Topic: Blogs

A report in the Wall Street Journal suggests that the uptick in e-commerce may be taking its toll to a degree, with the companies “straining to keep up with holiday shipping volumes that have blown past expectations, delaying the delivery of some of the millions of online orders shoppers have placed since Thanksgiving.”

The topic of driver turnover is always prevalent in trucking, and all of freight transportation and logistics to a larger extent, and it is typically viewed with a bit of apprehension, as the supporting data is almost always dire in highlighting the severity of the driver shortage. That is not to say that the driver shortage does not remain a significant issue, it does to be sure. But based on data issued by the American Trucking Associations (ATA), things don�...

This report comes a year after Congress made dedicated freight funding a priority, with almost $11 billion in funding for freight mobility in dedicated freight funds as part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. What’s more, the report notes that under the FAST Act states will have a key role in how the U.S. plans for freight movement and what projects will be completed.

The outlook is stable for U.S. transportation infrastructure headed into next year though the sector is not without its uncertainties, part of which stem from the new Presidential administration’s plans for infrastructure according to Fitch Ratings in its 2017 outlook report.

What the most recent edition of the North American Freight Index clearly spells out is that the truckload spot market is heading on a growth path, showing sequential gains from July through November for the first time in five years, DAT observes that this is interesting on multiple levels, including how the Index typically peaks in June and then subsequently sees declines through the remainder of the calendar year, coupled with ramifications for 2017 shipper-carrier contract rates.

The nation’s two biggest ports – LA and Long Beach – are being used as beta models for PMSA’s effort to analyze container dwell time at all 12 international container terminals in San Pedro Bay.

As noted in reports generated at the recent annual meeting of the American Association of Port Authorities, there’s been a new effort by many members to establish more “granular” details on container throughput.

The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) recently sent a multi-faceted document to President-Elect Donald Trump’s transition team, outlining strategic investments in seaports and related freight transportation assets...thereby helping U.S. businesses better compete in markets at home and abroad.

Technology risk has been shifting from shippers to 3PL providers in 2016, and the trend may gather speed in the coming years, says Evan Armstrong, president of Armstrong & Associates.

After turning a fiscal third quarter operating profit, or what would have been a profit save for a change in an accounting estimate, financial hardship remains intact for the United States Postal Service (USPS). And that comes in the form of the USPS stating earlier today it posted a Fiscal Year 2016 net loss of roughly $5.6 billion, which is steeper than a $5.1 billion net loss for Fiscal Year 2015.

One of the things President-Elect Donald Trump made clear in his acceptance speech was that a national commitment to infrastructure cannot be ignored or overlooked.

Many times before in this space, especially in 2016, I have talked about the economy, specifically as it relates to the freight transportation and logistics sectors. And more often than not, the conclusions found center around the theme that more needs to happen, and even though the economy is “recovering,” it is not happening at enough of a quick clip.

Uber’s recent acquisition of self-driving truck startup company Otto last August turned a lot of heads in the trucking and logistics sectors, and this week it officially began to do the same over the road, hauling more than 50,000 cans, 51,744 to be exact, of Budweiser in Colorado from Fort Collins, through downtown Denver, to Colorado Springs, for a 120-mile haul, which Otto said represents the completion of the world’s first shipment by a self-driving truck.

Many things pertaining to both the freight economy and general economy remain consistently inconsistent for lack of a better description. That was spelled out in two very reliable monthly freight-based data sources earlier this week, the American Trucking Associations monthly truck tonnage index and the Cass Freight Index Report.

Management consultants at McKinsey & Company, maintain that the parcel market in the U.S. is set to double by 2025, with Same-day delivery and instant delivery to accounting for one-fifth of the demand.

Just a little more than one year ago, the ports of Seattle and Tacoma joined together to launch The Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) – an unprecedented demonstration of regional solidarity.

While the current state of affairs for trucking may be viewed as, say, stagnant, mundane, uneven, or some other less than flattering term, it appears that the mode’s future is actually quite bright, especially when compared to others.

Somewhat lost in the shuffle in this Presidential election season perhaps like no other we have witnessed in our lifetimes, for a whole host of reasons, has been the onus, or lack thereof, of where each candidate stands on their respective plans to fix and repair the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, specifically transportation infrastructure.

An ongoing question among supply chain stakeholders, when it comes to global e-commerce bellwether Amazon, continues to be just how far it will spread its wings in terms of expanding its logistics and supply chain operations and processes.