<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The following business missions are scheduled for the coming months. The Journal of Commerce assumes</div>

The following business missions are scheduled for the coming months. The Journal of Commerce assumes

<div>The following business missions are scheduled for the coming months. The Journal of Commerce assumes no responsibility for companies or individuals whose names it furnishes, and interested parties are asked to reconfirm scheduled dates. Trade Missions appears every Tuesday. To have missions posted, contact The Journal of Commerce, World Trade Department, (212) 837-7000; fax, (212) 837-7130.TO THE UNITED STATES/CANADAVIRGINIA. Oct. 4-6. The Virginia Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring ''Virginia: Global Gateway," the 47th Virginia Conference on World Trade. Contact: Cyndi Miracle, (804) 644-1607.MIAMI. Oct. 19-21. The Organization of Women in International Trade is sponsoring a mission in Miami entitled "Trade,...

The following business missions are scheduled for the coming months. The Journal of Commerce assumes no responsibility for companies or individuals whose names it furnishes, and interested parties are asked to reconfirm scheduled dates. Trade Missions appears every Tuesday. To have missions posted, contact The Journal of Commerce, World Trade Department, (212) 837-7000; fax, (212) 837-7130. TO THE UNITED STATES/CANADA VIRGINIA. Oct. 4-6. The Virginia Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring ''Virginia: Global Gateway," the 47th Virginia Conference on World Trade. Contact: Cyndi Miracle, (804) 644-1607. MIAMI. Oct. 19-21. The Organization of Women in International Trade is sponsoring a mission in Miami entitled "Trade, Technology and Culture: Assessing the Americas and Beyond." Contact: Cynthia Kaplan, (305) 789-7133. WASHINGTON. April 1996 (dates to be set). The U.S. Department of Commerce is sponsoring a software trade mission including visits to the Seattle International Software Trade Fair for companies interested in the U.S. market. Contact: Heidi Hijikata, (202) 482-0569. FROM THE UNITED STATES/CANADA JORDAN. Sept. 15-24. The National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce and the Jordanian Export Development & Commercial Centers Corp. are sponsoring a trade and investment mission for information technology, food processing, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals companies interested in the Jordanian market. Contact: U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce program department, (202) 289-5920. SOUTH AMERICA. Sept. 22-30. The Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. is leading a trade mission to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Caracas, Venezuela. Contact: Stephen J. Rybicki, (800) 785-2779 or (202) 366-0091. CENTRAL EUROPE. Sept. 24-29. The Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce and the American Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia are sponsoring a trade and investment mission for metal-based manufacturing companies to Bratislava and other areas in Slovakia. Contact: Noel H. Nevsheir, (313) 964-4000. PACIFIC RIM. Sept. 25-30. The U.S. Department of Commerce is sponsoring a computer software, hardware and networking trade mission to Beijing and Guangzhou, China, and Hong Kong. Contact: Sean Iverson, (202) 482-1987. CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE. Sept. 26-27. The U.S. Department of Commerce's Central and Eastern Europe Business Information Center is sponsoring a matchmaker trade mission to Vienna, Austria, for U.S suppliers in myriad industries seeking distributorships and partners in Central and Eastern Europe. Contact: Anna Hauer or Lance Ludman, (202) 482-2645. JAPAN. September (dates to be set). The U.S. Department of Commerce is sponsoring a trade mission to Tokyo for computer software companies. Contact: Mark Stevens, (202) 482-0568. SOUTH AFRICA. September/October (dates to be set). The U.S. Department of Commerce is leading a matchmaker trade mission to South Africa for minority- owned businesses. Contact: Molly Costa, (202) 482-3119. EASTERN EUROPE AND ASIA. Oct. 16-24. The U.S. Department of Commerce is leading a matchmaker trade mission to Hungary, Poland and Turkey for consumer goods companies. Contact: Erin Crowe, (202) 482-1793. JAPAN. Oct. 17-28. The U.S.A.-Japan Trade Expansion Center is sponsoring a trade mission to Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe for companies interested in the Japanese market. Contact: Teri Shizuko Silvestri, (800) 644-7232. CENTRAL ASIA. Oct. 23-31. The U.S. Department of Commerce is leading a mission to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine for U.S. computer hardware, software and service firms. Contact: Danny Valverde, (202) 482-0573. INDIA. Oct. 28- Nov. 7. The U.S. Department of Commerce is leading a mission to New Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras for companies interested in the plastics industry. Contact: Kenley A. Tarter, (202) 482-0128. CENTRAL ASIA. October (dates to be set). The U.S. Department of Commerce is leading a trade mission to promote computer sales in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Contact: Danny Valverde, (202) 482-0573. RUSSIA. October (dates to be set). The U.S. Department of Commerce is sponsoring a delegation of medical-device, drug and health-service companies to explore opportunities in the Russian Far East. Contact: Matt Edwards, (202) 482-0550. PACIFIC RIM. Oct. 30-Nov. 7. The U.S. Department of Commerce is sponsoring a matchmaker mission to Hong Kong, Indonesia and Singapore for makers of sporting goods and physical fitness products. Contact: Derek Parks, (202) 482-0287. MEXICO. December (dates to be set). The U.S. Department of Commerce is sponsoring a matchmaker mission to Mexico for minority-owned companies seeking business partners. Contact: (202) 482-3119. SOUTH AMERICA. December (dates to be set). The U.S. Department of Commerce is sponsoring a computer software trade mission to Sao Paulo, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Santiago, Chile. Contact: Heidi Hijikata, (202) 482-0569. PACIFIC RIM. April 1996. The U.S. Department of Commerce is sponsoring a mission to Seoul, South Korea, and Taipei, Taiwan, for U.S. computer software suppliers interested in Asian markets. Contact: Heidi Hijikata, (202) 482-0569.

