<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">A new fixed-day, weekly container rail service links Moscow to the Far East of Russia, and Ruscon, the operator, plans to dispatch more container trains between central and eastern Russia in the “near future.”
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A new fixed-day, weekly container rail service links Moscow to the Far East of Russia, and Ruscon, the operator, plans to dispatch more container trains between central and eastern Russia in the “near future.”

<div>A new fixed-day, weekly container rail service links Moscow to the Far East of Russia, and Ruscon, the operator, plans to dispatch more container trains between central and eastern Russia in the “near future.”The subsidiary of intermodal company Global Container Service said a 154-TEU-capacity train will depart from southwest of Moscow every Saturday and arrive in Khabarovsk, an inland city less than 20 miles from the Chinese border, on Tuesdays. After discharging, the train will return with import cargo from Far East Russia’s ports to the European part of Russia.Andrey Naraevskiy, director of liner and business development at Global Container...

A new fixed-day, weekly container rail service links Moscow to the Far East of Russia, and Ruscon, the operator, plans to dispatch more container trains between central and eastern Russia in the “near future.” The subsidiary of intermodal company Global Container Service said a 154-TEU-capacity train will depart from southwest of Moscow every Saturday and arrive in Khabarovsk, an inland city less than 20 miles from the Chinese border, on Tuesdays. After discharging, the train will return with import cargo from Far East Russia’s ports to the European part of Russia. Andrey Naraevskiy, director of liner and business development at Global Container Service, told the JOC that the service is “by far the most attractive, if not the only mode for the majority of goods” that travel more than 8,000 to 9,000 kilometers from Moscow to the Far Eastern region. For domestic cargo deliveries moving shorter distances — 1,500 to 2,000 kilometers — the Trans-Siberian Railway would be more the cost effective option and sustainable mode, he said. The new Moscow-Far East Russia service will deliver cargo either produced in Central Russia or imported to and distributed from Moscow to Khabarovsk and other destinations in Russia’s Far East. Naraevskiy said Khabarovsk’s proximity to China is important for the service and for the region in general, as the inland city acts as a “land bridge” for Chinese and other Asian traffic to the eastern and central parts of Russia. Cargo moving eastward on the service will include food, construction materials and machinery and industrial parts imported from Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as trans-Atlantic trade, Naraevskiy said. He noted that less-than-containerload or parcel cargo makes up a “relatively small share” in shipments to Far East Russia, as most goods come from “big shippers or forwarders.” In the opposite direction, Ruscon has an agreement with the terminal VSC at the port of Vostochniy to regularly move goods back to Moscow via the Trans-Siberian Railway, Naraevskiy said. “We cooperate with several carriers at our terminal MANP in Moscow by accepting their empties either for stuffing exports and domestic cargo or repositioning empties back to ports,” he added. Marina Gusarova, director of intermodal at Ruscon, said in a press release: “The weekly provision of the Ruscon flat-car wagons on the Pacific coast means that we also have the equipment ready to transport import cargo arriving at Russian Pacific ports of Vostochniy and Vladivostok to Moscow and other key destinations in the European part of the country.” Naraevskiy said Ruscon is considering expanding the service to several destinations, including Komsomolsk-na-Amure, Berkakit and Irkutsk. He said that it “won’t take long” for Ruscon to add these destinations once they receive minimum cargo commitments for the destinations. “For the moment, we are just offering spot shipments to these places,” he said. Rail comprised about 44 percent of Russia’s overall freight turnover in 2013, according to Rosstat. The high share of rail in Russia’s freight transportation market is fueled by the country’s geography, the economic importance of commodity production, heavy industry and the limitations of other modes, according to Russian freight rail company Globaltrans. Contact Grace M. Lavigne at glavigne@joc.com and follow her on Twitter: @Lavigne_JOC .

International rail

Weekly Container Service Links Moscow, Far East

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The softer global growth in October pulled the 12-month rolling average down to the lowest in 20 months, according to Drewry’s Simon Heaney. </div>

The softer global growth in October pulled the 12-month rolling average down to the lowest in 20 months, according to Drewry’s Simon Heaney.

