<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">A proliferation of visibility vendors amid increased demand for container status events is putting pressure on the websites of carriers to support multiple requests for the same data.</div>

A proliferation of visibility vendors amid increased demand for container status events is putting pressure on the websites of carriers to support multiple requests for the same data.

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<div>Ocean carriers are aggressively preventing software vendors and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) from scraping container milestone data from their websites as demand for visibility continues to grow. A number of visibility and shipment management software vendors told the Journal of Commerce that carriers are seeking to make it harder for those vendors to web scrape for status information, forcing vendors to create direct feeds with carriers or use carriers’ application programming interfaces (APIs). “Most of the carriers use some form of anti-bot managers,” Akshay Dodeja, CEO of visibility provider Terminal49, told the Journal of Commerce. Those anti-bot programs, such as...

Ocean carriers are aggressively preventing software vendors and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) from scraping container milestone data from their websites as demand for visibility continues to grow. A number of visibility and shipment management software vendors told the Journal of Commerce that carriers are seeking to make it harder for those vendors to web scrape for status information, forcing vendors to create direct feeds with carriers or use carriers’ application programming interfaces (APIs). “Most of the carriers use some form of anti-bot managers,” Akshay Dodeja, CEO of visibility provider Terminal49, told the Journal of Commerce. Those anti-bot programs, such as Cloudfare and Akamai, detect scraping programs and prevent them from accessing the contents of a website. “This is a moving target, and it’s a cat-and-mouse game,” Dodeja said. “It got worse during COVID when the volumes were high and there was more congestion. It makes it really challenging to monitor container milestone changes programmatically, especially for anyone who manages more than a few containers a month.” Attempts to access data from carrier websites come amid a long-simmering debate over whether container lines are owners or merely custodians of shipment information related to the cargo they move. “We’re not trying to resell the carriers’ data,” the chief information officer at one 3PL, who did not want to be identified, told the Journal of Commerce. “We’re trying to give their own customers data about their shipments. But I get it, everybody and their mom is trying to scrape.” Most of a handful of carriers contacted by the Journal of Commerce didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on whether they are intentionally blocking third parties from accessing container status data on their websites. But one, who did not want to be identified, said that virtually every carrier deploys programs to protect their sites, especially if they see specific third parties making several hundred or thousand hits per day in an attempt to scrape. Pandemic drove more data requests The more robust defenses are, in some sense, a defense against the number of data requests carriers’ websites now receive on a continuous basis. With the proliferation of visibility vendors in the market over the past decade — both standalone providers and 3PLs offering visibility tools — container lines are essentially being asked dozens of times to provide information for the same status events. The situation gets even more complicated when a large shipper with leverage asks a container line to create a direct feed with the shipper’s visibility vendor of choice, forcing uneasy relationships between third-party companies that are seen by carriers to be monetizing carrier or shipper data. Some carriers, in turn, are charging vendors a monthly fee — in the neighborhood of $1,700 per month — to subscribe to an API that gives them access to a certain number of container status “requests” monthly. Other carriers offer their API free to shippers but charge a “nominal” fee to third-party visibility providers, sources told the Journal of Commerce. “The carriers were never really happy about [their websites being pinged for container status] because it is indecipherable from a denial-of-service attack,” said Bryn Heimbeck, CEO of Trade Tech, a logistics management software vendor. “A server you don’t know keeps running queries against your system. More and more of these online tracking, booking, and spot rates requests are login/password-protected and carriers are not giving this out to software companies.” Heimbeck said Trade Tech has been able to secure electronic integrations with most of the major container lines and some smaller intra-Asia carriers by leveraging a customer’s need with a specific carrier. “The days of having to go through a portal are numbered,” he said. Different approaches among carriers While all carriers are using tools to prevent scraping, including barriers such as captchas or bot detection and mitigation services, certain ones are being more aggressive than others. “Usually, the less innovative carriers with poorer track and trace capability are the first to implement these, with no alternatives such as API or even [electronic data interchange] connections, being offered in place to customers,” said Tyler Hughes, chief technology officer at visibility provider Vizion. Hughes said Vizion has focused on building API connections with carriers and terminals. “But in other cases, we get our hands dirty and build out advanced crawlers that are able to bypass these checks,” he said. “Scrapers still play a role for our operations but more often as a fallback, as we've been able to uncover better and more well-hidden sources for data in carriers' underlying architecture.” The CIO at the US-based 3PL said his company focuses on scraping behavior that doesn’t seem “too bot-like.” “We use a proxy to buy IP addresses and intelligence to ‘act like a human,’” he said. “And we make sure to ping the system intermittently.” The 3PL uses a mixture of its own scraping and data from multiple visibility providers. “We have a full-time person managing scrapes and we have all these analytics telling us how they’re performing,” the source said. “We’re also hitting the carrier APIs behind the scenes. The carriers are all recognizing it’s better to expose the data through APIs than having people blowing up their sites with status event requests.” The impetus on getting the data has also changed, the 3PL CIO said, with the volume of status event requests rising as customer expectations for real-time visibility increase. “Customers are expecting us to have 100% of the data,” the CIO said. “It’s on us. In the past we’d score the carriers for our customers. [For example] ‘this carrier is only sending us 70% of the data.’ Now, we say, we’ll worry about how to get them the data.” The 3PL said carriers do respond when a large customer mandates the carrier create a direct data feed, but the terms of engagement are different in the mid-market, where most of his customers sit. “The biggest challenge is on the [non-vessel-operating common carrier] side, because the shipper needs to give us the master bill of lading number and the container number,” the CIO said. “We need those numbers to get events on the carrier websites because the carriers won’t give us data off the NVO’s house bill of lading. The APIs make a big difference because then I can get any milestone. We work with 200 NVOs and I’m not going to build EDI connectivity with 200 NVOs.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com and follow him on Twitter: @LogTechEric .

Container Shipping News

Container lines

Logistics Technology News

Ocean carriers guarding their digital gates as visibility requests increase

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">National drayage providers experiencing a sharp decline in orders as US tariffs come into effect now warn that a second-half rebound could be just as disruptive. </div>

National drayage providers experiencing a sharp decline in orders as US tariffs come into effect now warn that a second-half rebound could be just as disruptive.

