<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">After five years and numerous appeals, the American Trucking Associations’ lawsuit challenging certain provisions of the Port of Los Angeles clean-truck plan has been put to rest, with harbor trucking interests scoring a powerful victory.</div>

After five years and numerous appeals, the American Trucking Associations’ lawsuit challenging certain provisions of the Port of Los Angeles clean-truck plan has been put to rest, with harbor trucking interests scoring a powerful victory.

<div>After five years and numerous appeals, the American Trucking Associations’ lawsuit challenging certain provisions of the Port of Los Angeles clean trucks plan has been put to rest, with harbor trucking interests scoring a powerful victory.However, the nation’s largest port also achieved its primary objective, because truck pollution in the harbor has been slashed by 91 percent, with 11,500 clean new trucks introduced into the harbor-trucking fleet since 2008.The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles at the weekend permanently enjoined the port from enforcing certain provisions in its clean trucks plan, including the provision the ATA considered to be the...

After five years and numerous appeals, the American Trucking Associations’ lawsuit challenging certain provisions of the Port of Los Angeles clean trucks plan has been put to rest, with harbor trucking interests scoring a powerful victory. However, the nation’s largest port also achieved its primary objective, because truck pollution in the harbor has been slashed by 91 percent, with 11,500 clean new trucks introduced into the harbor-trucking fleet since 2008. The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles at the weekend permanently enjoined the port from enforcing certain provisions in its clean trucks plan, including the provision the ATA considered to be the most onerous, the employee-driver mandate. Los Angeles, at the urging of the Teamsters union and other pro-labor interests, had attempted to require that drayage companies hire owner-operators as direct employees. If that provision had been upheld, unions would have been free to attempt to organize the drivers. Unions, by law, cannot organize independent contractors. The U.S. District Court on Aug. 23, on remand from U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and consistent with a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in June, permanently barred the Port of Los Angeles from enforcing three provisions in its 2008 clean-truck plan. Those provisions were the employee-driver mandate, an off-street parking provision proposed by the port to lessen the impact of trucks in surrounding neighborhoods and a placard requirement for trucks. The ATA fought all of those provisions, arguing that federal law prohibits state and local entities from regulating motor carriers engaged in interstate commerce. Los Angeles had argued that those provisions were necessary for the port to successfully enforce its clean-air program. The Supreme Court did not rule on two other provisions in the clean trucks plan that would have allowed the port to scrutinize trucking companies’ maintenance and repair programs and financial reports. Curtis Whalen, executive director of ATA’s intermodal conference, said that since the port is not enforcing those two provisions, the Supreme Court in effect said it had nothing to rule on, but if the port would attempt to enforce the M&R and financial provisions, ATA could step in again and attempt to stop the port. After five years, the Port of Los Angeles may be distancing itself from the more contentious provisions of the clean trucks plan designed to make it easier for unions to organize harbor truck drivers. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa championed that effort, but earlier this year he termed out and his replacement, Eric Garcetti, has shown no interest in revisiting the issue. Also, there is no doubt that the clean trucks programs in both Los Angeles and Long Beach have achieved their primary goal of reducing pollution to an unprecedented degree. Other ports are implementing similar, though less aggressive clean-air programs. In a statement, Los Angeles said the court decisions “will not interfere with the clean trucks program’s air improvements for port communities.” Whalen said the efforts by organized labor to unionize harbor truck drivers at ports across the nation are still alive and well, but they are taking place in a different forum. The strategy today appears to be centered around the issue of driver classification. Organized actions are taking place on a state-by-state basis where unions are working with departments of labor to attempt to prove that trucking companies exert enough control over owner-operators that the drivers are being misclassified as independent contractors. Whalen calls such cases “onsies-twosies” because they are quite fact-intensive. Regardless of the decision, the ruling is usually narrow and applies only to the trucking company in question and does not set a precedent for the industry, he said.

Drayage

North American ports

Federal Court Bars LA Employee-Driver Mandate

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">But Yang Ming said significant uncertainties continue to affect the global trade outlook, saying “key risk factors” include US tariff developments that could lead to inflationary pressures due to rising operational costs.</div>

But Yang Ming said significant uncertainties continue to affect the global trade outlook, saying “key risk factors” include US tariff developments that could lead to inflationary pressures due to rising operational costs.

Feature image

<div class="phx-topic">Evergreen Marine, the largest of Taiwan’s Big Three carriers, said in a filing Thursday to the country’s stock exchange that its net profit last year jumped to $4.2 billion, an almost four-fold increase over 2023. Revenue rose about 60% to $14 billion amid higher freight rates and strong demand.Evergreen’s filing said it would spend $187 million this year to buy 66,500 containers from Dong Fang International Container (Hong Kong) and Singamas Container. The carrier, meanwhile, has also increased its stake in Egypt’s Abu Qir Container Terminal Company after paying $13 million to acquire an additional 5% interest from Hutchison Ports North Africa and Shibaya Marine, it said in a separate filing Thursday. Evergreen’s results came a day after fellow Taiwanese carrier Yang Ming reported a big jump in 2024 net profits to $2 billion from $153 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 56% to $7 billion. The carrier, in a results announcement, said its plans for the year include “strengthening its core business, enhancing existing alliances and exploring new collaborative opportunities … [while] accelerating its regional route strategy and penetrating emerging markets to refine its global service network.” Yang Ming said it will also accelerate the deployment of up to 13 new ships following an internal review of environmental regulations and the development of alternative energy technologies. The carrier announced plans to order the ships, comprised of six 8,000-TEU dual-fuel vessels and seven 15,000-TEU LNG dual-fuel ships, last December; it now says the ships will enter service sooner than planned. “This deployment is expected to strengthen Yang Ming’s core business, mitigating energy risks across the fleet, and maintain flexibility in future vessel types and fuel options,” the carrier said. Still, Yang Ming said significant uncertainties continue to affect the global trade outlook. “Key risk factors include US tariff developments, which may lead to potential inflationary pressures due to rising operational costs and impact economic growth and trade activities,” it said. Taiwan’s Wan Hai Lines, meanwhile, reported on Tuesday net profit of $1.4 billion for 2024, up from a $184 million net loss the year prior. The recovery is mainly due to the carrier deriving an increased share of revenue from longer-haul North and South America trades and Middle East and India services. Revenue increased 53% to $4.9 billion last year, Wan Hai said. Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com</a>.</div>