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<div class="phx-topic">Global container volume growth in October fell to its slowest pace since February as increased trade in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America was offset by falling US and European imports, according to new data from Container Trades Statistics (CTS). Global volumes expanded 2.1% year over year in October, with volumes in the first 10 months up 4.4% compared with a year earlier, according to CTS. The softer global growth in October pulled the 12-month rolling average down to the lowest level in 20 months, according to Simon Heaney, senior manager of container research at Drewry. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="0bafc15c-1e46-45a2-91a6-3b0bb1eb82aa"></dynamic-object></div>“Regional container trade growth in 2025 is increasingly asymmetric, with economies commonly grouped — albeit loosely — under the term ‘Global South’ pulling decisively ahead of their ‘Western’ counterparts,” Heaney said. Import volumes into North America in October fell 6.7% compared with October 2024, while exports from Asia to Europe fell on a year-over-year basis for the first time since February, dropping 3%, according to CTS.But the plunge in US imports has been the biggest drag on global container volumes. US import volumes are on track to end the <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/december-us-imports-on-track-to-be-lowest-since-june-23-retailers-6130632">year down 1.4% at 25.2 million TEUs</a>, according to the Global Port Tracker released Monday. Moody’s Ratings on Nov. 18 warned that US import volumes in 2026 will be flat to down 2% from this year Comparably, shipowner association BIMCO forecasts that global container volumes will expand 2.5% to 3.5% next year, while volumes will end this year up 4.5% to 5.5% from 2024. There have been just two years in which US containerized import volumes have declined to the extent seen in recent months, analyst John McCown said last week on a Journal of Commerce webinar. The most recent was in the spring of 2020 when retailers and other importers slashed orders on fears that retail consumption would plunge in the early days of the pandemic, and the first was 2008–09 in the wake of the financial crisis, McCown said. “I think we’re looking at perhaps the worst performance year that I can recall, in 2026, in terms of volume growth,” McCown said. Contact Mark Szakonyi at <a href="mark.szakonyi@spglobal.com">mark.szakonyi@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Global container volume growth in October fell to its slowest pace since February as increased trade in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America was offset by falling US and European imports, according to new data from Container Trades Statistics (CTS). Global volumes expanded 2.1% year over year in October, with volumes in the first 10 months up 4.4% compared with a year earlier, according to CTS. The softer global growth in October pulled the 12-month rolling average down to the lowest level in 20 months, according to Simon Heaney, senior manager of container research at Drewry. “Regional container trade growth in 2025 is increasingly asymmetric, with economies commonly grouped — albeit loosely — under the term ‘Global South’ pulling decisively ahead of their ‘Western’ counterparts,” Heaney said. Import volumes into North America in October fell 6.7% compared with October 2024, while exports from Asia to Europe fell on a year-over-year basis for the first time since February, dropping 3%, according to CTS. But the plunge in US imports has been the biggest drag on global container volumes. US import volumes are on track to end the year down 1.4% at 25.2 million TEUs , according to the Global Port Tracker released Monday. Moody’s Ratings on Nov. 18 warned that US import volumes in 2026 will be flat to down 2% from this year Comparably, shipowner association BIMCO forecasts that global container volumes will expand 2.5% to 3.5% next year, while volumes will end this year up 4.5% to 5.5% from 2024. There have been just two years in which US containerized import volumes have declined to the extent seen in recent months, analyst John McCown said last week on a Journal of Commerce webinar. The most recent was in the spring of 2020 when retailers and other importers slashed orders on fears that retail consumption would plunge in the early days of the pandemic, and the first was 2008–09 in the wake of the financial crisis, McCown said. “I think we’re looking at perhaps the worst performance year that I can recall, in 2026, in terms of volume growth,” McCown said. Contact Mark Szakonyi at  mark.szakonyi@spglobal.com .

Container lines

Container Shipping News

Maritime

Global container volume growth slows on US, EU declines

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The weak import numbers come as the National Retail Federation is projecting record holiday sales in the US of more than $1 trillion for the first time, up between 3.7% and 4.2% from 2024.</div>

The weak import numbers come as the National Retail Federation is projecting record holiday sales in the US of more than $1 trillion for the first time, up between 3.7% and 4.2% from 2024.