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<div class="phx-topic">Drayage providers who handled the early 2025 surge of US-bound cargo booked ahead of US tariffs are now bracing for a significant drop in business that will begin in May and potentially last into the third quarter. They’re also girding for a disruptive import rebound once trade disputes abate. “What happens in the third quarter is going to be the big story,” said Paul Brashier, vice president of global supply chain for ITS Logistics, a Reno, Nevada-based third-party logistics provider offering over-the-road truckload and drayage services. Once US trade disputes with China and other trading partners are resolved, “there will be a wave of freight that will stress the system,” Brashier said. “We’re pretty much looking at a similar event as we saw with COVID in 2020. There will be pent-up demand.” Indeed, container shipping lines are already warning that a rebound in Asian imports following the expected plunge linked to the US-China trade dispute may <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/container-lines-warn-of-congestion-threat-when-asia-imports-rebound-5993793">overwhelm major US ports</a>. The biggest danger, they say, could be a lack of capacity outside port gates to handle a rapid acceleration in freight. That concern starts at drayage. “We’re warning customers to be very strategic with their dray partners,” said Ken Kellaway, CEO of RoadOne IntermodaLogistics, a nationwide drayage provider with headquarters near Boston. “If we lose drivers over the next 30 to 45 days, it will take weeks to get them back,” Kellaway said. “Shippers will be in trouble if we can’t preserve the capacity we have in the system today.” He said a freight “whiplash” could hit US ports as early as mid-June. <h3>Potential for a ‘reset’ </h3>US drayage capacity appears to be <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/shrinking-us-drayage-capacity-to-continue-outstripping-demand-5971095">slowly shrinking from a 2022 high</a>, with some of those losses attributed to the migration of owner-operators to the security of larger carriers. Still, excess drayage capacity persists, putting pressure on already-low rates. However, the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape global trade could reset the drayage market, especially if trade negotiations drag on without a resolution or a lowering of tariff rates that would encourage beneficial cargo owners (BCOs) to boost US imports. “The market’s been soft anyway, so a lot of small drayage companies are struggling with cash flow, taking any freight to keep going,” said Joel Henry, CEO of IMC Logistics, a nationwide drayage provider with headquarters near Memphis. “Now without the volume, they’ll not even have that cash flow,” Henry said. That could push small carriers that have stayed in business despite low rates the past two years out of the market, tightening capacity immediately when a rebound hits US ports. “I think there’s going to be a shakeout in capacity in the next month,” said Brian Kempisty, co-founder of drayage broker Port X Logistics, based in Buffalo, New York. “It could be three months, but when freight comes back, it will come back with a vengeance.” <h3>Drayage on the edge </h3>With the trajectory of trade disputes with China and other countries uncertain, many shippers in April canceled or postponed purchase orders from China. That big pause will lead to a real plunge in drayage demand at US ports and inland rail ramps. The US imposed combined tariffs of 145% on China on April 2, and China in turn imposed a 125% tariff on many US goods, including agricultural products. Another tranche of reciprocal tariffs on trading partners around the globe was paused for 90 days until July 9. And importers are also dealing with a 10% tariff on goods from almost all US trading partners, as well as 25% tariffs on steel, aluminum and automotive products and 25% tariffs on <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/tariff-uncertainty-pushing-up-transportation-costs-at-us-mexico-border-5984698">other goods from Mexico and Canada</a> that took effect in March. Bookings for containers headed from China to the US <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/trans-pacific-capacity-cuts-accelerating-amid-sharp-reduction-in-chinese-cargo-5992769">dropped nearly 54%</a> during the week of April 21–28 versus the comparable week in March, according to maritime visibility provider Vizion and data and analytics company Dun &amp; Bradstreet. “One of our large customers who imports through Savannah shared with us that they canceled all their purchase orders from China for the next 30 days,” said Kent Williams, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Cookeville, Tennessee-based Averitt. The regional trucking and drayage provider, which drays about 45,000 containers a year in the Southeast, saw its drayage business jump 10% to 12% year over year in the first quarter as customers rushed goods to the US ahead of the tariffs. In the past month, as the tariffs on China took effect, Averitt’s drayage volumes have dropped 5% year over year. “There’s a real fear it could get worse,” Williams said. “All the canceled bookings and blanked sailings are about to hit the supply chain in a big way.” The effects of the trade war on drayage are just becoming apparent, said Port X’s Kempisty. “Freight that sailed April 1,” just before the US tariffs on China took effect, “is arriving in the US now,” he said. But that will be the last frontloaded freight from China. “In drayage, we’re at the front end of this,” said Kempisty. The initial impact will be on the West Coast, but it won’t be long before inland markets begin to see volumes drop. “Inland drayage markets in Chicago and Kansas City are going to see a fairly substantial decline in the next couple of weeks,” he said. IMC Logistics, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/kn-acquires-majority-stake-in-big-us-drayage-provider-5817584">purchased by global forwarder</a> Kuehne + Nagel last November, saw its drayage volume drop 14.2% in the last seven days as of Tuesday, and 8.1% in the last 30 days. “We’re seeing double-digit decreases in the orders we’re tracing,” Henry said. Added RoadOne’s Kellaway: “We haven’t seen the business fall off yet, but we know it’s coming.” Over the next few weeks, RoadOne anticipates its drayage volumes will drop 30% on the West Coast, 20% in the Midwest and 15% on the East Coast. “We could see a three- to four-week lull in volumes, so we’re moving equipment around,” he said. <h3>How long a decline? </h3>Other drayage providers offered similar forecasts of shipment decline, but no one has a clear idea of how long it will last. Guesses — it’s hard to call them estimates — have ranged from three weeks to three months or longer, in worst-case scenarios. The monthly Global Port Tracker produced by the National Retail Foundation (NRF) and Hackett Associates in April predicted US retail imports will be down 20% year over year in the second half of 2025, with a 20.2% decline in May and a 26.6% drop in June. “Even if there’s a [US-China] agreement today, there will still be this period where there will be less work coming inbound to the ports, with less drays, less transload, less truckload and less-than-truckload [LTL],” said Williams. “All this is already in motion.” The longer the “lull” or “pause” in Asian imports lasts, the bigger the long-term impact on drayage. And the bigger the rebound may be when trade disputes are settled. “If we get agreements before July, we could have an aggressive second half of the year,” Keith Prather, managing partner at Armada Capital Intelligence, said during an SMC3 webinar Tuesday on tariffs, the economy and the LTL sector. A big enough freight snap could boost not only drayage but other transportation modes out of what’s now a four-year freight downturn. “I look forward to dealing with the congestion,” said Henry. “That’s a much better challenge than this decline, because our driver base will be stable.” Contact William B. Cassidy at <a href="Mailto:bill.cassidy@spglobal.com">bill.cassidy@spglobal.com</a>.Associate editor Laura Robb contributed to this story. </div>

