Commentary

A phrase repeated during congressional hearings and bar arguments during the early days of the Reagan administration, "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a tax," was always a pretty good hint that someone wasn't a fan of the user-fee approach to reducing the federal budget deficit.

A veteran shipper finds that expanding into the international arena provides an entirely new set of transportation challenges.

As the long, slow economic recovery grinds on, collaboration between shippers and carriers and 3PLs is moving toward the mainstream.

In an industry increasingly driven by technology, YRC Worldwide CEO James Welch stresses the importance of LTL freight basics — including "don't bust it."

When Mexico this month announced an initiative to boost security on its highways, it was the latest step on the country’s road to becoming a world-class manufacturer. But it also served as the latest acknowledgement that to do so, it must raise security where it is so sorely lacking.

This fall, what will become the Kansas City Intermodal Facility will be a loud and busy place as BNSF’s newest intermodal terminal roars to life. But what is more noteworthy is the planned adjoining park for multiple large distribution centers.

A brief two-day trip of more than 1,000 road miles gave me the chance to see an amazing story unfolding — development of a 3,000-acre plot of land into what will be a major inland port in Minot, N.D.

A shipper challenges a motor carrier's geographic-based surcharges on deliveries to a specific location. Does it have a case?

There’s plenty to cause concern about the transportation industry’s ongoing environmental impact, with freight traffic to and from the U.S. set to increase by at least a third during the next 10 years. Here are five things ports can do to curb emissions and improve air quality.

Are China’s days as the world’s largest manufacturing nation numbered? Yes, if you're willing to believe a growing number of business media and analysts.

The loss of the airship USS Akron in 1933 heralded the end of the rigid airship era and a change in naval and aviation history.

A truck accident that occurred when the driver had a seizure results in the loss of a $50,000 shipment. Does the shipper have a case or is it a complete loss?

It appears the ports of California are on the verge of adopting a policy that will automatically increase costs for their tenants and customers on an annual basis, even as California ports already are losing market share.

The slow global recovery coupled with the uncertainty of European and Chinese economies have markets, corporations and consumers on edge. The blogosphere and the traditional media are abuzz with proposed remedies for the stumbling economy. Lately, the role of free trade agreements in the recovering economy seems to be one of the most discussed topics.

Obama administration to U.S. merchant marine: Drop dead. That’s the clear message from a reported plan to replace U.S. food aid and its U.S.-flag shipping requirements with a new program of cash payments for purchasing food overseas.

By nearly every measure, container shipping capacity will increase more rapidly than demand. So why are carriers predicting an increase in rates?

The relative calm of ocean transportation becomes choppy for international freight as soon as it hits land in North America.

Is the push to limit the federal government’s role worth worry about for the transportation industry?

As we wait to see whether the new International Longshoremen’s Association contract wins rank-and-file ratification, this is a good time to ask: Why were these negotiations so darn difficult?

A slow-boiling debate that’s been simmering since last year has broken out into the open: Is the container industry approaching an “inflection point” in which the balance of supply and demand shifts decisively in favor of the carriers? Despite skepticism among some leading analysts, several trends point in that direction.

2012’s container shipping rally produced rising freight rates that brought liner operators back to profitability. But with the market at another ebb, liner companies collectively must keep a cool head and resist the temptation to engage in a price war that would jeopardize a sustainable recovery.

Long-term contracts are a poor idea in today’s volatile business world. Parties should leave themselves free to reconsider contract terms in light of changing circumstances. This shipper's problem could have been alleviated.

In the month since the TPM Conference, I’ve had a chance to process what came out of the sessions and in private conversations, and here’s one of my main takeaways: Although carriers and cargo interests want to think they’re getting closer together in thought and deed, they aren’t, and the split may be getting wider.

Depending on your age, the recently announced contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association and United States Maritime Alliance could be considered “your father’s” (or grandfather’s) labor deal. Labor received wage and benefit improvements, while management achieved minimal concessions on other issues.

This week’s Government Accountability Office analysis of the Jones Act and Puerto Rico landed with a dull thud.

The hours-of-service rules proposed by the Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will be a disaster for the motor carrier industry. We already have enough trouble attracting qualified drivers, and the rules will hammer us further by requiring all kinds of additional “rest” times before drivers can get on the road after a shift.

Shipping lines on the busy North Sea and Baltic routes are jostling for position ahead of another round of consolidation as the private equity funds and buyout firms that rushed into the market during the boom days of easily available capital and debt finance and strong traffic growth are bowing out.

On Sunday, July 31, 2011, Tropical Storm Nok-Ten made landfall in northern Vietnam, and quickly entered northeastern Thailand. The flash flooding that would begin across Thailand’s northern regions soon would spill onto the lower central provinces, fed by weeks of winter monsoon rains.

It’s an amazing thing: After a year of meetings, conference calls, multiple draft panel ideas and draft agendas; after dozens (hundreds?) of speaker recruitment calls around the world; new ideas, old ideas, rejected ideas and a pretty solid group of keepers; through industry ups and downs and an election; and after myriad distractions, errors and omissions, starts and stops, cancellations and last-minute changes, the 13th annual TPM Conference has come and gone, and planning for TPM 2014 is beginning.

After five years with an operating ratio above 96 percent, Saia was one of three public less-than-truckload carriers to report an operating ratio less than 95 percent in 2012.

Twitter may be an unparalleled tool to toss out a short thought, idea or a headline, but to say it tells half the story does it too much justice; it tells a much smaller fraction of the story. Below are a few of my tweets or re-tweets from this month’s TPM Conference with a bit more than 140 characters of explanation

We have a fairly large private trucking company, employing owner-operators. We train them, and maintain operational control, specifying routes the routes they must use. We require certain equipment installation. Our contracts specify the owner-operator is an independent contractor. Are we correct in not treating our drivers as employees?

The negative impacts of sequestration on the international trade community are looming for California's public ports, and what happens there will ripple through the national economy in a matter of weeks unless Congress takes quick action.

After a no-fault chain reaction highway accident destroys a truck and its cargo, a motor carrier questions its insurer’s claim of a $100,000 liability limit on $250,000 in damages.

As the TPM Conference convenes in Long Beach this week, the trans-Pacific market’s ability to throw curveballs year after year continues to impress. In past years, these took the form of port congestion, West Coast labor unrest and biblical rail backups — all largely unanticipated and forcing the industry into crisis mode.

A contracted carrier is paid by a shipper, and goes out of business. The shipper is then asked to pay a bill for that shipment by another carrier. Without its knowledge, the contracted carrier subcontracted the move to another carrier. Must the shipper double-pay?