<div class="phx-topic">Containerized imports into the US this month are expected to fall to their lowest level in two and a half years, while ongoing tariff uncertainty will keep volumes at a significant year-over-year deficit at least into the second quarter of next year, US retailers said Tuesday. Projected December imports of 1.86 million TEUs would be the lowest since June 2023, the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates said in their latest Global Port Tracker (GPT). And the weakened cargo picture shows no signs of abating, with GPT’s first forecast for April 2026 imports projecting 1.97 million TEUs, down 11% from the same month a year earlier. “We are seeing the results of the tariffs in weakening cargo demand going forward from the fourth quarter of this year and likely into the first half of next year,” Ben Hackett, founder of Hackett Associates, said in a statement accompanying the monthly port tracker. “Container shipping rates are already declining on both coasts due to less need for cargo space for goods from both Asia and Europe.” The projected April imports would follow a down first quarter, with volumes in January, February and March expected to be, respectively, 10.3%, 8.5% and 16.8% lower than the corresponding months in 2025. The weak import numbers come as the NRF is projecting record holiday sales in the US of more than $1 trillion for the first time, up between 3.7% and 4.2% from 2024. US retail sales rose 0.2% in September, according to the Commerce Department, while a Conference Board survey on Nov. 22 revealed falling US consumer confidence had reached the lowest since April, when the US began its tariff onslaught. “Stores are stocked up and ready for a record holiday season, but there is still a great deal of uncertainty about what will happen in 2026 with trade policy,” Jonathan Gold, NRF’s vice president for supply chain and customs policy, said in the statement. December’s projected imports of 1.86 million TEUs would be down almost 13% from a year ago, and while November’s figures are not yet reported, NRF expects 1.91 million TEUs, 11.6% lower year over year. For all of 2025, NRF expects imports of 25.2 million TEUs, down 1.4% from 2024. The GPT covers the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, and Seattle and Tacoma on the West Coast; New York/New Jersey, the Port of Virginia, Charleston, Savannah, Port Everglades, Miami and Jacksonville on the East Coast; and Houston on the Gulf Coast. Contact Kevin Saville at <a href="mailto:kevin.saville2@spglobal.com">kevin.saville2@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Containerized imports into the US this month are expected to fall to their lowest level in two and a half years, while ongoing tariff uncertainty will keep volumes at a significant year-over-year deficit at least into the second quarter of next year, US retailers said Tuesday. Projected December imports of 1.86 million TEUs would be the lowest since June 2023, the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates said in their latest Global Port Tracker (GPT). And the weakened cargo picture shows no signs of abating, with GPT’s first forecast for April 2026 imports projecting 1.97 million TEUs, down 11% from the same month a year earlier. “We are seeing the results of the tariffs in weakening cargo demand going forward from the fourth quarter of this year and likely into the first half of next year,” Ben Hackett, founder of Hackett Associates, said in a statement accompanying the monthly port tracker. “Container shipping rates are already declining on both coasts due to less need for cargo space for goods from both Asia and Europe.” The projected April imports would follow a down first quarter, with volumes in January, February and March expected to be, respectively, 10.3%, 8.5% and 16.8% lower than the corresponding months in 2025. The weak import numbers come as the NRF is projecting record holiday sales in the US of more than $1 trillion for the first time, up between 3.7% and 4.2% from 2024. US retail sales rose 0.2% in September, according to the Commerce Department, while a Conference Board survey on Nov. 22 revealed falling US consumer confidence had reached the lowest since April, when the US began its tariff onslaught. “Stores are stocked up and ready for a record holiday season, but there is still a great deal of uncertainty about what will happen in 2026 with trade policy,” Jonathan Gold, NRF’s vice president for supply chain and customs policy, said in the statement. December’s projected imports of 1.86 million TEUs would be down almost 13% from a year ago, and while November’s figures are not yet reported, NRF expects 1.91 million TEUs, 11.6% lower year over year. For all of 2025, NRF expects imports of 25.2 million TEUs, down 1.4% from 2024. The GPT covers the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, and Seattle and Tacoma on the West Coast; New York/New Jersey, the Port of Virginia, Charleston, Savannah, Port Everglades, Miami and Jacksonville on the East Coast; and Houston on the Gulf Coast. Contact Kevin Saville at kevin.saville2@spglobal.com .

Port News

North American ports

December US imports on track to be lowest since June ’23: retailers

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">After 27 consecutive months of plus-40% year-over-year growth, China’s total cross-border e-commerce sales were flat in October, according to Xeneta.</div>

After 27 consecutive months of plus-40% year-over-year growth, China’s total cross-border e-commerce sales were flat in October, according to Xeneta.