Maritime

TRADE MISSIONS

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Projections for North American intermodal will likely be upended by some “black swan” event that isn’t even on the radar right now as there seems to be no shortage of potential hot spots and disruptors looming, writes Larry Gross.</div>

Projections for North American intermodal will likely be upended by some “black swan” event that isn’t even on the radar right now as there seems to be no shortage of potential hot spots and disruptors looming, writes Larry Gross.

Feature image

<div class="phx-topic">As a forecaster of the intermodal sector, I believe that it is a good practice to look back each year to see what I was saying as the year began…and just how badly I may have missed the mark. <div class="wrapper-narrow float-right-element"><img src="/images/phoenix/5923184_0.1.jpg"></img></div>In January 2024, readers of my Intermodal in Depth report were told to expect North American intermodal growth of 5.5%. Now that the Association of American Railroads (AAR) has issued its data for all 52 weeks of 2024, we can report that the growth in intermodal in 2024 was…drumroll please…7.5%. So the forecast was not too bad. Call it a solid “B” grade. But a fair amount of luck was involved, because based on data from the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) -- which currently is available only through November -- my forecast was substantially low for the international segment and too optimistic for the domestic market. So coming within 2% of the total was to a certain extent a fortunate coincidence. Regardless, 2024 was certainly a good year for intermodal; the chart shows just how strong it was. Using the AAR weekly data, it compares the weekly intermodal originated moves for 2024, 2023 and the average performance over the 10 years prior to the pandemic (2010-2019). After a rough, weather-related stumble in January, volume leapt ahead of the prior year in February and the sector never looked back. Volume fell below the prior year in a meaningful manner only for one week (#40). This was due to a double whammy of Hurricane Helene plus the short-lived longshore port strike hitting the eastern US railroads that week. The 2024 volume was also below that of 2023 in week #48, but that was a statistical quirk relating to the week in which Thanksgiving occurred this year versus last and therefore not meaningful. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="a0bf68c7-f6e7-4480-89f3-6cb625967b00"></dynamic-object></div>The strength in international can be attributed to several factors. One was strong retail sales. A second was a reversal in the long-term trend of West Coast to East Coast migration of import volumes. Why? First, the unavailability of the Red Sea due to missile-firing Houthi rebels forced cargo bound for the USEC to take the long way around Africa and added both cost and time to the voyage. This made the West Coast option more attractive. Second, the labor situation on the East Coast and the potential for disruption led importers to divert. The migration of volume back to the West Coast was an intermodal tailwind as intermodal share off the USWC is generally much higher than in the east. USWC import share was 45% in November, 4.5% higher than the prior year. The third source of strength was the pull-forward of imports, particularly later in the year. Importers raced to land cargo in advance of a possible second longshore strike and potential new tariffs. Thankfully, the former problem appears to have been resolved, but the tariff impacts, although unknown in timing and scope, continue to loom. This pull-forward resulted in a notable feature of 2024 -- the extremely late annual peak, in week #50. Normally the peak occurs in week #39. <h3>A look ahead</h3>Looking forward, it seems likely that most of the factors that drove volume in 2024 will not be present in 2025. The labor situation has been settled, and (hopefully) a ceasefire in Gaza will deprive the Houthis of a reason to keep firing missiles and lead to a reopening of the Red Sea/Suez Canal route. Of course, the piper will eventually have to be paid for all the volume that was pulled forward into 2024 that ordinarily might have moved in 2025. So the prospect for 2025 international intermodal is muted to say the least. Conversely, the picture is a bit brighter for domestic, despite its disappointing performance in 2024. The 2024 growth in long-haul truckload demand was far weaker than was the case for international. This kept a lid on domestic intermodal and left share gains as the only avenue for meaningful improvement. This has been slow in coming, although there was a tantalizing uptick in the third quarter, that, if sustained, could eventually turn into something meaningful. The near-term prospects for the economy seem reasonably bright, although the incoming administration’s promised tariff actions and mass deportations will be disruptive and inflationary. However, it will take some time for these effects to be felt. I’m not expecting to see any significant acceleration in domestic intermodal activity, but rather some modest improvement. This will still result in domestic outperforming international in 2025. Of course, history tells us that these projections will likely be upended by some “black swan” event that possibly isn’t even on the radar right now. There seems to be no shortage of potential hot spots and disruptors out there. So it is best to keep options open and be prepared to be nimble once again to meet the challenges that lie in wait in 2025. Contact Larry Gross at <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/lgross@intermodalindepth.com">lgross@intermodalindepth.com.</a></div>

As a forecaster of the intermodal sector, I believe that it is a good practice to look back each year to see what I was saying as the year began…and just how badly I may have missed the mark. In January 2024, readers of my Intermodal in Depth report were told to expect North American intermodal growth of 5.5%. Now that the Association of American Railroads (AAR) has issued its data for all 52 weeks of 2024, we can report that the growth in intermodal in 2024 was…drumroll please…7.5%. So the forecast was not too bad. Call it a solid “B” grade. But a fair amount of luck was involved, because based on data from the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) -- which currently is available only through November -- my forecast was substantially low for the international segment and too optimistic for the domestic market. So coming within 2% of the total was to a certain extent a fortunate coincidence. Regardless, 2024 was certainly a good year for intermodal; the chart shows just how strong it was. Using the AAR weekly data, it compares the weekly intermodal originated moves for 2024, 2023 and the average performance over the 10 years prior to the pandemic (2010-2019). After a rough, weather-related stumble in January, volume leapt ahead of the prior year in February and the sector never looked back. Volume fell below the prior year in a meaningful manner only for one week (#40). This was due to a double whammy of Hurricane Helene plus the short-lived longshore port strike hitting the eastern US railroads that week. The 2024 volume was also below that of 2023 in week #48, but that was a statistical quirk relating to the week in which Thanksgiving occurred this year versus last and therefore not meaningful. The strength in international can be attributed to several factors. One was strong retail sales. A second was a reversal in the long-term trend of West Coast to East Coast migration of import volumes. Why? First, the unavailability of the Red Sea due to missile-firing Houthi rebels forced cargo bound for the USEC to take the long way around Africa and added both cost and time to the voyage. This made the West Coast option more attractive. Second, the labor situation on the East Coast and the potential for disruption led importers to divert. The migration of volume back to the West Coast was an intermodal tailwind as intermodal share off the USWC is generally much higher than in the east. USWC import share was 45% in November, 4.5% higher than the prior year. The third source of strength was the pull-forward of imports, particularly later in the year. Importers raced to land cargo in advance of a possible second longshore strike and potential new tariffs. Thankfully, the former problem appears to have been resolved, but the tariff impacts, although unknown in timing and scope, continue to loom. This pull-forward resulted in a notable feature of 2024 -- the extremely late annual peak, in week #50. Normally the peak occurs in week #39. A look ahead Looking forward, it seems likely that most of the factors that drove volume in 2024 will not be present in 2025. The labor situation has been settled, and (hopefully) a ceasefire in Gaza will deprive the Houthis of a reason to keep firing missiles and lead to a reopening of the Red Sea/Suez Canal route. Of course, the piper will eventually have to be paid for all the volume that was pulled forward into 2024 that ordinarily might have moved in 2025. So the prospect for 2025 international intermodal is muted to say the least. Conversely, the picture is a bit brighter for domestic, despite its disappointing performance in 2024. The 2024 growth in long-haul truckload demand was far weaker than was the case for international. This kept a lid on domestic intermodal and left share gains as the only avenue for meaningful improvement. This has been slow in coming, although there was a tantalizing uptick in the third quarter, that, if sustained, could eventually turn into something meaningful. The near-term prospects for the economy seem reasonably bright, although the incoming administration’s promised tariff actions and mass deportations will be disruptive and inflationary. However, it will take some time for these effects to be felt. I’m not expecting to see any significant acceleration in domestic intermodal activity, but rather some modest improvement. This will still result in domestic outperforming international in 2025. Of course, history tells us that these projections will likely be upended by some “black swan” event that possibly isn’t even on the radar right now. There seems to be no shortage of potential hot spots and disruptors out there. So it is best to keep options open and be prepared to be nimble once again to meet the challenges that lie in wait in 2025. Contact Larry Gross at lgross@intermodalindepth.com.

North-American rail

Intermodal providers

Surface

Intermodal comes off strong 2024 to face market unknowns of new year: analyst

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">A handful of companies unveiled new products in the last week intended to enable decision-making based off the visibility data they provide. </div>

A handful of companies unveiled new products in the last week intended to enable decision-making based off the visibility data they provide.