Drayage providers who handled the early 2025 surge of US-bound cargo booked ahead of US tariffs are now bracing for a significant drop in business that will begin in May and potentially last into the third quarter. They’re also girding for a disruptive import rebound once trade disputes abate. “What happens in the third quarter is going to be the big story,” said Paul Brashier, vice president of global supply chain for ITS Logistics, a Reno, Nevada-based third-party logistics provider offering over-the-road truckload and drayage services. Once US trade disputes with China and other trading partners are resolved, “there will be a wave of freight that will stress the system,” Brashier said. “We’re pretty much looking at a similar event as we saw with COVID in 2020. There will be pent-up demand.” Indeed, container shipping lines are already warning that a rebound in Asian imports following the expected plunge linked to the US-China trade dispute may overwhelm major US ports . The biggest danger, they say, could be a lack of capacity outside port gates to handle a rapid acceleration in freight. That concern starts at drayage. “We’re warning customers to be very strategic with their dray partners,” said Ken Kellaway, CEO of RoadOne IntermodaLogistics, a nationwide drayage provider with headquarters near Boston. “If we lose drivers over the next 30 to 45 days, it will take weeks to get them back,” Kellaway said. “Shippers will be in trouble if we can’t preserve the capacity we have in the system today.” He said a freight “whiplash” could hit US ports as early as mid-June. Potential for a ‘reset’ US drayage capacity appears to be slowly shrinking from a 2022 high , with some of those losses attributed to the migration of owner-operators to the security of larger carriers. Still, excess drayage capacity persists, putting pressure on already-low rates. However, the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape global trade could reset the drayage market, especially if trade negotiations drag on without a resolution or a lowering of tariff rates that would encourage beneficial cargo owners (BCOs) to boost US imports. “The market’s been soft anyway, so a lot of small drayage companies are struggling with cash flow, taking any freight to keep going,” said Joel Henry, CEO of IMC Logistics, a nationwide drayage provider with headquarters near Memphis. “Now without the volume, they’ll not even have that cash flow,” Henry said. That could push small carriers that have stayed in business despite low rates the past two years out of the market, tightening capacity immediately when a rebound hits US ports. “I think there’s going to be a shakeout in capacity in the next month,” said Brian Kempisty, co-founder of drayage broker Port X Logistics, based in Buffalo, New York. “It could be three months, but when freight comes back, it will come back with a vengeance.” Drayage on the edge With the trajectory of trade disputes with China and other countries uncertain, many shippers in April canceled or postponed purchase orders from China. That big pause will lead to a real plunge in drayage demand at US ports and inland rail ramps. The US imposed combined tariffs of 145% on China on April 2, and China in turn imposed a 125% tariff on many US goods, including agricultural products. Another tranche of reciprocal tariffs on trading partners around the globe was paused for 90 days until July 9. And importers are also dealing with a 10% tariff on goods from almost all US trading partners, as well as 25% tariffs on steel, aluminum and automotive products and 25% tariffs on other goods from Mexico and Canada that took effect in March. Bookings for containers headed from China to the US dropped nearly 54% during the week of April 21–28 versus the comparable week in March, according to maritime visibility provider Vizion and data and analytics company Dun & Bradstreet. “One of our large customers who imports through Savannah shared with us that they canceled all their purchase orders from China for the next 30 days,” said Kent Williams, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Cookeville, Tennessee-based Averitt. The regional trucking and drayage provider, which drays about 45,000 containers a year in the Southeast, saw its drayage business jump 10% to 12% year over year in the first quarter as customers rushed goods to the US ahead of the tariffs. In the past month, as the tariffs on China took effect, Averitt’s drayage volumes have dropped 5% year over year. “There’s a real fear it could get worse,” Williams said. “All the canceled bookings and blanked sailings are about to hit the supply chain in a big way.” The effects of the trade war on drayage are just becoming apparent, said Port X’s Kempisty. “Freight that sailed April 1,” just before the US tariffs on China took effect, “is arriving in the US now,” he said. But that will be the last frontloaded freight from China. “In drayage, we’re at the front end of this,” said Kempisty. The initial impact will be on the West Coast, but it won’t be long before inland markets begin to see volumes drop. “Inland drayage markets in Chicago and Kansas City are going to see a fairly substantial decline in the next couple of weeks,” he said. IMC Logistics, purchased by global forwarder Kuehne + Nagel last November, saw its drayage volume drop 14.2% in the last seven days as of Tuesday, and 8.1% in the last 30 days. “We’re seeing double-digit decreases in the orders we’re tracing,” Henry said. Added RoadOne’s Kellaway: “We haven’t seen the business fall off yet, but we know it’s coming.” Over the next few weeks, RoadOne anticipates its drayage volumes will drop 30% on the West Coast, 20% in the Midwest and 15% on the East Coast. “We could see a three- to four-week lull in volumes, so we’re moving equipment around,” he said. How long a decline? Other drayage providers offered similar forecasts of shipment decline, but no one has a clear idea of how long it will last. Guesses — it’s hard to call them estimates — have ranged from three weeks to three months or longer, in worst-case scenarios. The monthly Global Port Tracker produced by the National Retail Foundation (NRF) and Hackett Associates in April predicted US retail imports will be down 20% year over year in the second half of 2025, with a 20.2% decline in May and a 26.6% drop in June. “Even if there’s a [US-China] agreement today, there will still be this period where there will be less work coming inbound to the ports, with less drays, less transload, less truckload and less-than-truckload [LTL],” said Williams. “All this is already in motion.” The longer the “lull” or “pause” in Asian imports lasts, the bigger the long-term impact on drayage. And the bigger the rebound may be when trade disputes are settled. “If we get agreements before July, we could have an aggressive second half of the year,” Keith Prather, managing partner at Armada Capital Intelligence, said during an SMC3 webinar Tuesday on tariffs, the economy and the LTL sector. A big enough freight snap could boost not only drayage but other transportation modes out of what’s now a four-year freight downturn. “I look forward to dealing with the congestion,” said Henry. “That’s a much better challenge than this decline, because our driver base will be stable.” Contact William B. Cassidy at bill.cassidy@spglobal.com .Associate editor Laura Robb contributed to this story.

