Topic: Blogs

With 2020 done and in the books, so to speak, there was, in some respects a collective sigh of relief, given the myriad challenges the year presented for so many people, businesses, schools, communities, and more. A generational pandemic like COVID-19, has the potential to do just that—and it did.

When President Biden last week announced that the United States is focusing on reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 50%-to-52% below 2005 levels by 2030, it garnered a lot of attention, as it should.

With another day comes another development in the pursuit of Kansas City Southern (KCS) by both Canadian National Railway Company (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP), respectively.

CAGTC Executive Director Elaine Nessle explained that, for years, there has been an ongoing conversation about insufficient levels of infrastructure funding across the entire transportation spectrum, specifically as it relates to freight-related infrastructure.

The often-used saying “what a difference a year makes” really takes on a new meaning these days, especially when taking into account just how, umm, unusual, the last year has been. Unusual is just one word, to describe the events of the last year. Other candidates could include: nervous, fearful, uncertain, angry, confused, and many others. But with more and more people getting their COVID-19 vaccine shots these days, the lexicon is slowly changing to words like: encouraging, optimistic, hopeful,...

A main theme of the paper, entitled “Freight Railroads & Climate Change,” focused on how United States railroads need to be a part of the climate change solution, at a time when Congress works to balance economic recovery from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “The [AAR] and the rail industry recognize that the climate is changing,” the paper said. “If action is not taken, climate change will have significant repercussions for the planet, our economies, our society, and even day-to-day railroad operations.”

At a time when the global supply chain is ostensibly dealing with more simultaneous issues than perhaps ever before, including the COVID-19 pandemic, winter weather events, clogged United States Ports, and the need for more labor across myriad parts of the supply chain, it almost feels like this week’s news that the 20,000 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent) vessel Ever Given running aground and trapped in the Suez Canal is just the latest thing to deal with.

While the myriad changes that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had on all walks of everyday life, one cannot help but be optimistic about the ramped-up pace of vaccine distribution efforts (for the most part), as the walk to return to a more normal way of life turns into a sprint over the next few months.

Looking at 2021, NRF said it is pegging retail sales to be up between 6.5% and 8.2%, which would represent a tally topping more than $4.33 trillion, with NRF saying that these figures come with the prospects of economic improvement spurred on by people receiving COVID-19 vaccinations, coupled with the continuing re-opening of the economy. Should this annual percentage projection come in, it would mark the best annual retail sales growth mark since 2004, said NRF.

While it is still very much in the early innings of the Biden Administration, it is fair to say that there are certain aspects of its agenda that are going to be front and center in a shorter time period than others. One of those aspects, no doubt, is infrastructure and for good reason. Perhaps the main one being that while it is always viewed in the context its long overdue, and badly needed, upgrades being viewed as “mandatory” and �...

Total first quarter net income—at $318 million—was well ahead of a $748 million net income loss, for the same period a year ago. And total operating revenue—at $21.495 billion—topped the $19.351 billion from a year ago.

The letter did not mince words in laying out the case for the “urgent issue” of vaccinating the U.S. maritime workforce.

On its earnings call, UPS CEO Carol Tomé dug deeper into the move, explaining that UPS Freight is a capital-intensive low returning business, one that was no longer needed on a few different fronts.

Saying just “data” does not really come close to presenting how replete this report’s findings are, with Convoy explaining it includes data from millions of pickups and deliveries, with more than 1,000 unique data points collected on each shipment and more than 50 terabytes of freight data.

While the truckload spot market finished 2020 from a position of strength, in that it hit various highs, DAT Freight and Analytics recently pointed out that spot rates have subsequently fallen 10% since the end of the year and are pegged to head down another 8%-to-10% in the coming weeks.

Higher rates, tight capacity, and a lack of empty container availability are major factors the current state of the global ocean container market.

As e-commerce demand surges and consumers continue to shop online at a record-setting pace, companies can scale packaging operations to enhance brand experiences and manage costs.

It stands to reason that when assessing the current state of many supply chain-, freight- and logistics-related trends and themes, that, in many cases, there is more uncertainty than certainty. That is somewhat of a blanket statement to be sure, but it does not lessen its credence either.

With most everyone back in the (home or actual) office after what can truly be viewed as a year for the ages, for more reasons than were even remotely conceivable a year ago at this time, it is time to buckle up for what should be an incredibly interesting 2021 in the logistics, freight transportation, and supply chain sectors.

As global logistics managers know, the world is seeing the greatest displacement of peoples for over half a century. Indeed, millions are fleeing from war, persecution and poverty, while the proliferation of crises and needs is becoming extraordinary as are the dramatic humanitarian consequences.