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Dedicated contract carriage, long a “one-customer, one-fleet” business, is evolving beyond those roots as more complex, leaner supply chains recast shipper distribution models. Increasingly, shippers are deploying dedicated truck fleets alongside their own vehicles and for-hire tractor-trailers in “hybrid” freight networks that also might include intermodal rail as they seek the best way to deliver goods.

Shippers of containerized cargo to Japan, be forewarned: the Japanese version of the U.S. 24-hour advanced manifest rule will soon be going into effect. This means that after March 8, 2014, shipments that don’t contain the needed information in shipping instructions will be rejected for loading by customs authorities.

The board of Cargolux has backed a cooperation deal with Henan Civil Aviation Development and Investment Co., clearing the way for the Luxembourg government to sell a 35 percent stake in Europe’s largest all-cargo airline to the Chinese investors.

When Jeffrey H. Schwartz looks to China, he sees a land brimming with logistics opportunities — billions of dollars in opportunities, in fact.

CEVA Logistics has been beefing up its global operations with the expansion of a health care distribution center in Leipzig, Germany, and a new warehouse complex in Queensland, Australia.

U.S. shippers expect tighter truck capacity in the months ahead to help push up truckload and less-than-truckload rates. But shippers surveyed by Wolfe Research generally don’t expect tighter highway capacity to drive up rates on the competing mode of intermodal rail, according to a survey conducted by the firm in August and September.

After a rocky start to the fourth quarter in October, Landstar System shifted into higher gear in December, increasing truckload volume and revenue in tandem.

The ports of Seattle; Tacoma, Wash.; and Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, have decided to extend the 2007 Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy partnership through 2020...

Major container lines have announced planned rate increases for a variety of trades, as detailed below, slated to take effect in December and January.

The German port Duisburg said it expects to post a 16 percent increase in container traffic in 2013, which will consolidate its position as the world’s biggest inland box hub.

Container throughput at major ports in India tumbled 5.16 percent year-over-year from April through November, but total cargo tonnage inched up 1.43 percent, according to provisional figures released by the Indian Ports Association.

A federal judge has scheduled a hearing for Thursday on whether to block a hiring rules change that industry officials say could worsen a labor shortage that contributed to gridlock at the Port of New York and New Jersey last summer.

In a sign of an improving economic environment and growing preference for rail to move goods between the U.S. and Mexico, U.S.-Mexico cross-border trade by rail, measured in value terms, hit an all-time high in September. It rose 16.4 percent year-over-year to $6.25 billion, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Cross-border truck trade also climbed, rising 7.7 percent year-over-year to $27.2 billion, a record for the month.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Maritime Commission will hold its regulatory summit focused on carrier alliances on Tuesday in Washington with its counterparts from the European Union and China, but the majority of the summit won’t be open to the public.

Suggesting that pressure is growing to deliver faster to e-commerce customers, Home Depot said it will be build three direct fulfillment centers around the country that will enable it to ship orders up to 5 PM on the day they are received.

The Port of Portland, Ore., and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 48 have agreed to transition refrigerated container work at Terminal 6...

When shippers look ahead to 2014, they see a repeat performance of this year, but with even more volatility. The capacity that will come with the multitude of big container ships due for delivery next year will outstrip any increases in global demand for vessel space, so carriers won’t be able to sustain the freight rate increases they will seek.

Sea Star Line President Peter Keller will become executive vice president of the ocean carrier’s parent company, TOTE, Inc., effective Jan. 1, 2014.

Japan’s All Nippon Airways Co. (ANA) said that its international cargo volume rose for the eighth straight month in October on a year-on-year basis, surging 12.3 percent to 53,576 tons.

Shippers using air cargo and expedited services will be among the biggest beneficiaries of the World Trade Organization’s Bali Package of reforms agreed to last week, express providers believe.

The Egyptian military has significantly beefed up security along the Suez Canal in recent months, both to show it’s serious about combating terrorism along the 120-mile long waterway and to protect one of the country’s most import sources of revenues.

The New York Shipping Association and the International Longshoremen’s Association have asked a court to block a hiring rules change they say would worsen labor shortages in the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Marine terminals efficiently handle the majority of trucks that call at their facilities each day, but they continue to struggle with the problem cases where some truckers wait in line for two hours or longer.

CMA CGM plans to cut the number of services it operate through its subsidiary Delmas between Europe and the Mediterranean and West Africa to five from 10 as of the middle of December.

BSNF Railway CEO Matt Rose will leave his post at the end of the year to become executive chairman, relinquishing his position to Carl Ice, the railroad’s president and chief operating officer.

The deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation will leave his post at the end of the year, passing the torch to the current Federal Highways Administrator.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Merchant Marine would take another hit if the proposed bipartisan federal budget deal is passed with language that would stop reimbursing agencies for the additional cost of shipping food aid on U.S.-flag vessels.

They’re not all increasing their U.S. trade volumes, but the carriers making up the proposed P3 Network are boosting their combined traffic, an indication of the big ships they’re cascading to the major U.S. east-west trades.

Cascading of large container ships from the Asia-Europe market into North-South trades is significantly eroding pricing in those markets, according to Drewry.

With online sales soaring 45 percent in the third quarter, Southern retail chain Belk is expanding its e-commerce distribution and fulfilllment network.

An 11 percent decline in revenue contributed to a large decline in profits at Evergreen Marine for the third quarter.

The volume of containers handled by the Port of Savannah increased 6.6 percent year-over-year in November.

WASHINGTON — The Chinese government is expected to clarify its position on the valued-added tax on logistics services that has confused shippers and transport providers since it was imposed Aug. 1.

Norfolk Southern Railway’s new Charlotte, N.C., intermodal terminal began handling shipments Monday, boosting the railroad’s ability to attract highway loads to its major corridor connecting the mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coast.

XPO Logistics is strengthening its expedited business and its technology infrastructure by acquiring two supply-chain subsidiaries from Landstar System, NLM and A3i.

To the extent the ports of Virginia and New York-New Jersey view each other as competitors — and they surely do — 2013 will show Virginia in the win column.

Germany’s top eight ship financiers face up to €16 billion euros ($22 billion) in credit losses in 2014 as an increasing number of shipping companies face difficulties in repaying their loans, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Technology can help speed the flow of containers handled by a terminal, but technology alone can’t solve the crunch, one terminal executive told JOC's first Port Productivity Seminar.