<div class="phx-topic">Transportation visibility vendors are repositioning their value propositions to shippers as providers of something more than just the data governing the whereabouts of freight, with three different vendors launching adjacent products in the last week alone. As the pandemic-led boom in investment into a cohort of providers has waned, and as customers sought applications rather than just data from visibility vendors, those providers have branched out into execution- or risk management-based offerings to remain relevant. This extension into execution is potentially reshaping the visibility market, which has largely relied on vendors partnering with execution-focused software vendors in the transportation, warehouse and inventory management spaces. On Wednesday, FourKites announced a new suite of control tower products designed to let shippers leverage its visibility data into decisions on areas such as supplier collaboration, purchase orders, yard management and cross-docking. The products are aimed at not just influencing decision making, but giving shippers a direct path to make those decisions. “We have the ability to shape the definition of a control tower because that term means different things to different people,” FourKites CEO Matthew Elenjickal said. “We are one of the few providers with a real-time [visibility data] network. The control tower providers don’t have it. But we have to expand beyond transportation.” FourKites will enable shippers to track not only freight transportation, but orders, inventory and assets through eight specific control towers, he said. <h3>New funding for competition </h3>But FourKites is far from alone in trying to more directly link the value of visibility to adjacent decisions. Overhaul, which focuses on using visibility data to help shippers prevent or recover from cargo theft, last week landed a $55 million funding round from investors. “We want to provide a tech engagement that doesn’t slow the process down but allows a shipper or a broker to verify who is there picking up or delivering a load,” Overhaul CEO Barry Conlon said. “Shippers are using our solution as a safety net to continue to use brokers, who don’t always have control or influence over the carrier being used to move their load.” Conlon said the fresh round of investment will be used to accelerate the company’s use of AI in its products, and to fund acquisitions should the right opportunities arise. Another visibility vendor, Vizion, in 2024 launched a product called TradeView in conjunction with Dun &amp; Bradstreet that helps shippers monitor shipments from upstream suppliers using Vizion tracking data and D&amp;B’s business information databases. “There is still a focus on innovation and developing new solutions, but perhaps not at the pace or bloated spending waste there once was,” Vizion CEO Kyle Henderson said. “This cycle is not like past cycles, because priorities changed due to COVID and then the world changed to being very multi-polar. ”You’ll have more companies working on a wider range of solutions because the world of supply chain and logistics is getting more complex,” he added. “And tech is needed to both manage the complexity and eek out the efficiency gains.” project44, the largest vendor in the space, has since late 2023 been pushing its Movement product, a platform intended to unify its datasets across transportation modes and global regions to help shippers make better inventory management decisions. InforNexus, one of the pioneers of cargo visibility, last Friday released its own product aimed at extending the value of tracking data. Its NexTrace product is intended to give shippers visibility on raw materials through to finished goods to help them comply with traceability regulations, especially in the EU. “This will help our customers to not only meet upcoming regulations like the EU Digital Product Passport but also gain a competitive edge by providing comprehensive data on their products’ journey, composition and sustainability,” Brian Carelli, Infor’s vice president of sustainability and partnerships, said in a statement. <h3>Failure to launch </h3>The impetus behind all of these moves is, as Elenjickal put it, a sort of aggregate failure from vendors to deliver on the promise of how visibility data could help other supply chain software perform better. “The market sentiment right now is there’s a lack of value realization around visibility,” he said. “There were a lot of promises made, including by us. But the value from those promises, very few companies have realized it. The ones that have are progressive and have resources and use data in other areas of supply chain, and they’re not afraid to throw people at it.” Conlon agreed. “There has, unfortunately, been a degrading in the belief of what visibility can bring,” he said. “There have been a lot of false promises that have been made. But we’ve been clear from the beginning. Visibility is not a solution; it’s a data stream. We’ve focused on risk management.” While Conlon said Overhaul welcomes partnerships with adjacent systems, Elenjickal said FourKites is now charting a course based on the idea that visibility partnerships with transportation management systems (TMSs), warehouse management systems (WMSs), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors haven’t yielded desired results for shippers. “We always thought that we can be [neutral] and enable our partners to consume the data for our customers,” Elenjickal said. “But that hasn’t happened. They have other priorities. We cannot be dependent on partners. If we can’t do it, someone else will do it.” The intent of the eight control tower products, he said, is to make FourKites more directly accountable to its shipper customers. “We cannot appease all our partners all the time,” Elenjickal said. “We tried to do it for the past 10 years. We’re not trying to build a TMS, [an order management system], or a WMS. But we are going to make those systems more efficient, and every customer wants this to happen.” <h3>Partner friendly </h3>On Wednesday, another visibility provider, Shippeo, announced a $40 million investment aimed at helping it expand its customer base in North America and Asia-Pacific. Shippeo is taking a more traditional path to growth for its multimodal visibility platform, not eschewing partners or building product extensions, but highlighting its work with TMS or ERP system vendors. Shippeo said it saw a 40% year-over-year increase in North American customers in 2024, “driven by strategic partnerships with e2open, Google and SAP,” the company said in a statement. “As the US visibility market matures, companies are increasingly looking to switch vendors, with data quality concerns being the primary driver.” Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Transportation visibility vendors are repositioning their value propositions to shippers as providers of something more than just the data governing the whereabouts of freight, with three different vendors launching adjacent products in the last week alone. As the pandemic-led boom in investment into a cohort of providers has waned, and as customers sought applications rather than just data from visibility vendors, those providers have branched out into execution- or risk management-based offerings to remain relevant. This extension into execution is potentially reshaping the visibility market, which has largely relied on vendors partnering with execution-focused software vendors in the transportation, warehouse and inventory management spaces. On Wednesday, FourKites announced a new suite of control tower products designed to let shippers leverage its visibility data into decisions on areas such as supplier collaboration, purchase orders, yard management and cross-docking. The products are aimed at not just influencing decision making, but giving shippers a direct path to make those decisions. “We have the ability to shape the definition of a control tower because that term means different things to different people,” FourKites CEO Matthew Elenjickal said. “We are one of the few providers with a real-time [visibility data] network. The control tower providers don’t have it. But we have to expand beyond transportation.” FourKites will enable shippers to track not only freight transportation, but orders, inventory and assets through eight specific control towers, he said. New funding for competition But FourKites is far from alone in trying to more directly link the value of visibility to adjacent decisions. Overhaul, which focuses on using visibility data to help shippers prevent or recover from cargo theft, last week landed a $55 million funding round from investors. “We want to provide a tech engagement that doesn’t slow the process down but allows a shipper or a broker to verify who is there picking up or delivering a load,” Overhaul CEO Barry Conlon said. “Shippers are using our solution as a safety net to continue to use brokers, who don’t always have control or influence over the carrier being used to move their load.” Conlon said the fresh round of investment will be used to accelerate the company’s use of AI in its products, and to fund acquisitions should the right opportunities arise. Another visibility vendor, Vizion, in 2024 launched a product called TradeView in conjunction with Dun & Bradstreet that helps shippers monitor shipments from upstream suppliers using Vizion tracking data and D&B’s business information databases. “There is still a focus on innovation and developing new solutions, but perhaps not at the pace or bloated spending waste there once was,” Vizion CEO Kyle Henderson said. “This cycle is not like past cycles, because priorities changed due to COVID and then the world changed to being very multi-polar. ”You’ll have more companies working on a wider range of solutions because the world of supply chain and logistics is getting more complex,” he added. “And tech is needed to both manage the complexity and eek out the efficiency gains.” project44, the largest vendor in the space, has since late 2023 been pushing its Movement product, a platform intended to unify its datasets across transportation modes and global regions to help shippers make better inventory management decisions. InforNexus, one of the pioneers of cargo visibility, last Friday released its own product aimed at extending the value of tracking data. Its NexTrace product is intended to give shippers visibility on raw materials through to finished goods to help them comply with traceability regulations, especially in the EU. “This will help our customers to not only meet upcoming regulations like the EU Digital Product Passport but also gain a competitive edge by providing comprehensive data on their products’ journey, composition and sustainability,” Brian Carelli, Infor’s vice president of sustainability and partnerships, said in a statement. Failure to launch The impetus behind all of these moves is, as Elenjickal put it, a sort of aggregate failure from vendors to deliver on the promise of how visibility data could help other supply chain software perform better. “The market sentiment right now is there’s a lack of value realization around visibility,” he said. “There were a lot of promises made, including by us. But the value from those promises, very few companies have realized it. The ones that have are progressive and have resources and use data in other areas of supply chain, and they’re not afraid to throw people at it.” Conlon agreed. “There has, unfortunately, been a degrading in the belief of what visibility can bring,” he said. “There have been a lot of false promises that have been made. But we’ve been clear from the beginning. Visibility is not a solution; it’s a data stream. We’ve focused on risk management.” While Conlon said Overhaul welcomes partnerships with adjacent systems, Elenjickal said FourKites is now charting a course based on the idea that visibility partnerships with transportation management systems (TMSs), warehouse management systems (WMSs), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors haven’t yielded desired results for shippers. “We always thought that we can be [neutral] and enable our partners to consume the data for our customers,” Elenjickal said. “But that hasn’t happened. They have other priorities. We cannot be dependent on partners. If we can’t do it, someone else will do it.” The intent of the eight control tower products, he said, is to make FourKites more directly accountable to its shipper customers. “We cannot appease all our partners all the time,” Elenjickal said. “We tried to do it for the past 10 years. We’re not trying to build a TMS, [an order management system], or a WMS. But we are going to make those systems more efficient, and every customer wants this to happen.” Partner friendly On Wednesday, another visibility provider, Shippeo, announced a $40 million investment aimed at helping it expand its customer base in North America and Asia-Pacific. Shippeo is taking a more traditional path to growth for its multimodal visibility platform, not eschewing partners or building product extensions, but highlighting its work with TMS or ERP system vendors. Shippeo said it saw a 40% year-over-year increase in North American customers in 2024, “driven by strategic partnerships with e2open, Google and SAP,” the company said in a statement. “As the US visibility market matures, companies are increasingly looking to switch vendors, with data quality concerns being the primary driver.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

