Today more than ever, organizations face immense pressure to operate more effectively and efficiently, while catering to the demands of their customers. However, impressing the customers with a five-star delivery service can be cumbersome with the use of manual shipping methods.

• Ensure effective change management: Learn how IFP stay on top of the latest market dynamics and adjust the flow of imports and exports in a way that maximizes the company's position and how technology helps them be a more nimble organization and ultimately allow them save money and win more business
• Track carrier performance for on-time delivery: Shared document management, workflow, and task assignments that don't rely on 100's of emails is the way to solve shipment delays along with collaboration with the carriers on the platform is the most efficient way for us all to be on the same page. Hear how IFP uses metrics and scorecards to help them track how we are doing.
• Use real-time reporting: Hear how IFP track complete orders and see if they were delivered on-time and at the agreed rate. Tracking which carriers perform on which routes, and at what price, enables customer satisfaction and strong margins for IFP.

Conventional transportation management software (TMS) has been on the market for decades, focused primarily on outbound truck shipments. The rise of the globalized supply chain has created a more complex transportation environment. Companies must still focus on cost containment, but over many modes, across-borders, and through a mix of service providers that include carriers, 3PLs, and freight forwarders.

Join this webcast to discover what differentiates a global TMS from a conventional technology solution, as well as the four key indicators that it’s time to graduate from an old-fashioned TMS to a globally capable solution.

The European container shipping market late this year and early 2020 faces challenges that will affect carrier profitability and have potentially serious consequences for shippers. After increasing 4.5 percent in 2017, container volumes grew just 1.4 percent in 2018, and although IHS Markit expects European imports from Asia to increase by 4.2 percent this year, economic headwinds could make it difficult to get there. Economic growth is slowing in the EU’s largest economies, and concern is growing about a possible recession in Germany, the post-Brexit UK, and France. Considering the Asian inbound trade accounts for half of all European imports, slowing growth in volumes from Asia isn’t good news for container shipping. While demand slows, container shipping capacity is heading the other way. After factoring in the mega-ship deliveries coming this year, Sea-Intelligence Consulting estimates that capacity on the Asia-Europe trades will increase by a net 10 percent. The level of demand will be crucial in filling these vessels and allowing carriers to lift and sustain freight rates at profitable levels, something they have struggled to do. Instead, carriers have tried to manage their capacity as best they can, and with an ongoing supply-demand imbalance, frustrated shippers will need to get accustomed to more blanked sailings, slower steaming, adjusted port calls, and more idled vessels. This will further challenge shippers already dealing with on-time performance that has ranged from 35 to 70 percent in the major east-west trades. 

This webcast, led by JOC Senior Europe Editor Greg Knowler and held in the wake of the 2019 Container Trade Europe Conference, will analyze the outlook for the European container shipping market as 2019 winds down.

Moderator:

Greg Knowler, Senior Editor, Europe, JOC, Maritime & Trade, IHS Markit

Speaker(s): 

Rahul Kapoor, Vice President and Head of Research & Analytics, Maritime & Trade, IHS Markit

Andrew Gillespie, Director, Global Logistics, Ansell

The amount of time container ships spent at port rose in the first half of 2019, despite relative gains in terminal efficiency, according to an analysis of The Journal of Commerce’s port productivity data. Provided by seven of the 10 largest global container ship operators, the data comprises some 200,000 port calls per year, through which more than 350 million TEU of container terminal moves are made across an array of 455 ports. At the world’s 63 busiest ports — accounting for 62 percent of all calls and 73 percent of all container terminal moves within the data set — vessels with a capacity of 5,000 TEU or more spent an average of 26 hours at port per call during the first six months of the year. Average ship size (measured as nominal TEU of capacity per call) at these 63 ports increased 3.4 percent compared with the same period of 2018, with a corresponding year-over-year increase in call size (moves per port call) of 7.2 percent.

This webcast will analyze the latest trends in berth productivity, and answer the following questions:               

• With debate raging about whether the US economy faces a recession, what should trucking interests expect in terms of industrial, consumer, and freight demand?
• With ships growing in size, utilization rising as a result of carrier consolidation and alliances, and BCOs seeking better visibility and service, what does the future hold for this critical link in the global supply chain? 
• What ports, terminals, and regions have above-average performance levels, and why? 
• Where are the major pain points, and what is being done to alleviate them? 
• With pressure mounting on carriers to slash and eventually eliminate carbon emissions, what will programs such as Port Call Optimization mean for the industry and port productivity? 

Moderator: 
Turloch Mooney, Senior Editor, Global Ports, JOC

Speakers:
Andy Lane, Partner, CTI Consultancy

US truck shippers are enjoying the feast stage of a feast-and-famine cycle, as last year’s tightest trucking market on record gives way to an all-time capacity glut this year. As the fall shipping season approaches, spot dry van truckload rates are down by double-digit percentages from this time last year, and contract rates are nearly flat year over year. Where rates are rising — in the less-than-truckload market, for example — they’re climbing much more slowly than last year. Shippers say LTL carriers that initially seek high single-digit percentage rate hikes in annual contracts often settle for much lower increases. There’s debate over how long this shipper’s market will last, however, with some optimistic trucking executives expecting a rebound in the second half of 2019. Others don’t expect much change until 2020. This webcast will discuss what trucking shippers, motor carriers, and others can expect in the truckload, LTL, and other sectors as 2019 enters the home stretch. Along the way, it will address the following questions: