Surface

A court has cleared the sale of the last batch of properties from the bankrupt LTL provider, more than two dozen of which are located near container ports.

Today’s dilemma is whether the new external realities of activist investors can coexist with an industry with long lead times to deploy assets that cannot be moved, writes Ted Prince.

Pacific Northwest ports and their terminal operators say they are positioned to handle an extended period of discretionary cargo diversions if a strike by ILA dockworkers begins next week.

Drayage and trucking firms say they are busy pulling containers from East and Gulf coast ports, sending them across the US on rail networks while locating storage space ahead of the Oct. 1 strike date.

The railroads say they can store some export containers after the Oct 1 strike deadline, but exporters will also shoulder the responsibility for holding their cargo if a possible work stoppage drags on.

GenLogs, a technology provider aiming to help US brokers track trucks, uses a network of roadside sensors to passively collect truckload carrier locations.

Brokers looking to tap into the booming US-Mexico trade now have a tool to serve shipper requests to handle cross-border truckload moves.

Cutting terminals as freight volume drops, FedEx Freight is positioning itself for growth and a possible separation from its parcel carrier parent company in 2025.

Higher-than-expected retail sales in stores and online last month helped increase truckload shipments, but excess capacity is keeping rates in a holding pattern.

CSX and NS might see some more West Coast cargo routed through Chicago to Michigan and Ohio if there is an East Coast port strike, but trucking is likely to be the main beneficiary for cargo owners booking true coast-to-coast hauls.

An analysis of quarterly and monthly Labor Department data puts trucking employment at 2019 levels, and that could signal a quicker change in capacity if freight increases.

A soft freight economy and improved shipper scheduling and loading procedures are contributing to a decline in driver detention time, the American Transportation Research Institute says in a new study.

The railroad terminated Shaw’s employment after an internal investigation found he engaged in a relationship with the company’s chief legal officer in violation of NS policy.

Shipper-paid spot truckload rates out of Southern California rose 6 cents per mile in August from July, despite the national shipper-paid spot rate average falling 6 cents during the same period.

Alone among the modes, the railroads are not able to say “no” to the demands of interior point intermodal (IPI), most recently seen in the surge of imports through the US Pacific Northwest and the congestion that followed, writes intermodal analyst Larry Gross.

The latest year-over-year comparisons are clearing up LTL market distortions caused by Yellow’s failure and revealing weak demand, but tight capacity is pushing up rates.

Dwell times at marine terminals in the Northwest Seaport Alliance have doubled in recent weeks as intermodal container moves spiked amid peak season imports.

The ocean shipping line is the latest to plant a stake in a key manufacturing region along the US-Mexico border.

Post-Labor Day retail demand is tightening capacity in key distribution markets, but overall demand is depressed, partly because of a slowdown in manufacturing.

Investors have put $6.3 million into a startup aiming to provide a procurement and transportation management software alternative to enterprise-focused solutions.

The possible sale of DHL Freight’s US regional LTL arm to Jack Cooper would be the latest in a series of acquisitions aimed at building larger LTL networks.

Reduced overall capacity, higher pricing and more dense and efficient networks are defining characteristics of the post-Yellow LTL market.

The BlueGrace Logistics Confidence Index shows an uptick in negative sentiment about revenue and orders in late 2024, despite gains in freight volume this summer.

State environmental regulations could derail, or at the very least stall, a BNSF rail project promising to reduce pressure on Southern California ports.

It may take a week or more for the trucking disruption caused by last week’s brief Canadian rail stoppage to stabilize and for long-haul intra-Canada spot rates to drop.

Private fleets owned by shippers are increasingly hauling freight once moved by for-hire carriers, and those truck counts are expected to keep expanding, according to an industry survey.

Despite workers returning to their jobs, the brief work stoppage will impact freight flows in Canada and the US for a few weeks.

The wave of cargo thefts hitting the US and Canada grew rapidly in the first half of the year as criminals became more sophisticated, a study from risk management firm Overhaul shows.

The directive came about 17 hours after Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City locked out more than 9,000 workers early Thursday, snarling supply chains for US and Canadian businesses that rely on trains to transport their cargo.

The Port of Vancouver is still berthing ships for now, but ocean carriers are reviewing future calls due to the potential for congestion caused by the Canadian railroad work stoppage.

Demand for domestic containers in the region has exceeded all other North American markets and intermodal providers believe more volume will be coming their way in September.

There’s not enough truck capacity to haul the volume carried by CN and CPKC in Canada, and that’s causing a dislocation of truck supply across the country and on the US border.

Canada’s western ports have little capacity to handle idled intermodal cargo should railroad workers strike, but eastern ports have more space to manage any delays.

A key inland transportation market is growing as companies from Class I railroads to specialized logistics firms chase freight and expand in Arizona’s “Silicon Desert.”

As US trade with Mexico grows, railroads see a chance to challenge the dominance of the Mexican trucking industry — if the railroads’ intermodal partners can lock in new business and deliver reliable service.

Most of Freightos’ traction in air and ocean freight procurement has centered around spot pricing, but the purchase of Shipsta will give it access to contract data from enterprise shippers.

A shutdown of Canada’s two freight railroads would not only impact loads in that country, but also cross-border traffic to US destinations such as Chicago.

Disruption to inland supply lanes and the location of truck capacity would be possible if rail and port strike threats prove real, analysts told a Journal of Commerce webcast.

Canada’s labor minister said he won’t force binding arbitration between Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and their main union, setting the stage for a lockout next week.

Producer price indexes and the Cass Freight Index show slight increases in truck pricing and volumes in July, but not a rapid turnaround.