Commentary

Q: A shipment is to go from us to the customer of our customer, with a 3PL doing the actual carrier routing. Our terms of sale for any and all such shipments are f.o.b. origin, freight collect.

A year ago, a dark cloud was descending on the trans-Pacific shipping market as the realization set in among shippers that capacity was disappearing rapidly and the traditional rules of the game for g

Differential calculus defines an inflection point as a point on a curve where the curvature changes sign.

Driven by a late-year crest of exports, California’s undermined trade competitiveness, amplified by the recession, ended in 2010.

As we launch into 2011, shippers and carriers face twin challenges that are not merely contradictory but also, it turns out, plainly paradoxical.

As new chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep.

For America and Americans, the future has always been about the hope of a better tomorrow, which means two things: solving today’s problems and articulating a vision for tomorrow.

“Although everyone seems to agree conditions are improving, it’s difficult to forecast a continuous upward trend.”

A year ago in this space we noted the major question hanging over the world of trade and transportation was capacity — the availability of space on ships, trucks and aircraft.

An anti-terrorism campaign along interstate highways may have inspired the letter bombs sent to Maryland's governor and transportation secretary.

Container ship lines were happy to see the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey decide how

The new year marks the start of the European Union’s version of the 24-hour advance manifest container security rule, making this a good point to look at the divergent paths cargo security regul

Q: Somebody e-mailed me this question, and I figured I’d throw it your way because I cannot find the legal response. I know what sounds logical, but sometimes the laws defy logic.

Welcome to the year of economic recovery. We know; 2010 actually was the year of recovery in global trade and economic demand.

The departure of Rep.

Sometimes the process behind the news deserves a mention, as when the Department of Justice finally told rail materials supplier L.B. Foster last week it could acquire Portec Rail Products.

Believe it or not, the end of the first decade, the first 10 percent, of the 21st century is upon us.

Earmarks are like cholesterol, there are good and bad varieties of both. The difference is that bad congressional earmarks can’t be treated with Lipitor.

We’re ending a year that began with many questions. Some were answered, of course, but many were simply left hanging, and others came up along the way.

Q: We purchase a latex liquid from a major chemical manufacturer in drums. It’s ordinarily used for paint, but we use it in our metal casting business for molds.

“Burn me once, shame on you.

Either holiday shoppers are so tired of bad weather that they are flocking into stores for relief, or we are about to see the strongest yearend retail activity in years.

When the European Shippers’ Council in November said it was forming a working group to determine if the “grey box” concept could alleviate container equipment shortages and reduce ca

Family connections between mobsters and International Longshoremen’s Association officials and members were a central theme of recent hearings by Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.

The end of the peak shipping season used to leave time for shippers and carriers alike to sit back and reflect on the year just ended before easing into the one coming up.

It makes complete sense that conversion of truck shipments to rail would have started earlier in the economic cycle and made greater progress in western North America, where freight travels over thous

Q: I’ve declined 2-year-old original collect freight bills (six bills totaling $24,645) from a major railroad for shipments from Canada to a point in the upper Midwest U.S. based on 49 U.S.C.

The shipping and sports worlds have long been intertwined — you could field some pretty good teams from the ranks of vice presidents at shipping and logistics companies — but generally the

In 1941, Woody Guthrie took a temporary job with the Interior Department’s Bonneville Power Administration to promote the benefits of cheap electricity by building dams.

The newspaper world in Washington was better off when Richard A. Lawrence decided not to pursue a career in electrical engineering.

Plenty of U.S.

It’s rarely pleasant to watch U.S.

Q: I’ve read your previous articles about cases where shippers pay a broker, the broker doesn’t pay the carrier, and the carrier then demands payment direct from the shipp

Q: We have a carrier who is using a factoring company for its freight bills. We, of course, ordinarily remit payment to the factoring company, not the carrier.

The less-than-truckload industry is facing numerous challenges to achieve growth and profitability. The most common concerns cited are overcapacity and too many large competitors.

Potential flashpoints are on the horizon in 2011, whether from the CSA 2010 driver safety regulation or the container lines’ hoped-for withdrawal from chassis services.

There’s a broad consensus in the U.S. transportation world that there is, well, broad consensus in the U.S. transportation world on the need for infrastructure investment.

A funny thing happened on the way to writing several big deficit-cutting reports – the authors suggested slicing a trade finance program that helps shrink the deficit.

No one can say that Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., is soft on security.

It’s amazing how much can happen in three short weeks – or three long ones if you’ve been traveling across the Pacific Rim from Portland, Ore., to Shenzhen to Hong Kong to Singapore