Container lines

Forwarding

Truckload

Logistics Technology News

Visibility vendors move to extend reach and relevancy in rebalancing market

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The US producer price index shows LTL pricing has been flat since September, but carriers continue to push for annualized increases in service contracts. </div>

The US producer price index shows LTL pricing has been flat since September, but carriers continue to push for annualized increases in service contracts.

<div class="phx-topic">The long-term rise in US less-than-truckload (LTL) pricing following the collapse of Yellow in 2023 is colliding with soft demand. That’s likely to give US shippers some leverage to resist LTL carrier requests for steep rate hikes in annual contract negotiations. The US producer price index (PPI) for long-distance LTL trucking was flat for the fourth straight month in December, according to data released Tuesday by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That’s the longest plateau for the LTL PPI since the recovery from the pandemic began in 2020 and an indicator that price hikes have stalled. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="92030a49-a365-46c9-89b8-472c39b44640"></dynamic-object></div>The LTL PPI has dropped 1.6% from its most recent high point last July, an indication LTL rates — still 5.5% higher <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/us-ltl-sector-growth-efficiencies-still-fueled-by-loss-of-yellow-5715785">than when Yellow shut down</a> in July 2023 — are not ready to rise much higher without more demand. On a year-over-year basis, the LTL PPI was up 3% from December 2023 and only 5.9% below its peak in June 2022, a sign of the resilience of LTL pricing. The BLS’ truckload PPI is 23.4% below its peak in May 2022. In comparison, the PPI for long-distance truckload services rose 1.3% in December from November, reaching its highest level since November 2023, but it is still fairly flat. The December reading from the BLS was 0.8% higher than a year ago. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="502bfcce-8a5c-4a30-b4a2-18030e5ba3df"></dynamic-object></div>Low demand is helping shippers <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/us-truckload-spot-rates-rising-but-shippers-keeping-lid-on-contract-rates-5919921">keep a lid on truckload contract rates</a>. It’s not clear where new LTL or truckload freight might come from. The freight downturn that began in 2022 is still alive in 2025, despite hopes it would end last year. Freight volumes are steady but stagnant early in the first quarter, according to AFS Logistics. “We haven’t seen a lull since the holidays, so freight volumes have been steady,” said Aaron LaGanke, vice president of freight services at the third-party logistics provider. “But we haven’t seen a big dip or an increase in demand either. It’s pretty flat.” <h3>Fresh demand absent </h3>“We’re in a depressed freight market,” said an LTL carrier executive who asked not to be identified. “Shipment activity is relatively flat year over year. We’re all waiting for the event or trend that will unleash increased demand for freight, but it’s not there.” LTL carriers are better positioned, even in a flat market, to negotiate higher pricing. For one, the market is highly consolidated. But perhaps more importantly, LTL providers in 2025 have a much better understanding of their costs, their service value and margins. “They do a good job of knowing their numbers,” LaGanke said, noting that will support some rate hikes, depending on the carrier. Shippers have told the Journal of Commerce they are seeing contract LTL rates rise, but in low single-digit percentages. The LTL PPI was still 3% higher on an annualized basis in December, and 5.5% higher than it was in July 2023, the month Yellow shut down and reshaped the LTL landscape. The amount of LTL savings shippers can expect depends on their freight, their lanes and their carriers, LaGanke said. But shippers and carriers are both getting better at fitting the right freight with the right network. Shippers have seen savings in LTL fuel surcharges. The average US retail diesel price was down 26 cents from a year ago as of Monday. The average fuel surcharge from major LTL carriers fell 3.4% in the fourth quarter from the third quarter, AFS Logistics said. Contact William B. Cassidy at <a href="mailto:bill.cassidy@spglobal.com">bill.cassidy@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The long-term rise in US less-than-truckload (LTL) pricing following the collapse of Yellow in 2023 is colliding with soft demand. That’s likely to give US shippers some leverage to resist LTL carrier requests for steep rate hikes in annual contract negotiations. The US producer price index (PPI) for long-distance LTL trucking was flat for the fourth straight month in December, according to data released Tuesday by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That’s the longest plateau for the LTL PPI since the recovery from the pandemic began in 2020 and an indicator that price hikes have stalled. The LTL PPI has dropped 1.6% from its most recent high point last July, an indication LTL rates — still 5.5% higher than when Yellow shut down in July 2023 — are not ready to rise much higher without more demand. On a year-over-year basis, the LTL PPI was up 3% from December 2023 and only 5.9% below its peak in June 2022, a sign of the resilience of LTL pricing. The BLS’ truckload PPI is 23.4% below its peak in May 2022. In comparison, the PPI for long-distance truckload services rose 1.3% in December from November, reaching its highest level since November 2023, but it is still fairly flat. The December reading from the BLS was 0.8% higher than a year ago. Low demand is helping shippers keep a lid on truckload contract rates . It’s not clear where new LTL or truckload freight might come from. The freight downturn that began in 2022 is still alive in 2025, despite hopes it would end last year. Freight volumes are steady but stagnant early in the first quarter, according to AFS Logistics. “We haven’t seen a lull since the holidays, so freight volumes have been steady,” said Aaron LaGanke, vice president of freight services at the third-party logistics provider. “But we haven’t seen a big dip or an increase in demand either. It’s pretty flat.” Fresh demand absent “We’re in a depressed freight market,” said an LTL carrier executive who asked not to be identified. “Shipment activity is relatively flat year over year. We’re all waiting for the event or trend that will unleash increased demand for freight, but it’s not there.” LTL carriers are better positioned, even in a flat market, to negotiate higher pricing. For one, the market is highly consolidated. But perhaps more importantly, LTL providers in 2025 have a much better understanding of their costs, their service value and margins. “They do a good job of knowing their numbers,” LaGanke said, noting that will support some rate hikes, depending on the carrier. Shippers have told the Journal of Commerce they are seeing contract LTL rates rise, but in low single-digit percentages. The LTL PPI was still 3% higher on an annualized basis in December, and 5.5% higher than it was in July 2023, the month Yellow shut down and reshaped the LTL landscape. The amount of LTL savings shippers can expect depends on their freight, their lanes and their carriers, LaGanke said. But shippers and carriers are both getting better at fitting the right freight with the right network. Shippers have seen savings in LTL fuel surcharges. The average US retail diesel price was down 26 cents from a year ago as of Monday. The average fuel surcharge from major LTL carriers fell 3.4% in the fourth quarter from the third quarter, AFS Logistics said. Contact William B. Cassidy at bill.cassidy@spglobal.com .