<div class="phx-topic">Air freight peak season on the main trade lanes out of Asia got off to a mixed start, with solid growth in e-commerce shipments to Europe in October offset by a sharp drop in online demand from the US, according to new data. The US’ scrapping of duty-free access for low-value goods through the “de minimis” exemption is having a dramatic impact on e-commerce exports from China at both ends of the demand scale, according to rate benchmarking platform Xeneta. “After 27 straight months of plus-40% year-over-year growth, China’s total cross-border e-commerce sales were flat in October, based on the latest market data from China Customs,” Niall van de Wouw, Xeneta’s chief air freight officer, said in a market update. “Even robust expansion from China to Europe — up 47% in October — was offset by declines to the rest of Asia, down 3%, and a dramatic 51% drop in e-commerce shipment volumes to the US in this new post-de minimis environment,” van de Wouw noted. Data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) shows that total Asia-North America volume declined 1.4% year over year in October. While an improvement from the 3.5% contraction registered in the previous month, it marks the sixth consecutive decrease for the lane and the seventh in 2025. Asia to Europe demand maintained the strong pace seen since April, up 11.7% year over year in October and only marginally down from September. To serve the strong demand, airlines shifted significant freighter capacity to the trade lane, according to data from air cargo analyst Rotate. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="26caec84-1a5c-435b-b0da-c02f19434600"></dynamic-object></div>Still, the impact of the US tariffs on air cargo is becoming clearer, with Willie Walsh, IATA’s director-general, also pointing to the contraction in Asia-North America demand amid double-digit growth on the Asia-Europe, intra-Asia and Middle East-Europe trades. “The shifting growth pattern shows that air cargo is enabling global supply chains to adapt to the impact of US tariffs,” Walsh said in IATA’s monthly market review, adding that although headline figures for October were generally positive, they revealed “concerning trends of [a] slowdown,” with North America experiencing a significant contraction. <h3>Unsettling trend </h3>Van de Wouw shared this view, noting that although the emerging trend was unsettling for the air freight market, it was not as dramatic as was feared and was not yet hitting US consumer demand “to a concerning level.” But he warned that the situation was likely to change in 2026. “Some [US] shippers have absorbed the increases and are yet to pass on these extra costs to consumers, but with stocks running low and inventory replenishment on the horizon, we expect to see more tariff impact on air cargo volumes next year,” he said. Despite strong growth in October, e-commerce volumes into Europe could also be impacted by increasing regulation, with the EU set to introduce its own accelerated de-minimis reform in 2026 to close loopholes exploited by low-value shipments. With uncertainty over demand, capacity and regulatory changes, the global air cargo industry will head into 2026 with expectations of only modest, low single-digit growth for the year ahead, Van de Wouw said. “We expect supply to grow more than demand in 2026, and that will have an impact on rates,” he said. “Right now, the consensus is the market will do well to achieve demand growth of 2%-3% in 2026.” Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Air freight peak season on the main trade lanes out of Asia got off to a mixed start, with solid growth in e-commerce shipments to Europe in October offset by a sharp drop in online demand from the US, according to new data. The US’ scrapping of duty-free access for low-value goods through the “de minimis” exemption is having a dramatic impact on e-commerce exports from China at both ends of the demand scale, according to rate benchmarking platform Xeneta. “After 27 straight months of plus-40% year-over-year growth, China’s total cross-border e-commerce sales were flat in October, based on the latest market data from China Customs,” Niall van de Wouw, Xeneta’s chief air freight officer, said in a market update. “Even robust expansion from China to Europe — up 47% in October — was offset by declines to the rest of Asia, down 3%, and a dramatic 51% drop in e-commerce shipment volumes to the US in this new post-de minimis environment,” van de Wouw noted. Data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) shows that total Asia-North America volume declined 1.4% year over year in October. While an improvement from the 3.5% contraction registered in the previous month, it marks the sixth consecutive decrease for the lane and the seventh in 2025. Asia to Europe demand maintained the strong pace seen since April, up 11.7% year over year in October and only marginally down from September. To serve the strong demand, airlines shifted significant freighter capacity to the trade lane, according to data from air cargo analyst Rotate. Still, the impact of the US tariffs on air cargo is becoming clearer, with Willie Walsh, IATA’s director-general, also pointing to the contraction in Asia-North America demand amid double-digit growth on the Asia-Europe, intra-Asia and Middle East-Europe trades. “The shifting growth pattern shows that air cargo is enabling global supply chains to adapt to the impact of US tariffs,” Walsh said in IATA’s monthly market review, adding that although headline figures for October were generally positive, they revealed “concerning trends of [a] slowdown,” with North America experiencing a significant contraction. Unsettling trend Van de Wouw shared this view, noting that although the emerging trend was unsettling for the air freight market, it was not as dramatic as was feared and was not yet hitting US consumer demand “to a concerning level.” But he warned that the situation was likely to change in 2026. “Some [US] shippers have absorbed the increases and are yet to pass on these extra costs to consumers, but with stocks running low and inventory replenishment on the horizon, we expect to see more tariff impact on air cargo volumes next year,” he said. Despite strong growth in October, e-commerce volumes into Europe could also be impacted by increasing regulation, with the EU set to introduce its own accelerated de-minimis reform in 2026 to close loopholes exploited by low-value shipments. With uncertainty over demand, capacity and regulatory changes, the global air cargo industry will head into 2026 with expectations of only modest, low single-digit growth for the year ahead, Van de Wouw said. “We expect supply to grow more than demand in 2026, and that will have an impact on rates,” he said. “Right now, the consensus is the market will do well to achieve demand growth of 2%-3% in 2026.” Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Diverging demand for e-commerce drives muted start to air cargo peak season

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">A former DOT deputy assistant secretary in the Biden administration says tradable, guaranteed slot reservations would create a scenario enabling greater efficiencies for both shippers and carriers.</div>

A former DOT deputy assistant secretary in the Biden administration says tradable, guaranteed slot reservations would create a scenario enabling greater efficiencies for both shippers and carriers.

