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<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">TRAC Intermodal’s planned move into drayage is the first step in the company’s effort to expand its portfolio to provide “a broad suite of logistics services,” CEO Keith Lovetro said.
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TRAC Intermodal’s planned move into drayage is the first step in the company’s effort to expand its portfolio to provide “a broad suite of logistics services,” CEO Keith Lovetro said.

<div>TRAC Intermodal’s planned move into drayage is the first step in the company’s effort to expand its portfolio to provide “a broad suite of logistics services,” CEO Keith Lovetro said.“TRAC wants to be a more full-service provider to our customers, and not just a chassis operator,” Lovetro told the JOC. “Ultimately, from leasing company to pool operator to drayage to a more broad suite of logistics services — that’s the strategy we’re looking at down the road, expanding the portfolio. This is the first step.”He would not discuss other logistics services that TRAC is considering.Lovetro emphasized that TRAC doesn’t view...

TRAC Intermodal’s planned move into drayage is the first step in the company’s effort to expand its portfolio to provide “a broad suite of logistics services,” CEO Keith Lovetro said. “TRAC wants to be a more full-service provider to our customers, and not just a chassis operator,” Lovetro told the JOC. “Ultimately, from leasing company to pool operator to drayage to a more broad suite of logistics services — that’s the strategy we’re looking at down the road, expanding the portfolio. This is the first step.” He would not discuss other logistics services that TRAC is considering. Lovetro emphasized that TRAC doesn’t view its drayage service as a competitor to motor carriers. (An initial version of an earlier JOC article misquoted him as saying the service would compete with truckers.) He said TRAC sees drayage as a natural outgrowth of the company’s hiring of owner-operators to reposition its chassis. During the last couple of years TRAC has developed a transportation group to manage this work, which previously was outsourced. “We built a capability to manage the movements on the street. As we realized we had pretty good skill in this area, our next step was to ask ourselves whether we could put a paying box on the chassis and be in the drayage business,” Lovetro said. He said TRAC could provide owner-operators with additional work “by winning drayage contracts and feeding them a piece of the business.” TRAC also sees a chance to provide business to owner-operators who don’t want to handle billing and other paperwork. These owner-operators would become service providers to TRAC. “Our strategy is not to compete with our draymen, but to use them in certain markets and in some cases provide them with incremental volume if they want to run their own business,” Lovetro said. TRAC sees potential to handle the drayage segment of store-door deliveries that ship lines now offer as a bundled service. As ocean carriers scale back their store-door deliveries, TRAC could become a “first-mile” and “last-mile” service provider, Lovetro said. This would help owner-operators by providing them with a steadier flow of business and more opportunities for load matching than an independent motor carrier could arrange on its own, Lovetro said. TRAC’s drayage operation will use owner-operators and brokerage, and will not provide company trucks, he said. When and where TRAC launches its drayage service will depend on its success in bidding for work, Lovetro said. The company has bid for a few drayage jobs but has not landed its first paying load. Lovetro said TRAC is being selective about its bidding, in order to ensure that the service is successful when it’s launched. “We’re approaching it cautiously,” he said. Contact Joseph Bonney at jbonney@joc.com and follow him on Twitter: @JosephBonney .

TRAC: Drayage Service a ‘First Step’

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Some market observers believe the frontloading story of 2025 was overplayed and that destocking is actually the major theme this year, which will result in a more robust 2026. </div>

Some market observers believe the frontloading story of 2025 was overplayed and that destocking is actually the major theme this year, which will result in a more robust 2026.

