Surface

Intermodal providers say they are struggling to bring 53-foot containers into UP’s terminals in Chicago and nearby Joliet, causing delays of several days to move cargo to the West Coast.

Knight-Swift, the largest US truckload provider, will substantially expand its reach and scalability for shippers with the purchase of U.S. Xpress, the country’s ninth-largest truckload carrier.

With ‘every dollar under scrutiny,’ FedEx Freight is squeezing its trucking division, gaining financial improvements that better position the carrier for the next economic rebound. 

The combined railroad has an opportunity to divert more than 64,000 truck shipments to intermodal rail, according to S&P Global, but that’s only the crest of a wave of US imports from Mexico. 

Shippers that often use spreadsheets and small transportation teams to bid and execute freight shipments are the target of a new software tool from technology provider Shipwell.

Trucking is a tale of two sectors in early 2023, with truckload carriers making more significant contract rate concessions than less-than-truckload companies, according to the US producer price index.

In approving the $31 billion merger, the Surface Transportation Board rejected arguments from the FMC and competing railroads that the deal would harm US ports and shippers.

Most of the transportation job losses reported for February were due to seasonal cuts rather than economic contraction, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Chassis providers believe the equipment shortages that bogged down inland supply chains in 2021 and 2022 will soon no longer be an issue for shippers, allowing the industry to return to a more typical supply/demand balance.

It stands to reason that the more miles one spends on low-cost rail, the better the comparative economics versus truck should be, but that’s not what happens in the real world, writes analyst Larry Gross.

The Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association says the FMC’s chief administrative judge erred in issuing a summary judgement against the group because key facts are still in dispute.

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

Norfolk Southern and the Port of Virginia are not only targeting importers using trans-Atlantic services from Europe and Asia, but also exporters moving goods through Memphis, such as the cotton industry.

Shippers are showing “healthy adoption” of a wide variety of digital transformation projects, according to new research from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Trucking and intermodal providers are offering discounts to secure freight in Southern California, where volumes are declining as imports from Asia fall.

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

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association says Julie Su’s support of AB5 while California’s labor secretary showed a lack of understanding of the owner-operator trucking model.

Supply chain risk-focused technology provider Overhaul has channeled demand for reducing exposure to cargo theft into a $38 million funding round just a few weeks after acquiring competitor SensiGuard.

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

Several US shippers tell the Journal of Commerce they are getting rate concessions from their less-than-truckload carriers, but the price cuts are far from universal and may depend on how shippers bid.