<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Container vessel on-time performance could degrade even further as carriers remove ships from service to install equipment that “scrubs” harmful sulfur particles from ship exhaust in lieu of burning low-sulfur fuel.</div>

Container vessel on-time performance could degrade even further as carriers remove ships from service to install equipment that “scrubs” harmful sulfur particles from ship exhaust in lieu of burning low-sulfur fuel.

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<div>Shippers could see further deterioration of schedule reliability in the coming months as container lines remove vessels from service to retrofit them with scrubbers to meet a mandate requiring the reduction of sulfur content in marine fuel from 3.5 percent to 0.5 percent starting Jan. 1.About 380 containerships with an aggregate capacity of 4.4 million TEU will be retrofitted with scrubbers to meet the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) 2020 low-sulfur fuel mandate, according to Tan Hua Joo, executive consultant at Alphaliner. The vast majority of the global container ship fleet will burn low-sulfur fuel oil (LSFO) to meet the mandate,...

Shippers could see further deterioration of schedule reliability in the coming months as container lines remove vessels from service to retrofit them with scrubbers to meet a mandate requiring the reduction of sulfur content in marine fuel from 3.5 percent to 0.5 percent starting Jan. 1. About 380 containerships with an aggregate capacity of 4.4 million TEU will be retrofitted with scrubbers to meet the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) 2020 low-sulfur fuel mandate, according to Tan Hua Joo, executive consultant at Alphaliner. The vast majority of the global container ship fleet will burn low-sulfur fuel oil (LSFO) to meet the mandate, which will cost carriers an additional $10 billion to $15 billion in annual fuel spend, according to various estimates. There is currently a price differential of between $170 and $320 per metric ton between high-sulfur bunkers and marine gasoil. But Khalid Hashim, managing director of Thailand's Precious Shipping, pointed out that the “high-sulfur” fuel supplied in South America had a sulfur content of between 0.2 and 0.7 percent that would mostly meet the IMO's 0.5 percent sulfur cap. He said fuel supplied in South America was only $40 more expensive than bunkers at other major refueling centers such as Rotterdam. Schedule, capacity concerns Andy Lane, Singapore-based partner in maritime advisory firm CTI Consultancy, told JOC.com that withdrawing vessels to have scrubbers fitted could “screw schedule reliability up a bit further and make supply chain integrity a little harder to forecast.” On-time performance by carriers on the Asia-US trades plunged to new lows in the first two months of the year, with the all-water East Coast lane recording its sixth straight month of record lows in schedule reliability, according to the latest data from SeaIntelligence Consulting. The maritime consultancy said 2018 was the worst year for container line schedule reliability with eight out of 12 months recording the lowest level of schedule reliability since the Denmark-headquartered firm started measuring the data in 2012. Vessels earmarked for retrofitting are among 550 boxships, totaling 6 million TEU, that are due to be equipped with scrubbers, according to figures compiled by Tan. The remaining vessels are either new buildings that are being delivered with scrubbers already fitted or the 50 ships that have already been dry-docked for equipment to be fitted. Tan said about 30 containerships a month, equal to about 300,000 TEU, will be taken out of service for 30-40 days to have the emissions control equipment installed. The number of affected vessels is equivalent to about 1.3 percent of overall supply. Tan told JOC.com that the impact from taking vessels out of service “should not be exaggerated” because “carriers do need to take capacity out of certain trades — Asia-Europe is an obvious one right now — and this could be timed to fit with the retrofits.” “The problem,” he said, is that “carriers are extremely tight-lipped about their plans,” in terms of which strings and trades will be affected and for how long as vessels are withdrawn for dry-docking. Increased interest Tan noted that scrubber uptake has surged in recent months. Mediterranean Shipping Co. will have the largest fleet of scrubber-equipped vessels, with about 180 container ships to be fitted with exhaust gas cleaning systems. Evergreen Marine will have about 80 vessels and Maersk Line 50. Other carriers that will partially equip their fleets with scrubbers include Ocean Network Express (ONE) and CMA CGM. “Zim [Integrated Shipping Services] is the only line which has not made its scrubber plan public,” Tan said. “Over 10 percent of the container ship fleet, or 20 percent of total capacity will have scrubbers installed by the end of 2020.” Click to enlarge Tan also accused carriers of “having a complete lack of transparency in calculating the bunker adjustment factor [BAF],” the formula carriers will use to determine additional shipping charges stemming from the higher price of LSFO. He said the revamped BAF “is not a reasonable way to do the calculation, given that carriers will fit scrubbers” and the new BAF assumes 100 percent LSFO usage. But Thomas Elling, the Singapore-based senior director for regional sales and customer service at Hapag-Lloyd, refuted Tan's transparency claim. "Our BAF is 100 percent externally verifiable," Elling said. Jeremy Nixon, ONE chief executive, said only a limited number of its boxship fleet would be equipped with scrubbers. "We're not great fans of scrubbers. We'll have 10 vessels equipped at the beginning of 2020," he said at the TOC Asia conference in Singapore on April 9. Carriers contend that the proposed BAFs are the simplest and most transparent way to calculate the higher costs of meeting the mandate and that calculations that would factor in scrubber usage, vessel size, and other factors affecting fuel consumption would overly complicated fuel formulas. Tan added that “shippers will have to share the burden” in terms of cost whether carriers opt to use LSFO or fit scrubbers, with retrofitting equipment estimated to cost about $4 million each for large boxships. “Shippers have to pay. There is simply no way shipping lines can absorb the extra cost,” he said. “A 20-year assessment shows there is a broad correlation between freight rates and fuel prices, but the downside correlation has been stronger than the upside, while longer-term freight rates have declined in real and nominal terms,” Tan added. Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

Container lines

Transport, Trade and Regulation News

Scrubber retrofits put pressure on ocean reliability

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Cargo movers are holding back on executing breakbulk and project cargo shipments as much as possible until there is a clearer picture of costs in the current unsettled market. </div>

Cargo movers are holding back on executing breakbulk and project cargo shipments as much as possible until there is a clearer picture of costs in the current unsettled market.

