American Shipper

Exports are essential to U.S. rice growers, with half their production sold abroad.

   Graybar Electric Co. can trace its history back to the dawn of the electrical age—the company’s website says Elisha Gray was a child prodigy who at age 10 in 1845 built a working model of a telegraph; later taught at Oberlin College in Ohio; and invented a facsimile machine that used telegraph lines, while […]

Graybar knows when purchase order says “tomorrow,” it means “in the morning.”

   Predicting air cargo growth isn’t an exact science and forecasting a future need for passenger and freighter aircraft is even more difficult.     Every other year, Airbus and Boeing release freighter forecasts that are similar enough in approach, but vary in key instances. Simply put, the slow sunset of the freighter has been vastly […]

   A crossroad of trade for millennia, regional shipping services remain vital to some 700 million people in 24 countries along the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Sea.    A new report, Intra-Mediterranean Container Trades, from the Netherlands-based firm Dynamar, forecasts that total intra-Mediterranean full-container trade (regional trade and feeder boxes) will grow from […]

   It could be said that fledgling U.S. exporters can use all the help they can get, but are they getting too many federal agencies coming at them with offers of assistance?    In January 2010, President Obama announced the National Export Initiative which proffered the goal to double the nation’s exports over the next […]

   The Federal Maritime Commission has completed compromise agreements with five non-vessel-operating common carriers, two unlicensed transport businesses and one vessel-operating common carrier that were accused of Shipping Act violations or violations of FMC regulations. The agency has recovered a total of $503,000 in civil penalties.    The parties settled and agreed to penalties, but […]

   The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed this term to hear a case involving a pregnant UPS driver and whether she is entitled to a light-duty assignment under the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act even though the company’s collective bargaining agreement does not provide such an accommodation.    Peggy Young worked as a driver for UPS. […]

   The U.S. and Mexican governments recently announced a mutual recognition arrangement that will strengthen collaboration between U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and Mexico’s Tax Administration Service’s New Certified Companies Scheme (NEEC).    CBP spent more than two years reviewing Mexico’s trusted trader program to make sure it measures up […]

   U.S. Customs and Border Protection has apparently shelved its latest attempt to undermine the First Sale privilege, to the relief of importers.    The First Sale rule, which has been upheld by federal courts, allows a company to base the value of an imported finished good for duty determination on the cost of the […]

   “Hey you, get off of my cloud,” Mick Jagger admonishes in the Rolling Stones’ 1967 hit song.    The tone of the song was clear: Mick and the boys were tired of people’s expectations of them. How apropos that most supply chain managers these days are sick of hearing about the cloud itself.   […]

   In February and April 2011 Kentucky Fuel Corp. entered into contracts with Celtic Marine for the transport of coal by barge from terminals in Kentucky and West Virginia to New Orleans and Darrow, La. James C. Justice Cos. guaranteed obligations KFC owed to Celtic Marine.    There were agreements for additional freight and stevedoring, […]

   First State Depository provides shipping and other services for coins and special metals. It shipped product with UPS. Its insurers alleged 27 of First State’s shipments worth $150,000 were lost or stolen by UPS or its employees during an eight-week period in 2012.    When the insurers brought state law claims against UPS in […]

On Second Thought with Tom Nightingale    This is not another piece on the impending capacity shortage. We have read a lot about that already. What this article is about, however, is transportation procurement events, and the most direct and effective way to deal with them. Procurement events are not new; neither are the professionals […]

  Well, it’s another peak shipping season and wouldn’t you know it, we’ve got labor strife again at U.S. ports putting the business community on edge leading up to the most crucial sales period of the year for retailers.    Two years ago, stalled dock labor negotiations on the East Coast appeared to be destined […]

As FedEx, UPS switch to dimensional pricing, are shippers’ transportation management systems ready?

Frustration builds among shippers as SoCal ports struggle to get cargo off docks by truck, rail.

International traders that don’t get onboard new U.S. Customs system risk being left at the station.

Changes in Lumber Liquidators’ product portfolio brings supply chain challenges.

Canaveral officials hope to connect cargo dock with the FEC Railway.