Trucking News

US LTL truck pricing flat, but still elevated despite low demand

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Domestic intermodal providers are frustrated that they’ve been unable to win significant rate increases in contracts in early 2025, but capacity in trucking and rail is still abundant and easy to procure.</div>

Domestic intermodal providers are frustrated that they’ve been unable to win significant rate increases in contracts in early 2025, but capacity in trucking and rail is still abundant and easy to procure.

<div class="phx-topic">Domestic intermodal providers are expressing frustration with what they say is a challenging freight market as early bids on annual contracts with shippers have yielded only small rate increases in California and flat or declining rates in other regions. That reality is underscoring a tough pricing environment for carriers as 2025 begins. One asset-based intermodal executive who did not want to be identified said he was “disappointed” with the results of annual contracts already awarded for 2025, saying they fell below his expectations. The source said he hopes to eke out a 1% or 2% increase on annual contracts that are inked in the first quarter and lobby for mid-single-digit percentage increases on a second wave of intermodal bids this spring. Meanwhile, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, the largest US intermodal carrier, has urged shippers to engage in “transparent conversations” about freight rates. In an advisory sent to shippers last week that was obtained by the Journal of Commerce, the company cited <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/domestic-intermodal-rate-pressure-building-on-stronger-truck-pricing-5741060">robust California outbound volumes</a> during the 2024 peak season as a reason to agree to higher rates now. “Inflation and rising costs have made our current margins unsustainable over the long term,” the advisory said. Railroads moved more than 82,000 containers from the Southwest to the Midwest last October, a record for any month, according to the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA). The Journal of Commerce estimates railroads hauled about 50,000 containers from Los Angeles to Chicago, the busiest US lane, that month, also a record. One intermodal shipper who did not want to be identified said despite the robust peak season in Southern California for trucking and rail, there is still abundant capacity available to handle current freight demand, adding that rate increases won’t occur until shippers struggle to procure containers or trailers. “As long as the supply of containers, drivers and over-the-road equipment is sufficient for freight demand, rates are going to stay flat or go down as carriers compete to keep their equipment moving,” the shipper said. “Rates only go up significantly when the supply is insufficient or inadequate to handle freight demand, causing shippers to worry whether their product will move downstream in enough time to generate revenue.” <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="e322a7e3-8b94-4c1d-a1f3-896d029aad84"></dynamic-object></div><h3>Flexibility to negotiate </h3>Union Pacific Railroad (UP) is seeking rate increases in California while conceding to flat or lower rates in several inland markets, according to a pricing matrix compiled by the company and obtained by the Journal of Commerce. Aggregate pricing for low-volume shippers, which serves as a ceiling for negotiations with customers moving higher volumes, shows proposed increases of 5.9% in Southern California and 3.1% in Northern California, effective Feb. 1. However, UP has shown flexibility to negotiate more aggressive rates to keep incumbent customers or take business away from competitors. “If UP really wants the lane and it fits well within their network, they’re willing to help us retain existing business and compete against J.B. Hunt,” said a non-asset intermodal marketing company (IMC) executive. “Other BNSF partners are also offering attractive rates to take business from UP.” The need to work aggressively to keep or win business has some intermodal carriers and brokers pessimistic about the first half of the year. “The magic date for me is June,” a second non-asset IMC executive told the Journal of Commerce. “Either truckload capacity will have shrunk considerably and the market dynamics have shifted, or it’ll be another tough year for carriers,” BNSF and UP seem reluctant to raise rates in inland markets such as Chicago, Memphis, Minneapolis and St. Louis, with proposed rates flat or lower than a year ago, according to pricing documents from UP and BNSF partners seen by the Journal of Commerce. Adding pressure to the domestic intermodal market is Amazon, which is leveraging its fleet of more than 20,000 branded containers. The e-commerce giant is courting shippers with very aggressive rates to fill its boxes on backhauls from the inland to the West Coast in a bid to balance its freight flows originating on the West Coast, according to two intermodal shippers who spoke with the Journal of Commerce. Contact Ari Ashe at <a href="mailto:ari.ashe@spglobal.com">ari.ashe@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Domestic intermodal providers are expressing frustration with what they say is a challenging freight market as early bids on annual contracts with shippers have yielded only small rate increases in California and flat or declining rates in other regions. That reality is underscoring a tough pricing environment for carriers as 2025 begins. One asset-based intermodal executive who did not want to be identified said he was “disappointed” with the results of annual contracts already awarded for 2025, saying they fell below his expectations. The source said he hopes to eke out a 1% or 2% increase on annual contracts that are inked in the first quarter and lobby for mid-single-digit percentage increases on a second wave of intermodal bids this spring. Meanwhile, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, the largest US intermodal carrier, has urged shippers to engage in “transparent conversations” about freight rates. In an advisory sent to shippers last week that was obtained by the Journal of Commerce, the company cited robust California outbound volumes during the 2024 peak season as a reason to agree to higher rates now. “Inflation and rising costs have made our current margins unsustainable over the long term,” the advisory said. Railroads moved more than 82,000 containers from the Southwest to the Midwest last October, a record for any month, according to the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA). The Journal of Commerce estimates railroads hauled about 50,000 containers from Los Angeles to Chicago, the busiest US lane, that month, also a record. One intermodal shipper who did not want to be identified said despite the robust peak season in Southern California for trucking and rail, there is still abundant capacity available to handle current freight demand, adding that rate increases won’t occur until shippers struggle to procure containers or trailers. “As long as the supply of containers, drivers and over-the-road equipment is sufficient for freight demand, rates are going to stay flat or go down as carriers compete to keep their equipment moving,” the shipper said. “Rates only go up significantly when the supply is insufficient or inadequate to handle freight demand, causing shippers to worry whether their product will move downstream in enough time to generate revenue.” Flexibility to negotiate Union Pacific Railroad (UP) is seeking rate increases in California while conceding to flat or lower rates in several inland markets, according to a pricing matrix compiled by the company and obtained by the Journal of Commerce. Aggregate pricing for low-volume shippers, which serves as a ceiling for negotiations with customers moving higher volumes, shows proposed increases of 5.9% in Southern California and 3.1% in Northern California, effective Feb. 1. However, UP has shown flexibility to negotiate more aggressive rates to keep incumbent customers or take business away from competitors. “If UP really wants the lane and it fits well within their network, they’re willing to help us retain existing business and compete against J.B. Hunt,” said a non-asset intermodal marketing company (IMC) executive. “Other BNSF partners are also offering attractive rates to take business from UP.” The need to work aggressively to keep or win business has some intermodal carriers and brokers pessimistic about the first half of the year. “The magic date for me is June,” a second non-asset IMC executive told the Journal of Commerce. “Either truckload capacity will have shrunk considerably and the market dynamics have shifted, or it’ll be another tough year for carriers,” BNSF and UP seem reluctant to raise rates in inland markets such as Chicago, Memphis, Minneapolis and St. Louis, with proposed rates flat or lower than a year ago, according to pricing documents from UP and BNSF partners seen by the Journal of Commerce. Adding pressure to the domestic intermodal market is Amazon, which is leveraging its fleet of more than 20,000 branded containers. The e-commerce giant is courting shippers with very aggressive rates to fill its boxes on backhauls from the inland to the West Coast in a bid to balance its freight flows originating on the West Coast, according to two intermodal shippers who spoke with the Journal of Commerce. Contact Ari Ashe at ari.ashe@spglobal.com .