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<div class="phx-topic">“Strategic inaction” is the order of the day in the tariff uncertainty-hit multipurpose vessel (MPV) sector, shippers say. Carlos Cortes, supply chain director for North America at wood products shipper CMPC Forest Products, told the Journal of Commerce the company is continuing to monitor tariff developments, “but we are holding back on executing until we can get better visibility of the final situation,” a direction he described as “strategic inaction.” Cortes noted a slight decline in North American MPV freight rates, but said it was “nothing significant” for contracted rates. “For me, the main takeaway is that the North America market is stable and holding on amid the geopolitical and economic conditions,” he said. Cortes added that he hadn’t seen major changes to capacity availability. “We are expediting vessels as much as we can and for now haven’t experienced major disruptions,” he said. “We will need to see how this changes if [tariffs] are finally confirmed in August.” Continued stability in multipurpose freight rates could be the “calm before the storm” or an indication of a resilient market environment, said specialist broker Toepfer Transport. In its July 25 Multipurpose Shipping Report, the broker said its bellwether Toepfer Multipurpose Index (TMI) remains stable, with almost no significant up or down movement. The index stood at $12,905 per day for July, up just 0.07% from June. The TMI is based on expected average rates for six- to 12-month time charters for 12,500-deadweight-ton (dwt) “F-Type” vessels with safe working loads (SWL) of 240 to 360 metric tons, as reported to Toepfer by owners and operators. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="ea382181-08cd-4298-912f-87c79836bcf7"></dynamic-object></div><h3>Geopolitical tensions continue to bite </h3>Toepfer said the hoped-for reopening of Red Sea routes to the Suez Canal by the end of the year <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/new-houthi-attacks-likely-kill-hopes-of-shipping-returning-to-red-sea-this-year-6040923">has gone by the boards due to the recent Houthi attacks on commercial vessels</a> and tensions surrounding Israel and Iran. “The expected decline in tonnage-miles for breakbulk and project cargoes associated with the resumption of the Suez transit will not occur in the near future,” the broker said. Meanwhile, the volatility around US import tariffs has compounded market uncertainty, making it difficult to predict project costs and risks involving the US supply chain. A similar downbeat forecast applies to Europe, where weak exports are still sufficient to sustain break-even income for carriers, but “there is no indication of improvement over the next few months,” Toepfer said. A silver lining for the MPV market is that exports from the Far East “continue to ensure the effective utilization of the fleet and the generation of sufficient income for carriers,” Toepfer said. And in Africa, carriers have reported to the broker that there has been “a significant increase of cargo export.” Charters are also steadily moving with the majority of F500 and F600 XL-type MPVs ordered on speculation and fixed at rate levels that reflect the stable-to-positive sentiment of carriers and the expectations of the investors and banks behind the newbuildings. While ordering activity in the MPV space is currently limited — a fault of the “current mismatch between charter rates and prices,” Toepfer said — behind the scenes, there is “a sense of optimism and a readiness to seize opportunities, as many are eager to be prepared once the conditions align.” Contact Carly Fields at <a href="mailto:carly.fields@spglobal.com">carly.fields@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

“Strategic inaction” is the order of the day in the tariff uncertainty-hit multipurpose vessel (MPV) sector, shippers say. Carlos Cortes, supply chain director for North America at wood products shipper CMPC Forest Products, told the Journal of Commerce the company is continuing to monitor tariff developments, “but we are holding back on executing until we can get better visibility of the final situation,” a direction he described as “strategic inaction.” Cortes noted a slight decline in North American MPV freight rates, but said it was “nothing significant” for contracted rates. “For me, the main takeaway is that the North America market is stable and holding on amid the geopolitical and economic conditions,” he said. Cortes added that he hadn’t seen major changes to capacity availability. “We are expediting vessels as much as we can and for now haven’t experienced major disruptions,” he said. “We will need to see how this changes if [tariffs] are finally confirmed in August.” Continued stability in multipurpose freight rates could be the “calm before the storm” or an indication of a resilient market environment, said specialist broker Toepfer Transport. In its July 25 Multipurpose Shipping Report, the broker said its bellwether Toepfer Multipurpose Index (TMI) remains stable, with almost no significant up or down movement. The index stood at $12,905 per day for July, up just 0.07% from June. The TMI is based on expected average rates for six- to 12-month time charters for 12,500-deadweight-ton (dwt) “F-Type” vessels with safe working loads (SWL) of 240 to 360 metric tons, as reported to Toepfer by owners and operators. Geopolitical tensions continue to bite Toepfer said the hoped-for reopening of Red Sea routes to the Suez Canal by the end of the year has gone by the boards due to the recent Houthi attacks on commercial vessels and tensions surrounding Israel and Iran. “The expected decline in tonnage-miles for breakbulk and project cargoes associated with the resumption of the Suez transit will not occur in the near future,” the broker said. Meanwhile, the volatility around US import tariffs has compounded market uncertainty, making it difficult to predict project costs and risks involving the US supply chain. A similar downbeat forecast applies to Europe, where weak exports are still sufficient to sustain break-even income for carriers, but “there is no indication of improvement over the next few months,” Toepfer said. A silver lining for the MPV market is that exports from the Far East “continue to ensure the effective utilization of the fleet and the generation of sufficient income for carriers,” Toepfer said. And in Africa, carriers have reported to the broker that there has been “a significant increase of cargo export.” Charters are also steadily moving with the majority of F500 and F600 XL-type MPVs ordered on speculation and fixed at rate levels that reflect the stable-to-positive sentiment of carriers and the expectations of the investors and banks behind the newbuildings. While ordering activity in the MPV space is currently limited — a fault of the “current mismatch between charter rates and prices,” Toepfer said — behind the scenes, there is “a sense of optimism and a readiness to seize opportunities, as many are eager to be prepared once the conditions align.” Contact Carly Fields at carly.fields@spglobal.com .

Maritime

Breakbulk News

MPV shippers adopt ‘strategic inaction’ operating model to counter instability

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">A wave of AI-based tools for software developers is likely to raise shipper expectations around the effectiveness and cost of logistics software applications. </div>

A wave of AI-based tools for software developers is likely to raise shipper expectations around the effectiveness and cost of logistics software applications.