Evergreen Marine, the largest of Taiwan’s Big Three carriers, said in a filing Thursday to the country’s stock exchange that its net profit last year jumped to $4.2 billion, an almost four-fold increase over 2023. Revenue rose about 60% to $14 billion amid higher freight rates and strong demand. Evergreen’s filing said it would spend $187 million this year to buy 66,500 containers from Dong Fang International Container (Hong Kong) and Singamas Container. The carrier, meanwhile, has also increased its stake in Egypt’s Abu Qir Container Terminal Company after paying $13 million to acquire an additional 5% interest from Hutchison Ports North Africa and Shibaya Marine, it said in a separate filing Thursday. Evergreen’s results came a day after fellow Taiwanese carrier Yang Ming reported a big jump in 2024 net profits to $2 billion from $153 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 56% to $7 billion. The carrier, in a results announcement, said its plans for the year include “strengthening its core business, enhancing existing alliances and exploring new collaborative opportunities … [while] accelerating its regional route strategy and penetrating emerging markets to refine its global service network.” Yang Ming said it will also accelerate the deployment of up to 13 new ships following an internal review of environmental regulations and the development of alternative energy technologies. The carrier announced plans to order the ships, comprised of six 8,000-TEU dual-fuel vessels and seven 15,000-TEU LNG dual-fuel ships, last December; it now says the ships will enter service sooner than planned. “This deployment is expected to strengthen Yang Ming’s core business, mitigating energy risks across the fleet, and maintain flexibility in future vessel types and fuel options,” the carrier said. Still, Yang Ming said significant uncertainties continue to affect the global trade outlook. “Key risk factors include US tariff developments, which may lead to potential inflationary pressures due to rising operational costs and impact economic growth and trade activities,” it said. Taiwan’s Wan Hai Lines, meanwhile, reported on Tuesday net profit of $1.4 billion for 2024, up from a $184 million net loss the year prior. The recovery is mainly due to the carrier deriving an increased share of revenue from longer-haul North and South America trades and Middle East and India services. Revenue increased 53% to $4.9 billion last year, Wan Hai said. Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

Container Shipping News

Container lines

Maritime

Taiwan’s Big Three carriers report robust profit, revenue gains for 2024

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Executives from CSX and Norfolk Southern say that while the market is no longer as strongly pro-shipper as it was a year ago, conditions have yet to shift in favor of rail carriers.</div>

Executives from CSX and Norfolk Southern say that while the market is no longer as strongly pro-shipper as it was a year ago, conditions have yet to shift in favor of rail carriers.