<div class="phx-topic">A new venture launched by a former US Department of Transportation (DOT) official is attempting in a novel way to create an alternative for container shippers and carriers who are forced into the spot market when market conditions disincentivize shipping under signed contracts. Shippers typically get forced into the spot market in tight markets when their actual volume exceeds weekly contracted allocations (minimum quantity commitments, or MQCs), a scenario many would prefer to avoid. Carriers, meanwhile, must turn to the spot market to fill their ships when booked cargo fails to show up at the port, known as downfalls. But Andrew Petrisin, a former DOT deputy assistant secretary for multimodal freight who led the FLOW project under the Biden administration, says tradable, guaranteed slot reservations would create an alternative scenario enabling greater efficiencies for both shippers and carriers. He’s created an online platform called Laneway that attempts to achieve exactly that. <div class="wrapper-narrow float-right-element"><img src="/images/phoenix/6130493_0.1.jpg"></img></div>For shippers, being able to buy or sell tradable reservations, what Petrisin calls “Allocation Equivalent Units,” would enable them to ship under their existing carrier contracts, supporting their carrier relationships without having to direct cargo through third parties in periods when their volumes exceed their weekly contracted allocation. It avoids shippers having to go to the spot market given the uncertain costs and the need to juggle various spot quotes. By using the system, shippers can acquire or dispose of weekly allocations in the frequent scenario when their weekly volume diverges from their weekly allocation due to the vagaries of manufacturing output and other factors. For carriers, the opportunity is to reduce downfalls, which can exceed 30% on certain sailings, while keeping business — and margins — that would otherwise be captured in the spot, or freight-all-kinds (FAK), market. For both shippers and carriers, these outcomes would be the result of guaranteed slot reservations sold by carriers to shippers and then traded freely thereafter, whether among shippers or between shippers and non-vessel-operating common carriers (NVOs) for use by the NVOs’ named accounts. “It’s a market that allows the reservation to be tradable,” Petrisin told the Journal of Commerce. “The carrier sets the initial price; the shipper pays at the point of sale, and then after that it trades freely.” <h3>Addressing a core issue </h3>In effect, Laneway is addressing a core issue of risk management in a chaotic container shipping environment, where shippers see their cargo shut out from capacity, jeopardizing revenues and customer relationships. Others are trying to solve the same problem in different ways, such as container freight futures. Under that scenario, the shipper signs an index-linked contract that avoids their rates becoming unappealing to the carrier, and then hedges adverse price movements using container freight futures. Laneway’s tradable reservations, whose price would fluctuate on the free market, are not derivatives like container freight futures but rather the guaranteed right to capacity under shippers’ existing contracts. “Laneway doesn’t dictate the price, but I imagine the price will fluctuate based on the week of the year, overall market conditions, and other factors,” Petrisin said. While at DOT, Petrisin led development of the Freight Logistics Optimization Works, or FLOW, a well-regarded initiative kept active by the Trump administration that enables players to monitor capacity and enable them to proactively identify and respond to delays. The Laneway idea, by being tied to contracts versus the spot market, contrasts with a number of carrier spot product offerings that offer both quotes and guaranteed space. These include Maersk Spot, Hapag-Lloyd’s Quick Quotes Spot, Evergreen’s GreenX, and ONE’s ONE Quote. Other carrier spot products allow for quotes, but without space confirmation. <h3>Could FAK market shrink? </h3>The ability to access guaranteed space in the contract domain has been lacking, Petrisin said. “While some contract products now offer guaranteed space, you can’t flexibly manage that guaranteed space as your volume changes,” he said. According to Petrisin, creating fungible contract allocations through tradable slot capacity, if the concept takes off, could shrink the FAK market. However, as he sees it, this wouldn’t eliminate or threaten the forwarder; while their traditional NVOCC business may decrease, forwarders can facilitate capacity trades for their shippers in their role as order managers and receive a cut of the market commission. Petrisin is building a pipeline of carriers, forwarders and shippers to begin listing and trading reservations, including having shippers reach out to the carriers to indicate their interest in buying this new product. “This is all about aligning incentives between parties for a positive sum outcome, which is a core lesson I took away from FLOW,” he said. Petrisin said a system of tradable reservations would help reduce no-show rates that can exceed 30% for specific sailings, which force carriers onto the spot market to fill ships at the last minute, or sail underutilized. “Much of the current spot market is ‘spillover’ from the contract market,” he said. “There will always be a true spot market for shippers who need one-off bookings on a given lane, but by eliminating the ‘spillover’ market we will cut costs for shippers, increase profits for carriers, and provide forwarders more reliable revenue. “Carriers care about rate then service, and shippers care about service then rate,” he added. “A tradable reservation enables both parties to hedge what they care about most.” Contact Peter Tirschwell at <a href="mailto:peter.tirschwell@spglobal.com">peter.tirschwell@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

