By Walter Kemmsies, chief economist, Moffatt & Nichol Last month’s column laid out a base case outlook for 2014, and so this month the focus is placed on various key factors that are unlikely to happen but should not be totally discounted…
By Eric Kulisch and Jon Ross Liquefied natural gas seen as viable propulsion fuel for freight sector. Transportation industry interest in liquefied natural gas to power cargo vessels, barges, trucks and railroads is growing rapidly in response to the high price of petroleum fuels and new environmental regulations aimed at curbing harmful emissions and greenhouse gases. […]
Deciding on which TMS is right is often about how much control a shipper wants and how much trust it has in its 3PL. On the road from turning manual processes into automated ones, shippers often see transportation management as a first logical step to address. Yet according to industry estimates, fewer than […]
The deal will establish a joint U.S.-Libya Council on Trade and Investment, which will address issues including market access, intellectual property, labor, and environmental challenges, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said.
The European Union is changing its trade duties for developing countries exporting goods to the EU, reducing the number of nations eligible for its Generalised System of Preferences from 177 to 90. On Jan. 1, those 90 countries will benefit from a “powerful tool for economic development by providing the world’s poorest countries […]
COSCO will increase its rates for all shipments, including reefer cargo, from the Far East to South America West Coast and Mexico, and MSC’s rates will increase on all cargo from the Far East to West Africa and Angola.
Timothy Skud, deputy assistant secretary for tax, trade and tariff policy at the Treasury Department, missed the Nov. 15 meeting of the Commercial Operations Advisory Committee because of a longstanding commitment. The panel meets quarterly to provide industry input to the departments of Homeland Security and Treasury on cross-border customs and security issues. Skud’s […]
Eric Kulisch, trade and transportation editor of American Shipper, received an award from the London-based Seahorse Club Dec. 10 for his September issue cover story, “Breaking down the wall”, an analysis on how e-commerce has hastened retailers toward omni-channel strategies. The Seahorse Club is a networking group of public relations, marketing, advertising and […]
The American Trucking Associations wants the brakes put on a Washington, D.C., clean air bill that requires trucks entering the city after 2017 to be powered by at least some portion of alternative fuel. In a letter signed by the ATA’s Robert Pitcher, the organization told Phil Mendelson, D.C. council chairman, the […]
After a lengthy negotiation between less-than-truckload carrier ABF Freight and its union on a new contract — a discussion that dragged on throughout 2013, necessitating numerous contract extensions and even bringing about a strike vote — officials at YRC, another LTL trucker, are taking a different tact with their employees. Last fall, YRC’s […]
Thieves hijacked a truck in early December carrying radioactive waste from a hospital in Tijuana, Mexico, to a waste storage center, and then abandoned the vehicle a few days later after having removed, then discarded, the radioactive material, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The truck loaded with Cobalt-60, which is used […]
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach appear locked in the very definition of a zero-sum game. When one port’s container volume grows, the other contracts. That’s because the organic growth predicted for the two ports only a decade ago has dried up. Whereas once it was forecast that the two ports […]
“Establishing a company-owned chassis fleet gives Schneider complete control of assets used in an intermodal move and makes our service even more efficient for shippers,” stated Bill Matheson, president of Schneider’s intermodal services.
According to the Cass Truckload Linehaul Index, truckload linehaul rates in November were 1.8 percent higher than in November of last year. Linehaul rates for the first 11 months of 2013, on average, are up 1.8 percent as compared to 2012. Truckload volumes continue to grow, posting a three-month average of 7.2 percent […]
Tiger Cool Express announced Wednesday it has acquired an initial order of 200 refrigerated containers for its start-up operations this spring. “The acquisition of our first 200 refrigerated containers for the efficient and safe delivery of fresh produce and food products across the country is just the first of several orders we will […]
The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia’s (Bahri) subsidiary The National Chemical Carriers received a new chemical tanker on Wednesday in South Korea. The vessel, named the NCC FAJR, is the first of its kind due to its large size, with dead weight tonnage of 75,000.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food on Wednesday pledged to improve trade in beef and beef-related products between the two countries.
CEVA Logistics said Wednesday that it will renew its business with Ford Motor Company, specifically at the Kentucky Truck Assembly Plant, and has also secured a contract renewal for Vileda, a cleaning solutions provider. “Our role with Ford is to help drive cost effectiveness in its manufacturing processes,” said Jim Barnett, CEVA’s vice […]
Let’s face it, shippers and non-vessel-operating common carriers are wed to their liner carriers, for better or worse. The economics of the container shipping industry are such the carriers that are here today will be the ones there tomorrow for shippers and NVOs. Even during the depths of the recession several years ago, […]
In a new analysis, Drewry Supply Chain Advisors has found that “carriers continue to be spooked by the specter of imminent big ship deliveries and so are fighting to hold onto market share. “This market behavior will put further pressure on freight rates through 2014.” It added that the issue really comes […]