Intermodal providers navigate tough pricing environment at start of year

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The pricing move means a general rate increase planned by carriers for Jan. 15 will not be implemented, forwarders say, because demand is not sufficient to support another boost.</div>

The pricing move means a general rate increase planned by carriers for Jan. 15 will not be implemented, forwarders say, because demand is not sufficient to support another boost.

<div class="phx-topic">Most ocean carriers on the eastbound trans-Pacific are extending their current spot rates through the end of January, a sign that liners are losing pricing power even before the trade enters its weakest month of the year. Three of those carriers — including Hapag-Lloyd — are even taking the uncommon step of offering customers guaranteed rates into mid-February, sources say. Those pricing moves mean a general rate increase (GRI) planned by carriers for Jan. 15 will not be implemented, forwarders told the Journal of Commerce, because demand, while strong enough now to support the current rate level, is not sufficient to support another boost. “We’re not only getting two-week [guaranteed] rates, we’re [also] getting 30-day rates to Feb. 15,” said Christian Sur, executive vice president of ocean freight contract logistics at the forwarder Unique Logistics International. The fact that Hapag-Lloyd and two smaller lines that sources identified as Wan Hai and SM Lines have extended their rates for a full month to mid-February is especially significant because carriers normally guarantee rates for only two weeks. The advanced undercutting suggests carriers expect capacity to outpace demand even more in the coming month, further eroding pricing power. <h3>Lunar New Year factory closures </h3>The weakening market is driven by the reality that many factories in Asia will soon close for a week or two for the annual Lunar New Year holiday that begins Jan. 29. By guaranteeing spot rates through the end of the month, carriers are attempting to build “roll pools” of containers at Asian load ports to carry them into February, said James Caradonna, executive vice president at the forwarder M&amp;R Spedag Group. “Space is still OK, but some carriers are not as full as others,” Caradonna said, adding some carriers are willing to provide customers the space they want even if they exceed the minimum quantity commitment (MQC) in their contracts. Carriers confirm that with the Lunar New Year holidays approaching, further rate hikes are unlikely. “Rates are coming down pretty fast to the West Coast,” a carrier executive told the Journal of Commerce. A second carrier source acknowledged: “It seems like rates have crested and are drifting lower.” Spot rates from North Asia to the West Coast were $4,700 per FEU as of Jan. 13, down 10% on the week, according to Platts, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. East Coast rates of $6,000 were down 7% from last week. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="e7a65aab-9aac-4f07-9b74-1793746c01ef"></dynamic-object></div>Customers also have access to discounts provided by so-called “bullet” rates, which are special commodity- or trade lane-specific rates that are lower than the posted spot rates and freight-all-kinds (FAK) rates paid by forwarders. “The promotional rates are starting to proliferate,” said Kurt McElroy, executive vice president of the forwarder Kerry Apex. Bookings for shipments into February have peaked and will only decline further, he said, adding special rates to the West Coast are in the low $4,000s. An industry consultant who did not want to be identified said the fact that some carriers are extending current spot rates into mid-February indicates the drop in demand is accelerating. And that means some customers may choose to delay bookings of non-essential merchandise to see if spot rates decline further during the factory closures in Asia, the source said. Now that the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) has reached a tentative contract agreement with East and Gulf coast employees, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/ila-usmx-reach-tentative-deal-that-avoids-another-port-strike-5919519">averting a second strike</a>, shippers are focusing primarily on what the tariff policy of President-elect Donald Trump will be after he takes office Jan. 20. If the higher tariffs Trump has threatened do not take effect on day one of the new administration but are staggered into the spring and summer, the eastbound trans-Pacific will experience a “massive frontloading” of imports, McElroy said. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at <a href="mailto:bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com">bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Most ocean carriers on the eastbound trans-Pacific are extending their current spot rates through the end of January, a sign that liners are losing pricing power even before the trade enters its weakest month of the year. Three of those carriers — including Hapag-Lloyd — are even taking the uncommon step of offering customers guaranteed rates into mid-February, sources say. Those pricing moves mean a general rate increase (GRI) planned by carriers for Jan. 15 will not be implemented, forwarders told the Journal of Commerce, because demand, while strong enough now to support the current rate level, is not sufficient to support another boost. “We’re not only getting two-week [guaranteed] rates, we’re [also] getting 30-day rates to Feb. 15,” said Christian Sur, executive vice president of ocean freight contract logistics at the forwarder Unique Logistics International. The fact that Hapag-Lloyd and two smaller lines that sources identified as Wan Hai and SM Lines have extended their rates for a full month to mid-February is especially significant because carriers normally guarantee rates for only two weeks. The advanced undercutting suggests carriers expect capacity to outpace demand even more in the coming month, further eroding pricing power. Lunar New Year factory closures The weakening market is driven by the reality that many factories in Asia will soon close for a week or two for the annual Lunar New Year holiday that begins Jan. 29. By guaranteeing spot rates through the end of the month, carriers are attempting to build “roll pools” of containers at Asian load ports to carry them into February, said James Caradonna, executive vice president at the forwarder M&R Spedag Group. “Space is still OK, but some carriers are not as full as others,” Caradonna said, adding some carriers are willing to provide customers the space they want even if they exceed the minimum quantity commitment (MQC) in their contracts. Carriers confirm that with the Lunar New Year holidays approaching, further rate hikes are unlikely. “Rates are coming down pretty fast to the West Coast,” a carrier executive told the Journal of Commerce. A second carrier source acknowledged: “It seems like rates have crested and are drifting lower.” Spot rates from North Asia to the West Coast were $4,700 per FEU as of Jan. 13, down 10% on the week, according to Platts, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. East Coast rates of $6,000 were down 7% from last week. Customers also have access to discounts provided by so-called “bullet” rates, which are special commodity- or trade lane-specific rates that are lower than the posted spot rates and freight-all-kinds (FAK) rates paid by forwarders. “The promotional rates are starting to proliferate,” said Kurt McElroy, executive vice president of the forwarder Kerry Apex. Bookings for shipments into February have peaked and will only decline further, he said, adding special rates to the West Coast are in the low $4,000s. An industry consultant who did not want to be identified said the fact that some carriers are extending current spot rates into mid-February indicates the drop in demand is accelerating. And that means some customers may choose to delay bookings of non-essential merchandise to see if spot rates decline further during the factory closures in Asia, the source said. Now that the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) has reached a tentative contract agreement with East and Gulf coast employees, averting a second strike , shippers are focusing primarily on what the tariff policy of President-elect Donald Trump will be after he takes office Jan. 20. If the higher tariffs Trump has threatened do not take effect on day one of the new administration but are staggered into the spring and summer, the eastbound trans-Pacific will experience a “massive frontloading” of imports, McElroy said. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com .

Container Shipping News

Trans-Pacific

Carriers extend spot rates in bid to avoid further rate erosion in eastbound trans-Pac

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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

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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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An in-depth analysis of transport trends in the multipurpose and heavy-lift fleet segment

Breakbulk Report - Rectangle Box

Breakbulk Quarterly

Customers scoring their intermodal partners to identify the best service providers

Intermodal Service Scorecard - Rectangle Box

Intermodal Service Scorecard

The only editorially independent conference for the breakbulk & project cargo industry

Breakbulk Conference - Rectangle Box

Attend Breakbulk25

The premier conference for the global container shipping and supply chain community

TPM Conference - Rectangle Box

Attend TPM25

A premium access index of savings using domestic intermodal vs. OTR 

ISI Report - Rectangle Box

Intermodal Savings Index

An extensive dashboard of charts organized by trade lane, mode, and topic

Gateway - Rectangle Box

Gateway

A premium access outlook critical to shippers and transportation providers

QI Report - Rectangle Box

Quarterly Intelligence

Breakbulk News shipping | Journal of Commerce

Breakbulk News

Container shipping news and analysis of ocean container shipping, logistics, supply chains, technology and end-to-end connectivity.

Container Shipping News | Journal of Commerce

Stay informed on port news worldwide with Journal of Commerce. From decarbonization to labor updates, get insights on global developments.

Port News | Journal of Commerce

Port News

News and analysis of ocean containerized cargo movement, logistics, supply chains, technology, and end-to-end connectivity. Maritime news and analysis of containerized ocean cargo movement, breakbulk and roll-on and roll-off shipping from origin to destination.

Latest News

More News & Analysis

Intermodal comes off strong 2024 to face market unknowns of new year: analyst

Visibility vendors move to extend reach and relevancy in rebalancing market

US LTL truck pricing flat, but still elevated despite low demand