Commentary

The latest change in the rollout of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol's Automated Commercial Environment, or ACE, means that some functions will be moved to the new system, while others will remain on the legacy Automated Commercial System, or ACS, for some time, creating opportunities for confusion.

A shipper negotiates a reduced rate with a railroad that’s published in a confidential document. Later, the carrier publishes a lower rate in a public document, and refuses to give that rate to the shipper holding the original agreement. Is there legal recourse?

As the IMO's container weight rules near launch, there is great doubt about how countries will implement them and even if they can. For those who can, there’s the time and cost elements to consider as well as the concern about being different from others that can’t comply. Are those reasons to do nothing or to comply when convenient?

With each passing day, the difficulties of implementing the SOLAS container weight rule by July 1 become ever more apparent. I’m getting the strong feeling that given its potential to disrupt a significant portion of world trade — that which moves via ocean container — it won’t be long before this issue hits the headlines of the mainstream business media.

Will the National Motor Freight Classification system ultimately vanish into obscurity? The answer is a clear-cut affirmative, and there’s certainly an argument that it should happen sooner rather than later.

Shipping is not a business for widows and orphans. Seldom has that adage been truer than in today’s breakbulk and project cargo market. Risks always have been part and parcel of cargo transportation. Unpredictable economic conditions and sluggish global demand will make 2016 especially dicey.

Container carriers took a lot of capacity out of the market in the last quarter of 2015, but not enough to influence rate-making decisions. Could the carriers take out more capacity, enough to influence rates? The simple answer is “yes” and “why not?”

If there’s a ray of good news to be found in China, it’s that the “something bad” Nariman Behravesh, IHS chief exonomist, referenced at the TPM Conference last March isn’t likely to be the full-blown financial crisis that hit the U.S. in 2008, but a longer-term period of slow growth.

In less than six months, the new container weight verification rule will take effect. However, the China-based manufacturers, freight forwarders and shipping lines I spoke to don’t expect much to change and have only a moderate awareness of what SOLAS even means.

It goes without saying that 2016 will be a momentous year for the container shipping industry. I should say another momentous year, considering the year just ended certainly held its own in that category. Unfortunately, synonyms to the word “momentous” when referring to container shipping aren’t words such as “historical,” “pivotal” or “decisive,” but are more along the lines of “chaotic,” “disruptive,” “costly,” “agonizing” and “painful,” and you could add to that “annoying” and “dispiriting” or even “depressing.”

In many respects a success story, the Port of Los Angeles' handling of the mega-ship Benjamin Franklin was the culmination of huge investments in dredging, facilities and systems. But the story looks different from another perspective.

When the JOC editorial team last fall looked at themes and subjects that would dominate 2016, there was no shortage of possibilities: continuing port congestion; the opening of the Panama Canal’s new locks; container weight regulations that will put the burden on shippers to verify that what they say their containerized freight weighs actually does; and, of course, carriers’ continuing battle to stay above water in an age of record-low freight rates. It’s that last issue that ultimately shined a light on what, we believe, will be the story of 2016: consolidation.

The proposed rule linking truckers' safety ratings to CSA data is an Internet-age vision, but more clarity is needed when it comes to the data and processes that would support it.

There are many hidden costs and variables which should be taken into account when comparing a price quote for what appears to be the same widget from, say, Changzhou, Jiangsu, versus that of Fuling, Chongqing.

With implementation just six months away, a palpable anxiety about how the IMO’s container weight rule will be implemented is becoming ever more manifest.

Trucking companies facing a new Canadian eManifest deadline should follow these five steps to prepare for the rules and avoid fines and border delays.

With the dawning of the mega-ship era in the U.S. with the 18,000-TEU CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin calling at the Port of Los Angeles in December, the need to develop additional means to fight port congestion is all the more urgent.

China's ports and warehouses are refusing to handle dangerous goods cargoes in the wake of the Tianjin port explosion, driving up costs and threatening the supply chains, logistics operators, and manufacturers that deal in those products.