Port News

Trucking News

Drayage

Surface

US drayage providers bracing for container plunge say rebound could reset market

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The carrier and competitor Hapag-Lloyd announced strong financial results Wednesday, but both said the success of early 2025 won’t be replicated through the balance of the year given market headwinds linked to the global trade conflict. </div>

The carrier and competitor Hapag-Lloyd announced strong financial results Wednesday, but both said the success of early 2025 won’t be replicated through the balance of the year given market headwinds linked to the global trade conflict.

<div class="phx-topic">Ocean Network Express (ONE) on Wednesday slashed its fiscal year 2025 profit forecast by more than 75%, citing economic instability linked to the global tariff war ignited by the Trump administration. Singapore-based ONE said it now expects full-year profits of about $250 million, down from an earlier estimate of $1.1 billion. A fiscal first-half profit of about $350 million will be followed by a $100 million net loss in the last six months of its fiscal year, the carrier projects. ONE’s 2025 fiscal year began April 1 and ends March 31, 2026. The carrier said the huge downgrade in profit expectations was made after considering “potential headwinds such as weakened cargo volumes in specific trade lanes and reductions in freight rates across global markets” due to heightened geopolitical and economy uncertainty. Fiscal year 2025 revenues will likely be about $8.5 billion in the carrier’s first-half period and $8 billion between October and March, down from its earlier forecast of $9.5 billion in the first half and $8.5 billion in the second. <h3>Big jump in FY’24 profit </h3>ONE revealed its revised forecasts as part of its fiscal 2024 annual results, which showed a 336% increase in net profit to $4.2 billion, up from $972 million in the prior-year period. Revenue climbed 32% to $19.2 billion, while liftings rose 6% to 12.75 million TEUs. Cargo volumes from Asia to North America increased 13.4% in January and February year over year, likely due to robust demand on strong US consumer spending and frontloading by importers in anticipation of tariff hikes, ONE said. But volumes have fallen on major trade lanes since the Lunar New Year amid “a tendency to hold off on shipments due to uncertainty about the outlook,” the carrier said. While continued vessel diversions around the Cape of Good Hope led to tight vessel supply in January, weakened cargo demand since then has led to a vessel oversupply, it added. The latest economic data from China released Wednesday confirm the slowdown in trade. China’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) dropped to 49 in April from 50.5 in March as the US-led tariff and trade dispute impacted output. China’s new orders index also contracted in April, to 49.2 from 52.4 in March, reflecting a dearth of new contracts. <h3>Hagag-Lloyd warns of ‘considerable uncertainty’ </h3>Echoing ONE’s view of the container market, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen said Wednesday the current market was characterized by uncertainty. “We therefore continue to expect lower results for 2025 as a whole,” he said in a statement announcing the carrier’s first-quarter results. Earnings forecasts for 2025 that were released in January remain unchanged, for now. Hapag-Lloyd still expects group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to range between $2.5 billion and $4 billion, with group earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of between zero and $1.5 billion. “This forecast remains subject to considerable uncertainty due to the volatile development of freight rates and major geopolitical challenges,” the carrier said. “Both the ongoing tense situation in the Red Sea and the global trade conflict could have a significant impact on supply and demand in container shipping and thus also on Hapag-Lloyd’s earnings performance.” Despite the market challenges, Habben Jansen said Hapag-Lloyd “got off to a good start in the first quarter.” The carrier saw a 15% increase in group revenue to $5.3 billion in the quarter, from $4.6 billion a year ago. Its average freight rates rose to $1,450 per TEU against $1,359/TEU, while liftings climbed to 3.3 million TEUs from 3 million TEUs in the year-earlier period. Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com</a>.</div>

Ocean Network Express (ONE) on Wednesday slashed its fiscal year 2025 profit forecast by more than 75%, citing economic instability linked to the global tariff war ignited by the Trump administration. Singapore-based ONE said it now expects full-year profits of about $250 million, down from an earlier estimate of $1.1 billion. A fiscal first-half profit of about $350 million will be followed by a $100 million net loss in the last six months of its fiscal year, the carrier projects. ONE’s 2025 fiscal year began April 1 and ends March 31, 2026. The carrier said the huge downgrade in profit expectations was made after considering “potential headwinds such as weakened cargo volumes in specific trade lanes and reductions in freight rates across global markets” due to heightened geopolitical and economy uncertainty. Fiscal year 2025 revenues will likely be about $8.5 billion in the carrier’s first-half period and $8 billion between October and March, down from its earlier forecast of $9.5 billion in the first half and $8.5 billion in the second. Big jump in FY’24 profit ONE revealed its revised forecasts as part of its fiscal 2024 annual results, which showed a 336% increase in net profit to $4.2 billion, up from $972 million in the prior-year period. Revenue climbed 32% to $19.2 billion, while liftings rose 6% to 12.75 million TEUs. Cargo volumes from Asia to North America increased 13.4% in January and February year over year, likely due to robust demand on strong US consumer spending and frontloading by importers in anticipation of tariff hikes, ONE said. But volumes have fallen on major trade lanes since the Lunar New Year amid “a tendency to hold off on shipments due to uncertainty about the outlook,” the carrier said. While continued vessel diversions around the Cape of Good Hope led to tight vessel supply in January, weakened cargo demand since then has led to a vessel oversupply, it added. The latest economic data from China released Wednesday confirm the slowdown in trade. China’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) dropped to 49 in April from 50.5 in March as the US-led tariff and trade dispute impacted output. China’s new orders index also contracted in April, to 49.2 from 52.4 in March, reflecting a dearth of new contracts. Hagag-Lloyd warns of ‘considerable uncertainty’ Echoing ONE’s view of the container market, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen said Wednesday the current market was characterized by uncertainty. “We therefore continue to expect lower results for 2025 as a whole,” he said in a statement announcing the carrier’s first-quarter results. Earnings forecasts for 2025 that were released in January remain unchanged, for now. Hapag-Lloyd still expects group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to range between $2.5 billion and $4 billion, with group earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of between zero and $1.5 billion. “This forecast remains subject to considerable uncertainty due to the volatile development of freight rates and major geopolitical challenges,” the carrier said. “Both the ongoing tense situation in the Red Sea and the global trade conflict could have a significant impact on supply and demand in container shipping and thus also on Hapag-Lloyd’s earnings performance.” Despite the market challenges, Habben Jansen said Hapag-Lloyd “got off to a good start in the first quarter.” The carrier saw a 15% increase in group revenue to $5.3 billion in the quarter, from $4.6 billion a year ago. Its average freight rates rose to $1,450 per TEU against $1,359/TEU, while liftings climbed to 3.3 million TEUs from 3 million TEUs in the year-earlier period. Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