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<div class="phx-topic">Are the odds growing for a recovery in US imports next year from what are expected to be soft late-year 2025 volumes? Some analysts are beginning to think so, though there remains considerable debate about the strength of 2026 volumes. The lack of congestion seen at major import gateways like Los Angeles-Long Beach in 2025 is seen by some industry leaders as evidence of fluidity at warehouses — where the 2022 backups originated. In other words, inventory, instead of being stockpiled this year due to frontloading of imports to avoid tariffs, is instead flowing down the supply chain through to final sale. <div class="wrapper-narrow float-right-element"><img src="/images/phoenix/6104641_0.1.jpg"></img></div>According to investment bank Jefferies, that means when it comes to US imports, “recovery is likely in 2026.” US imports from Asia dropped almost 12% in September year on year after being on a record pace earlier in the year, according to PIERS, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. Imports are forecast to continue to decline for the remainder of this year and into early next year. Some, however, believe the frontloading story of 2025 was overplayed — the message being that destocking is actually the major theme this year, which will result in a more robust 2026. “Another ‘muted’ peak season in 2026 seems unlikely, given inventory levels,” Jefferies wrote in a research note Tuesday. “Thus, we can see a healthier market on the trans-Pacific (next year).” The bank noted that US inventories outpaced sales throughout 2024 across the retail, wholesale, and manufacturing segments, while this year, sales have outpaced inventories. “If 2024 was defined by US pre-buying, 2025 is defined by US destocking, and we expect 2026 to see a return perhaps to more normalized activity,” Jefferies said. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="84dc625e-2a2c-4db3-949e-798502bbef70"></dynamic-object></div>That supports views on the ground at US ports, where major gateways like Los Angeles-Long Beach have been free of congestion all year, with low container dwells on terminals, including for rail transfers. Also being seen are faster truck turn times and a more rapid return of chassis, all pointing to the smooth flow of cargo despite volumes that, until September, were outpacing the peak COVID years of 2021 and 2022. Loaded imports at LA-Long Beach were 7.6 million TEUs through September, versus 7.5 million TEUs in 2021 and 7.3 million TEUs in 2022, according to S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence. “While warehouse space in LA and the Inland Empire is relatively well-utilized, there is slack in the system and open space even at high levels of volumes, so…I think that the stuff is moving through to the consumer at a pretty brisk pace, otherwise we would be seeing some backups, which we are not,” said Ron Widdows, CEO of chassis lessor FlexiVan. Still, others see a subdued import environment next year. “The current pullback isn’t ‘artificial.’ It’s the early phase of a longer, shallower import cycle into 2026 — not a sharp rebound,” said Michael Stolarczyk, general manager at third-party logistics provider Mohawk Global. Stolarczyk based that view on ongoing tariff uncertainty, micro-replenishment, and just-in-time agility versus broad restocking waves and consumer malaise. Contact Peter Tirschwell at <a href="mailto:peter.tirschwell@spglobal.com">peter.tirschwell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Are the odds growing for a recovery in US imports next year from what are expected to be soft late-year 2025 volumes? Some analysts are beginning to think so, though there remains considerable debate about the strength of 2026 volumes. The lack of congestion seen at major import gateways like Los Angeles-Long Beach in 2025 is seen by some industry leaders as evidence of fluidity at warehouses — where the 2022 backups originated. In other words, inventory, instead of being stockpiled this year due to frontloading of imports to avoid tariffs, is instead flowing down the supply chain through to final sale. According to investment bank Jefferies, that means when it comes to US imports, “recovery is likely in 2026.” US imports from Asia dropped almost 12% in September year on year after being on a record pace earlier in the year, according to PIERS, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. Imports are forecast to continue to decline for the remainder of this year and into early next year. Some, however, believe the frontloading story of 2025 was overplayed — the message being that destocking is actually the major theme this year, which will result in a more robust 2026. “Another ‘muted’ peak season in 2026 seems unlikely, given inventory levels,” Jefferies wrote in a research note Tuesday. “Thus, we can see a healthier market on the trans-Pacific (next year).” The bank noted that US inventories outpaced sales throughout 2024 across the retail, wholesale, and manufacturing segments, while this year, sales have outpaced inventories. “If 2024 was defined by US pre-buying, 2025 is defined by US destocking, and we expect 2026 to see a return perhaps to more normalized activity,” Jefferies said. That supports views on the ground at US ports, where major gateways like Los Angeles-Long Beach have been free of congestion all year, with low container dwells on terminals, including for rail transfers. Also being seen are faster truck turn times and a more rapid return of chassis, all pointing to the smooth flow of cargo despite volumes that, until September, were outpacing the peak COVID years of 2021 and 2022. Loaded imports at LA-Long Beach were 7.6 million TEUs through September, versus 7.5 million TEUs in 2021 and 7.3 million TEUs in 2022, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. “While warehouse space in LA and the Inland Empire is relatively well-utilized, there is slack in the system and open space even at high levels of volumes, so…I think that the stuff is moving through to the consumer at a pretty brisk pace, otherwise we would be seeing some backups, which we are not,” said Ron Widdows, CEO of chassis lessor FlexiVan. Still, others see a subdued import environment next year. “The current pullback isn’t ‘artificial.’ It’s the early phase of a longer, shallower import cycle into 2026 — not a sharp rebound,” said Michael Stolarczyk, general manager at third-party logistics provider Mohawk Global. Stolarczyk based that view on ongoing tariff uncertainty, micro-replenishment, and just-in-time agility versus broad restocking waves and consumer malaise. Contact Peter Tirschwell at peter.tirschwell@spglobal.com .