<div class="phx-topic">Logistics software vendors and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) are turning en masse toward a relatively new cohort of artificial intelligence (AI)-based code development tools, a trend that’s likely to accelerate and broaden the scope of products aimed at shippers across modes. The impact of these tools is only just starting to reveal itself, with technology providers, whether standalone or part of a 3PL, telling the Journal of Commerce they are using code development tools in an ever-expanding way. Those tools — which notably include fast-growing brands like Cursor, Windsurf, Base44 and Lovable, among dozens of others — help companies generate, test and audit code, depending on their strengths. The potential impacts of the tools on customers are numerous. Logistics technology providers can build applications, features, or whole new products faster. They can expand the capacity of their engineering teams, without adding headcount, by having coding products build or edit base code, theoretically bringing down a provider’s operating costs. They can also audit code faster and, in general, more accurately than human engineers are able to. “Over 55% of our net new code is now AI-generated using tools like Cursor,” said project44 CEO Jett McCandless. “This includes everything from feature scaffolding to test creation. AI is now an embedded part of how we write and review code.” McCandless said project44 went from virtually no AI-generated code in late 2024 to 45% by March 2025, surpassing 50% by June. “The speed of adoption reflects both developer enthusiasm and a company-wide shift to treat AI as a foundational tool, not a novelty,” he said. <h3>Not alone </h3>And project44 is hardly alone on this fast-moving path. “We started using Cursor almost a year ago, and by the end of 2024 we were at 36% and currently on a journey to get it to 50%,” said Graham Parker, CEO of logistic software vendor ShipAngel. “We were at 44% in June — a little behind target but still an insane leap in a single year. And some of our [venture capital investor’s] portfolio companies in other sectors are at 80% already. “Headcount-wise, you could look at it and say you can now do the work of 20 engineers with maybe five to seven.” Parker pointed to the CEOs of major tech companies like Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic all saying 90% of code will be written with AI within a year. Journal of Commerce parent company S&amp;P Global recently signed a deal with Anthropic, whose code generation software Claude is one of the cohort of tools being used by developers. “It’s hard to disagree when they likely see unreleased models with this capability or least the clear path to it,” Parker said. Among software developers catering to the logistics industry, the biggest value is the speed and efficiency with which they can create what’s known in software circles as minimum viable products (MVPs). “We've probably cut the time to complete a project in half, but that doesn't necessarily correlate into that project being more worthwhile,” said Tobias Haahr Nielsen, founder of Anthem Agency, which does outsourced software production work in the supply chain and logistics industry. “One major value of AI is that creating MVPs is significantly easier because you can get the AI to do what would otherwise take a long time to write out.” That means, for instance, the MVP might not hit the target, but testing five different iterations would be faster than building one in a traditional development environment. “It's significantly cheaper to just get an AI agent that has an 80% accuracy rate,” Nielsen said. “So one-fifth fail, but we're aware of it. That's very valuable if you're just testing out the solution. It helps answer the question: would there actually be a use case here?” <h3>Different tools for different uses </h3>The breadth of code development tools available also signals a diversified market that assumes not every technology provider’s needs are the same. Some companies need advanced code generation tools to reduce the costs of hiring and retaining high level engineering talent. Others want tools that allow people in semi-technical roles — say, a product manager — to build a quick prototype based on a conversation with a customer. There are even products that allow beginners to spin up basic applications through natural language prompts akin to asking ChatGPT to create a PowerPoint presentation. “It gives smaller companies an advantage in that we don’t have to adhere to what tools our development team can and can’t use,” said Jake Hoffman, chief technology officer at logistics software provider Gnosis Freight. “If there’s something that will help us, we’re going to try it out.” Hoffman said Gnosis has “doubled down” on AI development tools, including Cursor, Windsurf and Devin. He said those tools will bridge the gap between developers and non-technical logistics experts in the way no-code and low-code software products bridged the gap between super users and entry-level users of logistics software. He said the tools Gnosis uses tackle tasks as varied as code generation, comprehending how existing code works, and checking for “AI hallucination.” “If I write something six months ago and we hire a new person, we can have that program explain to them why it was written and what it’s intended for,” Hoffman said. <h3>Humans remain important </h3>McCandless said project44’s engineers still take the lead on security-sensitive logic, performance-critical systems and new architectures. “That’s where judgment, experience, and creativity outperform AI suggestions,” he said. “We let AI handle the bulk and humans handle the edge cases and innovation. We prioritize engineers who can design systems and collaborate with AI. Some roles, like manual quality assurance or maintenance, are shrinking as AI absorbs that work. Teams are leaner but more productive.” But the tools are not magic bullets yet. “Cursor works best when the scope is clear and repetitive,” McCandless said. “It’s less effective in legacy codebases or workflows that require interpreting ambiguous business logic. That’s where engineers step in to guide the process.” Parker, however, said he’s seen Cursor improve at tasks with which it once struggled. “Cursor started out being good at writing basic code, then it became good at editing, then auditing, and now architecture,” he said. “You can talk to it and ask questions and it will give you the ‘why.’” While logistics software companies seem largely convinced of the power of AI code development tools, some say the jury is still out on whether it is making engineers more efficient. METR, a research non-profit group measuring the impact of AI capabilities, said in early July that a test of nearly 250 coding tasks undertaken using AI tools slowed developers by 19% when the developers believed they would be 24% faster using those tools. “When AI is allowed, developers spend less time actively coding and searching for information, and instead spend time prompting AI, waiting on or reviewing AI outputs, or idle,” METR said in its report. That has specific relevance to the logistics industry, where the going theory has been that developers with domain expertise in freight and transportation are more effective since they understand the nuances of what customers want. “It’s not the process itself, it’s the nuance in a process,” Hoffman said. “You have code and AI agents that can now speak to the nuance of a process.” For instance, a developer that understands the business case for the software he or she is building can be more effective in prompting AI code generation tools. “The prompt for a new customer can be, ‘look how we implemented for these customers. Do the same, but for this customer call it discharge instead of available date,’” Hoffman said. <h3>Tech titans fuel progress </h3>In terms of the pace of development, Hoffman said the logistics industry is benefiting from intense competition in the generative AI world in both general purpose and industry-specific solutions. “All the big companies in our industry are building on top of openAI, Gemini and Grok, and they’re all beating each other up on models,” he said. “So there are two layers of competition where it’s getting better all the time.” Parker said the usage rate in logistics tech will inevitably lag other sectors. “Some of these products are trained on large existing code bases and, as we know, there is a lot less modern logistics code than, say, in [customer relationship management] software,” he said. But he has no doubt that customers will come to demand products from companies using AI development tools. “This era will usher in a new capability to create great products much faster than before, replace legacy products and iterate at lightning speed,” Parker said. “For customers of logistics software, it will drive a higher bar and better products.” Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Logistics software vendors and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) are turning en masse toward a relatively new cohort of artificial intelligence (AI)-based code development tools, a trend that’s likely to accelerate and broaden the scope of products aimed at shippers across modes. The impact of these tools is only just starting to reveal itself, with technology providers, whether standalone or part of a 3PL, telling the Journal of Commerce they are using code development tools in an ever-expanding way. Those tools — which notably include fast-growing brands like Cursor, Windsurf, Base44 and Lovable, among dozens of others — help companies generate, test and audit code, depending on their strengths. The potential impacts of the tools on customers are numerous. Logistics technology providers can build applications, features, or whole new products faster. They can expand the capacity of their engineering teams, without adding headcount, by having coding products build or edit base code, theoretically bringing down a provider’s operating costs. They can also audit code faster and, in general, more accurately than human engineers are able to. “Over 55% of our net new code is now AI-generated using tools like Cursor,” said project44 CEO Jett McCandless. “This includes everything from feature scaffolding to test creation. AI is now an embedded part of how we write and review code.” McCandless said project44 went from virtually no AI-generated code in late 2024 to 45% by March 2025, surpassing 50% by June. “The speed of adoption reflects both developer enthusiasm and a company-wide shift to treat AI as a foundational tool, not a novelty,” he said. Not alone And project44 is hardly alone on this fast-moving path. “We started using Cursor almost a year ago, and by the end of 2024 we were at 36% and currently on a journey to get it to 50%,” said Graham Parker, CEO of logistic software vendor ShipAngel. “We were at 44% in June — a little behind target but still an insane leap in a single year. And some of our [venture capital investor’s] portfolio companies in other sectors are at 80% already. “Headcount-wise, you could look at it and say you can now do the work of 20 engineers with maybe five to seven.” Parker pointed to the CEOs of major tech companies like Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic all saying 90% of code will be written with AI within a year. Journal of Commerce parent company S&P Global recently signed a deal with Anthropic, whose code generation software Claude is one of the cohort of tools being used by developers. “It’s hard to disagree when they likely see unreleased models with this capability or least the clear path to it,” Parker said. Among software developers catering to the logistics industry, the biggest value is the speed and efficiency with which they can create what’s known in software circles as minimum viable products (MVPs). “We've probably cut the time to complete a project in half, but that doesn't necessarily correlate into that project being more worthwhile,” said Tobias Haahr Nielsen, founder of Anthem Agency, which does outsourced software production work in the supply chain and logistics industry. “One major value of AI is that creating MVPs is significantly easier because you can get the AI to do what would otherwise take a long time to write out.” That means, for instance, the MVP might not hit the target, but testing five different iterations would be faster than building one in a traditional development environment. “It's significantly cheaper to just get an AI agent that has an 80% accuracy rate,” Nielsen said. “So one-fifth fail, but we're aware of it. That's very valuable if you're just testing out the solution. It helps answer the question: would there actually be a use case here?” Different tools for different uses The breadth of code development tools available also signals a diversified market that assumes not every technology provider’s needs are the same. Some companies need advanced code generation tools to reduce the costs of hiring and retaining high level engineering talent. Others want tools that allow people in semi-technical roles — say, a product manager — to build a quick prototype based on a conversation with a customer. There are even products that allow beginners to spin up basic applications through natural language prompts akin to asking ChatGPT to create a PowerPoint presentation. “It gives smaller companies an advantage in that we don’t have to adhere to what tools our development team can and can’t use,” said Jake Hoffman, chief technology officer at logistics software provider Gnosis Freight. “If there’s something that will help us, we’re going to try it out.” Hoffman said Gnosis has “doubled down” on AI development tools, including Cursor, Windsurf and Devin. He said those tools will bridge the gap between developers and non-technical logistics experts in the way no-code and low-code software products bridged the gap between super users and entry-level users of logistics software. He said the tools Gnosis uses tackle tasks as varied as code generation, comprehending how existing code works, and checking for “AI hallucination.” “If I write something six months ago and we hire a new person, we can have that program explain to them why it was written and what it’s intended for,” Hoffman said. Humans remain important McCandless said project44’s engineers still take the lead on security-sensitive logic, performance-critical systems and new architectures. “That’s where judgment, experience, and creativity outperform AI suggestions,” he said. “We let AI handle the bulk and humans handle the edge cases and innovation. We prioritize engineers who can design systems and collaborate with AI. Some roles, like manual quality assurance or maintenance, are shrinking as AI absorbs that work. Teams are leaner but more productive.” But the tools are not magic bullets yet. “Cursor works best when the scope is clear and repetitive,” McCandless said. “It’s less effective in legacy codebases or workflows that require interpreting ambiguous business logic. That’s where engineers step in to guide the process.” Parker, however, said he’s seen Cursor improve at tasks with which it once struggled. “Cursor started out being good at writing basic code, then it became good at editing, then auditing, and now architecture,” he said. “You can talk to it and ask questions and it will give you the ‘why.’” While logistics software companies seem largely convinced of the power of AI code development tools, some say the jury is still out on whether it is making engineers more efficient. METR, a research non-profit group measuring the impact of AI capabilities, said in early July that a test of nearly 250 coding tasks undertaken using AI tools slowed developers by 19% when the developers believed they would be 24% faster using those tools. “When AI is allowed, developers spend less time actively coding and searching for information, and instead spend time prompting AI, waiting on or reviewing AI outputs, or idle,” METR said in its report. That has specific relevance to the logistics industry, where the going theory has been that developers with domain expertise in freight and transportation are more effective since they understand the nuances of what customers want. “It’s not the process itself, it’s the nuance in a process,” Hoffman said. “You have code and AI agents that can now speak to the nuance of a process.” For instance, a developer that understands the business case for the software he or she is building can be more effective in prompting AI code generation tools. “The prompt for a new customer can be, ‘look how we implemented for these customers. Do the same, but for this customer call it discharge instead of available date,’” Hoffman said. Tech titans fuel progress In terms of the pace of development, Hoffman said the logistics industry is benefiting from intense competition in the generative AI world in both general purpose and industry-specific solutions. “All the big companies in our industry are building on top of openAI, Gemini and Grok, and they’re all beating each other up on models,” he said. “So there are two layers of competition where it’s getting better all the time.” Parker said the usage rate in logistics tech will inevitably lag other sectors. “Some of these products are trained on large existing code bases and, as we know, there is a lot less modern logistics code than, say, in [customer relationship management] software,” he said. But he has no doubt that customers will come to demand products from companies using AI development tools. “This era will usher in a new capability to create great products much faster than before, replace legacy products and iterate at lightning speed,” Parker said. “For customers of logistics software, it will drive a higher bar and better products.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