Asia-Europe

Trans-Pacific

Maritime

ONE makes big cut in FY 2025 profit forecast due to economic uncertainty

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">After getting the year off to a solid start in the first quarter, Jens Lund said the real work begins now to bring the two global forwarders together under the DSV brand.</div>

After getting the year off to a solid start in the first quarter, Jens Lund said the real work begins now to bring the two global forwarders together under the DSV brand.

<div class="phx-topic">DSV completed its all-cash $16.25 billion takeover of DB Schenker Wednesday and began a multi-year journey to integrate its largest-ever acquisition in a process CEO Jens Lund described as “a mammoth test” for the combined forwarding group. “You’ve furnished the capital, and now we have to deliver on the business plan,” Lund told investors on DSV’s first-quarter earnings call after reporting a strong start to the year. DSV’s first-quarter revenue increased 8.2% year over year to $6.3 billion, while gross profit was up 6.2% at $1.7 billion. Its earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose 4.8% to $588 million and net profit for the first three months came in at $428 million, up 17.5% year over year. Ocean volume of 653,000 TEUs in the first quarter was up 3% year over year, but gross profit per TEU increased 14% to $503 million. Air freight volume remained flat through the first quarter at 334,000 tons, with gross profit per ton rising 5% to $1,400. Although DSV executives emphasized the solid start to the year, the DB Schenker acquisition from parent Deutsche Bahn dominated the earnings call. Financial analysts were particularly focused on the synergies that would result from the combined company and the high costs of the integration. CFO Michael Ebbe said DSV “has only just received the keys” to DB Schenker, and while the synergies are expected to reach $1.37 billion by 2028 when the integration is completed, more details would be provided later this year. The synergies relate to the savings from a consolidation of operations, logistics facilities, back-office functions, finance and IT infrastructure. “But I think it’s important to notice that this acquisition is different from what we have previously done and the synergies are split over a broader area,” Ebbe said. “Because there is a sizable business in road and in solutions that means that in terms of consolidation of warehouses and equipment, it is a bigger than what we have done before.” The solutions business will be renamed “contract logistics.” <h3>Huge scale of combined networks </h3>DB Schenker is DSV’s largest acquisition by a huge margin, having previously taken over <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/size-equals-value-in-fragmented-market-dsvs-andersen-5248808">Agility’s Global Integrated Logistics (GIL) in 2021 for $4.2 billion</a>, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/newly-combined-dsv-panalpina-targets-trans-pacific-trade-5226703">Panalpina in 2019 for $4.6 billion</a> and <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/dsv-buys-uti-for-135-billion-5205537">UTi in 2015 for $1.35 billion</a>. The integration and restructuring process is expected to cost $1.67 billion with up to $380 million to be recorded under “special items” on this year’s financials. The high cost of the integration process is hardly surprising, with Lund outlining the enormous scale of the combined networks. DSV’s 73,500 employees will be joined by DB Schenker’s 85,800 staff; DB Schenker will add annual revenue of $22 billion to DSV’s $25.5 billion (based on 2024 results); annual air freight volume will rise from 1.4 million tons to 2.4 million tons; sea freight volume will increase from 2.7 million TEUs to 4.5 million TEUs; road freight revenue will grow from the current $6.14 billion to $8.6 billion and total warehousing space will expand from 9.2 million square meters to 17.7 million square meters. The combined entity also comes with a round of appointments with <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/last-regulatory-hurdles-cleared-for-dsv-takeover-of-db-schenker-5985387">executives being promoted from both DSV and DB Schenker</a>. <h3>Global uncertainty impacts full-year profit forecasts </h3>DSV’s EBIT prediction for 2025 has been significantly revised upward and is now expected to be between $3 billion and $3.2 billion, up almost 25% compared with the guidance issued at the start of the year and entirely related to the expected Schenker impact. The underlying DSV standalone guidance was left unchanged, following <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/kuehne-nagels-financial-crystal-ball-clouded-by-us-tariff-disruption-5990729">similar moves by rivals Kuehne + Nagel</a> and DHL, who also decided not to tamper with their full-year profitability expectations in such an uncertain geopolitical environment. But Ebbe played down the impact to DSV of the US-China trade dispute, despite having 25% of its overall trade exposed to the US market. “The US is a significant market for us, but total direct China-US trade for us is around 5% of our total, so we will stick to our [post-closing] guidance, and also on DSV’s standalone guidance,” he said. <h3>DHL wary of tariff effects </h3>Meanwhile, the DHL Group on Wednesday posted 2.8% year-over-year growth in first-quarter revenue of $23.6 billion, while EBIT was up 4.5% at $1.555 billion. DHL is still expecting a full-year operating result of at least $6.8 billion in 2025, but that came with a large caveat. “We explicitly do not account for potential effects from changes in tariffs and trade policies, which could have significant negative, but also positive, impacts on our business,” DHL Group CFO Melanie Kreis said in a statement on the first-quarter results. DHL Global Forwarding posted a 3.2% year-over-year increase in revenue in the first quarter to $5.2 billion, but EBIT plunged 23% to $298 million as economic weakness in Germany and the European road freight business dragged down earnings. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