<div class="phx-topic">Two Class I railroads acknowledged this week they have been unable to raise rates on shippers as much as they had hoped, citing a persistently weak market in the competing truckload sector. Executives from CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), speaking at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference, said that while the market is no longer as strongly pro-shipper as it was a year ago, conditions have yet to shift in favor of rail carriers. “It’s less bad than it’s been in the last couple of years,” CSX CFO Sean Pelkey said. “We’re seeing pricing flat to up a little bit, which is encouraging. We have not seen that for a couple of years now … [but it’s] probably not what many had hoped going into the year.” Intermodal contract rates averaged $1.48 per mile in February, according to the Journal of Commerce Intermodal Savings Index, down from $1.54 per mile a year earlier. But when fuel surcharges were excluded, average contract rates remained flat year over year. Diesel prices in February were 36 cents per gallon lower than in the same month of 2024. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="ea6d4c62-90a1-4a5f-8fb1-9f00b53850b0"></dynamic-object></div>Industry analysts are growing <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/tariff-uncertainty-casts-shadow-on-us-trucking-demand-pricing-5962283">less optimistic</a> that the trucking market will strengthen in the second quarter, citing concerns that geopolitical tensions could lead to an economic downturn. Those concerns have also led to US retailers <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/tariff-uncertainty-prompts-us-retailers-to-downgrade-spring-import-forecast-5961648">downgrading</a> their forecasts for import volume this spring. CSX and Norfolk Southern face challenges in attracting business when trucking rates are depressed because they operate short-haul lanes where the cost difference between truck and rail is much narrower. “[When] you talk about truck pricing, we’re not really expecting a big rebound there anytime soon. That’s not in our base scenario,” NS CFO Jason Zampi said at the J.P. Morgan event. To win business, Zampi said Norfolk Southern must “provide consistent, reliable service that the customer can trust to be more truck-like.” <h3>New wave of annual bids coming </h3>It will soon become clear whether intermodal providers can secure rate increases across the US. After intermodal marketing companies were <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/intermodal-providers-navigate-tough-pricing-environment-at-start-of-year-5922679">disappointed</a> that first wave of contract bids fell short of expectations in January and February, a second group of shippers will negotiate and finalize annual agreements with carriers <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/jb-hunt-preparing-customers-for-boost-in-contract-rail-rates-in-2025-5925181">between April and June</a>. So far, intermodal carriers have proposed rate increases but have largely retreated following pushback during the bid process, according to several shippers who attended the Retail Industry Leaders Association conference in February and spoke with the Journal of Commerce at TPM25. Contact Ari Ashe at <a href="mailto:ari.ashe@spglobal.com">ari.ashe@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Two Class I railroads acknowledged this week they have been unable to raise rates on shippers as much as they had hoped, citing a persistently weak market in the competing truckload sector. Executives from CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), speaking at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference, said that while the market is no longer as strongly pro-shipper as it was a year ago, conditions have yet to shift in favor of rail carriers. “It’s less bad than it’s been in the last couple of years,” CSX CFO Sean Pelkey said. “We’re seeing pricing flat to up a little bit, which is encouraging. We have not seen that for a couple of years now … [but it’s] probably not what many had hoped going into the year.” Intermodal contract rates averaged $1.48 per mile in February, according to the Journal of Commerce Intermodal Savings Index, down from $1.54 per mile a year earlier. But when fuel surcharges were excluded, average contract rates remained flat year over year. Diesel prices in February were 36 cents per gallon lower than in the same month of 2024. Industry analysts are growing less optimistic that the trucking market will strengthen in the second quarter, citing concerns that geopolitical tensions could lead to an economic downturn. Those concerns have also led to US retailers downgrading their forecasts for import volume this spring. CSX and Norfolk Southern face challenges in attracting business when trucking rates are depressed because they operate short-haul lanes where the cost difference between truck and rail is much narrower. “[When] you talk about truck pricing, we’re not really expecting a big rebound there anytime soon. That’s not in our base scenario,” NS CFO Jason Zampi said at the J.P. Morgan event. To win business, Zampi said Norfolk Southern must “provide consistent, reliable service that the customer can trust to be more truck-like.” New wave of annual bids coming It will soon become clear whether intermodal providers can secure rate increases across the US. After intermodal marketing companies were disappointed that first wave of contract bids fell short of expectations in January and February, a second group of shippers will negotiate and finalize annual agreements with carriers between April and June . So far, intermodal carriers have proposed rate increases but have largely retreated following pushback during the bid process, according to several shippers who attended the Retail Industry Leaders Association conference in February and spoke with the Journal of Commerce at TPM25. Contact Ari Ashe at ari.ashe@spglobal.com .

North-American rail

Intermodal providers

Railroads acknowledge little movement on intermodal contract rates

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Some analysts see green shoots that could signal higher US freight demand, but those encouraging signs remain fragile in an uncertain economy.</div>

Some analysts see green shoots that could signal higher US freight demand, but those encouraging signs remain fragile in an uncertain economy.

