Commentary

Is there a bright line between fostering local business and trade protectionism? Where does one end and the other begin?

Those who ship goods by container have barely been impacted by piracy off East Africa.

The story of 2010 for container lines and their customers isn’t just one of carriers reneging on their contracts.

The contentious and sometimes violent dispute between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the EGT grain export terminal in Longview, Wash., may reach an important legal milestone this

It’s out in the open now. South Carolina is now officially opposed to deepening the Savannah River. I see this as a big deal with huge long-term implications for where cargo moves in the U.S.

Ten years after the September 11 terror attacks, the United States has a spectacularly inexcusable problem regulating motor carriers that haul hazardous materials. The U.S.

While most shippers applaud the call by Maersk Line CEO Eivind Kolding for a change in the way the container industry conducts business, rival carriers see it as a campaign by the world’s larges

The prospect of cutting hundreds of millions of dollars out of your freight bills is enough to drive some big shippers into mergers. Just ask International Paper.

The echo chamber of infrastructure advocacy debate opened up a bit last month, and it’s important that the businesses in the transportation and trade world pay attention.

One could toil away for years in the shipping industry without hearing more than a few passing references to the Harbor Maintenance Tax.

Q: We’re a motor carrier, and recently subbed out a load to another carrier.

Living in Virginia, the biggest sports news I read often revolves around the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Although the trucking industry and environmental interests are claiming victory following a federal court of appeals

The willingness of the Port of Long Beach, its harbor commissioners and its customers to adapt to containerization and intermodalism have helped to make the port the second busiest container gateway i

Summer is just about over and hopefully you’ve had a chance to get some down time: some activity that gets you away from your desks, telephones, Blackberries, iPhones, laptops, whatever type of

It’s hard to imagine in looking at the reports of slack demand and plentiful capacity on the trans-Pacific over the summer that a squeeze on shipping space is imminent, but that possibility is l

Fasten your seatbelts, as that non-vessel operator Bette Davis famously said, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Q: My company ordered a truck — four, actually — from a third party.

When is a pallet more than a pallet?

Soon after President Obama in his 2010 State of the Union Address challenged the U.S.

It is great news for the nation’s millions of unemployed or underemployed people to find our elected officials now are focused on challenges faced with the high level of unemployment, which is s

Thursday’s announcement that the Panama Canal Pilots Union voted to affiliate with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union sent shivers down the spines of employers on both the East and

The logic behind the two competing proposals for a long-term transportation spending plan sound pretty good unless you go outside the Beltway’s infrastructure circles.

Q: Can you help me understand what’s going on in Washington these days?

It’s tempting to look at Maersk Line’s announcement of daily service with delivery guarantees within the tight parameters of the shipping line’s own operations and economics, and its

One of my curious discoveries when researching a column recently on the growing market share of non-vessel-operating common carriers in the U.S.

The annual conference of the American Association of Port Authorities in Seattle isn’t just an ideal occasion for top port executives to discuss successes and challenges.

One of the most memorable images from last week's highly heated and sometimes violent actions by Internatio

A number of friends have asked recently, “What’s it like, working that side of the street?” That “side of the street” is the non-vessel-operating side after 27 years with

Q: My company, a 3PL provider, arranged for less-than-truckload service for a customer. This customer prints materials for trade shows and promotional marketing campaigns.

We all should have projected that forecasting would be at the forefront of the debates over the future of business processes between shippers and carriers.

Will President Obama offer any carrots or does he just keep swinging a stick to pressure budget-cutting lawmakers for new transportation spending?

U.S. poultry exporters had their best pay period ever during the first half of the year when meat valued at $2.16 billion was shipped overseas.

When I woke on September 11, 2001, I faced what I regarded as the world’s most tedious commute, from my home in Brooklyn Heights to The Journal of Commerce’s Newark, N.J., office — a

Customs has a storage problem, and how it is adapting will dramatically affect importers who file paper entries.

The battle over the U.S. debt will affect Americans and government spending for a long time, and will mean major sacrifices in many programs.

In a recently released report drawing from its deep well of data on non-vessel-operating common carriers, Journal of Commerce sister company

Q: Now that ocean carriers are implementing so-called no-show fees when a container misses its booked sailing, we’re faced with a problem when a rail or motor carrier delivery arrives late at a

President Obama’s call last week for simple, straightforward extensions of national transportation programs was well reasoned and measured, and a desperately worrisome window on the state of pol

President Obama said it best: “To attract new businesses to our shores, we need the fastest, most reliable ways to move people, goods and information.”