Commentary

A colleague and I went out to Port Newark midday Wednesday to see firsthand what was going as striking longshoremen walked a picket line, and it was interesting to see the difference in moods between

As trucking emerges from the recession, many less-than-truckload carriers are struggling to rebuild. But those LTL truckers had razor-thin profit margins even before the downturn.

President Obama’s call for a doubling of exports by U.S. companies over the next five years holds enormous potential for the U.S. economy.

As a species, we humans don’t like change. It makes us nervous and uncomfortable. We’re much happier when most things in our personal environment are stable and predictable.

Q: The following is published in the Code of Federal Regulations, 49 CFR Section 377.205(b)(2), under the subsection heading “Presentation of Freight Bills” and the additi

It’s not a stretch to say the general sentiment about the U.S. economy is negative, but is this thinking overblown? Is a contrarian view warranted? The obvious answer is no.

We call it infrastructure. President Obama calls it infrastructure.

The State Department on Aug.

The changing landscape of the global economy has pushed efficiency to the forefront of world trade.

The Great Recession could be the best thing that’s happened to supply chain management.

Remember FastShip?

Q: When a carrier sells its accounts receivable to a bank, can the shipper still offset unpaid (but acknowledged valid by the carrier) claims against the freight invoices due?

A letter from more than 30 shipper groups sent last week to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee James L.

Is the day coming when the U.S. will need to get back into the business of subsidizing container shipping to support exports? Change may be in the wind.

To get the unvarnished view of a top Senate committee chairman venting his frustration, to see how serious he is in threatening a long-running fight to toughen rail regulations, you might need to see

Before President Obama can achieve his vision of a new world for transport infrastructure, he may first have to accommodate Sen. Jay Rockefeller.

Clean Trucks, Again

Most people in the work force will not look back fondly on last year, unless they were supply chain professionals responsible for procuring transportation services.

Last month’s column (“Debatable Ideas,” Aug. 2) generated significant feedback.

It’s been a perplexing and exciting year for global trade.

Shippers develop all kinds of strategies to cope with seasonal shipping trends, but one we had not heard about was the impact of college football on coal shipping; another is the conflict between ener

Q: I have written to you a few times in the past and value your professional advice. I seek it once more.

Big questions surround the future of the East Coast as a port range as we finalize the agenda for the The Journal of Commerce’s 5th Annual East Coast Maritime Conference, to be held Sept.

It may be time to close the door to the one-stop shop.

Container lines have surprised even themselves by moving so quickly, after years of dithering, to quit providi

The Association of American Railroads delivered half-year results for rail volumes recently, so it probably isn’t too soon to forecast intermodal volume for the year, and to take a deeper look a

Q: Can you clarify why the Supreme Court ruled the way it did in the so-called “K” Line case?

Old myths die hard. Case in point, the myth that U.S.

The celebratory comments from the Port of Los Angeles seemed surprisingly muted late last month considering the victory port executives and their supporters in labor and environmental circles won in c

With the election and football seasons upon us, it must be time for political football — and the container is being used as the ball.

It's somewhat heartening to hear from Christina Romer, the departing chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, that she believes freight rail volume numbers are a great indicator of re

When out-of-town journalists parachute into New Orleans for a quick story on Hurricane Katrina’s impact, they tend to make a beeline for the city’s Lower Ninth Ward.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was touring the Federal Railroad Administration's Transportation Technology Center complex this summer in Pueblo, Colo., when his group approached a three-foot ratt

If you have problems with slow freight transportation, remember that someone else always has it worse.

Can trucking companies recovering from a devastating recession achieve profits that are sustainable, creating the conditions for a trucking renaissance?

Q: Last December, my company handled the forwarding of 55 FEUs from the U.S. West Coast to Australia.

A World Without Stimulus

Everyone in transportation is talking about retail inventories these days, but what’s clear from the latest earnings reports from the nation’s largest retailers is that the companies are a

As we move into the last week of August, the U.S. importing, exporting and international shipping sectors should be buzzing, almost frantic with activity.

Back in the 1960s when containerization was in its infancy, shipping executives had grave doubts about containers.