<div class="phx-topic">After a nearly three-year downcycle, the US trucking industry is on a slow road to recovery in terms of rates. But that road is getting harder to see through economic headwinds. The potential impact of US tariffs on businesses and consumers and even renewed concerns about a possible recession are shaking recent freight market optimism. Truckload rates may be rising on a year-over-year basis, but not quickly. And freight demand remains weak for both truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="dedbcf3e-8b82-4428-b33b-3fce22dd27e0"></dynamic-object></div>Some analysts believe demand could rise and rate gains could accelerate as early as the second quarter, while others expect improvements will be delayed until the second half, or even 2026. “We were pretty optimistic going into 2025, but we’ve become less optimistic,” said Lee Klaskow, senior analyst for transportation and logistics at Bloomberg Intelligence. “The sky isn’t falling, but there is hail out there,” Klaskow said during the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference in Long Beach last week as the Trump administration began implementing tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. “What’s going on in Washington will have significant effects on consumers because it is going to be inflationary, assuming the tariffs are implemented,” he said. Since last week, the White House has implemented tariffs while postponing import taxes on some commodities and industries. The list of prospective tariffs is still expanding. The tariffs, even when postponed, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/tpm25-chaos-erupts-as-us-tariffs-disrupt-cross-border-trucking-with-mexico-canada-5957555">are creating supply chain disruption</a> as US importers try to pull goods, including manufacturing inputs, into the US ahead of tariff deadlines. Avery Vise, vice president of trucking at FTR Transportation Intelligence, calls those tariff-related disruptions “distortions” that must be considered when forecasting. “We do expect the market to improve over the next year, but we have to take out all the potential distortions until we can get more data,” Vise said Wednesday. Rapidly increasing spot truckload rates in lanes <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/cross-border-spot-truck-rates-rise-as-shippers-ride-tariff-rollercoaster-5959754">between the US and Canada</a> are among those distortions, as are delays in getting imports from Mexico into the US. FTR has forecast that truckload rates will rise 3% in 2025, after falling 2.5% last year, with spot rates rising 6% and contract rates 2%. “It’s not a bad market for carriers, but it’s not improving yet,” Vise said. “I would venture it’s not likely to accelerate unless we see some stronger data than we’re seeing.” Even Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), which must compete against truckload rates to capture intermodal business, has acknowledged the stubbornly tepid market for carriers. “The intermodal side is so truck competitive and we don’t have any kind of significant rebound built into our plan,” NS CFO Jason Zampi said Wednesday at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference. <h3>Searching for demand triggers </h3>The pace and extent of trucking’s recovery is important to shippers trying to plan their transportation budgets for 2025 and beyond in an uncertain market. Shippers tell the Journal of Commerce they approached 2025 expecting an inflection in demand and pricing — one they thought would take place in 2024. Now many shippers are pushing expectations for higher demand and transportation costs to 2026. Logistics provider RXO is confident the truckload market is heading upward, despite any disruptions caused by US tariffs. Spot rates in the fourth quarter were up 11.6% on average year over year, according to the most recent RXO Curve forecast. That double-digit jump followed a 5.8% increase in the third quarter. RXO expects mid-single-digit percentage growth in pricing in 2025, although spot rates could break higher, Corey Klujsza, vice president of pricing and procurement at RXO, said in an interview this week. Year over year, spot pricing was up about 12% in February, he said. Truckload spot rates dropped in seasonal fashion in February, but truckload capacity continues to tighten, with more small carriers leaving the market, he said. That should drive spot rates higher, eventually pulling up contract rates, according to RXO. “It’s still a challenging environment without a doubt, but I believe we’re pretty close to what I would call a supply-demand equilibrium,” Klujsza said. He sees signs that freight demand is set to grow, perhaps spurred by several separate demand triggers rather than just one. “The consumer remains relatively resilient, and we think we’re in the early innings of [inventory] restocking,” Klujsza said. “That can be part of a demand trigger as we go into the second quarter.” Others are more skeptical. “You need some sort of a shock [to spark demand],” Klaskow said at TPM25. Consumer confidence has been shaken. The Conference Board in February reported the largest monthly decline in its consumer confidence index since August 2021. “When I think of past capacity crunches, they’ve been man-made,” Jeff Tucker, president and CEO of logistics provider Tucker Company Worldwide, said at TPM25. He cited changes in truck driver hours-of-service rules in 2004 and the electronic logging device mandate in 2017 as examples of actions that helped tighten capacity. This year, “I don’t see anything from a regulatory or legislative standpoint that would change things in a dramatic fashion,” Tucker said. <h3>PMIs rising</h3>Beyond inventory restocking and consumer spending, Klujsza pointed to rising industrial production and new orders as potential demand triggers. The Purchasing Managers’ Indexes (PMIs) published by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) and S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence both were positive in February, the second straight month of expansion. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="69ef0622-ac2e-40dd-b820-01f070762262"></dynamic-object></div>The PMIs are important as industrial production represents about 58% of total US truck tonnage, according to the Commodity Flow Census from the US Census Bureau. Klaskow called the PMI a leading indicator of LTL demand. “That’s important to us, as 60% of our shipments are industrial freight,” Adam Satterfield, CFO of LTL provider Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), said in an interview Wednesday. ODFL’s tonnage and shipment count dropped year over year in the first two months of the first quarter, but both measures increased sequentially from January to February. “[The increases were] higher than our 10-year average increase for those months,” Satterfield said. US manufacturing expansion in February was supported by increases in both production and new orders, said S&amp;P Global, parent company of the Journal of Commerce. Some of the order activity may have been driven by advanced purchases ahead of likely price increases and supply disruption related to potential US tariffs, S&amp;P Global said. The S&amp;P Global PMI rose to 52.7% in February from 52.1% in January, while the ISM PMI fell slightly from 50.9% to 50.3%. Any PMI reading higher than 50 represents expansion. Manufacturing improvements, however welcome, may only be “skin deep,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence, said in a statement in early March. “Production and purchasing were often buoyed by companies and their customers building inventory to beat price hikes and supply issues caused by tariffs,” said Williamson, adding that higher factory input costs are being passed onto consumers. Contact William B. Cassidy at <a href="mailto:bill.cassidy@spglobal.com">bill.cassidy@spglobal.com</a>.Senior Editor Ari Ashe contributed to this report. </div>

