Drayage

The Harbor Trucking Association is teaming with Yusen Terminals in Los Angeles to increase the number of appointment slots each day by cutting the container receiving window from two hours to 90 minutes.

Consolidated Chassis Management is asking cargo owners to encourage their trucking partners to sign up for the South Atlantic Chassis Pool (SACP) 3.0 before it launches in October.

CIE Manufacturing, a major manufacturer of new chassis, has suspended all imports of chassis into the US in response to an investigation by US customs officials.

The major eastern US drayage provider is looking to expand its footprint to California and the Pacific Northwest before the end of the year, markets where its major competitors already operate.

With demand in ports and rail hubs weak, chassis providers are turning their attention to refurbishing older, less-reliable units, a process that is expected to take years to complete.

With international rail volume down by double-digit percentages in 2023, chassis providers have an opportunity to reflect on the struggles of 2021 and 2022 and adjust their networks ahead of the next surge.

The first chassis for a new equipment pool covering the ports of Jacksonville, Savannah, and Wilmington, NC, arrived this week, the first step ahead of an October launch.

The ruling could place an additional burden on US chassis manufacturers to ensure their subcontractors are using US materials or paying duties on parts from China.

Shippers want Congress to address their inability to challenge rail demurrage fees when they contract for merchant haulage, but finding a solution will be tricky, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

Geodis has acquired Southern Companies, a South Florida-based container drayage provider, the latest in a series of trucking and warehousing acquisitions in the US over the last two months.

The influx of new drivers to the New York-New Jersey port helped it handle record volumes in 2022, but the downturn means less work and possibly more turnover.

New York-New Jersey port truckers who worked five days per week last year are now down to about half that amount, sending spot drayage rates well below levels seen in 2021 and 2022.

Transportation and logistics companies continue to grow by acquiring competitors, and although the wave of acquisitions may have crested there is still plenty of opportunity in a soft market.

The independent equipment providers say upending the current business model would create additional chassis shortages and invoicing problems that would inconvenience cargo owners.

Drayage software vendor PortPro is attempting to narrow the gap between the tools that port truckers and their shipper customers use with a new container milestone tracking product it has launched.

The move by the carrier comes as the FMC is in the midst of a rulemaking process around detention and demurrage billing mandated by the passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 last June.

Technology startup Qualle is trying to overcome drayage industry inertia around matching empty import boxes with export loads outside of ports by using early-stage funding to serve every North American port market.

A decision by an FMC administrative judge on chassis usage will shake up the way chassis are provisioned for ocean containers, but there are several unknowns on what the future will look like at ports and rail hubs.

Analysts have told the Journal of Commerce they expect spot market pricing to bottom out and remain flat for some time before rising again, most likely at a slow pace.

Ocean carriers cannot limit the use of chassis by motor carriers in merchant haulage, the FMC’s chief administrative judge said in an “initial” summary decision meant to resolve a long-running dispute. 

Investors see drayage as an area rife for technological improvement, with software provider PortPro the latest startup to secure funding to empower port truckers.

WiseTech Global, owner of the most widely used forwarding software product, has acquired a prominent vendor of drayage management software, capping a year of takeovers for the company.

The sharp increase in freight activity seen at the Port of Houston over the past year has prompted national drayage provider RoadOne IntermodaLogistics to acquire a Texas motor carrier.

A new rule proposed by the US Department of Labor could signal the beginning of the end of the independent contractor model in port drayage and other trucking sectors, opponents say.

Population and economic growth in the US Southeast and the impact on growth at the Port of Charleston has prompted a private equity firm to buy a regional drayage and warehousing firm.

Although truckers at California’s ports must comply with a new clean-fleet rule and enforcement of the AB5 worker classification law, declining cargo volumes should prevent a drayage capacity shortage.

The filing is just the latest in a barrage of complaints made against various container lines with the FMC in recent months, a flurry accelerated by major reform of US shipping law that went into effect in June.

US transportation companies with cash on hand are acquiring asset-based truckers and non-asset freight brokers alike to add services and shipper customers and build network density.

The latest acquisition by RoadOne strengthens its national intermodal drayage fleet, connecting customers and containerized freight from the Northeast to the US Gulf Coast.

NY-NJ marine terminals have been almost constantly offering Saturday gates over the last two years to help move import volumes, but those gates have accounted for only about 5 percent of total truck transactions.

RoadOne sees demand for transload services as being sustainable enough to outlast any economic downturn as it invests in facilities in Norfolk and Oakland.

As a new clean truck rule in California looms, replacing older trucks with compliant vehicles is becoming increasingly difficult — and costly — amid shortages of microchips and other parts.

The Harbor Trucking Association says it will provide evidence to the FMC about the burdens that West Coast drayage carriers face in returning empties to Los Angeles–Long Beach marine terminals.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it will start charging an export container dwell fee in a bid to prod ocean carriers to remove more containers than they drop off.

Drivers are returning to port drayage as long-haul trucking rates slide and operating costs for small, independent motor carriers rise.

Some California trucking companies have already taken the brokerage plunge, enabling them to contract at arm’s length with independent truckers who have set themselves up as single-truck carriers.

Canada’s Class I railroads have been dealing with a surge of freight from Vancouver that has taxed a shrinking pool of available truckers across the country in Ontario.

Customs software provider KlearNow has added a drayage service to its product in order to sync cargo availability to capacity from its network of dray providers.

Amid supply chain gridlock throughout the US, the Port of Houston has signed an agreement to investigate the potential use of an electric rail shuttle system for inland container movement.

For the second time in two weeks, a container line has been assessed a US civil penalty for collecting detention fees last year when it allegedly did not provide drayage providers with a means to return empty containers.