American Shipper

   U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Federal Maritime Commission said they have signed an agreement to share data from CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment-International Trade Data System (ACE-ITDS) “in order to strengthen the balance of facilitation and enforcement regarding the regulation of ocean carriers and other entities involved in ocean trade.”    “This […]

   The U.S. Maritime Administration is awarding $9.46 million to 12 shipyards, but it received about 10 times as many requests for money as it could provide–113 grant applications requesting $96 million in assistance.

   The service was taken offline Friday for about 16 and a half hours because of a problem with a piece of computer equipment located in New Jersey that required the installation of a software patch.

   TRAC Intermodal has introduced a premium 40-foot gooseneck marine chassis.    The container leasing company said its “TRAC TITAN” chassis are available for daily use to motor carriers in the Port of New York/New Jersey, Savannah and Charleston.    “We asked our motor carrier customers what was important to them, and one consistent response […]

   Transport Canada has issued an emergency directive to increase rail safety following the crash of an oil-bearing train in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. The new measures call for dangerous goods on a main track to be attended to at all times and for increased protection against unauthorized entry into trains, among other measures.    The derailment […]

   President Obama last week said he would consider the recommendation of Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to name Ray Kelly as the next secretary of homeland security if the New York City Police Commissioner was interested in the job. Kelly is highly regarded as a no-nonsense cop with excellent organizational skills, but some in the […]

   PSA International said the Zeebrugge International Port (ZIP) Container Terminal in Belgium opened last week with the berthing of the Ever Laden, a deepsea container vessel operated by Evergreen.    While the Ever Laden is a ship with 8,452 TEU capacity, Singapore-based PSA said the terminal “has been designed as a hub for megavessels […]

   Alabama Steel Terminals will develop a new $36 million steel coil handling facility at the Alabama State Port Authority’s main docks complex in Mobile. AST will construct the 372,600-square-foot warehouse in two phases.

   The continued strength of the auto industry helped push up truck tonnage in June, according to ATA. In general, heavy freight is showing a better growth rate this year than lighter cargo.

   CEVA Logistics is moving into a 700,000-square-foot facility in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., closing two existing Tennessee properties and a facility in Chicago and consolidating those operations into the new location. The development will open by the middle of September.     The company will provide storage, value-added, vendor-managed-inventory and fulfillment services at the new location […]

By Tom Nightingale    Big data… not since Y2K has there been so much hype about an IT-related term. It’s a term that is relevant to all of us, yet few of us really understand it or what to do with it…

   In late June, Nabil Sultan, a senior vice president at Emirates Airline in charge of revenue optimization, stepped in for an air cargo legend.     Sultan took the reigns at Emirates Sky Cargo from Ram Menen, a well-known and widely beloved air cargo figure who had retired after 40 years in the business. Menen […]

   The award of $11.7 million in damages to the owner and operator of a dredge that was struck by an orange juice tanker was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in a summary order. (Great Lakes Bus. Trust v. M/T Orange Sun. 2nd Cir. 12-1270-cv. April 30.)    Great […]

   In 2004, the tanker Athos I carried a cargo of crude oil from Venezuela to Paulsboro, N.J., and while approaching a terminal on the Delaware River, the ship’s hull was punctured by a submerged anchor just 900 feet from its berth.    (It is not known how the anchor, since recovered, got there. It […]

Gillespie-Munro uses platform for a decade, seeks new frontiers in ocean freight processing. By Eric Johnson    Ten years ago, the Montreal-based freight forwarder Gillespie-Munro signed on to the then relatively new ocean freight booking portal INTTRA, hoping to ease a booking process that had been traditionally cumbersome.    In the years since, Gillespie-Munro has witnessed, […]

   So 2013 is the year of Long Beach, it seems.    The nation’s second biggest port has enjoyed a banner first half. With cargo volume up more than 14 percent through June, Long Beach has nabbed some market share from its neighbor, Los Angeles.    This will be an eternal battle, it seems, or […]

   Among the myriad concerns ocean freight shippers have on a daily basis, it’s likely that the ship on which their goods are riding might hit a whale en route is fairly slim.    For marine conservationists, however, whale collisions with cargo vessels are a pretty big deal. And so now, even whales have their […]

By Eric Johnson    More than a decade since U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched its Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program, a preponderance of shippers surveyed earlier this year by American Shipper say they are not receiving some or all of the benefits promised by the program.    As part of American Shipper’s 2012 […]

   The cover story in the June issue of American Shipper (see pages 12-16) tackled a topic that has been crucial, but tricky, for most shippers: total landed cost.    So I read with interest a recent blog post from Steve Banker, service director of supply chain management at ARC Advisory Group. Writing on the […]

With new labor contract, LTL carrier believes it is back on road to prosperity. By Jon Ross    Having just emerged from a protracted labor negotiation and with an eye toward his company’s 90th anniversary this fall, Roy Slagle, ABF’s president and chief executive officer, takes a sunny view of the current domestic less-than-truckload market.    […]