After a nearly three-year downcycle, the US trucking industry is on a slow road to recovery in terms of rates. But that road is getting harder to see through economic headwinds. The potential impact of US tariffs on businesses and consumers and even renewed concerns about a possible recession are shaking recent freight market optimism. Truckload rates may be rising on a year-over-year basis, but not quickly. And freight demand remains weak for both truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers. Some analysts believe demand could rise and rate gains could accelerate as early as the second quarter, while others expect improvements will be delayed until the second half, or even 2026. “We were pretty optimistic going into 2025, but we’ve become less optimistic,” said Lee Klaskow, senior analyst for transportation and logistics at Bloomberg Intelligence. “The sky isn’t falling, but there is hail out there,” Klaskow said during the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference in Long Beach last week as the Trump administration began implementing tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. “What’s going on in Washington will have significant effects on consumers because it is going to be inflationary, assuming the tariffs are implemented,” he said. Since last week, the White House has implemented tariffs while postponing import taxes on some commodities and industries. The list of prospective tariffs is still expanding. The tariffs, even when postponed, are creating supply chain disruption as US importers try to pull goods, including manufacturing inputs, into the US ahead of tariff deadlines. Avery Vise, vice president of trucking at FTR Transportation Intelligence, calls those tariff-related disruptions “distortions” that must be considered when forecasting. “We do expect the market to improve over the next year, but we have to take out all the potential distortions until we can get more data,” Vise said Wednesday. Rapidly increasing spot truckload rates in lanes between the US and Canada are among those distortions, as are delays in getting imports from Mexico into the US. FTR has forecast that truckload rates will rise 3% in 2025, after falling 2.5% last year, with spot rates rising 6% and contract rates 2%. “It’s not a bad market for carriers, but it’s not improving yet,” Vise said. “I would venture it’s not likely to accelerate unless we see some stronger data than we’re seeing.” Even Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), which must compete against truckload rates to capture intermodal business, has acknowledged the stubbornly tepid market for carriers. “The intermodal side is so truck competitive and we don’t have any kind of significant rebound built into our plan,” NS CFO Jason Zampi said Wednesday at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference. Searching for demand triggers The pace and extent of trucking’s recovery is important to shippers trying to plan their transportation budgets for 2025 and beyond in an uncertain market. Shippers tell the Journal of Commerce they approached 2025 expecting an inflection in demand and pricing — one they thought would take place in 2024. Now many shippers are pushing expectations for higher demand and transportation costs to 2026. Logistics provider RXO is confident the truckload market is heading upward, despite any disruptions caused by US tariffs. Spot rates in the fourth quarter were up 11.6% on average year over year, according to the most recent RXO Curve forecast. That double-digit jump followed a 5.8% increase in the third quarter. RXO expects mid-single-digit percentage growth in pricing in 2025, although spot rates could break higher, Corey Klujsza, vice president of pricing and procurement at RXO, said in an interview this week. Year over year, spot pricing was up about 12% in February, he said. Truckload spot rates dropped in seasonal fashion in February, but truckload capacity continues to tighten, with more small carriers leaving the market, he said. That should drive spot rates higher, eventually pulling up contract rates, according to RXO. “It’s still a challenging environment without a doubt, but I believe we’re pretty close to what I would call a supply-demand equilibrium,” Klujsza said. He sees signs that freight demand is set to grow, perhaps spurred by several separate demand triggers rather than just one. “The consumer remains relatively resilient, and we think we’re in the early innings of [inventory] restocking,” Klujsza said. “That can be part of a demand trigger as we go into the second quarter.” Others are more skeptical. “You need some sort of a shock [to spark demand],” Klaskow said at TPM25. Consumer confidence has been shaken. The Conference Board in February reported the largest monthly decline in its consumer confidence index since August 2021. “When I think of past capacity crunches, they’ve been man-made,” Jeff Tucker, president and CEO of logistics provider Tucker Company Worldwide, said at TPM25. He cited changes in truck driver hours-of-service rules in 2004 and the electronic logging device mandate in 2017 as examples of actions that helped tighten capacity. This year, “I don’t see anything from a regulatory or legislative standpoint that would change things in a dramatic fashion,” Tucker said. PMIs rising Beyond inventory restocking and consumer spending, Klujsza pointed to rising industrial production and new orders as potential demand triggers. The Purchasing Managers’ Indexes (PMIs) published by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) and S&P Global Market Intelligence both were positive in February, the second straight month of expansion. The PMIs are important as industrial production represents about 58% of total US truck tonnage, according to the Commodity Flow Census from the US Census Bureau. Klaskow called the PMI a leading indicator of LTL demand. “That’s important to us, as 60% of our shipments are industrial freight,” Adam Satterfield, CFO of LTL provider Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), said in an interview Wednesday. ODFL’s tonnage and shipment count dropped year over year in the first two months of the first quarter, but both measures increased sequentially from January to February. “[The increases were] higher than our 10-year average increase for those months,” Satterfield said. US manufacturing expansion in February was supported by increases in both production and new orders, said S&P Global, parent company of the Journal of Commerce. Some of the order activity may have been driven by advanced purchases ahead of likely price increases and supply disruption related to potential US tariffs, S&P Global said. The S&P Global PMI rose to 52.7% in February from 52.1% in January, while the ISM PMI fell slightly from 50.9% to 50.3%. Any PMI reading higher than 50 represents expansion. Manufacturing improvements, however welcome, may only be “skin deep,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in a statement in early March. “Production and purchasing were often buoyed by companies and their customers building inventory to beat price hikes and supply issues caused by tariffs,” said Williamson, adding that higher factory input costs are being passed onto consumers. Contact William B. Cassidy at bill.cassidy@spglobal.com .Senior Editor Ari Ashe contributed to this report.

Trucking News

Truckload

Surface

Tariff uncertainty casts shadow on US trucking demand, pricing

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Cosco Shipping subsidiary recorded another highly profitable year but pointed to growing geopolitical uncertainties and industry-specific challenges that will test container shipping in the year ahead.</div>

The Cosco Shipping subsidiary recorded another highly profitable year but pointed to growing geopolitical uncertainties and industry-specific challenges that will test container shipping in the year ahead.