A newly released paper by a global industry consulting firm on how performance-based pricing at container terminals could potentially unlock large, dormant value pools in container shipping has useful ideas but fails to address fundamental issues in the nature of carrier-terminal business dynamics that would ultimately undermine any such initiatives.

Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Officer Jon W. Slangerup responds to concerns that West Coast ports are not yet ready to handle mega-ships.

With the Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, nearly upon us, here are six ways to avoid getting burned by late deliveries.

The story of YRC Worldwide is not unlike that of the Titanic on its maiden voyage journey from the U.K. to New York City over a century ago. YRC Worldwide was headed to same fate if it had not been for the redirection of its “captain.”

U.S. law doesn’t distinguish between two methods of bill of lading preparation. It doesn’t matter if you, the shipper, tell the motor carrier what is being shipped and he or his representative writes the information down on the B/L form, or you do it by filling out the form yourself and give the completed form to the carrier for “issuance.”

China finally bit the bullet and issued national rules to curb emissions from ships at its main port areas.

For those who like stability, predictability, the ocean shipping industry just isn’t in your comfort zone. And from all outward appearances, stability won’t exist for a couple of years.

2015 may not go down as the most disruptive or revolutionary year in freight transportation history, but it’s certainly been one of the most transformative ones.

If CMA CGM acquires Neptune Orient Lines and its APL brand, the new entity will potentially be the new market leader in the trans-Pacific eastbound trade lane, the latest jolt to this market that already this year absorbed the frontal assault of a longshore labor meltdown.

Mega-ships have spawned a number of problems for shipping companies, from profitability to ports, but where there are problems, solutions aren't far off.

Arranging for the transportation of shipments by carriers for compensation should require licensing and bonding as a third-party logistics provider. However, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration seems to turn a blind eye to this online service.

APM Terminals, Canadian National Railway and the Alabama State Port Authority to use key performance indicators to hold each other accountable.

Amazon’s fulfillment operations are process fanatics. Fast, efficient processes are designed, and everyone is trained to follow the correct process, which especially makes handling peak shipping periods with temporary associates that much more successful.

As the railroads begin to get their service houses back in order, an impediment to intermodal growth is being removed. What remains to be seen is how badly the intermodal reputation has been damaged and how long that damage will take to repair.

It’s critical that you ensure the shipper recognizes and acknowledges your role as a broker, and not a carrier. It’s likewise important that you document this understanding so that no legal question can arise later.

EU regulators recently approved FedEx’s acquisition of TNT after considering restrictions to ensure competitiveness in the market just a month earlier. If any customers or competitors are thinking of filing objections, they should be reminded that there would be no sound basis for any such move.

A sustained and intensive effort to foster corporate social responsibility initiatives across the maritime sector would have benefits both inside and outside the industry.

Numerous events over the last year will shape how the ranking of the world’s top transportation and logistics companies looks at the end of 2016. UPS’s reign as the world’s largest transportation company may be short-lived, because several other companies are racing toward the top.

There may be no better indicator of how shippers view the transportation landscape than in how they see freight rates trending through next fall. At its core, that singular piece of data among reams of it in Wolfe Research’s Third Quarter “State of the Freight” report is a microcosm of what’s occurring in global and North American supply chains amid a languishing Chinese economy whose pain is spreading globally.

From his vantage point in the Houston market, despite the current equilibrium, Brian Fielkow, CEO of regional trucker and 3PL Jetco Delivery, is witness to the challenges facing truckers and customers throughout the U.S. as the driver shortage steadily worsens.

Shippers are required by law to document hazardous material shipments, and follow a raft of other standards concerning packaging, co-loading and other aspects of their movement.

The Belt and Road initiative - potentially involving an area equal to 55 percent of the global GDP, 70 percent of the global population and 75 percent of known energy reserves – is reshaping global supply chains.