Our team takes the initiative—and the time—to listen to you and learn about you, your business, needs and challenges. Then we tailor and implement a specific portfolio of strategies and solutions designed to work for you and your business.
Industries We Serve
News
What’s happening in the world affects your business. We find out the latest news and updates and share it with you here and in our weekly industry update newsletter.
Shippers pull back from air cargo as ocean reliability improves
The “dark clouds” contributing to air cargo’s slide in demand since March include the ongoing war in Ukraine, inflationary pressures limiting consumer spending and staffing shortfalls for airlines and airports, according to van de Wouw. But shippers are also shifting more volume away from the fast-but-expensive transport mode as ocean freight congestion eases on some lanes. Global schedule reliability improved YoY in June, the first time this has occurred since the pandemic began, per Sea-Intelligence data. Ports in China appear to have returned to normal operations while U.S. West Coast congestion lessened in Q2, C.H. Robinson President and CEO Bob Biesterfeld said on a July 27 earnings call. With more shippers sticking with ocean transport, the 3PL’s airfreight business saw a 6% YoY drop in metric tons shipped in Q2.
08.16.2022
LA, Long Beach ports hail supply chain progress — but keep watch on rail cargo slowdowns
In January, a record 109 ships awaited entry into the combined ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, often stretching to south Orange County. It marked a peak in the supply chain congestion that has bedeviled the nation’s two busiest ports during much of the pandemic. On Thursday, Aug. 11, that number stood at nine ships. “Just amazing” Port of L.A. Executive Director Gene Seroka said about the decline. “We’ve reduced the number of anchored ships by 90-some percent,” Seroka said in a recent phone interview, “while still moving record amounts of cargo in the first six months of this year.” Among the most impactful tools the ports are now utilizing are sophisticated digital data trackers that give the seaports invaluable information on what ships are headed their way, how much cargo they’re bringing in and when they will arrive. “We’re a lot smarter than we were a year ago,” Seroka said, adding that collaboration has seen a big boost throughout the supply chain as solutions are explored. “I feel really good about where we are compared to last October,” Seroka said, adding that while he knew the digital tracking would make big improvements, he didn’t know how much or “how detailed it could get.” But the supply chain is far from fixed.
08.16.2022
‘Current State of Freight Rail Is Not Great’: STB Chair
Surface Transportation Board (STB) chair Marty Oberman didn’t sound optimistic Friday about the state of rail, but vowed the STB is doing what it can to right mounting railroad congestion issues. “We’re using every tool that we have available at the board to oversee this and to hold the railroads accountable,” Oberman said Friday during a rail-focused roundtable organized by the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO union that also included several port and rail labor leaders. The STB is the federal agency that regulates mostly freight rail, but ultimately has reach across all modes of surface transportation. “Despite the hard work of our nation’s dedicated rail and port workers, there is a looming cargo logjam just as retailers are gearing up for a busy holiday season,”
08.16.2022