Logistics Providers

Automating often ignored ‘behind-the-scenes’ systems can bring big benefits, including savings and improved customer service, says Echo Global Logistics CEO Doug Waggoner.

After four straight months of declining demand growth on the westbound Asia-Europe trade, container volume has started to increase.

The Federal Maritime Commission stopped short of any regulatory action on detention and demurrage; instead, a task force would meet to “refine commercially viable demurrage and detention approaches.” There were several findings, however, which validated cargo owner concerns and provide reasons to be optimistic that teams of stakeholders will be able to find resolutions.

The new tools provide peace of mind for a segment of shippers who want web-based booking tools, and also offer a path to value / service differentiation for ocean carriers. But what happens to the value proposition of NVOCCs and their decades-long relationships and nuanced, specialized services?

Echo Global Logistics CEO Doug Waggoner expects a ‘healthy’ freight market in 2019, but he said shippers should watch inventory levels for a pertinent reason.

The advantages of double-stack trains are well known; even so, Maryland stakeholders remain short a substantial some of money for the project.

The challenge of taking blockchain pilots and proofs of concepts to wide-scale adoption is that the latter requires a broad adoption from a range of parties. But with a smart contract, that requirement is much smaller.

“By bringing our companies together permanently, we have created the first ever single-pane view into all our customers’ global shipments,” Jett McCandless, CEO and founder of project44, said.

The ‘truce’ between the United States and China that delays a new 25 percent US tariff until March 1 may substantially change the first-quarter US transportation landscape.

The export/import surge was propelled by a combination of factors.

Although trains will still go through Atlanta, there will be a number of advantages for shippers by avoiding vehicle traffic.

“This [the new rail route] will help exporters and importers move their cargo faster and safely through an environment-friendly mode of transport,” said Keld Pedersen, managing director of APM Terminals Pipavav.

The infusion of billions of dollars of venture capital (VC) is tasking shippers not only to keep track of a broader range of potential systems to use, but also to think about the financial structure of smaller VC-backed software providers and third-party logistics providers that have recently emerged. Further, failure by shippers to undertake diligence could mean time wasted, in more ways than one.

Shipper demand for faster China-Europe alternatives to ocean freight is the driving force behind rising rail volume and the rapid development of new services on the intercontinental route, such as trucking.

The roadblock to launching a new chassis pool to serve growing volumes at the ports of Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, underscores the challenges of shaking up traditional chassis pricing.

Ports are seeking a larger percentage of federal transportation funds, and with good reason: the American Association of Port Authorities has identified $20 billion in multimodal project needs for public port authorities alone.

Resurrected by Maersk three years ago as a regional operator, SeaLand has gone global, and the result is SeaLand Americas, SeaLand Asia, and SeaLand Europe and Med. However, the rebrand does not change the three’s operational strategies.