American Shipper

Chris Dupin Thursday, April 25, 2013

Earth of the salt

   This case highlights the importance of clean equipment when carrying ingredients for moving food.    In 2006, Cargill and Ron Burge Trucking entered into a motor transport agreement that included rules about what loads Burge could carry before hauling food-grade salt, and how Burge had to wash its trucks before loading the salt.    […]

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Chris Dupin Thursday, April 25, 2013

When is a waterway navigable?

   During the 19th and early 20th centuries, logs were frequently transported in rafts, and sometimes sank to the bottom of rivers. Aqua Log is a company that recovers sunken logs.    These consolidated appeals, Aqua Log v. Lost and Abandoned Pre-Cut Logs and Rafts of Logs. 11th Cir. Nos. 11-15060, 11-15076, 11-15078. Feb. 15, […]

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FreightWaves Staff Thursday, April 25, 2013

UPS cuts deal on federal probe

   UPS has agreed to pay $40 million to avoid prosecution for shipping drugs from illegitimate online pharmacies, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency announced in late March.     The Atlanta-based global express delivery company has fully cooperated with the investigation and will implement a compliance program to prevent illegal online pharmacies from using its services.

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FreightWaves Staff Thursday, April 25, 2013

Dredging up dollars

   Exasperated by the federal government’s inability to adequately maintain navigable channels and dredge deeper in major container ports, some states have opted to front their own money to jumpstart long-stalled projects amid wider cries that the lack of investment in maritime infrastructure is hurting the nation’s economic competitiveness. 

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FreightWaves Staff Thursday, April 25, 2013

The long U.S. recovery via exports

By Walter Kemmsies, chief economist, Moffatt & Nichol    Optimism is not abundant in this fifth year of recovery from the Great Recession. Employment, consumer spending, home sales and starts are past their worst points but have not yet recovered to their 2007 levels. Similarly, container volumes handled at ports, railcar volumes and truck tonnage […]

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FreightWaves Staff Thursday, April 25, 2013

Lull leads to innovation

Terminal operating systems developers use economic downturn to focus on new technologies. By Eric Johnson    During the depth of the economic recession in 2009 came an inflection point for investment in container terminal operating system (TOS) technologies.    Rather than use a downturn in volumes as a reason to retrench on investment and development, North America’s key players […]

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FreightWaves Staff Thursday, April 25, 2013

Railroads carry all shapes and sizes of cargo

   Not everything shipped by rail fits in an intermodal container, gondola, hopper, or box car. For high, wide or oversize loads railroads such as BNSF Railway use specialized railcars.    Products hauled by the Class I railroad include farm and construction machinery, tanks and other military vehicles, wind turbines and blades, pipeline segments, turbines, boilers, transformers, generators and other equipment that require customized planning. […]

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Chris Dupin Thursday, April 25, 2013

Stretched

Ports, terminals prepare for challenges from bigger ships, expanding alliances. By Chris Dupin    Ports and terminals in the United States and worldwide will have to accommodate growing numbers of larger containerships in the years ahead.    Later this year, Maersk is expected to put the first of 18,000-TEU “Triple E” ships into service in […]

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FreightWaves Staff Thursday, April 25, 2013

Off the track

Railroad BNSF and owner Buffett bet on project cargo logistics. By Eric Kulisch    The recent news that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is partnering with a private equity firm to acquire the iconic H. J. Heinz Co. for $28 billion captured headlines around the world, but less noticed by the mainstream media was the Oracle […]

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Chris Dupin Thursday, April 25, 2013

Shining on logistics

First Solar counts on carriers, 3PLs to deliver materials safely to project sites. By Chris Dupin    While clouds have been hanging over the solar energy industry in recent years due to weakening government support in Europe and the United States, executives at Tempe, Ariz.-based photovoltaic panel manufacturer First Solar gave a sunnier forecast for the […]

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Chris Dupin Thursday, April 25, 2013

Chassis crunch

‘The transition continues and there is no turning back.’ By Chris Dupin    Container carriers are continuing the push to reduce the size of their U.S. chassis fleets, but their efforts to thoroughly disengage from this business will take time.    In 2009, shipping lines owned about 51 percent of ocean container chassis, while leasing […]

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FreightWaves Staff Thursday, April 25, 2013

Commentary: Practicing safe freight payments

   Thanks for bringing the important topic of the Trendset freight payment matter to the shipper community’s attention.    In my 30-plus years in the business, I have never quite understood why anyone would want to make payment arrangements like these via a third party if it is not a bank. For example, we don’t […]

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Chris Dupin Thursday, April 25, 2013

Evergreen adds new service in transpacific

   Evergreen said it will launch a new weekly direct service next month linking central China with the U.S. West Coast.    The China-Pacific South West Service (CPS2) will employ five 4,000-TEU ships, with an inaugural sailing from Ningbo on May 14. The port rotation will be Ningbo, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Oakland and Ningbo.    […]

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FreightWaves Staff Thursday, April 25, 2013

GT Nexus-TradeCard merger finalized

   The merger between cloud-based computing supply chain technology companies GT Nexus and TradeCard was finalized Thursday, with the combined company to be called GT Nexus.    The combined entity manages more than $100 billion in goods for a customer list that includes the Adidas Group, Caterpillar, Coach, DHL, Electrolux, HP, Levi Strauss & Co., […]

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FreightWaves Staff Thursday, April 25, 2013

Short-changed

Trucking industry’s attraction to future drivers lacks incentives. By Jon Ross    Thirty years ago, when the transportation industry was booming right along with the economy, truck drivers earned a decent wage relative to other industries. Since the late 1980s, however, the gap between driver pay and the earnings of workers in other industries has widened. […]

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