Rail terminals are congested for the second consecutive year in Kansas City, causing truckers and importers to lash out at BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad.
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.
Desire for “one-stop shopping” leads to the consolidation of Transport America and MCT with long-haul truckload carrier CFI to create a broader — not just bigger — trucking company.
The largest US truckload operator, Knight-Swift, acquired non-asset 3PL UTXL to gain access to additional trucks and drivers, as well as new logistics services.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.