A new venture launched by a former US Department of Transportation (DOT) official is attempting in a novel way to create an alternative for container shippers and carriers who are forced into the spot market when market conditions disincentivize shipping under signed contracts. Shippers typically get forced into the spot market in tight markets when their actual volume exceeds weekly contracted allocations (minimum quantity commitments, or MQCs), a scenario many would prefer to avoid. Carriers, meanwhile, must turn to the spot market to fill their ships when booked cargo fails to show up at the port, known as downfalls. But Andrew Petrisin, a former DOT deputy assistant secretary for multimodal freight who led the FLOW project under the Biden administration, says tradable, guaranteed slot reservations would create an alternative scenario enabling greater efficiencies for both shippers and carriers. He’s created an online platform called Laneway that attempts to achieve exactly that. For shippers, being able to buy or sell tradable reservations, what Petrisin calls “Allocation Equivalent Units,” would enable them to ship under their existing carrier contracts, supporting their carrier relationships without having to direct cargo through third parties in periods when their volumes exceed their weekly contracted allocation. It avoids shippers having to go to the spot market given the uncertain costs and the need to juggle various spot quotes. By using the system, shippers can acquire or dispose of weekly allocations in the frequent scenario when their weekly volume diverges from their weekly allocation due to the vagaries of manufacturing output and other factors. For carriers, the opportunity is to reduce downfalls, which can exceed 30% on certain sailings, while keeping business — and margins — that would otherwise be captured in the spot, or freight-all-kinds (FAK), market. For both shippers and carriers, these outcomes would be the result of guaranteed slot reservations sold by carriers to shippers and then traded freely thereafter, whether among shippers or between shippers and non-vessel-operating common carriers (NVOs) for use by the NVOs’ named accounts. “It’s a market that allows the reservation to be tradable,” Petrisin told the Journal of Commerce. “The carrier sets the initial price; the shipper pays at the point of sale, and then after that it trades freely.” Addressing a core issue In effect, Laneway is addressing a core issue of risk management in a chaotic container shipping environment, where shippers see their cargo shut out from capacity, jeopardizing revenues and customer relationships. Others are trying to solve the same problem in different ways, such as container freight futures. Under that scenario, the shipper signs an index-linked contract that avoids their rates becoming unappealing to the carrier, and then hedges adverse price movements using container freight futures. Laneway’s tradable reservations, whose price would fluctuate on the free market, are not derivatives like container freight futures but rather the guaranteed right to capacity under shippers’ existing contracts. “Laneway doesn’t dictate the price, but I imagine the price will fluctuate based on the week of the year, overall market conditions, and other factors,” Petrisin said. While at DOT, Petrisin led development of the Freight Logistics Optimization Works, or FLOW, a well-regarded initiative kept active by the Trump administration that enables players to monitor capacity and enable them to proactively identify and respond to delays. The Laneway idea, by being tied to contracts versus the spot market, contrasts with a number of carrier spot product offerings that offer both quotes and guaranteed space. These include Maersk Spot, Hapag-Lloyd’s Quick Quotes Spot, Evergreen’s GreenX, and ONE’s ONE Quote. Other carrier spot products allow for quotes, but without space confirmation. Could FAK market shrink? The ability to access guaranteed space in the contract domain has been lacking, Petrisin said. “While some contract products now offer guaranteed space, you can’t flexibly manage that guaranteed space as your volume changes,” he said. According to Petrisin, creating fungible contract allocations through tradable slot capacity, if the concept takes off, could shrink the FAK market. However, as he sees it, this wouldn’t eliminate or threaten the forwarder; while their traditional NVOCC business may decrease, forwarders can facilitate capacity trades for their shippers in their role as order managers and receive a cut of the market commission. Petrisin is building a pipeline of carriers, forwarders and shippers to begin listing and trading reservations, including having shippers reach out to the carriers to indicate their interest in buying this new product. “This is all about aligning incentives between parties for a positive sum outcome, which is a core lesson I took away from FLOW,” he said. Petrisin said a system of tradable reservations would help reduce no-show rates that can exceed 30% for specific sailings, which force carriers onto the spot market to fill ships at the last minute, or sail underutilized. “Much of the current spot market is ‘spillover’ from the contract market,” he said. “There will always be a true spot market for shippers who need one-off bookings on a given lane, but by eliminating the ‘spillover’ market we will cut costs for shippers, increase profits for carriers, and provide forwarders more reliable revenue. “Carriers care about rate then service, and shippers care about service then rate,” he added. “A tradable reservation enables both parties to hedge what they care about most.” Contact Peter Tirschwell at peter.tirschwell@spglobal.com .

Forwarding

New product allows shippers to flex MQC volumes on a weekly basis

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Vancouver-Fraser Port Authority’s scheduling system is aimed at helping marine terminals better prepare labor and equipment planning to mitigate import surges. </div>

The Vancouver-Fraser Port Authority’s scheduling system is aimed at helping marine terminals better prepare labor and equipment planning to mitigate import surges.