Supply chain

Logistics Technology News

Code generation tools altering efficiency, capacity for logistics technology providers

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">As tariff fatigue sets in, US retailers are concentrating more on their product delivery needs rather than adjusting their supply chains on the fly to the vagaries of the Trump administration’s trade policy.</div>

As tariff fatigue sets in, US retailers are concentrating more on their product delivery needs rather than adjusting their supply chains on the fly to the vagaries of the Trump administration’s trade policy.

<div class="phx-topic">The whiplash reality of the Trump administration’s tariff policy is no longer driving sharp swings in import volumes from Asia, but expectations of more blank sailings to curb the capacity overhang in the trans-Pacific could still jostle the weakening inbound trade. US retailers are giving less thought to the tariffs in terms of their ordering for the rest of the year, having gained at least some degree of clarity through the several trade deals that have been announced to date. Importantly, a growing number of retail logistics managers and importers, exhausted by the US’ ever-shifting trade policy, have given up on trying to beat moving tariff deadlines. “It doesn’t seem that tariffs and trade deals are quite the driving factor that they had been as recently as six to eight weeks ago,” Stephen Nothdurft, vice president of sales for North America at the forwarder MOL Consolidation Services, told the Journal of Commerce. “The import community has kind of decided, ‘It is what it is, and we can’t control it, but what we can control is just making sure our freight is on the shelf when we need it.’” Indeed, the prospects of a final rush of cargo tied to US trade policy announcements are fading, even if some forwarders and carriers hold out for a final pop in volumes in August. “Strategic planning and long-term decision-making based on tariff deadlines makes no sense because you just don’t know what those deadlines will be from week to week,” the logistics manager of a national furniture retailer told the Journal of Commerce. Ocean carriers <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/looming-august-tariff-deadline-prompts-carriers-to-pull-trans-pacific-capacity-6045526">plan to deploy less tonnage</a> from Asia to the United States in August than in July, according to ocean visibility provider eeSea. So far, ocean carriers are planning to blank less capacity next month than in July, although carriers warn that may change as container spot rates keep falling. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="88ff376b-3b44-447f-ae0f-22d6a0011592"></dynamic-object></div>Spot rates, a measure of how capacity matches up with demand, have been falling since late May and early June, according to various indexes. At a little more than $2,000 per FEU, spot rates from China to the US West Coast are down 70% from a year ago, according to the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index. Some cargo owner customers are still uncertain whether the Aug. 1 deadline — in which the 10% blanket tariff on all US imports will revert to higher levels for countries that haven’t hashed out an agreement with the Trump administration — will hold, a carrier executive said. He added that while some tariff-related price increases have taken place, they haven’t blunted consumer demand enough to have a noticeable impact on import volumes. One automotive industry importer said that at the current 10% reciprocal tariff rate, his company can move product as the sector has absorbed that level. “However, we will not take product into the US at rates above 15% to 20% as some countries have negotiated,” he said. “We have completely pulled out of China due to tariffs.” <h3>GRIs unlikely to stick </h3>While carriers may attempt to impose general rate increases (GRIs) on the first and 15th of each month, forwarders and importers on the trans-Pacific <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/pause-in-tariff-hikes-drives-big-gains-in-trans-pacific-spot-rates-6017111">do not expect any further rate hikes this peak season to stick.</a> “There’s no impetus to keep prices high,” Nothdurft said. “I don’t know what the carriers are banking on in August, but it doesn’t appear that those ships are full, either.” A steady stream of frontloading of fall and holiday merchandise has taken the wind out of carrier attempts to sustain price increases. “A lot of cargo for the rest of the year is already here in the US so there is no need for anyone to rush any huge amounts of cargo into the US for the next few months,” said Sanjay Tejwani, chief executive officer at the consulting firm 365 Logistics. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="a2606c91-b30c-4219-b617-9491b44b6af1"></dynamic-object></div>Even some carriers agree that the extensive frontloading that has already taken place in the eastbound trans-Pacific means cargo volumes may drop off dramatically in the fourth quarter. “I think it’s going to be a bad Q4,” a carrier executive told the Journal of Commerce. For importers, planning their supply chains while attempting to balance the cost of ocean transportation with the delivery of their product to store shelves on schedule requires the use of several forms of shipping. John Pace, senior manager of global logistics at Revelyst, a manufacturer of outdoor performance gear, said that for merchandise that was ordered months ago and is scheduled to be delivered this summer and fall, he can use the preferred mode of regular ocean shipping. As delivery deadlines approach for products with tighter deadlines, he will shift some shipments to expedited ocean service with guaranteed next-day container availability landside. Pace said he will use air freight as a last resort. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at <a href="mailto:bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com">bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com</a>. Contact Laura Robb at <a href="mailto:laura.robb@spglobal.com">laura.robb@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The whiplash reality of the Trump administration’s tariff policy is no longer driving sharp swings in import volumes from Asia, but expectations of more blank sailings to curb the capacity overhang in the trans-Pacific could still jostle the weakening inbound trade. US retailers are giving less thought to the tariffs in terms of their ordering for the rest of the year, having gained at least some degree of clarity through the several trade deals that have been announced to date. Importantly, a growing number of retail logistics managers and importers, exhausted by the US’ ever-shifting trade policy, have given up on trying to beat moving tariff deadlines. “It doesn’t seem that tariffs and trade deals are quite the driving factor that they had been as recently as six to eight weeks ago,” Stephen Nothdurft, vice president of sales for North America at the forwarder MOL Consolidation Services, told the Journal of Commerce. “The import community has kind of decided, ‘It is what it is, and we can’t control it, but what we can control is just making sure our freight is on the shelf when we need it.’” Indeed, the prospects of a final rush of cargo tied to US trade policy announcements are fading, even if some forwarders and carriers hold out for a final pop in volumes in August. “Strategic planning and long-term decision-making based on tariff deadlines makes no sense because you just don’t know what those deadlines will be from week to week,” the logistics manager of a national furniture retailer told the Journal of Commerce. Ocean carriers plan to deploy less tonnage from Asia to the United States in August than in July, according to ocean visibility provider eeSea. So far, ocean carriers are planning to blank less capacity next month than in July, although carriers warn that may change as container spot rates keep falling. Spot rates, a measure of how capacity matches up with demand, have been falling since late May and early June, according to various indexes. At a little more than $2,000 per FEU, spot rates from China to the US West Coast are down 70% from a year ago, according to the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index. Some cargo owner customers are still uncertain whether the Aug. 1 deadline — in which the 10% blanket tariff on all US imports will revert to higher levels for countries that haven’t hashed out an agreement with the Trump administration — will hold, a carrier executive said. He added that while some tariff-related price increases have taken place, they haven’t blunted consumer demand enough to have a noticeable impact on import volumes. One automotive industry importer said that at the current 10% reciprocal tariff rate, his company can move product as the sector has absorbed that level. “However, we will not take product into the US at rates above 15% to 20% as some countries have negotiated,” he said. “We have completely pulled out of China due to tariffs.” GRIs unlikely to stick While carriers may attempt to impose general rate increases (GRIs) on the first and 15th of each month, forwarders and importers on the trans-Pacific do not expect any further rate hikes this peak season to stick. “There’s no impetus to keep prices high,” Nothdurft said. “I don’t know what the carriers are banking on in August, but it doesn’t appear that those ships are full, either.” A steady stream of frontloading of fall and holiday merchandise has taken the wind out of carrier attempts to sustain price increases. “A lot of cargo for the rest of the year is already here in the US so there is no need for anyone to rush any huge amounts of cargo into the US for the next few months,” said Sanjay Tejwani, chief executive officer at the consulting firm 365 Logistics. Even some carriers agree that the extensive frontloading that has already taken place in the eastbound trans-Pacific means cargo volumes may drop off dramatically in the fourth quarter. “I think it’s going to be a bad Q4,” a carrier executive told the Journal of Commerce. For importers, planning their supply chains while attempting to balance the cost of ocean transportation with the delivery of their product to store shelves on schedule requires the use of several forms of shipping. John Pace, senior manager of global logistics at Revelyst, a manufacturer of outdoor performance gear, said that for merchandise that was ordered months ago and is scheduled to be delivered this summer and fall, he can use the preferred mode of regular ocean shipping. As delivery deadlines approach for products with tighter deadlines, he will shift some shipments to expedited ocean service with guaranteed next-day container availability landside. Pace said he will use air freight as a last resort. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com . Contact Laura Robb at laura.robb@spglobal.com .

Container Shipping News

Forwarding

Trans-Pacific

US tariff volatility no longer driving trans-Pacific trade plans

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">J.B. Hunt Transport and Knight-Swift Transportation — the largest US truckload providers — are shifting assets within their networks as shippers react to supply chain challenges created by higher US tariffs on imports. </div>

J.B. Hunt Transport and Knight-Swift Transportation — the largest US truckload providers — are shifting assets within their networks as shippers react to supply chain challenges created by higher US tariffs on imports.

