Topic: Blogs

While we all know 2020 is truly a year unlike any other, there are many themes that are indicating that will also be the case for this year’s Peak Season. That was made clear on the “Code Red” webcast hosted last week by NASSTRAC, CSCMP, and TranzAct Technologies.

Even though parcel networks are already operating in Peak Season-like conditions—and really have been going back to last spring—when a vaccine arrives, it will take precedence, for parcel carriers, over delivering your holiday orders to your doorstep. As it should, no question about it.

This goes back to just how different 2020 is shaping up to be, from a shopping, shipping and e-commerce logistics perspective, make no mistake. As has been widely reported, shopping in malls and retail locations is really not an option for many people, for multiple reasons. And, taking that a step further, there has been more than a few examples of what may in store over the coming weeks, as it relates to what is different and what that could mean.

While the National Football League’s season is ostensibly on the brink of shuttering, due to the issues related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the game of political football inside the nation’s capital remains alive and well. That was made more than clear in late September, at the end of the fiscal year, when the White House signed a one-year continuing resolution for the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, the five-year federal surface transportation authorization, which was...

A recent blog by Vivek Vaid, Chief Technology officer, for Chicago-based FourKites, observed that consumer packaged goods (CPG), food and beverage (F&B), and retail payments are leading the way for shipments and “continue to drive overall growth in shipment volumes across the U.S., with a huge surge in less-than-truckload and parcel shipments.”

A new Mercator study notes that U.S. West Coast ports have been experiencing a loss of market share of discretionary cargo to Vancouver and Prince Rupert for well over a decade.

A research report pointing to ways in which the strategy can impact industrial site selection on various fronts. The CBRE research report, entitled “Changing Patterns of Trade Benefit U.S. Industrial Real Estate,” explained that while imports from Asia have historically entered the U.S. through West Coast ports, in recent years there has been an increase in companies adopting a regional distribution model with warehouses near growing population centers for quicker deliveries, as well as lower domestic transportation costs.

The “Freight Transportation Forecast: 2020 to 2031,” was released this week by the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and conducted by IHS Markit. This publication is described by the ATA as an annual projection of the state of the freight economy.

Container throughput is robust at leading U.S. West Coast ports this season...but so is dwell time in SoCal

Even though this development is unlikely to have a material impact on the current state of global trade, specifically as it relates to tariffs and the ongoing U.S.-China trade war, it was very interesting to hear thoughts about it from two of the foremost U.S.-based trade experts on a call hosted last week by the Port of Los Angeles (POLA), POLA Executive Director Gene Seroka and National Retail Federation Vice President of Supply Chain and Customs...

With consumers itching to get their holiday shopping going, driven by pent-up demand and more time than usual spent at home, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it does not come as a major surprise that the parcel duopoly of UPS and FedEx have recently announced their respective plans to bring on additional seasonal staffers to handle the increased holiday crunch, otherwise commonly referred to as Peak Season.

Gene Seroka, Executive Director of the Port of Los Angeles observes that reaching out and assisting the United Farm Workers is directly aligned with his mission to help keep workers stay safe and assist in the re-emergence of our state and nation’s economy.

The reasons for why 2020 is different than any other year are wide and varied, considering the COVID-19 pandemic, the related economic fallout from it brought, as well as the uneasy rise in civil unrest in various parts of the United States, too. And, let’s not forget that it is an election year, too.

It is well known that the large, publicly traded companies in the logistics sector are well capitalized. That pretty much goes without saying. But data issued from Buy Shares, a United Kingdom-based financial advisory takes that thesis to a different level, in showing how the market capitalization of ten selected publicly-traded logistics services providers, which have seen increased activity amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have seen significant gains going back to the beginning of 2020.

Memphis-based transportation and logistics titan FedEx, not surprisingly, issued its “2020 Seasonal Peak Surcharges and Fees.

When longtime shipping industry executive Bryan Brandes was named Maritime Director at the Port of Oakland last June, he quickly took the helm by leading a staff of 20 responsible for one of the nation’s 10 largest container gateways.

Heading into the second quarter earning season there was some sentiment that the results posted by publicly traded freight transportation and logistics services providers would be one of a kind, or unique, in that they represented a quarter unlike any other, due, of course, to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The main thesis of this report explained that 13.8 million square feet of United States retail space has now been converted to 15.5 million square feet of industrial space. But that is not solely a COVID-19 happening, as that data goes back to 2017, according to CBRE.

While 2019 was not the watershed year for trucking that 2018 was, it does not mean that 2019 was not a strong year for the sector. That thesis was firmly supported in data issued this week by the American Trucking Associations (ATA) in its “ATA American Trucking Trends 2020.”