<div class="phx-topic">The completion of a centralized scheduling system at the Port of Vancouver will provide marine terminals with at least four days of advance notice of container ship arrivals, allowing for better labor and equipment planning to mitigate import surges. The system, launched two years ago by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, helps coordinate the five different types of vessels, ranging from bulk to cruise ships, that call on some 29 marine terminals in three different districts. The port also presents unique navigational challenges, from confined waters to changing river flow conditions, said Capt. Gord Cooper, chair of the Fraser River Pilots Committee. Through the centralized scheduling system, the nearly 450 port stakeholders now have a “port-wide view” of vessel arrivals, said Sean Baxter, the port’s harbor master and director of marine operations. Similar to other North American West Coast ports, Vancouver experiences seasonal container cargo surges tied to the pre-Lunar New Year and holiday shipping seasons. Baxter said the centralized scheduling system will allow vessel operators to optimize vessel speeds when moving to berth or anchorage, terminal operators will have greater visibility to vessel arrivals and Canadian National Railway (CN) will be better able to handle CN trains run over the Second Narrows Rail Bridge, which must be raised regularly to allow vessels to pass underneath. “This helps us to meet the moment,” he said. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at <a href="mailto:bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com">bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The completion of a centralized scheduling system at the Port of Vancouver will provide marine terminals with at least four days of advance notice of container ship arrivals, allowing for better labor and equipment planning to mitigate import surges. The system, launched two years ago by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, helps coordinate the five different types of vessels, ranging from bulk to cruise ships, that call on some 29 marine terminals in three different districts. The port also presents unique navigational challenges, from confined waters to changing river flow conditions, said Capt. Gord Cooper, chair of the Fraser River Pilots Committee. Through the centralized scheduling system, the nearly 450 port stakeholders now have a “port-wide view” of vessel arrivals, said Sean Baxter, the port’s harbor master and director of marine operations. Similar to other North American West Coast ports, Vancouver experiences seasonal container cargo surges tied to the pre-Lunar New Year and holiday shipping seasons. Baxter said the centralized scheduling system will allow vessel operators to optimize vessel speeds when moving to berth or anchorage, terminal operators will have greater visibility to vessel arrivals and Canadian National Railway (CN) will be better able to handle CN trains run over the Second Narrows Rail Bridge, which must be raised regularly to allow vessels to pass underneath. “This helps us to meet the moment,” he said. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com .

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Vancouver’s new scheduling system gives 96-hour advance notice of vessel arrivals

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The world of LTL is slow to embrace change. Business anachronisms permeate current supply chain processes. These vestiges of the way things used to work define the LTL freight transportation procurement process of many modern shippers.David Knuth, logistics specialist at IEWC, a global supplier of cable and wire based in Wisconsin, is happy to have modernized the RFP process, automating the entire LTL bidding procedure with Bid$ense, SMC³’s automated truckload and LTL freight transportation sourcing solution. But when prompted, he can still recall what once was.In his previous job, a large part of his duties were consumed by creating an intermodal bid package for carriers. In a spreadsheet, Knuth detailed the company’s volumes lane by lane, taking care to delete any errant keystrokes or misleading data. He would then email out the information to each carrier, taking time to respond to detailed technical questions about the spreadsheet data. Finally, he had to compile all the results, create an algorithm that would compare the carriers on each lane, and award the business.“It was a huge undertaking. It took about four months to do,” Knuth said of the old process. “It was almost a full-time job for that part of the year, every year.”In his new job at IEWC, he sat down with Bid$ense on day one and was amazed at the capabilities. Knuth had never before used a bid tool. SMC³’s latest versions of Bid$ense automate the process even further, taking truckload and LTL RFPs entirely online. The tool draws on RFP best-practices protocols to streamline the bidding communication process, enabling bidding carriers to respond accurately and promptly to shipper requests. The solution also does all the distribution work automatically, electronically submitting shipper bid data to carriers based on their actual service capabilities and performance records. Carriers are alerted with timely prompts for RFP deliverables, so shippers aren’t waiting by the phone for responses.Another benefit of automating the process is the data-cleansing assistance. When Knuth sent spreadsheets to carriers, data errors might cloud the bidding process; he might have to resend data or simply accept a price that did not truly reflect the costs of doing business. Data cleansing is incredibly beneficial, he said.The spreadsheet technique also made bidding analysis an onerous task. Since Bid$ense automates and streamlines the entire RFP process, intensive examination is now simple. SMC³ knows that each bid has more than one best outcome. With uniform responses from each carrier, shippers can quickly rank results and create an unlimited quantity of what-if scenarios to make the optimal procurement decision.Jesse Burnett of Central Garden &amp; Pet experiences many of the same benefits. Founded in 1980, Central Garden &amp; Pet has spent the last three decades growing from a small garden supply company to a provider of a range of products from dog chews and bird seed to soil supplements and natural insecticides. For much of its life, the company shipped these disparate goods via LTL and truckload carriers to retailers throughout the country, relying on each business unit to negotiate directly with their freight transportation providers. This arrangement worked fairly well for a small company, but as Central Garden &amp; Pet expanded, leadership decided to consolidate decision making.Burnett helped centralize the transportation decision making in 2015 with SMC³’s Bid$ense. Before Bid$ense, every business unit operated independently as far as negotiating with carriers.“There were a lot of different things just floating around,” he said. “We didn’t have master agreements in place; no national pricing at all. The pricing from carriers was just all over the place, depending on where you were.”The transformations he saw with Bid$ense were immediate. Burnett has been using the tool about every other year since its implementation at the company. Central Garden and Pet’s $19.6 million 2019 LTL bid saved the company just more than 9 percent when compared to its historical average. For Burnett, though, bid automation extends far beyond savings.“We knew that we weren’t getting the best pricing offer from our carriers just because nothing was centralized,” he continued. “We knew that if we combined everything from all these business units and paired it with one corporate offering, then it would drive some cost benefit with it.”When the company initially decided to centralize bid procurement, executives researched a number of different methodologies and technologies. In the end, though, Burnett found that Bid$ense was both widespread and well known, and that his carrier partners already knew how to use the application. Burnett also highlighted the data-cleansing process as a major benefit, saying the rigorous process ensures that carriers always return the best price.“It definitely has helped drive savings,” he said. “Any time you go out there and you drive that competitiveness with the carriers and they know they’re in a bid environment, it seems to sharpen their pencils.”Transportation procurement is an integral part of the modern supply chain. With Bid$ense, shippers can develop a strategic implementation plan that saves them time and money, but also helps them create strong relationships with their carrier partners. These carriers appreciate the solution’s data-cleansing process; when carriers receive a complete shipment history and future volume forecast, they don’t have to guess on pricing. Carriers that receive more data from shippers get a complete picture of that shipper’s freight, allowing them to accurately plan instead of simply preparing for the worst-case scenario. Clean data presented through an automated system can lead to both bigger shipment savings and a lasting partnership between carrier and customer.Whether customers are looking to streamline over-the-road transportation bidding by automating the RFP process or create an entirely new, centralized sourcing process, Bid$ense has the analytical horsepower to get the job done.SMC³ 2020 Customer Case Study