<div class="phx-topic">Trucking companies convinced that the soft US freight market will extend into 2026 are doubling down on cost-cutting initiatives, with large truckload carriers looking to shed even more underutilized assets while seeking other budget areas to trim. They’re also shifting assets within their networks as shippers react to supply chain challenges created by higher US tariffs on imports. Excess capacity, however, remains a drag on truckload revenue and pricing. Despite low single-digit gains in contract rates, shippers still dominate the truckload market. Freight flows at Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings “shifted meaningfully from normal patterns” in the second quarter, CEO Adam Miller said during an earnings call last week. “While the import cliff that many anticipated did not prove to be as stark, there was a general softness in freight demand for most of the quarter, especially on the West Coast,” Miller said. That pushed Knight-Swift’s truckload subsidiaries to seek freight in other lanes as imports dropped and freight moving inland from California ebbed. “We are staying close with our customers as the situation unfolds,” Miller said, with the company shifting capacity across the map as shippers react quickly to changing import flows to manage inventory levels. Imports at US ports dropped 11.8% from April to May and were down 6.4% year over year in May, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/us-retailers-upgrade-import-forecast-after-tariff-deadline-extended-to-aug-1-6040890">according to the Global Port Tracker (GPT) released by Hackett Associates and the National Retail Federation in early July</a>. The GPT forecast called for a 14.6% increase in containerized US imports this month from June, as shippers pushed to get freight to the US before higher tariffs on many trading partners take effect Aug. 1. <h3>Added complexity </h3>Changes in trade policy affected the timing and direction of freight flows at J.B. Hunt Transport Services in the second quarter, according to Spencer Frazier, the company’s executive vice president of sales and marketing. “Some customers have pulled freight forward, some continue to execute demand-driven strategies and others are making changes to their country of origin and manufacturing plans,” Frazier said during a recent second-quarter earnings call. “This added complexity, lack of accurate forecasts and potential for volatility is why our <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/jb-hunt-says-surcharges-necessary-to-maintain-peak-season-service-6044880">peak season surcharge programs</a> [for intermodal rail] are starting earlier this year,” he added. But neither J.B. Hunt nor Knight-Swift — the largest and second-largest US truckload providers, respectively — reported enough tightening in truck capacity to turn the market away from shippers. “We think it’s going to be a slow process for capacity to exit the market,” Miller told analysts. “The question would be what’s going to happen with demand.” <h3>Reshuffling capacity </h3>Since 2022, large truckload carriers have cut capacity, sometimes steeply, as freight demand and truckload spot and contract rates declined. Significant cuts in actual truck counts brought the Journal of Commerce Truckload Capacity Index down from 93.2 in the second quarter of 2022 to 74.9 in the first quarter of this year. The second-quarter 2025 reading for the index, which tracks actual truck counts at large publicly owned truckload companies, will be released in August. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="b78888c4-1c6e-40c4-a3f6-ec06b7a7b511"></dynamic-object></div>Knight-Swift cut its average truckload tractor count by 6.6% year over year in the second quarter and by 6.3% in the first half of 2025. But the holding company is adding less-than-truckload (LTL) capacity. “We’ve gotten pretty smart in a way we haven’t been in the past about how to move assets between our divisions,” CFO Andrew Hess said during the earnings call. “We can take dedicated trucks out of our truckload businesses and use them in LTL day cabs,” Hess said. “We’re moving trailers out of our Swift business to U.S. Xpress and replacing more expensive lease trailers. So we are figuring out how to take advantage of all of our brands to drive efficiencies and get smarter about that.” J.B. Hunt plans $100 million in cost cuts this year, but it expanded its over-the-road truckload fleet in the second quarter in response to higher load volumes. The carrier increased its over-the-road division’s truck count 7.6% year over year to 2,041 in the last quarter as loads hauled rose nearly 13% to more than 104,000. “We are working to methodically grow [truckload] while remaining disciplined on network balance,” said Nicholas Hobbs, J.B. Hunt’s COO and president of highway and final-mile. Contact William B. Cassidy at <a href="mailto:bill.cassidy@spglobal.com">bill.cassidy@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Trucking companies convinced that the soft US freight market will extend into 2026 are doubling down on cost-cutting initiatives, with large truckload carriers looking to shed even more underutilized assets while seeking other budget areas to trim. They’re also shifting assets within their networks as shippers react to supply chain challenges created by higher US tariffs on imports. Excess capacity, however, remains a drag on truckload revenue and pricing. Despite low single-digit gains in contract rates, shippers still dominate the truckload market. Freight flows at Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings “shifted meaningfully from normal patterns” in the second quarter, CEO Adam Miller said during an earnings call last week. “While the import cliff that many anticipated did not prove to be as stark, there was a general softness in freight demand for most of the quarter, especially on the West Coast,” Miller said. That pushed Knight-Swift’s truckload subsidiaries to seek freight in other lanes as imports dropped and freight moving inland from California ebbed. “We are staying close with our customers as the situation unfolds,” Miller said, with the company shifting capacity across the map as shippers react quickly to changing import flows to manage inventory levels. Imports at US ports dropped 11.8% from April to May and were down 6.4% year over year in May, according to the Global Port Tracker (GPT) released by Hackett Associates and the National Retail Federation in early July . The GPT forecast called for a 14.6% increase in containerized US imports this month from June, as shippers pushed to get freight to the US before higher tariffs on many trading partners take effect Aug. 1. Added complexity Changes in trade policy affected the timing and direction of freight flows at J.B. Hunt Transport Services in the second quarter, according to Spencer Frazier, the company’s executive vice president of sales and marketing. “Some customers have pulled freight forward, some continue to execute demand-driven strategies and others are making changes to their country of origin and manufacturing plans,” Frazier said during a recent second-quarter earnings call. “This added complexity, lack of accurate forecasts and potential for volatility is why our peak season surcharge programs [for intermodal rail] are starting earlier this year,” he added. But neither J.B. Hunt nor Knight-Swift — the largest and second-largest US truckload providers, respectively — reported enough tightening in truck capacity to turn the market away from shippers. “We think it’s going to be a slow process for capacity to exit the market,” Miller told analysts. “The question would be what’s going to happen with demand.” Reshuffling capacity Since 2022, large truckload carriers have cut capacity, sometimes steeply, as freight demand and truckload spot and contract rates declined. Significant cuts in actual truck counts brought the Journal of Commerce Truckload Capacity Index down from 93.2 in the second quarter of 2022 to 74.9 in the first quarter of this year. The second-quarter 2025 reading for the index, which tracks actual truck counts at large publicly owned truckload companies, will be released in August. Knight-Swift cut its average truckload tractor count by 6.6% year over year in the second quarter and by 6.3% in the first half of 2025. But the holding company is adding less-than-truckload (LTL) capacity. “We’ve gotten pretty smart in a way we haven’t been in the past about how to move assets between our divisions,” CFO Andrew Hess said during the earnings call. “We can take dedicated trucks out of our truckload businesses and use them in LTL day cabs,” Hess said. “We’re moving trailers out of our Swift business to U.S. Xpress and replacing more expensive lease trailers. So we are figuring out how to take advantage of all of our brands to drive efficiencies and get smarter about that.” J.B. Hunt plans $100 million in cost cuts this year, but it expanded its over-the-road truckload fleet in the second quarter in response to higher load volumes. The carrier increased its over-the-road division’s truck count 7.6% year over year to 2,041 in the last quarter as loads hauled rose nearly 13% to more than 104,000. “We are working to methodically grow [truckload] while remaining disciplined on network balance,” said Nicholas Hobbs, J.B. Hunt’s COO and president of highway and final-mile. Contact William B. Cassidy at bill.cassidy@spglobal.com .

