Knight-Swift Transportation, one of the top five US domestic intermodal providers, will be leaving BNSF Railway on Jan. 1, 2022, to partner with Union Pacific Railroad in the western US.

Top trucking and intermodal providers are raising penalties on shippers who do not promptly unload and return 53-foot trailers or containers.

There is a lot of uncertainty among apparel and footwear importers about how tariffs, port congestion, equipment shortages, and the future of the US workplace will impact their supply chains in 2021.

Drayage capacity from Southeastern US ports is so low right now that ocean carriers, NVOCCs, and shippers are scouring to locate small truck carriers on the spot market and paying extra to get their loads hauled.

BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad are looking for creative solutions to increase space to store containers in their Chicago terminals amid another spike in inland intermodal volume.

The Port of Virginia believes two milestones will put them on firm footing to become the deepest port on the US East by late 2023 or early 2024.

Union Pacific has raised surcharges out of California for a second time in 2021, a sign it is concerned about having enough rail-owned 53-foot containers to supply core contract customers through the upcoming peak season.

BNSF will adjust its free time calculations on June 7, tightening the window for shippers to pick up containers that are made available after 5:00 p.m., just two weeks after Norfolk Southern slashed its free time clock.

After a rough six-week period following the paralyzing February snowstorm in Texas, intermodal terminals are operating with fewer delays in Dallas-Fort Worth, with chassis available and driver productivity bucking national trends.

Exports of paper and forest products fell by double-digit percentages in 2020 and volumes could further slide in 2021 because of China’s tougher environmental stances on recovered paper from the US.

Although the Port of Charleston will be leaving the regional chassis pool in the Southeast, port officials in Savannah, Georgia; Jacksonville, Florida; and Wilmington, North Carolina, remain optimistic that they can upgrade the fleet with safer, modern equipment.

An exodus of drayage drivers to the flatbed and dry van truckload sectors is further limiting already constrained capacity and equipment availability in key inland markets.

Land use has been a problem as imports have surged across top US ports, causing issues on how to balance space to devote to inbound and outbound containers in key interior cities.

The US Commerce Department has reaffirmed a large antidumping duty on Chinese-made chassis in a final determination that will impact the transportation of international and domestic containers.

Sealand Marine will add a stop in Wilmington on its Central American service beginning in June, adding more connections with Panama and introducing new services between North Carolina and Costa Rica.

As truckers and shippers build their own chassis fleets, technology is being introduced to maintain and repair their equipment at the lowest possible costs.

The JOC Intermodal Savings Index hit a new record in Q1, but rising spot intermodal rates and surcharges could reduce savings in Q2.

The Port of Charleston plans to form its own proprietary chassis pool by May 2022, citing an inability to bring new, safer chassis into the existing South Atlantic Chassis Pool.

The South Carolina Ports Authority will expand Inland Port Greer, using a federal grant to add more space to the container yard, the chassis yard, and build new facilities for terminal operations.

A detention case involving Evergreen Shipping, Yamaha Motor, and a drayage provider is drawing the attention of the Federal Maritime Commission, which is reviewing the application of its detention and demurrage rules.

A group of Memphis shippers and truckers want the US Surface Transportation Board to instruct railroads to stop charging storage fees until a chassis shortage is resolved.

Canadian National’s $33.7 billion bid for Kansas City Southern would provide intermodal shippers some key alternatives to KCS’s proposed merger with Canadian Pacific, and possibly ignite a bidding war.

Intermodal service in Kansas City is a “complete mess,” according to three cargo owners, with an import surge causing chassis shortages and restrictions on what containers can be picked up or dropped off at rail terminals.

J.B. Hunt will be adding 12,000 new containers in 2021, upping its original order announced in January based on increased shipper demand for intermodal service.

A US International Trade Commission vote Tuesday clears the way for a countervailing duty on Chinese chassis and is likely to open the door to tripling the cost of chassis to importers, exporters, truckers, and chassis providers.

Domestic intermodal shippers in California will be subject to a surcharge of $1,000 to $1,500 on excess contract cargo beginning Apr. 25, the first time Union Pacific has instituted such a peak-season fee before the summer.

The Port of Charleston has opened the first new container terminal in the US since 2009, increasing its terminal capacity by nearly 30 percent as cargo volumes surge in the Southeast.

Shippers can save more money than ever before on intermodal, if they could find equipment and draymen to move their cargo to and from rail terminals amid scarce supply of both.

The Georgia Ports Authority has approved $205 million in capital expenditures to address the congestion slowing down the supply chain through the port of Savannah.

North American shippers are cautiously optimistic about the potential benefits of a Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger, but urge the Surface Transportation Board to fully investigate the transaction rather than rush through the approval process.

Canadian Pacific believes there will be intermodal growth opportunities if a merger with Kansas City Southern is approved, but there are challenges to overcome to get shippers to use the new available lanes between Mexico, the US Midwest, and Eastern Canada.

Exporters and trucking companies are battling delays on Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation in Memphis, causing loaded containers going to Charleston and Savannah to idle for days.

The Commerce Department will push ahead with an anti-dumping duty on Chinese-built marine chassis, which would raise prices on equipment at a time when there are dislocations and shortages in several US ports and rail hubs.

UP will assess a first-ever March surcharge of $250 on “low-volume shippers” in California effective March 21, just days after an announcement that will kick more US shippers into that category.

A chassis shortage has slowed the supply chain since storms hit Texas nearly three weeks ago, and it could be another couple weeks before cargo slows return to normal.

Knight Swift CEO Dave Jackson tells JOC’s virtual TPM21 conference that trailer pools, agility, and long-term thinking is the way carriers and shippers can reduce the wild swings seen in trucking rates since 2017.

The Port of Virginia will now set a hard date to accept export containers for each vessel, providing relief to BCOs dealing with frequently changing exporter receiving dates due to vessel delays.

Trans-Pacific shippers are being hit with a double whammy of huge rate hikes and poor service as ports and inland supply chains struggle to handled a seemingly unending deluge of imports from Asia into North America.

The Federal Maritime Commission will take a deep look into the detention and demurrage practices in Southern California and New York and New Jersey, requiring ocean carriers and maritime terminal operators to answer questions about their policies related to importers and exporters.

Union Pacific Railroad is shutting down virtually all business across its intermodal network for 72 hours because of snow and ice in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, and even as far south as Texas.