Annual Review and Outlook

For the trucking industry, each mile and every delivery must have one thing in common: a total commitment to safety.

The lines and ports (ocean and air) and intermodal operations need to honor consistent schedules and capacity delivering on expectations, with adequate capacity for returns to keep the supply chain moving. 

The biggest challenge facing US surface transportation is improving service as impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are still being felt throughout the country and world.

When securing capacity in the full-truckload freight marketplace, it is often challenging as it seems there are never enough trucks for the freight that needs to be hauled and shippers want to avoid the challenges for capacity they experienced the last 24 months.

Containerization has risen to greater national prominence over the past two years, propelled by online spending, record import volumes, and a shift in consumers buying goods instead of services.  

For resilience in the last mile, find solutions that can flex and scale with your business — expanding quickly with spikes and running lean during lulls. 

Greater collaboration between shippers and carriers is needed to address system-wide inefficiencies and prevent history from repeating itself. 

Several macroeconomic trends are transforming our markets to be more service-sensitive, and we are challenging ourselves to respond with an enhanced service product and innovative solutions that help customers navigate an evolving supply chain.   

To understand how shippers and carriers can better cooperate, we must first understand where the last few years of industry volatility has left both parties.

Smart shippers know that the market is cyclical and that now is the time to lay the groundwork to secure required capacity when the market tightens.   

It is an important time for all surface transportation modes to collaborate to optimize service to customers and help heal some of the fractures in the global supply chain. 

For post-pandemic intermodal supply chains, cooperation within and across competing modes will be key to supporting new shipper strategies.

Educating customers on transactional issues and detailed operational handoffs will be even more important in 2023 to make sure they have transparency into what’s happening in any situation and will hopefully help slow down new attempts to regulate or legislate short-term supply chain issues.   

Shippers should seek trucking partners that offer asset models, financial stability, strength in driver retention/recruitment, and innovation.

The ports, rail ramps, and equipment providers (including chassis) all have a direct impact on truck capacity. If any one of those stages experiences disruption — and they will — it will be felt on the final mile. 

With shipment volumes returning to more historical trend levels — and pressures easing — it is time to review and plot a better course, especially as it relates to interchange activity friction, which would allow trade to move forward with greater capability, capacity, and certainty.

At a minimum, the American consumer has come to realize that the goods they require on a daily basis only appear upon their store shelves via an intricate network of transportation providers requiring very high levels of coordination.

The trucking industry has seen capacity remain tight throughout the year due to driver retention. This, coupled with the growing probability of a recession, increasing financial pressure on consumers, and rising fuel prices, is likely the reason that we won’t see sizable changes in capacity constraints over the next few months.

For the truckload market, finding and retaining good quality drivers remains a continuing challenge, and with more veteran drivers expected to retire this year than new drivers joining the profession, the pressure isn’t letting up.

The pandemic shone a light on the essential services the US transportation industry provides and highlighted the limitations of its networks.

Between COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, and climate-related issues, what has occurred in the past three years has demonstrated our collective reliance on predictable supply chain performance. 

Trucking capacity in western Canada will continue to be constrained in 2023. We continue to grapple with demographic shift, continuing and accelerating labor deficits, and infrastructure challenges that slow movement.

The year 2022 was a challenging one, and we anticipate that many of the difficulties we faced are likely to persist into 2023.

Future generations will undoubtedly study, and hopefully learn from, the remarkable shifts that have occurred in just a few years regarding key economic matters, such as supply chains, the labor market, and views of work and monetary policy. 

Can rails, through better integration, smart capital spending, and IT application, actually provide consistent service, especially in the higher-end markets?

In the past two years, we’ve seen an acceleration of digitalization across the logistics industry. However, as we all know, we still have a long way to go.  

Technology, by and large, leads to automation. We use the tools to make our jobs easier. The bits of automation today — ship-to-shore cranes, self-driving trucks, etc. — are starting to really drive efficiencies and improve service delivery to customers.  

Demands for real-time information and constant visibility are more frequent and complex than ever before. Emerging to address those issues have been a variety of digital brokerage platforms with tools such as automated visibility, predictive freight matching, automated booking, and near-real time visibility tracking of loads within feet. 

In 2023, transportation and supply chain issues will continue to be in the spotlight, which means that transportation and logistics professionals will be challenged as they protect their companies from potential transportation and supply chain disruptions. 

The cloud-based server, with its globally accessible user interface and single server, is beginning to revolutionize the industry. The single server brings company-owned offices and agents, as well their clients (exporter and importer), together in a single environment.

As we emerge from the devastating pandemic peak to geopolitical tensions, a fast-changing climate, and the sky-high cost of living, the need for operational efficiency has never been greater. And digitization is integral to this. 

3PLs need to be prepared to bring quick, flexible solutions to these companies, which now face new challenges in their supply chains. We have to be nimble as manufacturers need our support.

Innovation is a constant across the technology spectrum, and logistics is no different. We continue to see improvements in the use of OCR capability in reading, processing documents, and creating more sophisticated workflow solutions.

In preparation for 2023, we know that supply chain professionals are contemplating new procurement strategies as they evaluate the tradeoffs between cutting costs and managing their supply chain risks.

The biggest opportunity for improvement in the import supply chain is the first mile, defined as order placed to product received and includes purchasing and logistics.  

Digital transformation is changing the way we live and work. For the supply chain ecosystem, this change brings increased connectivity and technology that enable innovative operations and, ultimately, saves time and money.

Our employees are the force behind our resilience and flexibility in this volatile industry. Given that business must evolve at a rapid pace — and the pressure to remain competitive is at an all-time high — having the best people is the key to success.

Despite softening economic conditions, the US industrial warehouse market continues to perform well, posting record high rents, a robust development pipeline, and a continued strong demand.

Organizations should be embracing automation, and many already have. However, there are many supply chain leaders who still look to antiquated, industrial processes when evaluating their own productivity, hindering their profit margin without even realizing it.  

With a keen eye fixated on emerging trends, it's clear that many organizations are starting to prioritize and pursue supply chain visibility through a number of different (yet often connected) avenues.