The past year brought about significant changes for intermodal transportation. Ocean carrier mergers, alliances, and bankruptcies have forever changed the industry landscape. Twenty global carriers once handled 80 percent of the world’s cargo. That number could soon dwindle to just a handful. The ocean carriers that remain will be looking for ways to maximize efficiencies, and cut costs.
Ocean carriers represent much of IMC Companies’ customer base. As such, we have been closely watching industry trends in an effort to continue to serve our customers and find ways to help them reduce costs.
- Fewer steamship lines may have more leverage in rate negotiations with drayage providers.
- Steamship lines may look to use fewer more national container drayage companies that can handle higher volumes and help ocean carriers more comprehensively manage their freight.
- Ocean carriers will look to technology to find efficiencies, and will need to align with container drayage companies that can help them fully leverage their technology investment.
Fewer ocean carriers and ocean carrier alliances also bring our industry closer to the “gray box,” where steamship lines move away from container ownership and instead draw from a collective pool. At IMC Companies, our 2,000 drivers run 4 million miles per week. About 45 percent of those miles are empty, so I see tremendous opportunity in reloading containers. If we are able drive these costs out of our industry, it will help everyone to be successful.