Surface

Truckload

Trucking News

Truckload carriers balance networks as tariff uncertainty shifts demand

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Marseilles-based carrier said the unstable operating environment was disrupting trade flows and leading to growing uncertainty about demand in the major markets.</div>

The Marseilles-based carrier said the unstable operating environment was disrupting trade flows and leading to growing uncertainty about demand in the major markets.

<div class="phx-topic">CMA CGM on Tuesday posted a sharp drop in second-quarter net profit, with the carrier saying its performance was rattled by trade disruption following the implementation of US tariffs in early April. CFO Ramon Fernandez, during an earnings call, described the container shipping outlook as “extremely uncertain” as geopolitics and US tariffs continue to hit global trade lanes. The Marseilles-based carrier unveiled a mixed second-quarter result, with flat revenue and volume accompanied by a sharp drop in pre-tax earnings. “Many forecasters have been revising downwards [the] growth perspectives and demand for goods, so we need to see where this goes,” Fernandez said. “We have significant uncertainty on the demand side,” he added. “For the time being, we are not seeing too much impact from the latest discussions on trade issues, but one cannot prejudge that this will last forever.” The Aug. 1 extension to the 90-day pause on tariffs on countries that have yet to sign trade deals with the US expires Friday, while a separate pause on higher tariffs on Chinese goods is due to expire Aug. 14. However, reports are emerging that the pause on higher China tariffs will be extended as officials from Washington and Beijing hold trade talks this week in Sweden. In a period marked by geopolitical conflicts and tariffs, CMA CGM posted second-quarter revenue of $13.1 billion, up 0.3% year over year. But the revenue was accompanied by a 7.9% drop in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and net profit that fell 21% to $521 million. CMA CGM’s shipping division reported volume of 5.97 million TEUs in the second quarter, virtually unchanged compared with the same period last year. Average revenue per TEU of $1,367 was a decrease of 1.2%, leading to a similar drop in total shipping revenue that came in at $8.1 billion. But it was the shipping division’s EBITDA where the disrupted markets in the second quarter were especially felt, declining 19.9% to $1.58 billion, with the EBITDA margin falling 4.5% to 19.4%. “The decline in rates, particularly on outbound trades from Asia, had a negative impact,” Fernandez said. “We continue to face operational changes such as port congestion and rerouting due to persistent geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.” <h3>Market growth offsets US volume loss </h3>Fernandez said the loss of volume from China to the US after President Donald Trump imposed 145% tariffs on April 9, then subsequently reduced them to 55%, was offset by increases in overall market volume on other trade lanes in the second quarter. “China remains the factory of the world and the export platform and is just reorganizing its export trades towards different regions of the world,” Fernandez said. Meanwhile, CMA CGM subsidiary CEVA Logistics reported second-quarter revenue of $4.6 billion, down 3.7% year over year, with EBITDA up 2% at $459 million. Challenges in the automotive market weighed on the performance of finished vehicle logistics and road transport activities, particularly in Europe. During the call with reporters, Fernandez also said CMA CGM was closely following CK Hutchison’s planned $23 billion sale of its non-China terminals. CK Hutchison is <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/hutchison-confirms-chinese-investor-interest-in-blackrock-til-ports-sale-6051201">in talks with a “major strategic investor from China”</a> to join the BlackRock-Terminal Investment Limited (TiL) consortium. “We are monitoring this operation very closely, and we are naturally interested in contributing to finding a solution which has not been found yet as we speak,” he said. “This transaction, which includes 43 terminals in 23 countries, is very important for the industry. It’s important for us.” Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

CMA CGM on Tuesday posted a sharp drop in second-quarter net profit, with the carrier saying its performance was rattled by trade disruption following the implementation of US tariffs in early April. CFO Ramon Fernandez, during an earnings call, described the container shipping outlook as “extremely uncertain” as geopolitics and US tariffs continue to hit global trade lanes. The Marseilles-based carrier unveiled a mixed second-quarter result, with flat revenue and volume accompanied by a sharp drop in pre-tax earnings. “Many forecasters have been revising downwards [the] growth perspectives and demand for goods, so we need to see where this goes,” Fernandez said. “We have significant uncertainty on the demand side,” he added. “For the time being, we are not seeing too much impact from the latest discussions on trade issues, but one cannot prejudge that this will last forever.” The Aug. 1 extension to the 90-day pause on tariffs on countries that have yet to sign trade deals with the US expires Friday, while a separate pause on higher tariffs on Chinese goods is due to expire Aug. 14. However, reports are emerging that the pause on higher China tariffs will be extended as officials from Washington and Beijing hold trade talks this week in Sweden. In a period marked by geopolitical conflicts and tariffs, CMA CGM posted second-quarter revenue of $13.1 billion, up 0.3% year over year. But the revenue was accompanied by a 7.9% drop in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and net profit that fell 21% to $521 million. CMA CGM’s shipping division reported volume of 5.97 million TEUs in the second quarter, virtually unchanged compared with the same period last year. Average revenue per TEU of $1,367 was a decrease of 1.2%, leading to a similar drop in total shipping revenue that came in at $8.1 billion. But it was the shipping division’s EBITDA where the disrupted markets in the second quarter were especially felt, declining 19.9% to $1.58 billion, with the EBITDA margin falling 4.5% to 19.4%. “The decline in rates, particularly on outbound trades from Asia, had a negative impact,” Fernandez said. “We continue to face operational changes such as port congestion and rerouting due to persistent geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.” Market growth offsets US volume loss Fernandez said the loss of volume from China to the US after President Donald Trump imposed 145% tariffs on April 9, then subsequently reduced them to 55%, was offset by increases in overall market volume on other trade lanes in the second quarter. “China remains the factory of the world and the export platform and is just reorganizing its export trades towards different regions of the world,” Fernandez said. Meanwhile, CMA CGM subsidiary CEVA Logistics reported second-quarter revenue of $4.6 billion, down 3.7% year over year, with EBITDA up 2% at $459 million. Challenges in the automotive market weighed on the performance of finished vehicle logistics and road transport activities, particularly in Europe. During the call with reporters, Fernandez also said CMA CGM was closely following CK Hutchison’s planned $23 billion sale of its non-China terminals. CK Hutchison is in talks with a “major strategic investor from China” to join the BlackRock-Terminal Investment Limited (TiL) consortium. “We are monitoring this operation very closely, and we are naturally interested in contributing to finding a solution which has not been found yet as we speak,” he said. “This transaction, which includes 43 terminals in 23 countries, is very important for the industry. It’s important for us.” Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