Sentiment growing for 2026 rebound in US imports after late-2025 decline

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Micah Mallace said SC Ports needs to return its focus to serving cargo owners and carriers after recent below-market volume growth.</div>

Micah Mallace said SC Ports needs to return its focus to serving cargo owners and carriers after recent below-market volume growth.

<div class="phx-topic">The Port of Charleston needs to reclaim its momentum after recent unsatisfactory growth and prioritize projects in the short term to feed expanded terminal capacity, the new head of the SC Ports Authority (SC Ports) says. Micah Mallace, who served as Charleston’s chief commercial officer before heading a regional logistics provider, rejoins SC Ports at a critical time. His predecessor, Barbara Melvin, exited following cost overruns of the port’s yet-to-be-completed on-dock rail connection. “It is very clear to us that in order to achieve above-market growth, we need a momentum change,” Mallace told the Journal of Commerce in an interview Monday. “We have to get extra aggressive in the services that we offer, extra customer-focused and white glove in the way in which we work with our customers, both [beneficial cargo owners] and shipping lines alike.” <div class="wrapper-narrow float-right-element"><img src="/images/phoenix/6104573_0.1.jpg"></img></div>Charleston’s laden volume growth has lagged the US East Coast average over the last five years on a compound average basis, expanding 4.7% while the market expanded at 7.3%, according to PIERS, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. While Mallace’s predecessors, including Jim Newsome, rightly made big bets on infrastructure to expand capacity, the port now needs to focus on growing volumes and strengthening its cargo base, Mallace said. SC Ports is focused on completing the Navy Base Intermodal Facility project, he said. The $782 million project, which will launch in January after an initial opening this quarter was delayed, will cost $232 million more than estimated. Some $28 million in siding work needs to be completed so that Norfolk Southern Railway will join CSX Transportation in serving the facility. It is unclear who will be handling the extra costs not accounted for in the project design. <h3>Reviewing new investments </h3>SC Ports is currently reviewing $1 billion worth of planned projects, including investments in berths to serve container-on-barge services. Mallace said that while Charleston had lost market share of intermodal discretionary cargo in recent years, the marine terminals were operating well and volumes at inland ports are rising. Intermodal rail lifts at Inland Port Greer hit a record high, jumping 9.6% year over year in fiscal year 2025, which ended June 30. “We have to kind of get back to the way we used to grow,” said Mallace. “For a 10-year period [2009–18], we were the fastest-growing port in the US, [and] that was born out of being especially customer-focused and especially aggressive in how we deliver solutions for our customers.” He noted that years ago, SC Ports secured an unnamed major retailer by doing the near impossible: delivering specialized transloaded capacity in just six months by creating a temporary facility, affectionately known as Dockzilla. SC Ports pulled it off, and now the retailer has a long-term facility lease off-terminal. “We are going to use the heft of what we have at our disposal, whether that is our real estate, our acreage, our operating considerations or balance sheet,” Mallace said. “We are going to back projects that we can offer exceptional service for momentum-changing opportunities.” Container volumes through Charleston, including empties, expanded just 3% in the most recent fiscal year, Mallace said Tuesday at the annual State of the Port event. However, the port is growing North Asia volumes at a faster pace than its South Atlantic peers, expanding volumes 9% in its most recent fiscal year compared with the 2% volume decline in the region. The port also expanded the number of weekly services 16% year over year in fiscal 2025, and doubled the number of weekly services to India to six. Contact Mark Szakonyi at <a href="mailto:mark.szakonyi@spglobal.com">mark.szakonyi@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

