk Line, Ltd. and the U.S. Military Sealift Command, he was returning from Alabama where he had done a […]

Changes coming to Alaska and Hawaii; Puerto Rico loses a long-time carrier.

Anthony Foxx, U.S. transportation secretary, says, “This agreement is the result of the commitment on both sides of the border to strengthen the strong bonds of trade and tourism between our two countries.”

   I was pretty caught by surprise when I read that Thomson Reuters and KPMG had inked a partnership in early 2014 to offer global trade management software and services in the South America market.    To my mind, the number of providers of such software and services could fit in a pretty tight circle, […]

   In the past few years of writing “On Second Thought” for American Shipper, I have always tried to stay “on-message”—never deviating too far from the core of why American Shipper’s readers come to the publication. Today, I’m asking for your trust to deviate from our normally scheduled programming just a bit.       I […]

STB hopes rail performance data will provide clearer view of operating conditions.

Related Magazine Content On the mend    The Virginia Port Authority and Virginia Maritime Association on Oct. 28 held an invitation-only summit to gather input from 13 different industry sectors that interact with the port to find out what aspects of port operations are most impacting their business, and hear suggestions for addressing the problems. […]

Dollar General uses its own process to pay ocean freight bills.