Commentary

So who is Gil Kerlikowske, and why does his nomination make the trade industry so nervous?

There’s bound to be plenty of news over the next few weeks about the proposed P3 Network as regulators in the U.S., Europe and China decide whether a massive vessel-sharing agreement among the world’s three largest container shipping companies is anti-competitive and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to take effect.

Under the MAP-21 law, if a motor carrier has common and/or contract authority and a property broker’s license, wouldn’t it make sense to obtain additional freight forwarder authority instead of establishing a new corporate entity for brokerage operations?

Through much of the 1990s and early 2000s, short-sea shipping was the next great thing for U.S. ports. Then it got forced into the shadows. Why the Marine Highway is stuck in reverse, and why we need to give it a better shot.

News flash: Many longshoremen in the Port of New York and New Jersey are second-, third- or even fourth-generation dockworkers. Surprised? Neither am I.

I just read your article regarding Incoterms in a bill of lading in which you say Incoterms relate to the transfer of title. I thought Incoterms provided the responsibilities of the seller and buyer but didn’t relate to title transfer. Title transfer would be referenced in the contract terms of sale. Can you provide clarity as to whether Incoterms regulate transfer of title?

We live in a society where jumping to conclusions without having all the facts is all too common. Case in point is another story about the bad boys of the National Football League, specifically, the behavior of the Miami Dolphins players and their conduct inside and outside the locker room. Federal agencies with jurisdiction over trade-related issues do the same thing.

The recent fatal shooting of TSA officer Gerardo I. Hernandez while at his passenger screening post at LAX airport, instantly reminded me of an airport security column that I wrote in 2006.

It’s often said that things come in threes: The Three Stooges, The Three Little Pigs, the Big 3 and, of course, the P3.

The rapid deceleration in revenue growth evident among the world’s 50 largest transportation and logistics companies last year is still with us in 2013, with a few fluctuations and twists.

Does the sudden renewed interest in same-day delivery of online orders reveal a genuine underlying opportunity, or will these services fail spectacularly the way Kozmo.com, Webvan, Home Grocer and others did when the dot-com bubble burst more than a decade ago?

As the end of 2013 nears, many of us are being asked to forecast what will happen in 2014 as we prepare our budgets. What does global trade growth look like? What about individual trades? Where are carrier rates going?

With the exception of the high-flying airline industry, it’s rare for surface freight transportation to be on the cover of a magazine. So it was with some surprise that I noted two leading business periodicals featuring freight transportation on September covers.

Despite what some trucking interests say, the Southern California ports have made tremendous strides in accelerating container movement into and out of the marine terminals.

A motor carrier questions the impact of an EEOC lawsuit concerning Islamic drivers fired for refusing to haul loads of alcoholic beverages because it violated their religion.

Two recent court cases should prompt all companies, and especially small and medium-sized importers and exporters, to review their business practices with an eye toward reducing potential liability. One dealt with the outcome when one company purchases the assets of another, and the second dealt with determining when U.S. Customs and Border Protection is permitted to seek personal liability from corporate officers in a penalty setting.

An auditor questions a carrier’s billing of a shipper when Incoterm notations indicate otherwise. So how should Incoterms and a bill of lading interact?

Minnesota has the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul), Washington has the Tri-Cities (Pasco, Kennewick and Richland), and Iowa-Illinois have the Quad Cities (Moline and Rock Island, Ill., and Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa). To many, this information is probably worth a hill of beans.

To the credit of those who support the Jones Act, the U.S. law requiring vessels operating in the domestic trade to be built, owned and crewed by Americans, they take little for granted. An unapologetically protectionist law in a world of free trade agreements, the Jones Act is the citadel of the U.S. maritime industry, ferociously guarded by a coalition of shipyards, maritime unions and domestic carriers.

The recent partial shutdown of the federal government and debt ceiling scare suggests that for shippers and transportation providers, the failure of Washington, D.C., isn’t any longer about Democrats vs. Republicans. Instead, it’s increasingly about those who want to provide some economic certainty versus those willing to endanger a modest economic recovery to pursue specific ideological and political goals.