The Port of Charleston needs to reclaim its momentum after recent unsatisfactory growth and prioritize projects in the short term to feed expanded terminal capacity, the new head of the SC Ports Authority (SC Ports) says. Micah Mallace, who served as Charleston’s chief commercial officer before heading a regional logistics provider, rejoins SC Ports at a critical time. His predecessor, Barbara Melvin, exited following cost overruns of the port’s yet-to-be-completed on-dock rail connection. “It is very clear to us that in order to achieve above-market growth, we need a momentum change,” Mallace told the Journal of Commerce in an interview Monday. “We have to get extra aggressive in the services that we offer, extra customer-focused and white glove in the way in which we work with our customers, both [beneficial cargo owners] and shipping lines alike.” Charleston’s laden volume growth has lagged the US East Coast average over the last five years on a compound average basis, expanding 4.7% while the market expanded at 7.3%, according to PIERS, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. While Mallace’s predecessors, including Jim Newsome, rightly made big bets on infrastructure to expand capacity, the port now needs to focus on growing volumes and strengthening its cargo base, Mallace said. SC Ports is focused on completing the Navy Base Intermodal Facility project, he said. The $782 million project, which will launch in January after an initial opening this quarter was delayed, will cost $232 million more than estimated. Some $28 million in siding work needs to be completed so that Norfolk Southern Railway will join CSX Transportation in serving the facility. It is unclear who will be handling the extra costs not accounted for in the project design. Reviewing new investments SC Ports is currently reviewing $1 billion worth of planned projects, including investments in berths to serve container-on-barge services. Mallace said that while Charleston had lost market share of intermodal discretionary cargo in recent years, the marine terminals were operating well and volumes at inland ports are rising. Intermodal rail lifts at Inland Port Greer hit a record high, jumping 9.6% year over year in fiscal year 2025, which ended June 30. “We have to kind of get back to the way we used to grow,” said Mallace. “For a 10-year period [2009–18], we were the fastest-growing port in the US, [and] that was born out of being especially customer-focused and especially aggressive in how we deliver solutions for our customers.” He noted that years ago, SC Ports secured an unnamed major retailer by doing the near impossible: delivering specialized transloaded capacity in just six months by creating a temporary facility, affectionately known as Dockzilla. SC Ports pulled it off, and now the retailer has a long-term facility lease off-terminal. “We are going to use the heft of what we have at our disposal, whether that is our real estate, our acreage, our operating considerations or balance sheet,” Mallace said. “We are going to back projects that we can offer exceptional service for momentum-changing opportunities.” Container volumes through Charleston, including empties, expanded just 3% in the most recent fiscal year, Mallace said Tuesday at the annual State of the Port event. However, the port is growing North Asia volumes at a faster pace than its South Atlantic peers, expanding volumes 9% in its most recent fiscal year compared with the 2% volume decline in the region. The port also expanded the number of weekly services 16% year over year in fiscal 2025, and doubled the number of weekly services to India to six. Contact Mark Szakonyi at  mark.szakonyi@spglobal.com .

New Charleston CEO seeks to regain container growth ‘momentum’

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">A meeting of the interested parties kicked off what will likely be a year-long process to select developers to design, build and operate the two terminals at Corozal on the Pacific side of the canal and Colón on the Atlantic that will cost a combined $2.6 billion. </div>

A meeting of the interested parties kicked off what will likely be a year-long process to select developers to design, build and operate the two terminals at Corozal on the Pacific side of the canal and Colón on the Atlantic that will cost a combined $2.6 billion.