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Shippers save money, time with automated transportation bidding tools

If there’s one immutable truth in the world of logistics, it’s this: LTL is an inherently complex form of transportation. Tariffs, rates, DIM weights, transit times — it’s enough to confuse even seasoned logistics professionals. The solution to this knowledge gap has historically been on-the-job training or university supply chain education, but for a variety of reasons there is now a pressing need for third-party, remote LTL training that prepares logistics workers for transportation success. Global Scope Can Overlook Local Intricacies In the past, professionals looking to move into a supply chain career learned about the basics of supply chain from universities. However, many of these college supply chain programs are now global in scope, focusing on worldwide supply chain management instead of the intricacies of specialized domestic transportation. And even these programs, which used to be widespread, are becoming less common. LTL is not an industry of broad-brush strokes; supply chain professionals really need a pointillistic understanding of the logistics of LTL in order to excel in the industry. Accelerating Need for Dedicated LTL Education This lack of specified training put the onus on employers to prepare new hires with the LTL knowledge needed to do their jobs. Dedicated LTL study is a necessity, not a luxury. At the same time, changes in LTL and the broader supply chain world are accelerating. The reliance on e-commerce has ballooned since the start of the pandemic, and last-mile LTL shipments and related e-commerce strains on the supply chain won’t diminish once social distancing abates. That genie isn’t going back into the bottle. So supply chain employers need logistics workers that are fully versed in all aspects of the industry, ready to solve unique shipping and delivery problems based on their extensive supply chain knowledge But why care about LTL? It’s been reported that some shippers in today’s world are no longer concerned with what mode is used to ship their goods. A Multimodal Approach Ensures On-Time Delivery This mode agnosticism means supply chain stakeholders have to be well versed in all modes of transportation. As unforeseen weather events and other disruptions, such as protests, become more common, savvy logistics employees will need to be armed with familiarity of all modes, not just the most popular, to ensure that freight is delivered on time, without damage, and in the most financially expedient way possible. Offerings like SMC³’s LTL online education courses cover a wide range of topics from LTL basics and operations to more advanced concepts like pricing analytics and transportation law. The company also has plans to continually refresh content, adding new expert presenters and taking the feedback of students to make the courses even better as time goes on. Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://logisticstrainingcenter.com/smc3-courses/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">SMC³’s LTL Online Education program</a>&nbsp;and view the 2021 hybrid schedule, featuring live industry experts,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smc3.com/onlinelearning2021/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">here.</a>

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Filling the Supply Chain Education Gap with LTL Education Courses

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