<div class="phx-topic">OOCL reported a 2024 net profit of $2.5 billion Thursday, an 88% increase over the previous year that the ocean carrier attributed to strong import demand in developed economies and rapid trade growth in emerging markets. But the Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of Cosco Shipping Holdings was quick to highlight the growing geopolitical uncertainties and industry-specific challenges that threaten to reshape global supply chains and test container shipping in the year ahead. “Potential overcapacity may arise as new vessels are delivered, especially when the Suez Canal reopens,” OOCL said in its earnings statement. Other areas of concern included steadily tightening environmental regulations, the impact on supply chains from restructured carrier alliances and trade policies from the new US administration that will impact the global economy and supply chain “in the short and long run.” “These factors do not exist or function independently,” OOCL said. “They are interactively intertwined, adding to the complexity of the shipping market ... their effects should not be underestimated.” Still, that complexity helped OOCL post a significantly improved set of annual results compared with 2023. Revenue was up 28% year over year at $10.7 billion, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 60% to $3.5 billion and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) were up 86% at $2.6 billion. Total volumes handled by the carrier increased 4% to 7.6 million TEUs. <h3>Shifting supply-demand dynamics </h3>Commenting on 2024, OOCL said the diversions around southern Africa as carriers avoided the Red Sea added transit time to voyages, while longshore labor uncertainty along the US East and Gulf coasts and the threat of new tariffs under the Trump administration led to a rise in frontloading by US importers. “Geopolitical uncertainties not only shifted the dynamics between supply and demand for the entire industry, but also affected people’s expectations and behaviors,” OOCL noted. While detours around the Cape of Good Hope absorbed about 10% of available ocean capacity, they disrupted the on-time performance of carriers that was further impacted by poor weather in Asia and Europe. The resulting port congestion put further pressure on supply chains, OOCL said. “These interconnected factors helped push freight rates to a post-pandemic peak around the middle of the year, especially on trans-Pacific routes,” the carrier said. Average Asia-US West Coast rates began 2024 at $1,246 per FEU, rose to a high of $7,411/FEU on July 4 and ended the year at $5,200/FEU, according to rate benchmarking platform Xeneta. OOCL has been rapidly increasing its owned capacity, taking delivery of six 24,188-TEU ships and one 16,828-TEU vessel. The carrier also chartered in six new 13,000-TEU series vessels that will begin operating in 2026. Cosco Shipping Holdings has not yet released its 2024 financial results, but the China state-owned carrier said in January <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/cosco-forecasts-95-jump-in-2024-net-profit-on-robust-volumes-freight-rates-5920588">it was expecting $7.5 billion in net profit</a>, a 95% year-over-year increase. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

OOCL reported a 2024 net profit of $2.5 billion Thursday, an 88% increase over the previous year that the ocean carrier attributed to strong import demand in developed economies and rapid trade growth in emerging markets. But the Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of Cosco Shipping Holdings was quick to highlight the growing geopolitical uncertainties and industry-specific challenges that threaten to reshape global supply chains and test container shipping in the year ahead. “Potential overcapacity may arise as new vessels are delivered, especially when the Suez Canal reopens,” OOCL said in its earnings statement. Other areas of concern included steadily tightening environmental regulations, the impact on supply chains from restructured carrier alliances and trade policies from the new US administration that will impact the global economy and supply chain “in the short and long run.” “These factors do not exist or function independently,” OOCL said. “They are interactively intertwined, adding to the complexity of the shipping market ... their effects should not be underestimated.” Still, that complexity helped OOCL post a significantly improved set of annual results compared with 2023. Revenue was up 28% year over year at $10.7 billion, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 60% to $3.5 billion and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) were up 86% at $2.6 billion. Total volumes handled by the carrier increased 4% to 7.6 million TEUs. Shifting supply-demand dynamics Commenting on 2024, OOCL said the diversions around southern Africa as carriers avoided the Red Sea added transit time to voyages, while longshore labor uncertainty along the US East and Gulf coasts and the threat of new tariffs under the Trump administration led to a rise in frontloading by US importers. “Geopolitical uncertainties not only shifted the dynamics between supply and demand for the entire industry, but also affected people’s expectations and behaviors,” OOCL noted. While detours around the Cape of Good Hope absorbed about 10% of available ocean capacity, they disrupted the on-time performance of carriers that was further impacted by poor weather in Asia and Europe. The resulting port congestion put further pressure on supply chains, OOCL said. “These interconnected factors helped push freight rates to a post-pandemic peak around the middle of the year, especially on trans-Pacific routes,” the carrier said. Average Asia-US West Coast rates began 2024 at $1,246 per FEU, rose to a high of $7,411/FEU on July 4 and ended the year at $5,200/FEU, according to rate benchmarking platform Xeneta. OOCL has been rapidly increasing its owned capacity, taking delivery of six 24,188-TEU ships and one 16,828-TEU vessel. The carrier also chartered in six new 13,000-TEU series vessels that will begin operating in 2026. Cosco Shipping Holdings has not yet released its 2024 financial results, but the China state-owned carrier said in January it was expecting $7.5 billion in net profit , a 95% year-over-year increase. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Asia-Europe

Trans-Pacific

OOCL banks $2.5 billion 2024 net profit on solid demand, high rates

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Dubai-based terminal operator’s end-to-end supply chain strategy is paying dividends with strategic investment in forwarding services attracting business from high value verticals. </div>

The Dubai-based terminal operator’s end-to-end supply chain strategy is paying dividends with strategic investment in forwarding services attracting business from high value verticals.