<div class="phx-topic">CMA CGM, Cosco Shipping, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk, DP World and Singapore’s PSA International are among 22 carriers and terminal operators that have expressed interest in developing two container terminals on the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) confirmed in a statement Monday that executives from the interested parties attended a briefing to discuss the $2.6 billion project, although it did not say when the event took place. The meeting kicked off what ACP said will likely be a year-long process to select developers to design, build and operate the two terminals at Corozal on the Pacific side of the canal and Colón on the Atlantic. Explaining the next steps, the ACP said market and feasibility studies will be done for both terminals, followed by the development of a project plan. That will start the competitive bid process that will see companies invited to pre-qualify to bid for each terminal. Those selected to bid will hold talks with ACP as part of the tender process before the authority chooses the successful concessionaire. “The final phase of the concessionaire selection is expected to conclude in the fourth quarter of 2026,” ACP said. The terminals will have an initial combined capacity of 5 million TEUs and focus mainly on transshipment traffic. “(The terminals) will strengthen Panama’s position as one of the world’s most competitive intermodal hubs, and expand port capacity in the interoceanic area, which is currently operating near its limit,” the ACP said. <h3>Project revived amid US-China terminal wrangling </h3>The terminals are part of an $8.5 billion, 10-year investment plan announced by ACP Administrator Ricaurte Vásquez Morales on Sept. 16. ACP originally planned to develop the Corozal container terminal in 2016, but the project foundered when none of the four shortlisted companies, including APM Terminals, PSA International and CMA CGM, submitted a bid. ACP revived the Corozal terminal project earlier this year following the geopolitical wrangling between the US and China that engulfed the proposed sale of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison’s 90% interest in the Panama Port Company to BlackRock and Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s terminal arm. Morales told the Journal of Commerce in June that reviving the Corozal project would help allay concerns about the canal’s neutrality and competitiveness as its existing container terminals are concentrated among a handful of operators. At the time, he said the Corozal Container Terminal should be a common-user facility, open to all carriers. The Colón container terminal has since been added to the overall project. Besides CMA CGM, Cosco, Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk, ACP said Monday the other carrier participants at its latest meeting about the project were Ocean Network Express (ONE), Evergreen Line, HMM, MSC, OOCL, Yang Ming and ZIM Integrated Shipping Services. In addition to PSA and DP World, the terminal operators represented were APM Terminals, Cosco Shipping Ports, CMA Terminals, Hanseatic Global Terminals (part of Hapag-Lloyd), MOL Group, Port of Houston, SSA Marine–Grupo Carrix and MSC’s Terminal Investment Ltd. Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com</a>. </div>

CMA CGM, Cosco Shipping, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk, DP World and Singapore’s PSA International are among 22 carriers and terminal operators that have expressed interest in developing two container terminals on the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) confirmed in a statement Monday that executives from the interested parties attended a briefing to discuss the $2.6 billion project, although it did not say when the event took place. The meeting kicked off what ACP said will likely be a year-long process to select developers to design, build and operate the two terminals at Corozal on the Pacific side of the canal and Colón on the Atlantic. Explaining the next steps, the ACP said market and feasibility studies will be done for both terminals, followed by the development of a project plan. That will start the competitive bid process that will see companies invited to pre-qualify to bid for each terminal. Those selected to bid will hold talks with ACP as part of the tender process before the authority chooses the successful concessionaire. “The final phase of the concessionaire selection is expected to conclude in the fourth quarter of 2026,” ACP said. The terminals will have an initial combined capacity of 5 million TEUs and focus mainly on transshipment traffic. “(The terminals) will strengthen Panama’s position as one of the world’s most competitive intermodal hubs, and expand port capacity in the interoceanic area, which is currently operating near its limit,” the ACP said. Project revived amid US-China terminal wrangling The terminals are part of an $8.5 billion, 10-year investment plan announced by ACP Administrator Ricaurte Vásquez Morales on Sept. 16. ACP originally planned to develop the Corozal container terminal in 2016, but the project foundered when none of the four shortlisted companies, including APM Terminals, PSA International and CMA CGM, submitted a bid. ACP revived the Corozal terminal project earlier this year following the geopolitical wrangling between the US and China that engulfed the proposed sale of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison’s 90% interest in the Panama Port Company to BlackRock and Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s terminal arm. Morales told the Journal of Commerce in June that reviving the Corozal project would help allay concerns about the canal’s neutrality and competitiveness as its existing container terminals are concentrated among a handful of operators. At the time, he said the Corozal Container Terminal should be a common-user facility, open to all carriers. The Colón container terminal has since been added to the overall project. Besides CMA CGM, Cosco, Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk, ACP said Monday the other carrier participants at its latest meeting about the project were Ocean Network Express (ONE), Evergreen Line, HMM, MSC, OOCL, Yang Ming and ZIM Integrated Shipping Services. In addition to PSA and DP World, the terminal operators represented were APM Terminals, Cosco Shipping Ports, CMA Terminals, Hanseatic Global Terminals (part of Hapag-Lloyd), MOL Group, Port of Houston, SSA Marine–Grupo Carrix and MSC’s Terminal Investment Ltd. Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

Panama’s twin terminal project attracts interest from 22 carriers, operators

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The investigation by Australian authorities involves alleged share sales activity in late 2024 and early 2025 by Chairman Richard White and three employees. </div>

The investigation by Australian authorities involves alleged share sales activity in late 2024 and early 2025 by Chairman Richard White and three employees.