CMA CGM’s Q2 earnings slide as geopolitics, tariffs hit shipping business

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The world of LTL is slow to embrace change. Business anachronisms permeate current supply chain processes. These vestiges of the way things used to work define the LTL freight transportation procurement process of many modern shippers.David Knuth, logistics specialist at IEWC, a global supplier of cable and wire based in Wisconsin, is happy to have modernized the RFP process, automating the entire LTL bidding procedure with Bid$ense, SMC³’s automated truckload and LTL freight transportation sourcing solution. But when prompted, he can still recall what once was.In his previous job, a large part of his duties were consumed by creating an intermodal bid package for carriers. In a spreadsheet, Knuth detailed the company’s volumes lane by lane, taking care to delete any errant keystrokes or misleading data. He would then email out the information to each carrier, taking time to respond to detailed technical questions about the spreadsheet data. Finally, he had to compile all the results, create an algorithm that would compare the carriers on each lane, and award the business.“It was a huge undertaking. It took about four months to do,” Knuth said of the old process. “It was almost a full-time job for that part of the year, every year.”In his new job at IEWC, he sat down with Bid$ense on day one and was amazed at the capabilities. Knuth had never before used a bid tool. SMC³’s latest versions of Bid$ense automate the process even further, taking truckload and LTL RFPs entirely online. The tool draws on RFP best-practices protocols to streamline the bidding communication process, enabling bidding carriers to respond accurately and promptly to shipper requests. The solution also does all the distribution work automatically, electronically submitting shipper bid data to carriers based on their actual service capabilities and performance records. Carriers are alerted with timely prompts for RFP deliverables, so shippers aren’t waiting by the phone for responses.Another benefit of automating the process is the data-cleansing assistance. When Knuth sent spreadsheets to carriers, data errors might cloud the bidding process; he might have to resend data or simply accept a price that did not truly reflect the costs of doing business. Data cleansing is incredibly beneficial, he said.The spreadsheet technique also made bidding analysis an onerous task. Since Bid$ense automates and streamlines the entire RFP process, intensive examination is now simple. SMC³ knows that each bid has more than one best outcome. With uniform responses from each carrier, shippers can quickly rank results and create an unlimited quantity of what-if scenarios to make the optimal procurement decision.Jesse Burnett of Central Garden &amp; Pet experiences many of the same benefits. Founded in 1980, Central Garden &amp; Pet has spent the last three decades growing from a small garden supply company to a provider of a range of products from dog chews and bird seed to soil supplements and natural insecticides. For much of its life, the company shipped these disparate goods via LTL and truckload carriers to retailers throughout the country, relying on each business unit to negotiate directly with their freight transportation providers. This arrangement worked fairly well for a small company, but as Central Garden &amp; Pet expanded, leadership decided to consolidate decision making.Burnett helped centralize the transportation decision making in 2015 with SMC³’s Bid$ense. Before Bid$ense, every business unit operated independently as far as negotiating with carriers.“There were a lot of different things just floating around,” he said. “We didn’t have master agreements in place; no national pricing at all. The pricing from carriers was just all over the place, depending on where you were.”The transformations he saw with Bid$ense were immediate. Burnett has been using the tool about every other year since its implementation at the company. Central Garden and Pet’s $19.6 million 2019 LTL bid saved the company just more than 9 percent when compared to its historical average. For Burnett, though, bid automation extends far beyond savings.“We knew that we weren’t getting the best pricing offer from our carriers just because nothing was centralized,” he continued. “We knew that if we combined everything from all these business units and paired it with one corporate offering, then it would drive some cost benefit with it.”When the company initially decided to centralize bid procurement, executives researched a number of different methodologies and technologies. In the end, though, Burnett found that Bid$ense was both widespread and well known, and that his carrier partners already knew how to use the application. Burnett also highlighted the data-cleansing process as a major benefit, saying the rigorous process ensures that carriers always return the best price.“It definitely has helped drive savings,” he said. “Any time you go out there and you drive that competitiveness with the carriers and they know they’re in a bid environment, it seems to sharpen their pencils.”Transportation procurement is an integral part of the modern supply chain. With Bid$ense, shippers can develop a strategic implementation plan that saves them time and money, but also helps them create strong relationships with their carrier partners. These carriers appreciate the solution’s data-cleansing process; when carriers receive a complete shipment history and future volume forecast, they don’t have to guess on pricing. Carriers that receive more data from shippers get a complete picture of that shipper’s freight, allowing them to accurately plan instead of simply preparing for the worst-case scenario. Clean data presented through an automated system can lead to both bigger shipment savings and a lasting partnership between carrier and customer.Whether customers are looking to streamline over-the-road transportation bidding by automating the RFP process or create an entirely new, centralized sourcing process, Bid$ense has the analytical horsepower to get the job done.SMC³ 2020 Customer Case Study

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Shippers save money, time with automated transportation bidding tools

If there’s one immutable truth in the world of logistics, it’s this: LTL is an inherently complex form of transportation. Tariffs, rates, DIM weights, transit times — it’s enough to confuse even seasoned logistics professionals. The solution to this knowledge gap has historically been on-the-job training or university supply chain education, but for a variety of reasons there is now a pressing need for third-party, remote LTL training that prepares logistics workers for transportation success. Global Scope Can Overlook Local Intricacies In the past, professionals looking to move into a supply chain career learned about the basics of supply chain from universities. However, many of these college supply chain programs are now global in scope, focusing on worldwide supply chain management instead of the intricacies of specialized domestic transportation. And even these programs, which used to be widespread, are becoming less common. LTL is not an industry of broad-brush strokes; supply chain professionals really need a pointillistic understanding of the logistics of LTL in order to excel in the industry. Accelerating Need for Dedicated LTL Education This lack of specified training put the onus on employers to prepare new hires with the LTL knowledge needed to do their jobs. Dedicated LTL study is a necessity, not a luxury. At the same time, changes in LTL and the broader supply chain world are accelerating. The reliance on e-commerce has ballooned since the start of the pandemic, and last-mile LTL shipments and related e-commerce strains on the supply chain won’t diminish once social distancing abates. That genie isn’t going back into the bottle. So supply chain employers need logistics workers that are fully versed in all aspects of the industry, ready to solve unique shipping and delivery problems based on their extensive supply chain knowledge But why care about LTL? It’s been reported that some shippers in today’s world are no longer concerned with what mode is used to ship their goods. A Multimodal Approach Ensures On-Time Delivery This mode agnosticism means supply chain stakeholders have to be well versed in all modes of transportation. As unforeseen weather events and other disruptions, such as protests, become more common, savvy logistics employees will need to be armed with familiarity of all modes, not just the most popular, to ensure that freight is delivered on time, without damage, and in the most financially expedient way possible. Offerings like SMC³’s LTL online education courses cover a wide range of topics from LTL basics and operations to more advanced concepts like pricing analytics and transportation law. The company also has plans to continually refresh content, adding new expert presenters and taking the feedback of students to make the courses even better as time goes on. Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://logisticstrainingcenter.com/smc3-courses/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">SMC³’s LTL Online Education program</a>&nbsp;and view the 2021 hybrid schedule, featuring live industry experts,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smc3.com/onlinelearning2021/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">here.</a>

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Filling the Supply Chain Education Gap with LTL Education Courses

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