DSV completed its all-cash $16.25 billion takeover of DB Schenker Wednesday and began a multi-year journey to integrate its largest-ever acquisition in a process CEO Jens Lund described as “a mammoth test” for the combined forwarding group. “You’ve furnished the capital, and now we have to deliver on the business plan,” Lund told investors on DSV’s first-quarter earnings call after reporting a strong start to the year. DSV’s first-quarter revenue increased 8.2% year over year to $6.3 billion, while gross profit was up 6.2% at $1.7 billion. Its earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose 4.8% to $588 million and net profit for the first three months came in at $428 million, up 17.5% year over year. Ocean volume of 653,000 TEUs in the first quarter was up 3% year over year, but gross profit per TEU increased 14% to $503 million. Air freight volume remained flat through the first quarter at 334,000 tons, with gross profit per ton rising 5% to $1,400. Although DSV executives emphasized the solid start to the year, the DB Schenker acquisition from parent Deutsche Bahn dominated the earnings call. Financial analysts were particularly focused on the synergies that would result from the combined company and the high costs of the integration. CFO Michael Ebbe said DSV “has only just received the keys” to DB Schenker, and while the synergies are expected to reach $1.37 billion by 2028 when the integration is completed, more details would be provided later this year. The synergies relate to the savings from a consolidation of operations, logistics facilities, back-office functions, finance and IT infrastructure. “But I think it’s important to notice that this acquisition is different from what we have previously done and the synergies are split over a broader area,” Ebbe said. “Because there is a sizable business in road and in solutions that means that in terms of consolidation of warehouses and equipment, it is a bigger than what we have done before.” The solutions business will be renamed “contract logistics.” Huge scale of combined networks DB Schenker is DSV’s largest acquisition by a huge margin, having previously taken over Agility’s Global Integrated Logistics (GIL) in 2021 for $4.2 billion , Panalpina in 2019 for $4.6 billion and UTi in 2015 for $1.35 billion . The integration and restructuring process is expected to cost $1.67 billion with up to $380 million to be recorded under “special items” on this year’s financials. The high cost of the integration process is hardly surprising, with Lund outlining the enormous scale of the combined networks. DSV’s 73,500 employees will be joined by DB Schenker’s 85,800 staff; DB Schenker will add annual revenue of $22 billion to DSV’s $25.5 billion (based on 2024 results); annual air freight volume will rise from 1.4 million tons to 2.4 million tons; sea freight volume will increase from 2.7 million TEUs to 4.5 million TEUs; road freight revenue will grow from the current $6.14 billion to $8.6 billion and total warehousing space will expand from 9.2 million square meters to 17.7 million square meters. The combined entity also comes with a round of appointments with executives being promoted from both DSV and DB Schenker . Global uncertainty impacts full-year profit forecasts DSV’s EBIT prediction for 2025 has been significantly revised upward and is now expected to be between $3 billion and $3.2 billion, up almost 25% compared with the guidance issued at the start of the year and entirely related to the expected Schenker impact. The underlying DSV standalone guidance was left unchanged, following similar moves by rivals Kuehne + Nagel and DHL, who also decided not to tamper with their full-year profitability expectations in such an uncertain geopolitical environment. But Ebbe played down the impact to DSV of the US-China trade dispute, despite having 25% of its overall trade exposed to the US market. “The US is a significant market for us, but total direct China-US trade for us is around 5% of our total, so we will stick to our [post-closing] guidance, and also on DSV’s standalone guidance,” he said. DHL wary of tariff effects Meanwhile, the DHL Group on Wednesday posted 2.8% year-over-year growth in first-quarter revenue of $23.6 billion, while EBIT was up 4.5% at $1.555 billion. DHL is still expecting a full-year operating result of at least $6.8 billion in 2025, but that came with a large caveat. “We explicitly do not account for potential effects from changes in tariffs and trade policies, which could have significant negative, but also positive, impacts on our business,” DHL Group CFO Melanie Kreis said in a statement on the first-quarter results. DHL Global Forwarding posted a 3.2% year-over-year increase in revenue in the first quarter to $5.2 billion, but EBIT plunged 23% to $298 million as economic weakness in Germany and the European road freight business dragged down earnings. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Supply chain

Forwarding

DSV embarks on ‘mammoth test’ as DB Schenker integration begins: CEO

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">It is the second acquisition this week by a CMA CGM subsidiary following CEVA Logistics’ takeover of Turkish forwarder Borusan Tedarik, with both deals aimed at extending the carrier’s end-to-end supply chain control.</div>

It is the second acquisition this week by a CMA CGM subsidiary following CEVA Logistics’ takeover of Turkish forwarder Borusan Tedarik, with both deals aimed at extending the carrier’s end-to-end supply chain control.

