Commentary

If there is a window on a key source of growth in container shipping, it might be found at a noisy remote construction site along the banks of the Yangtze River near Chongqing, central China’s largest

As we continue to read and hear of the woes of the shipping industry, a few pieces of news seem ironic, and almost funny.

Britain's Daily Mail newspaper recently featured an article on “the biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history," the empty container ships anchored off Singapore.

Carriers have been waiting and hoping for retailers to restock depleted inventories. With consumer demand still weak, retailers have been cautious about ordering more goods.

The intermodal industry will convene next week for the annual Intermodal Expo in Anaheim, Calif. — literally in the shadow of Disneyland.

Anyone looking for a true economic recovery in business landing on U.S. shores may be looking in the wrong direction.

How many times have you sat in an industry conference and heard a carrier executive say the words, “Rates are unsustainable.

Q: I am a lifelong forwarder, born and raised in a major European port. In 1986, I became an owner of a company.

Folks in the fresh fruit and vegetable business find themselves in a fairly unpopulated area these days: They are quite pleased with the idea of a new law regulating their industry.

Hundreds of idled container ships may be picking up a different kind of cargo — invasive species that could be spread around the globe when those ships go back into service.

Economic research is proving it's not a small world, after all, just a well-connected one.

Q: We recently lost a shipment in a truck wreck. The truck crashed into a highway bridge support when the driver lost control.

As the dollar falls against the euro, yen and other major currencies, China and other emerging economic powers holding lots of dollars and U.S.

Q: We’re a freight bill auditing and payment service. Our shipper client was asked by the consignee to ship collect via their selected carrier.

One of the more unfortunate consequences of our industry’s deep downturn is the waning attendance at industry conferences.

CSX was the first large transportation company to release its earnings in this fall’s financial reporting season, and that’s as it should be given what has happened to the economy over the last two ye

Is there a better way for ocean container carriers and shippers to do business with one another? The answer has to be yes.

Has the diversion of containerized imports from West Coast to East Coast ports come to a halt? Probably the most discussed trend in U.S.

Q: In several recent columns you’ve suggested pretty strongly that shippers should forbid their carriers, and their brokers, from brokering or rebrokering shipments.

Welcome to 2010.

Customs brokers and importers have long operated under the reasonable-care standard. Exporters and freight forwarders have been required to meet the you-cannot-self-blind standard.

Trucks have rammed into low bridges 46 times this year in Westchester County, New York, doing enough damage that New York state is considering severe penalties against truckers.

During this economic crisis, while port tenants are fighting for survival and the City of Los Angeles is furloughing workers, the Port of Los Angeles continues to operate in a world of its own —

Sitting at the back of the room at last week’s annual East Coast Maritime Conference organized by The Journal of Commerce, one shipper had a clear view of an economic recovery coming from a direction

The 9/11 Commission Act’s mandate that 100 percent of cargo transported on passenger aircraft be screened for explosives by August 2010 reflects a critical security need of the U.S.

I see several business articles each week from the U.S., Europe and Asia reporting one optimistic piece of information or another, most giving the impression that we are at or near the bottom of the e

If there was a single, overwhelming piece of evidence arguing against changing federal law to allow ports to regulate trucking, it came last week at a press conference on the occasion of the one-year

“Don’t shackle yourself to the notion of a chain.”

Plans to renovate Hawaii's harbors could cause headaches for Aloha State shippers and shipping lines.

Long Beach Welcomes Owner-Operators

Intermodal, the movement of cargo domestically in containers via rail, is sensitive to fuel prices as shippers are drawn to its low fuel costs compared to over-the-road trucking.

Q: As a domestic freight forwarder, I have been informing shippers that because my company is considered by law to be a motor carrier, and deemed “a carrier to the shipper and a shipper to the carrier

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the level of civility in our society.

When the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals held its 2008 annual meeting almost exactly a year ago, the banking industry’s meltdown was spreading across Wall Street and sent an almost pa

It's been almost a century since electric trucks were a common sight on city streets, but they may be poised for a comeback.

For four years, as Congress and the Bush administration failed to deal realistically with transportation infrastructure, there's been a loud and insistent call for leadership on the need for investmen

As industry chatter picks up about possible diversion of cargo away from West Coast load centers, it’s not as clear to me as it is to some that West Coast port volume will continue to decline in favor

Q: I work for a motor carrier. I have a shortage claim for 17 cases of cigarettes from an import container that our company delivered to a U.S. location.

China’s visceral reaction to President Obama’s imposition of 35 percent tariffs on Chinese-made tires and the attention it attracted in the media made it appear as if the mother of all trade wars was

Conventional wisdom has been that the current crisis in container shipping will produce a shakeout of global carriers. Will it? Don't be so sure.