Supply Chain

While congestion at US ports and inland hubs has eased significantly amid declining import volumes, stakeholders need to act now to ready themselves for the next cargo surge, supply chain experts say.

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 requires the US Department of Transportation to make recommendations for how Congress can invest in and increase the resilience of the US marine transportation system.

As inflation-battered consumers shop for bargains, US retail discounters are expanding their distribution networks.

Shipping’s transition to zero-carbon energy sources will be costly, but shippers are showing a growing willingness to pay to decarbonize their ocean transport supply chains.

The anti-retaliation provision was included in US shipping reform because some shippers have been hesitant to lodge complaints against carriers for fear of being blacklisted.

The test was meant to demonstrate that different electronic bills of lading products can be used by various parties involved in the movement of a container, alleviating a nagging concern in the nascent evolution of eBLs.

The US Federal Maritime Commission is poring over feedback about detention and demurrage billing practices from more than 100 industry stakeholders as the agency seeks to implement a key provision of OSRA-22.

MEPC79 delegates will also be considering a basket of measures that can integrate both technical and carbon pricing elements as the maritime industry transitions to more renewable fuels.

The head of the Global Shipping Business Network, long seen as a rival to the now-defunct TradeLens, said the demise of the Maersk-led technology platform could eventually boost use of blockchain-backed tools in shipping.

Two of the five Federal Maritime Commissioners want to put agreements, particularly those among ocean carriers, on a tighter leash, by allowing the agency to issue the same injunctions as can courts.

J.B. Hunt, Uber Freight, and Convoy are partnering to develop and drive broad industry adoption of a standard process for truckload appointment scheduling.

The unprecedented infusion of cash into supply chain technology development over the past two years was akin to putting the sector on a diet of steroids, writes JOC analyst Lars Jensen.

The Port of Houston, citing technology problems, is postponing the start date of a new fee that would penalize shippers who don’t retrieve import containers after the allowable free time.

OneRail has channeled the need for shippers to access final-mile capacity and service level consistency into a large venture capital funding round.

TradeLens’ failure to gain traction after four years was due to several factors, not least of which was trying to convince ocean carriers and their customers to provide sensitive data to a technology platform partly owned by Maersk.

Retailers that have seen final-mile costs more than double during the pandemic are increasingly making investments in their last-leg delivery networks.

Richard Lidinsky, a former chairman for the US Federal Maritime Commission, leaves a legacy of agency reform whose work echoes through the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022.

To the extent freight market participants have greater exposure to key industrial markets than consumer markets, current data is not pointing towards sharp downturns in freight demand, at least not yet, writes JOC analyst Jason Miller.

Data from visibility provider Portcast shows US exporters struggle to manage changes to early return dates as well as variances in ERD data formats from different terminals.

PayCargo has extended its reach into the forwarding industry via an integration with software vendor Raft that minimizes PayCargo’s need to directly connect with CargoWise.