<div class="phx-topic">CMA CGM Air Cargo on Wednesday said it has acquired the cargo operations of longtime partner Air Belgium, adding four freighters to its fast-growing fleet covering Europe, Asia and the US. It is the second acquisition this week by a CMA CGM subsidiary following CEVA Logistics’ <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/ceva-expands-reach-in-turkey-with-440-million-acquisition-5992136">$440 million takeover of Turkish forwarder Borusan Tedarik</a> that was announced Monday. Both deals are aimed at extending the Marseilles-based carrier’s control of its end-to-end supply chain. Terms of the Air Belgium deal were not disclosed. “The acquisition of Air Belgium marks an important step in the expansion of the CMA CGM Group’s air freight operations in Europe and worldwide,” Damien Mazaudier, executive vice president of the air division at CMA CGM Group, said in a statement. “It immediately strengthens our air capacity while addressing current logistical challenges,” Mazaudier added, noting that it improved CMA CGM Air Cargo’s ability “to anticipate market evolutions.” The acquisition will come as a relief to troubled Air Belgium, which has been struggling to find financial stability after undergoing judicial restructuring and discontinuing its passenger business to focus on cargo in 2023. The transfer of assets to CMA CGM followed approval by the Brabant Wallon Commercial Court earlier this month of a binding offer for the takeover of Air Belgium’s cargo operations. The CMA CGM subsidiary pledged to retain the Air Belgium brand, as well as preserve 124 jobs, including 72 pilot positions. Air Belgium’s four freighters, two Airbus 330-243Fs and two Boeing 747-8Fs, will join the nine cargo planes currently operated by CMA CGM Air Cargo — four Boeing 777Fs, three Airbus A330Fs and two Boeing 747Fs. Another Boeing 777F will join the fleet soon and eight Airbus A350Fs are scheduled to be delivered from 2027. <h3>Strategic hubs in Europe, US </h3>When CMA CGM launched its foray into the air cargo market in 2021, it outsourced operations of its four A330F aircraft to Air Belgium out of Liege while CMA CGM Air Cargo waited for approval of its own French air operator certificate to establish its Paris Charles de Gaulle hub. CMA CGM Air Cargo will operate out of strategic hubs in Liege, Paris and Chicago. The airline has regular weekly services with two B777F aircraft operating from Paris to Hong Kong and Shanghai and one A330F to Zhengzhou. Alongside the expansion of Europe services, CMA CGM has established an air freight hub in Chicago, served by two B777Fs operated by Atlas Air under the CMA CGM Air Cargo brand, with another three aircraft “to be added soon,” CMA CGM’s Wednesday statement noted. These new freighters are intended to strengthen the group’s presence on trans-Pacific routes and support the expansion of cargo activities in the American market. However, it is not a good time to be adding air freight capacity to the trans-Pacific, where <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/air-cargo-volumes-fall-on-trans-pacific-as-us-de-minimis-changes-loom-5993599">volume from China to the US has fallen sharply</a> ahead of the Trump administration’s May 2 elimination of the duty-free exemption for low-value shipments. The huge demand for e-commerce on the trans-Pacific filled hundreds of freighters leaving China every day, and that capacity is being released into the market. Some freighters are being absorbed by US tariff exemptions for smartphones and other tech products imported from China, as well as from high demand in the semiconductor sector. But airlines are shifting much of the released capacity to other trade lanes. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

CMA CGM Air Cargo on Wednesday said it has acquired the cargo operations of longtime partner Air Belgium, adding four freighters to its fast-growing fleet covering Europe, Asia and the US. It is the second acquisition this week by a CMA CGM subsidiary following CEVA Logistics’ $440 million takeover of Turkish forwarder Borusan Tedarik that was announced Monday. Both deals are aimed at extending the Marseilles-based carrier’s control of its end-to-end supply chain. Terms of the Air Belgium deal were not disclosed. “The acquisition of Air Belgium marks an important step in the expansion of the CMA CGM Group’s air freight operations in Europe and worldwide,” Damien Mazaudier, executive vice president of the air division at CMA CGM Group, said in a statement. “It immediately strengthens our air capacity while addressing current logistical challenges,” Mazaudier added, noting that it improved CMA CGM Air Cargo’s ability “to anticipate market evolutions.” The acquisition will come as a relief to troubled Air Belgium, which has been struggling to find financial stability after undergoing judicial restructuring and discontinuing its passenger business to focus on cargo in 2023. The transfer of assets to CMA CGM followed approval by the Brabant Wallon Commercial Court earlier this month of a binding offer for the takeover of Air Belgium’s cargo operations. The CMA CGM subsidiary pledged to retain the Air Belgium brand, as well as preserve 124 jobs, including 72 pilot positions. Air Belgium’s four freighters, two Airbus 330-243Fs and two Boeing 747-8Fs, will join the nine cargo planes currently operated by CMA CGM Air Cargo — four Boeing 777Fs, three Airbus A330Fs and two Boeing 747Fs. Another Boeing 777F will join the fleet soon and eight Airbus A350Fs are scheduled to be delivered from 2027. Strategic hubs in Europe, US When CMA CGM launched its foray into the air cargo market in 2021, it outsourced operations of its four A330F aircraft to Air Belgium out of Liege while CMA CGM Air Cargo waited for approval of its own French air operator certificate to establish its Paris Charles de Gaulle hub. CMA CGM Air Cargo will operate out of strategic hubs in Liege, Paris and Chicago. The airline has regular weekly services with two B777F aircraft operating from Paris to Hong Kong and Shanghai and one A330F to Zhengzhou. Alongside the expansion of Europe services, CMA CGM has established an air freight hub in Chicago, served by two B777Fs operated by Atlas Air under the CMA CGM Air Cargo brand, with another three aircraft “to be added soon,” CMA CGM’s Wednesday statement noted. These new freighters are intended to strengthen the group’s presence on trans-Pacific routes and support the expansion of cargo activities in the American market. However, it is not a good time to be adding air freight capacity to the trans-Pacific, where volume from China to the US has fallen sharply ahead of the Trump administration’s May 2 elimination of the duty-free exemption for low-value shipments. The huge demand for e-commerce on the trans-Pacific filled hundreds of freighters leaving China every day, and that capacity is being released into the market. Some freighters are being absorbed by US tariff exemptions for smartphones and other tech products imported from China, as well as from high demand in the semiconductor sector. But airlines are shifting much of the released capacity to other trade lanes. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Air Cargo Carriers News

Air Cargo

CMA CGM expands air cargo fleet with Air Belgium takeover

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">US ports and support infrastructure such as warehouses and rail connections aren’t better equipped to handle import surges than they were during the pandemic when record volumes drove congestion to historic highs, carrier executives said this week.</div>

US ports and support infrastructure such as warehouses and rail connections aren’t better equipped to handle import surges than they were during the pandemic when record volumes drove congestion to historic highs, carrier executives said this week.

