Shelley Simpson, who has been behind the development of J.B. Hunt’s shipper portal and overseen double-digit growth in its trucking and intermodal units, will become the company’s president next month.

J.B. Hunt is in talks with primary rail partners BNSF Railway and Norfolk Southern Railway on how they can improve service in the second half of the year.

Officials in Savannah and Charleston want carriers to stop changing port calls because unexpectedly discharging containers in the other’s port causes landside woes and disrupts the overall supply chain.

Union Pacific is temporarily shifting some domestic intermodal traffic from Lathrop to Oakland, a move that may present opportunities for BNSF and the truckload sector to capture market share on routes to the Gulf Coast and Southeast.

US warehouse woes are now showing in lower train speeds and on-time performance among Class I railroads, as stakeholders turn up the heat on retailers for not retrieving their cargo fast enough from depots and terminals.

Truckload dry-van spot rates in California are likely to fall below 2020 and 2021 levels in the coming months, but prices on a historical basis will probably be slightly better than the pro-carrier market of 2018.

US East Coast ports anticipate a busy third quarter and are bracing now to handle the volume with off-dock storage of long-dwelling imports and empty containers to keep cargo flowing smoothly.

Union Pacific Railroad will temporarily re-align its domestic intermodal network in Northern California to accommodate a construction project meant to expand container capacity in the region ahead of Schneider National bringing more volume in 2023.

BNSF Railway is stacking ocean containers outside Dallas as cargo owners struggle to unload inventory in a timely manner and chassis providers scramble to reposition equipment sent to Houston earlier this year.

The South Carolina Ports Authority will extend Sunday hours for truckers through September, one of several initiatives officials believe will help the port navigate the upcoming peak season.

A new Norfolk Southern incentive program for ocean carriers in New York-New Jersey and Virginia should help grow volume while encouraging a balanced flow of rail cars between inland terminals and the two ports.

Some US intermodal shippers are forgoing trains to put their spot freight on trucks because the cost savings associated with rail have narrowed significantly since January.

Paper and forest product exports continue to drop as exporters face delays both at home and abroad getting their goods to customers.

A chassis shortage is forcing Norfolk Southern Railway to meter international intermodal loads through five inland markets as the railroad moves to keep its network fluid.

US spot truckload rates are showing signs of stabilizing after recent declines, but analysts are uncertain how the market will play out as retailers determine their appropriate mix and level of inventories.

The chassis shortage is affecting Norfolk Southern despite a 5.1 percent decline in volumes handled by the railroad between January and May compared with the same period in 2021.

Clothing imports rose in 2021, but shippers are struggling to get time-sensitive fashion items onto store shelves due to delays getting into US ports and inconsistent intermodal rail service.

Union Pacific Railroad and Schneider National have engaged intermodal shippers in recent weeks to discuss their new partnership and attempt to dispel any concerns about service disruptions during the transition from BNSF.

A backlog of vessels is building off Savannah, but the Georgia Ports Authority says it’s in a better position to handle the heavy volumes now than it was when delays hit last fall.

BNSF Railway is congested in Chicago, Memphis, and Kansas City with not enough chassis to move ocean containers, but the railroad is taking several measures to alleviate the congestion.

Union Pacific Railroad is warning that chassis supply could get tight soon in several US markets and it will not allow shippers to use their own private chassis if DCLI, TRAC Intermodal, and Flexi-Van Leasing run out of equipment.

Domestic containers have been idling in a Norfolk Southern terminal in eastern Pennsylvania because of a chassis shortage, but the railroad said it is delivering new equipment to the region and repositioning chassis from other markets to deal with the disruption.

Norfolk Southern Railway is hopeful that intermodal service in Jacksonville, which has been inconsistent since January 2021, will improve as damaged cranes are repaired in the next two months.

Norfolk Southern Railway is reducing service on 120 international intermodal lanes to simplify its network and improve service, but some companies are worried it will harm exporters and chassis supply.

COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai may not result in a sudden flood of volumes to the US, but the GPA says additional storage capacity at Savannah’s Garden City Terminal and pop-up storage sites will allow it to handle any unexpected spikes.

Chassis shortages are disrupting rail ramps in Chicago for the second consecutive year, but cargo flow through other inland markets outside the Upper Midwest is more fluid than a year ago.

Port truckers who left to start their own companies in Savannah last fall are re-engaging with former employers as they struggle to find loads to haul amid the recent decline in dray rates.

Truckload spot rates out of California have fallen for five straight months, but some believe demand will rebound as the COVID outbreak in China subsides and front-loaded cargo ordered to beat potential labor disruption on the West Coast hits the ports.

Intermodal shippers saw record-high savings under contracts signed in Q1, but a recent slide in the spot truckload market could diminish the savings that rails can provide on one-off business over the next three months.

Charleston has used several efficiency measures to slash the number of anchored vessels from 27 to five in two months — the lowest count of any major port along the US East Coast.

Federal Maritime Commissioner Carl Bentzel wants the agency to regulate rail storage fees in certain cases when ocean containers cannot be picked up from an intermodal terminal through no fault of the cargo owner.

Union Pacific Railroad at the end of June will begin revamping how it builds domestic intermodal trains in Southern California in a bid to improve service for all shippers.

As domestic intermodal volumes rise, non-asset intermodal marketing companies are worried that US railroads are not buying enough 53-foot containers to support their shipper customers.

COFC will buy 5,500 new containers in the next 12 months to provide a BNSF Railway alternative for Schneider customers who do not want to switch to Union Pacific Railroad in 2023.

Intermodal volumes and service metrics declined in the first quarter for CSX and UP, though both US railroads believe they can hire more labor and haul more ocean containers in the coming months.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services said there is more intermodal demand than available capacity, and it downplayed the likelihood of an imminent freight recession.

Norfolk Southern is shortening how much free time a shipper will have before storage penalties apply, an effort to speed cargo flow as the railroad struggles to provide reliable intermodal service.

Officials at the busiest ports in the southeast US believe import volumes will grow through the summer, meaning vessels will continue to anchor outside the major gateways.

A recent resurgence in international intermodal volumes is causing BNSF Railway to struggle to provide consistent service, disrupting the flow of containers between Los Angeles and Chicago.

Union Pacific Railroad is reducing its surcharge on certain loads in 53-foot containers out of Oakland and Seattle because more boxes are available for shippers.