Commentary

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Shippers have always talked about the need to maintain relationships with carriers in good times and bad. Lately we're seeing signs that some of them mean it.

With its current annual conference under way, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals is looking ahead to next year with plans for a live lab where attendees can test the latest technolog

The global recession has deeply impacted the breakbulk industry, leaving no sector untouched despite some positive trends.

I anticipate a strengthening of business in the latter part of 2010, as the Port of Mobile is beginning to see recovery not only in regional manufacturing, but also in some industrial sectors in China

When the price of a barrel of oil briefly spiked to $147 last year, the concept of near-sourcing gained instant currency as the far-flung and circuitous supply chain that had become a hallmark of glob

Q: We are a broker who hired a carrier that had an accident in a truck hauling six pallets of merchandise for our customer.

With the peak shipping season here and activity barely causing a ripple in global transportation networks, attention among shippers and carriers alike is already turning to next year and what the busi

Warren Buffett had something surprising to say about shipping and transportation today in this interview on CNBC marking the sor

Atlantic and Gulf ports are still buzzing over this month's rejection by ILA delegates of a two-year contract extension -- and are wondering what it means for next year.

This is the annual peak season for speculation about how strong the fall peak season will be for imports for the holiday sales season.

For the past year the conventional view has been that shippers were flocking away from air cargo for the more friendly pricing in ocean transport, particularly as container shipping rates plunged to h

As the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks came and went last week, a question came to mind: Is government policy toward container shipping finally shifting from an attitude of “what should

The warehousing and distribution industry is taking bold steps to respond to changing economic and business circumstances.

When supply chain professionals met in Denver last October for the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals' annual conference, the mood could hardly have been gloomier.

One labor leader quoted in these pages last week summed up the gathering controversy over regulation of harbor trucking by saying the debate is over an “arcane, 30-year-o

It's tempting to see the recent hijacking of a Russian cargo ship in the waters near western Europe and its abrupt rescue more than a week later as an isolated mystery, one of the maritime world's man

Chris Anderson’s book, “Free: The Past and Future of a Radical Price,” describes a sustainable business model built on distributing free products, usually through the Internet.

Companies are increasingly taking a close look at the supply chain expenses that can mean the difference between ending the year in the red or black.

When anyone talks about the “transfer of wealth” today, they usually are describing how the rich are getting richer while everyone else stagnates or gets poorer.

Sometimes a person has to wonder whether the U.S. is basing its economic future on museums and coffee shops.

The truce between the top two officers of the International Longshoremen's Association will be tested this week in Orlando, where the ILA's 200-member wage scale committee is expected to receive water

Want to know what’s really happening in the economy? Check your car tires.

The controversies stemming from the clean-trucks programs at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have focused renewed attention on the doctrine of pre-emption, the principle in which federal law s

The food safety system in America is broken.

The two are moving forward in lock-step: an intensifying campaign led by Los Angeles Mayor and former union leader Antonio Villaraigosa to alter federal transportation law to pave the way for port tru