<div class="phx-topic">Container line executives warn that the inevitable rebound in Asian imports that will come at some point after the expected plunge in volumes linked to US tariffs may overwhelm major US ports because the supporting systems aren’t significantly better prepared than they were during the pandemic. The timing and scale of the rebound isn’t yet known. But import volumes from Asia are expected to recover eventually either because tariffs are eased or cargo owners ultimately decide there is no relief coming and eat the higher costs due to a need to replenish inventories. “Regardless of whether the demand will go up two times or come back to a level of about eight weeks ago, the system is not fundamentally better than it was five years ago,” Charles van der Steene, president of Maersk North America, said at the Georgia International Trade Conference this week. “Right now ... volumes are down [30%-40%] and if that goes up, the sheer surge will test the system and disruption cannot be avoided.” Similar to during the pandemic, the sharpest limits to capacity during an import surge will be less at the marine terminals and more outside the truck gates. There, importers and consignees could face limited availability of warehousing and chassis, while a rush of international intermodal could sap rail car supply, carrier executives told the conference. “If our terminals start working at 70%, 80%, 90% capacity and beyond on a regular basis for weeks, the system will crumble,” said Fabio Santucci, president of US operations for Mediterranean Shipping Co. Santucci added that if import dwell times at marine terminals exceed 10 days, ports can’t dig out of backlogs. <h3>‘Uncertainty’ the key word </h3>Stuart Sandlin, Hapag-Lloyd’s North America president, fears a rise in abandoned containers as some US exporters walk away from Chinese contracts due to 125% retaliatory Chinese tariffs on low-value US commodities. Even more alarming would be if US importers begin to abandon higher-value cargo, something he said would signal a potential wave of bankruptcies. Some smaller US importers are already struggling with backing a larger surety bond thanks to higher US tariff costs. <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/trans-pacific-capacity-cuts-accelerating-amid-sharp-reduction-in-chinese-cargo-5992769">Estimates of the plunge in China bookings from carriers and forwarders range from 30% to up to 50%</a>. The resumption of shipping last week from China by Walmart, Target and other big box retailers after they paused US shipments earlier in the month suggests a rebound is already building, executives at two major carriers told the Journal of Commerce. “I think the key word is ‘uncertainty,’” Santucci told the conference. “Sixty to 70% of customers are reevaluating shipment out of China. They’re either pausing [or] they’ve asked for shipments to be brought back to China.” He said customers are requesting changes to import and inland delivery destinations while containers “are on the water,” adding there’s been a spike in requests to hold shipments at transshipment ports before being loaded onto US-bound vessels. Contact Mark Szakonyi at <a href="mailto:mark.szakonyi@spglobal.com">mark.szakonyi@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Container line executives warn that the inevitable rebound in Asian imports that will come at some point after the expected plunge in volumes linked to US tariffs may overwhelm major US ports because the supporting systems aren’t significantly better prepared than they were during the pandemic. The timing and scale of the rebound isn’t yet known. But import volumes from Asia are expected to recover eventually either because tariffs are eased or cargo owners ultimately decide there is no relief coming and eat the higher costs due to a need to replenish inventories. “Regardless of whether the demand will go up two times or come back to a level of about eight weeks ago, the system is not fundamentally better than it was five years ago,” Charles van der Steene, president of Maersk North America, said at the Georgia International Trade Conference this week. “Right now ... volumes are down [30%-40%] and if that goes up, the sheer surge will test the system and disruption cannot be avoided.” Similar to during the pandemic, the sharpest limits to capacity during an import surge will be less at the marine terminals and more outside the truck gates. There, importers and consignees could face limited availability of warehousing and chassis, while a rush of international intermodal could sap rail car supply, carrier executives told the conference. “If our terminals start working at 70%, 80%, 90% capacity and beyond on a regular basis for weeks, the system will crumble,” said Fabio Santucci, president of US operations for Mediterranean Shipping Co. Santucci added that if import dwell times at marine terminals exceed 10 days, ports can’t dig out of backlogs. ‘Uncertainty’ the key word Stuart Sandlin, Hapag-Lloyd’s North America president, fears a rise in abandoned containers as some US exporters walk away from Chinese contracts due to 125% retaliatory Chinese tariffs on low-value US commodities. Even more alarming would be if US importers begin to abandon higher-value cargo, something he said would signal a potential wave of bankruptcies. Some smaller US importers are already struggling with backing a larger surety bond thanks to higher US tariff costs. Estimates of the plunge in China bookings from carriers and forwarders range from 30% to up to 50% . The resumption of shipping last week from China by Walmart, Target and other big box retailers after they paused US shipments earlier in the month suggests a rebound is already building, executives at two major carriers told the Journal of Commerce. “I think the key word is ‘uncertainty,’” Santucci told the conference. “Sixty to 70% of customers are reevaluating shipment out of China. They’re either pausing [or] they’ve asked for shipments to be brought back to China.” He said customers are requesting changes to import and inland delivery destinations while containers “are on the water,” adding there’s been a spike in requests to hold shipments at transshipment ports before being loaded onto US-bound vessels. Contact Mark Szakonyi at mark.szakonyi@spglobal.com .

Port infrastructure

North American ports

Container lines warn of congestion threat when Asia imports rebound

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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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A premium access outlook critical to shippers and transportation providers

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Quarterly Intelligence

Explore today’s cutting-edge global logistics technology news and analysis by the Journal of Commerce. Coverage includes logistics technology startups, logistics technology solutions, venture capital, management and impact, freight forwarder technology and the latest supply chain and logistics technology.

Our logistics technology news include logistics technology startups, solutions, and the impact of technology on logistics and supply chain management.

Logistics Technology News | Journal of Commerce

The Journal of Commerce’s supply chain news and analysis impacting the management of end-to-end supply chains reports on supply chain strategies, cargo visibility, inventory trends, sourcing, customs certification and contract logistics. Supply chain news coverage also delves into refrigerated shipping advancements and management of inventory status, regulatory updates and government funding projects.

Stay informed with the latest regulation news and trade updates. Explore comprehensive transportation news and trade regulations today.

Transport, Trade and Regulation News | Journal of Commerce

Transport, Trade and Regulation News

A thorough cool cargoes news by Journal of Commerce. Learn about the latest trends in refrigerated cargo transportation, weight capacity, technology, and more.

Cool Cargo News | Journal of Commerce

Cool Cargo News

Journal of Commerce keeps you informed on the latest last mile news with comprehensive coverage of carriers, logistics, and last mile transportation solutions.

Last Mile News | Journal of Commerce

Last Mile News

Discover the latest industrial real estate news and trends. Covering projects, real estate supply chain, logistics, pricing, cross dock facilities, and more.

Industrial Real Estate News | Journal of Commerce

Industrial Real Estate News

Stay updated on supply chain strategies, cargo visibility, inventory trends and more with our comprehensive supply chain news and analysis.

Latest News

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