American Shipper

Successful transportation benchmarking depends on proper alignment with a company’s strategy goals.

With tighter ship sulfur emission caps, scrubbers and heavier fuel may become attractive.

Air Transport with Jon Ross    With the U.S. Justice Department now querying the domestic airlines about passenger pricing, what’s that saying about history repeating itself?     Well, this isn’t exactly replication, but the seemingly ongoing collusion/price-fixing/antitrust pattern of investigations by the department against the airline industry.     Not even a decade ago, the Justice […]

L.A. terminal maximizes capacity with on-dock rail, automated stacking, and “auto-strads.”

   In China, two important metrics continue to rise: workers’ wages and the value of goods it exports to the rest of the world.    These figures put context behind the rise of the “China, plus one” strategy, where multinational companies continue to use the country’s manufacturing prowess but reduce their dependence on its workers […]

   In the June issue, I penned a commentary about the labor model of app-based concierge services, especially those with a delivery component. (See “Will Uber be the next Teamsters target?”)    Most of these start-up businesses in the sharing economy rely on people acting as independent contractors, who provide their own vehicles and take […]

   One of my favorite people in the transportation industry used an analogy recently that warmed my prog rock heart.    He said there was a steady drumbeat of people—both carriers and analysts—talking about a shortage of truck drivers as if it was an unalienable truth. That to suggest anything else would be outrageous.   […]

Managers are shifting their attention from macroeconomic trends to more basic issues, such as improving performance and growing their business. To do that, it always helps to build up one’s knowledge base.

Reestablishing diplomatic relations affirmed with reopening embassies, but issues remain.

ILA, USMX agree to begin talks to extend the U.S. East Coast dockworkers’ contract.

Ag shippers suggest ways to improve container flow through the country’s marine terminals.

Free flow helps several ports evacuate container yards more smoothly.

BNSF Logistics develops rail equipment, services to handle increasingly larger wind turbine blades.

   The Shanghai International Shipping Institute (SISI) has provided an interesting window into China’s ambition to continue growing its international shipping business.    China “will remain the largest cargo trader in the world and take a dominant role in global container shipping,” with imports and exports exceeding 200 million TEUs by 2030, SISI said.   […]

   It does not come into effect until July 1, 2016, but the World Shipping Council and other organizations are reminding shippers that mandatory amendments to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) will require, regardless of who packed their container, to verify and provide the container’s gross verified weight to […]

   Representatives from the trade community are asking U.S. Customs and Border Protection to postpone the Nov. 1 deadline for mandatory filing of all customs entries in the new Automated Commercial Environment, because many companies won’t have integrated the new data requirements in their systems by then.    In a letter to CBP Commissioner Gil […]

   The U.S. Export-Import Bank has been called a purveyor of “corporate welfare” and a “boondoggle,” but the federal government-backed institution has long proven a useful and secure financial tool for numerous small and midsized American companies who seek overseas buyers for their products.     Is it perfect? No, nothing is. A lot more negative […]

   In a dispute involving cargo damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, a federal judge found the storm was an “Act of God,” absolving the defendant from liability. (Lord & Taylor v. Zim Integrated Shipping Services and New York Container Terminal. U.S. District Court, SDNY. 13 Civ. 3478. 6/18)    The retailer Lord & Taylor […]

   We don’t often think about how technology-driven trucking has become because most motorists—even those with a keen understanding of supply chain—tend to think of trucks motoring down the highway as blunt force objects.    But modern big rigs are essentially computers with steering wheels. Their routes are planned with sophisticated software, their movements and […]

“The ultimate customer of the world’s cargo shipping industry deserves a voice at the table of the regulatory bodies deciding its future,” GSF Chairman Robert Ballantyne said in the forum’s annual report.