<div class="phx-topic">The Sydney offices of logistics software provider WiseTech Global were raided Tuesday by Australian authorities investigating alleged insider trading by the company’s founder and chairman Richard White, Australian media outlets reported Tuesday. The raid, conducted by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Federal Police, is tied to “alleged trading in WiseTech shares by Richard White and three WiseTech employees during the period from late 2024 to early 2025,” WiseTech said in an announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) Tuesday morning. The company said no charges have been filed against any individuals or the company itself, and that it intends to “fully cooperate with the investigation.” The federal investigation pertains to alleged sales of WiseTech Global stock during the company’s quiet period before reporting its financial results in February, according to a report Tuesday in the Sydney Morning Herald, one of three news outlets in Australia that investigated sales of WiseTech shares in late 2024 and early 2025. White left his post as CEO of WiseTech, which he founded in 1994, in October 2024 due to a series of allegations of misconduct with employees and women outside the company. He later returned as executive chairman in February 2025. Three months after White’s return, WiseTech made its <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/wisetech-notches-biggest-acquisition-with-21-billion-deal-for-e2open-6011581">biggest ever acquisition</a> in May, buying fellow logistics software provider E2open for $2.1 billion. WiseTech is commonly regarded as the biggest single provider of software solutions to the global third-party logistics (3PL) market, with a majority of the top 100 global 3PLs using all or part of its product suite covering freight management, accounting, trade compliance and visibility. Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The Sydney offices of logistics software provider WiseTech Global were raided Tuesday by Australian authorities investigating alleged insider trading by the company’s founder and chairman Richard White, Australian media outlets reported Tuesday. The raid, conducted by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Federal Police, is tied to “alleged trading in WiseTech shares by Richard White and three WiseTech employees during the period from late 2024 to early 2025,” WiseTech said in an announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) Tuesday morning. The company said no charges have been filed against any individuals or the company itself, and that it intends to “fully cooperate with the investigation.” The federal investigation pertains to alleged sales of WiseTech Global stock during the company’s quiet period before reporting its financial results in February, according to a report Tuesday in the Sydney Morning Herald, one of three news outlets in Australia that investigated sales of WiseTech shares in late 2024 and early 2025. White left his post as CEO of WiseTech, which he founded in 1994, in October 2024 due to a series of allegations of misconduct with employees and women outside the company. He later returned as executive chairman in February 2025. Three months after White’s return, WiseTech made its biggest ever acquisition in May, buying fellow logistics software provider E2open for $2.1 billion. WiseTech is commonly regarded as the biggest single provider of software solutions to the global third-party logistics (3PL) market, with a majority of the top 100 global 3PLs using all or part of its product suite covering freight management, accounting, trade compliance and visibility. Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

WiseTech Global offices raided over insider trading allegations

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Indian government has been wooing global shipping and logistics conglomerates to invest beyond port-to-port shipping operations in the country through liberalized policy and tax frameworks. </div>

The Indian government has been wooing global shipping and logistics conglomerates to invest beyond port-to-port shipping operations in the country through liberalized policy and tax frameworks.