<div class="phx-topic">DP World on Thursday reported solid gains in 2024 revenue and operating profit that the terminal operator attributed to a focus on handling high-margin cargo and the continued expansion of its end-to-end reach deeper into shipper supply chains. Group chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said the terminal operator had to navigate a complex geopolitical landscape in 2024, but its growing logistics capabilities enabled the company to add value and build lucrative long-term relationships with cargo owners. “We have expanded into new verticals, including chemicals and retail, bringing our total number of focused verticals to eight and covering nearly 50% of global GDP,” bin Sulayem said in an earnings statement. “This strategy is positioning DP World for sustained long-term growth and value creation,” he added. “We continue to strengthen our logistics platform, attracting more cargo owners with end-to-end, tailored solutions that drive efficiency and improve the flow of trade.” The Dubai-based company posted $20 billion in revenue for 2024, up almost 10% year over year and a record for the company, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were up 6.7% at $5.4 billion. Net profit was down 2% at $1.5 billion due to “higher finance costs,” while container throughput increased 8.3% to 88.3 million TEUs. Infrastructure investment in key growth markets has taken DP World’s global container handling capacity past 100 million TEUs, with capital expenditures of $2.2 billion made during 2024. The capital expenditure budget for 2025 is $2.5 billion, and investment will be made mainly at Jebel Ali, the Jebel Ali Freezone and Drydocks World in the United Arab Emirates; Tuna Tekra in India; London Gateway in the UK; Ndayane in Senegal; and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Bin Sulayem said strategic investments in forwarding services have increased DP World’s network coverage to more than 200 locations across most global trade routes, a calculated move away from the traditional asset-light approach of global forwarders. The terminal operator has been aggressively expanding its logistics exposure, integrating its infrastructure ownership in terminals, warehouses, rail and trucking around the world into the expanded forwarding product. DP World last September <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/dp-world-adds-hong-kong-forwarder-to-growing-3pl-network-5717969">acquired Hong Kong-based supply chain solutions provider Cargo Services Far East</a>, adding a China specialist forwarder with products covering origin purchase order management, ocean and air freight, and warehousing for a diverse range of sectors. DP World’s foray into the forwarding business <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/psa-leveraging-forwarder-acquisition-to-serve-shippers-directly-5242073">mirrors moves made by other global port operators</a> such as Singapore-based PSA, Manila-based International Container Terminal Services Inc. and Maersk’s APM Terminals. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

DP World on Thursday reported solid gains in 2024 revenue and operating profit that the terminal operator attributed to a focus on handling high-margin cargo and the continued expansion of its end-to-end reach deeper into shipper supply chains. Group chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said the terminal operator had to navigate a complex geopolitical landscape in 2024, but its growing logistics capabilities enabled the company to add value and build lucrative long-term relationships with cargo owners. “We have expanded into new verticals, including chemicals and retail, bringing our total number of focused verticals to eight and covering nearly 50% of global GDP,” bin Sulayem said in an earnings statement. “This strategy is positioning DP World for sustained long-term growth and value creation,” he added. “We continue to strengthen our logistics platform, attracting more cargo owners with end-to-end, tailored solutions that drive efficiency and improve the flow of trade.” The Dubai-based company posted $20 billion in revenue for 2024, up almost 10% year over year and a record for the company, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were up 6.7% at $5.4 billion. Net profit was down 2% at $1.5 billion due to “higher finance costs,” while container throughput increased 8.3% to 88.3 million TEUs. Infrastructure investment in key growth markets has taken DP World’s global container handling capacity past 100 million TEUs, with capital expenditures of $2.2 billion made during 2024. The capital expenditure budget for 2025 is $2.5 billion, and investment will be made mainly at Jebel Ali, the Jebel Ali Freezone and Drydocks World in the United Arab Emirates; Tuna Tekra in India; London Gateway in the UK; Ndayane in Senegal; and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Bin Sulayem said strategic investments in forwarding services have increased DP World’s network coverage to more than 200 locations across most global trade routes, a calculated move away from the traditional asset-light approach of global forwarders. The terminal operator has been aggressively expanding its logistics exposure, integrating its infrastructure ownership in terminals, warehouses, rail and trucking around the world into the expanded forwarding product. DP World last September acquired Hong Kong-based supply chain solutions provider Cargo Services Far East , adding a China specialist forwarder with products covering origin purchase order management, ocean and air freight, and warehousing for a diverse range of sectors. DP World’s foray into the forwarding business mirrors moves made by other global port operators such as Singapore-based PSA, Manila-based International Container Terminal Services Inc. and Maersk’s APM Terminals. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