Why is it “tradition” for motor carrier shippers not to buy their own cargo insurance, but “tradition” for rail and ocean shippers to do so?

A November 2011 report from the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center predicts counterfeiting will be a potential $1.7 trillion issue by 2015, growing despite many efforts. No industry escapes its grasp.

Q: As a motor carrier broker, I’m troubled that, while so many new laws and regulations adversely impact us, the government actually has done away with regulations regarding cargo insurance by truckers.

There’s a lot of innovation occurring in the Golden State, in particular at a place called Port Tech LA, a think tank/incubator for entrepreneurs developing port-centric and environmentally friendly technology.

At a time when our nation’s “reset” with Russia has fallen victim to an increasingly frosty relationship between presidents Obama and Putin, it’s easy to wax nostalgic about better days. During the 1985 Geneva summit between President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev, Reagan remarked that if the earth faced an invasion by extraterrestrials, the U.S. and the Soviet Union would join forces to repel such an invasion.

A motor carrier official laments the FMCSA’s “increasingly intrusive” regulations that soon may require carriers to monitor drivers for sleep apnea. When is enough enough, he asks.

Leggett & Platt, the sprawling manufacturing and consumer products company, had little idea of what it was getting into when it hired Maik Breckwoldt out of the automotive industry in 2005 as its vice president for logistics.

Capt. Richard Phillips knew the risks. A merchant seaman for 30 years and ship captain for nearly 20, the man at the helm of the Maersk Alabama has been forthright about the dangers his ship faced in sailing the pirate-infested waters off Somalia half a decade ago.

A recent report about September’s South Carolina International Trade Conference, where shippers expressed concern that bigger container ships and larger carrier alliances will leave them with fewer options, sparked some quick thoughts, my first being, “You got what you asked for.”

Can a broker’s or 3PL’s employees book a hazardous materials shipment without being certified to do so?

With the federal government shut down — the latest example of a dysfunctional Congress — progress toward passing a major port and inland waterway authorization bill is a rare glimmer of bipartisanship.

Supply chain management is receiving increasing attention within corporate boardrooms, and academia is responding with new specialized degree programs targeting existing and future supply chain managers.

If I see another article about near-shoring, which I expect will happen within the next few days, I may get sick. This is one of the most sensationalized stories of recent years and yet I’ve always been troubled by it, sensing the headline is bigger than the story.

A small freight broker questions the legality of tendering a shipment to Carrier A, who then tenders it to Carrier B, if Carrier A has a broker’s license and provides the name of the carrier it’s tendering to.

With global economies on the mend, stock markets roiled with volatility and consumer confidence struggling to improve, ocean shipping volumes have been relatively flat. In such an environment, carriers’ classic methods of raising prices through new services or product features are probably unavailable.

A truck driver loses his CDL after being caught driving under the influence. Though he wasn’t working at the time, his employer fired him. Connecticut’s Supreme Court says he is entitled to unemployment compensation. Why?

The latest trend in transportation, the latest competitive tool, is a port not on the coast and not on the water either. No water — an inland port … a dry port.

In too many cases, we’ve seen government representatives state laudable goals in laws while doing little or, in some cases, working against those goals from being achieved. This unfortunately appears to be the case with the federal transportation reauthorization act, known as MAP-21, when it comes to freight policy.

The director of the upcoming Robert Redford film “All Is Lost” didn’t invent the idea that a sailboat could hit a drifting shipping container at sea. In the film, to be released Oct. 18, such an accident precipitates a dramatic life-and-death struggle when the damaged yacht with its navigation systems disabled runs into a nasty storm. But it’s hardly fiction.

Richard P. Hughes Jr. liked to recall the negotiating advice he received as a young union official from the legendary Teddy Gleason, International Longshoremen’s Association president from the 1960s to the 1980s.