<div class="phx-topic">Ocean carrier heavyweights are increasingly betting on India as an alternative maritime hub as they face ongoing supply chain challenges linked to geopolitical tensions. Maersk has now diversified its business interests in India by reflagging two of its short-haul container ships to the local registry — the 1,810-TEU Maersk Vilnius and the 1,740-TEU Maersk Vigo, both built in 2010. They were previously registered in Singapore. “India is a critical growth market for Maersk, driven by robust economic fundamentals, expanding container trade and significant policy reforms in the maritime sector,” a company spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce. “As part of our continued commitment to strengthening our presence in India, we have registered two of our vessels under the Indian flag.” The Maersk spokesperson also said the carrier will continue to use the flags of Denmark, Singapore and Hong Kong for its fleets. The two reflagged vessels are said to be part of Maersk’s regional networks covering Asian trades. That reflagging move builds on a shipbuilding/repair partnership program Maersk set up with India’s Cochin Shipyard in early 2025. French liner CMA CGM has already reflagged four box ships to the Indian registry and <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/cma-cgm-signs-350-million-indian-shipbuilding-order-for-six-box-ships-6097779">signed a firm shipbuilding contract with Cochin Shipyard</a> for six feeder vessels to be delivered between 2029 and 2031. <h3>Government woos carriers </h3>The Indian government has been wooing global shipping and logistics conglomerates to invest beyond port-to-port shipping operations in the country through liberalized policy and tax frameworks. “India’s renewed focus on shipbuilding/recycling, which is encouraging to note, is prompting the container lines to consider building and/or registering ships in India,” Sunil Vaswani, executive director of the Container Shipping Lines Association (India), told the Journal of Commerce. “India’s emergence as an alternative marketplace is indeed a welcome step for the industry.” That diversification, while being portrayed as a new strategic approach, signals other regulatory pressures, industry sources believe. <a href="https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.joc.com%2Farticle%2Findia-regulators-seek-vsa-trade-off-for-local-carriers-and-alliances-5742524&amp;data=05%7C02%7Civan.klos%40spglobal.com%7C5df43bbc6f5c44a193b008de162d46ca%7C8f3e36ea80394b4081a77dc0599e8645%7C1%7C0%7C638972580902059458%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=mIynqQGNqtwhesUdqzkayedKpyrUCclY6QLpr7jL8ZY%3D&amp;reserved=0">India’s competition authority recently noted</a> that any further immunity from antitrust laws for vessel-sharing agreements (VSAs) would be subject to carrier groupings allocating 5% of the total declared space to both Indian-flagged vessels and local non-vessel-operating common carrier. “It’s apparent that the inducements alone, though significant, would not have brought foreign fleet owners flocking to register their ships in India,” said a Mumbai-based industry observer who did not want to be identified. Contact Bency Mathew at <a href="mailto:bencyvmathew@gmail.com">bencyvmathew@gmail.com</a>. </div>

Ocean carrier heavyweights are increasingly betting on India as an alternative maritime hub as they face ongoing supply chain challenges linked to geopolitical tensions. Maersk has now diversified its business interests in India by reflagging two of its short-haul container ships to the local registry — the 1,810-TEU Maersk Vilnius and the 1,740-TEU Maersk Vigo, both built in 2010. They were previously registered in Singapore. “India is a critical growth market for Maersk, driven by robust economic fundamentals, expanding container trade and significant policy reforms in the maritime sector,” a company spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce. “As part of our continued commitment to strengthening our presence in India, we have registered two of our vessels under the Indian flag.” The Maersk spokesperson also said the carrier will continue to use the flags of Denmark, Singapore and Hong Kong for its fleets. The two reflagged vessels are said to be part of Maersk’s regional networks covering Asian trades. That reflagging move builds on a shipbuilding/repair partnership program Maersk set up with India’s Cochin Shipyard in early 2025. French liner CMA CGM has already reflagged four box ships to the Indian registry and signed a firm shipbuilding contract with Cochin Shipyard for six feeder vessels to be delivered between 2029 and 2031. Government woos carriers The Indian government has been wooing global shipping and logistics conglomerates to invest beyond port-to-port shipping operations in the country through liberalized policy and tax frameworks. “India’s renewed focus on shipbuilding/recycling, which is encouraging to note, is prompting the container lines to consider building and/or registering ships in India,” Sunil Vaswani, executive director of the Container Shipping Lines Association (India), told the Journal of Commerce. “India’s emergence as an alternative marketplace is indeed a welcome step for the industry.” That diversification, while being portrayed as a new strategic approach, signals other regulatory pressures, industry sources believe. India’s competition authority recently noted that any further immunity from antitrust laws for vessel-sharing agreements (VSAs) would be subject to carrier groupings allocating 5% of the total declared space to both Indian-flagged vessels and local non-vessel-operating common carrier. “It’s apparent that the inducements alone, though significant, would not have brought foreign fleet owners flocking to register their ships in India,” said a Mumbai-based industry observer who did not want to be identified. Contact Bency Mathew at bencyvmathew@gmail.com .

Maersk joins CMA CGM in reflagging container ships in India amid antitrust pressure

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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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