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The world of LTL is slow to embrace change. Business anachronisms permeate current supply chain processes. These vestiges of the way things used to work define the LTL freight transportation procurement process of many modern shippers.David Knuth, logistics specialist at IEWC, a global supplier of cable and wire based in Wisconsin, is happy to have modernized the RFP process, automating the entire LTL bidding procedure with Bid$ense, SMC³’s automated truckload and LTL freight transportation sourcing solution. But when prompted, he can still recall what once was.In his previous job, a large part of his duties were consumed by creating an intermodal bid package for carriers. In a spreadsheet, Knuth detailed the company’s volumes lane by lane, taking care to delete any errant keystrokes or misleading data. He would then email out the information to each carrier, taking time to respond to detailed technical questions about the spreadsheet data. Finally, he had to compile all the results, create an algorithm that would compare the carriers on each lane, and award the business.“It was a huge undertaking. It took about four months to do,” Knuth said of the old process. “It was almost a full-time job for that part of the year, every year.”In his new job at IEWC, he sat down with Bid$ense on day one and was amazed at the capabilities. Knuth had never before used a bid tool. SMC³’s latest versions of Bid$ense automate the process even further, taking truckload and LTL RFPs entirely online. The tool draws on RFP best-practices protocols to streamline the bidding communication process, enabling bidding carriers to respond accurately and promptly to shipper requests. The solution also does all the distribution work automatically, electronically submitting shipper bid data to carriers based on their actual service capabilities and performance records. Carriers are alerted with timely prompts for RFP deliverables, so shippers aren’t waiting by the phone for responses.Another benefit of automating the process is the data-cleansing assistance. When Knuth sent spreadsheets to carriers, data errors might cloud the bidding process; he might have to resend data or simply accept a price that did not truly reflect the costs of doing business. Data cleansing is incredibly beneficial, he said.The spreadsheet technique also made bidding analysis an onerous task. Since Bid$ense automates and streamlines the entire RFP process, intensive examination is now simple. SMC³ knows that each bid has more than one best outcome. With uniform responses from each carrier, shippers can quickly rank results and create an unlimited quantity of what-if scenarios to make the optimal procurement decision.Jesse Burnett of Central Garden &amp; Pet experiences many of the same benefits. Founded in 1980, Central Garden &amp; Pet has spent the last three decades growing from a small garden supply company to a provider of a range of products from dog chews and bird seed to soil supplements and natural insecticides. For much of its life, the company shipped these disparate goods via LTL and truckload carriers to retailers throughout the country, relying on each business unit to negotiate directly with their freight transportation providers. This arrangement worked fairly well for a small company, but as Central Garden &amp; Pet expanded, leadership decided to consolidate decision making.Burnett helped centralize the transportation decision making in 2015 with SMC³’s Bid$ense. Before Bid$ense, every business unit operated independently as far as negotiating with carriers.“There were a lot of different things just floating around,” he said. “We didn’t have master agreements in place; no national pricing at all. The pricing from carriers was just all over the place, depending on where you were.”The transformations he saw with Bid$ense were immediate. Burnett has been using the tool about every other year since its implementation at the company. Central Garden and Pet’s $19.6 million 2019 LTL bid saved the company just more than 9 percent when compared to its historical average. For Burnett, though, bid automation extends far beyond savings.“We knew that we weren’t getting the best pricing offer from our carriers just because nothing was centralized,” he continued. “We knew that if we combined everything from all these business units and paired it with one corporate offering, then it would drive some cost benefit with it.”When the company initially decided to centralize bid procurement, executives researched a number of different methodologies and technologies. In the end, though, Burnett found that Bid$ense was both widespread and well known, and that his carrier partners already knew how to use the application. Burnett also highlighted the data-cleansing process as a major benefit, saying the rigorous process ensures that carriers always return the best price.“It definitely has helped drive savings,” he said. “Any time you go out there and you drive that competitiveness with the carriers and they know they’re in a bid environment, it seems to sharpen their pencils.”Transportation procurement is an integral part of the modern supply chain. With Bid$ense, shippers can develop a strategic implementation plan that saves them time and money, but also helps them create strong relationships with their carrier partners. These carriers appreciate the solution’s data-cleansing process; when carriers receive a complete shipment history and future volume forecast, they don’t have to guess on pricing. Carriers that receive more data from shippers get a complete picture of that shipper’s freight, allowing them to accurately plan instead of simply preparing for the worst-case scenario. Clean data presented through an automated system can lead to both bigger shipment savings and a lasting partnership between carrier and customer.Whether customers are looking to streamline over-the-road transportation bidding by automating the RFP process or create an entirely new, centralized sourcing process, Bid$ense has the analytical horsepower to get the job done.SMC³ 2020 Customer Case Study

SMC3rates_shutterstock_5247046.jpg

Shippers save money, time with automated transportation bidding tools

If there’s one immutable truth in the world of logistics, it’s this: LTL is an inherently complex form of transportation. Tariffs, rates, DIM weights, transit times — it’s enough to confuse even seasoned logistics professionals. The solution to this knowledge gap has historically been on-the-job training or university supply chain education, but for a variety of reasons there is now a pressing need for third-party, remote LTL training that prepares logistics workers for transportation success. Global Scope Can Overlook Local Intricacies In the past, professionals looking to move into a supply chain career learned about the basics of supply chain from universities. However, many of these college supply chain programs are now global in scope, focusing on worldwide supply chain management instead of the intricacies of specialized domestic transportation. And even these programs, which used to be widespread, are becoming less common. LTL is not an industry of broad-brush strokes; supply chain professionals really need a pointillistic understanding of the logistics of LTL in order to excel in the industry. Accelerating Need for Dedicated LTL Education This lack of specified training put the onus on employers to prepare new hires with the LTL knowledge needed to do their jobs. Dedicated LTL study is a necessity, not a luxury. At the same time, changes in LTL and the broader supply chain world are accelerating. The reliance on e-commerce has ballooned since the start of the pandemic, and last-mile LTL shipments and related e-commerce strains on the supply chain won’t diminish once social distancing abates. That genie isn’t going back into the bottle. So supply chain employers need logistics workers that are fully versed in all aspects of the industry, ready to solve unique shipping and delivery problems based on their extensive supply chain knowledge But why care about LTL? It’s been reported that some shippers in today’s world are no longer concerned with what mode is used to ship their goods. A Multimodal Approach Ensures On-Time Delivery This mode agnosticism means supply chain stakeholders have to be well versed in all modes of transportation. As unforeseen weather events and other disruptions, such as protests, become more common, savvy logistics employees will need to be armed with familiarity of all modes, not just the most popular, to ensure that freight is delivered on time, without damage, and in the most financially expedient way possible. Offerings like SMC³’s LTL online education courses cover a wide range of topics from LTL basics and operations to more advanced concepts like pricing analytics and transportation law. The company also has plans to continually refresh content, adding new expert presenters and taking the feedback of students to make the courses even better as time goes on. Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://logisticstrainingcenter.com/smc3-courses/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">SMC³’s LTL Online Education program</a>&nbsp;and view the 2021 hybrid schedule, featuring live industry experts,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smc3.com/onlinelearning2021/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">here.</a>

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Filling the Supply Chain Education Gap with LTL Education Courses

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