Commentary

A US regulatory cloud hangs over railroads amid service deterioration.

To blame the entirety of the supply chain problems on “foreign” carriers is a tried-and-true tactic — and grossly unfair.

Pricing from the National Motor Freight Classification still works and with some low-cost tweaks, it can work even better.

The challenges faced by the intermodal industry stem from treating intermodal like carload and paying insufficient attention to service.

As a starting point, it might be useful to consider what we do not have enough of.

Labor powering freight transportation is in the driver's seat.

In a tight market, shippers need forwarders more than ever. How can shippers make sure they have the right partners to lean on?

There is no better source for your order volume forecast accuracy than your downstream end-user.

San Pedro is the beating heart of our nation’s transportation system. Let’s hope the close-up is favorable.

Operators have been losing money for decades. As the city tries to shift the burden of the Queen Mary to the port, can we really expect the future to be any different?

At a time of stretched global supply chains, the answer is not for Washington policymakers to dictate a “solution” that would lead to fewer chassis.

The Suez Canal disruption shows that network constraints — known or unexpected — can generate disruptions and diseconomies of scale.

The constellation of problems facing intermodal rail is daunting, but not insurmountable, given proper attention. The issues of outsourcing, rigid scheduling, and insufficient attention to service can be overcome to bring in intermodal’s bright future.

Companies offering managed transportation management services have traditionally struggled to integrate parcel and last mile service into their traditional freight offerings, but the mandate to do so is growing thanks to e-commerce demand.

The Biden administration’s first priority should be immediate action to keep supply chains stable amid COVID-19.

As we begin 2021, we hope to leave behind the disruptions of 2020 — the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting global recession, collapsing oil prices, Brexit, and a bitter US presidential cycle, to name a few — but however brief it is, disruption always leaves permanent change in its wake.

Houston-based industry group offers mentoring and professional connections that are hard for students to find during the pandemic.

Someone on a ship may have weeks or months to go before getting home.

While it may not be necessary to completely re-create the Super Van network in the 21st century, the intermodal sector may need to move towards something closer to that so-called ancient model.

Companies that want to do business with carriers that support the TradeLens cloud service have no option but to join and supply the required data.

The federal government could accelerate electric trucking by allowing heavier trucks

Because “hedonic,” supply-and-demand-based pricing leads to bigger swings in trucking rates, accounting for both costs and market sentiment data could smooth the market’s inherent peaks and valleys.

How logistics providers came together to expedite a buried container needed for one of the world’s top tennis tournaments show why personal relationships still matter in this industry.

Technology is often cited as the key to overcoming challenges for shippers and the logistics providers that serve them, but what if technology hinders the achievement of those goals instead of enabling them?

Focusing on the mid-size and large players, modernizing core systems and shifting to modern systems is the baseline to which many need to aspire.

With so many products currently subject to Trump administration tariffs, a huge portion of entries from China will not be eligible for CBP's recently announced COVID-19-related duty deferral program.

It’s time for PSR 2.0++, which provides the means for implementing and scaling PSR for mainstream adoption – not just within individual railroads, but across railroads and across the entire transportation ecosystem.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) puts supply chain in the global spotlight, though, it fails when purchasing, manufacturing and transportation don't come together.

Any rush to return to normalcy could lead to the doubling or tripling of inland transportation costs per container.

Many companies still lack adequate risk aversion planning, planning that should now include disruptions, including special tariffs against China and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).