Commentary

For four years, as Congress and the Bush administration failed to deal realistically with transportation infrastructure, there's been a loud and insistent call for leadership on the need for investmen

China’s visceral reaction to President Obama’s imposition of 35 percent tariffs on Chinese-made tires and the attention it attracted in the media made it appear as if the mother of all trade wars was

Q: I work for a motor carrier. I have a shortage claim for 17 cases of cigarettes from an import container that our company delivered to a U.S. location.

As industry chatter picks up about possible diversion of cargo away from West Coast load centers, it’s not as clear to me as it is to some that West Coast port volume will continue to decline in favor

Conventional wisdom has been that the current crisis in container shipping will produce a shakeout of global carriers. Will it? Don't be so sure.

Shippers have always talked about the need to maintain relationships with carriers in good times and bad. Lately we're seeing signs that some of them mean it.

With its current annual conference under way, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals is looking ahead to next year with plans for a live lab where attendees can test the latest technolog

The global recession has deeply impacted the breakbulk industry, leaving no sector untouched despite some positive trends.

I anticipate a strengthening of business in the latter part of 2010, as the Port of Mobile is beginning to see recovery not only in regional manufacturing, but also in some industrial sectors in China

When the price of a barrel of oil briefly spiked to $147 last year, the concept of near-sourcing gained instant currency as the far-flung and circuitous supply chain that had become a hallmark of glob

Q: We are a broker who hired a carrier that had an accident in a truck hauling six pallets of merchandise for our customer.

With the peak shipping season here and activity barely causing a ripple in global transportation networks, attention among shippers and carriers alike is already turning to next year and what the busi

Warren Buffett had something surprising to say about shipping and transportation today in this interview on CNBC marking the sor

Atlantic and Gulf ports are still buzzing over this month's rejection by ILA delegates of a two-year contract extension -- and are wondering what it means for next year.

This is the annual peak season for speculation about how strong the fall peak season will be for imports for the holiday sales season.

For the past year the conventional view has been that shippers were flocking away from air cargo for the more friendly pricing in ocean transport, particularly as container shipping rates plunged to h

As the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks came and went last week, a question came to mind: Is government policy toward container shipping finally shifting from an attitude of “what should

The warehousing and distribution industry is taking bold steps to respond to changing economic and business circumstances.

When supply chain professionals met in Denver last October for the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals' annual conference, the mood could hardly have been gloomier.

One labor leader quoted in these pages last week summed up the gathering controversy over regulation of harbor trucking by saying the debate is over an “arcane, 30-year-o

It's tempting to see the recent hijacking of a Russian cargo ship in the waters near western Europe and its abrupt rescue more than a week later as an isolated mystery, one of the maritime world's man

Chris Anderson’s book, “Free: The Past and Future of a Radical Price,” describes a sustainable business model built on distributing free products, usually through the Internet.

Companies are increasingly taking a close look at the supply chain expenses that can mean the difference between ending the year in the red or black.

When anyone talks about the “transfer of wealth” today, they usually are describing how the rich are getting richer while everyone else stagnates or gets poorer.

Sometimes a person has to wonder whether the U.S. is basing its economic future on museums and coffee shops.

The truce between the top two officers of the International Longshoremen's Association will be tested this week in Orlando, where the ILA's 200-member wage scale committee is expected to receive water

Want to know what’s really happening in the economy? Check your car tires.

The controversies stemming from the clean-trucks programs at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have focused renewed attention on the doctrine of pre-emption, the principle in which federal law s

The food safety system in America is broken.

The two are moving forward in lock-step: an intensifying campaign led by Los Angeles Mayor and former union leader Antonio Villaraigosa to alter federal transportation law to pave the way for port tru

The best news for the shipping and trading economy didn’t come in the broad industrial numbers that suggest a recovery is approaching or in the jolt U.S.

What's the biggest infrastructure challenge at the Port of New York and New Jersey? Hands down, it's the Bayonne Bridge, but a solution won't come easily, quickly or cheaply.

There was some interesting colloquy at Daniel R. Elliott’s confirmation hearing to be chairman of the Surface Transportation Board.

YRC Worldwide won an important victory when a majority of Teamsters at its largest subsidiary voted to accept a second round of wage and benefits cuts.

To most observers, the current economic conditions for the industry simply reflect dreadful numbers.

There can be no doubt that logistics in the U.S. is an internationally driven business. Volumes, services and revenue streams to one degree or another all reflect the U.S.

It’s tempting to use high-minded, vaguely academic language to describe what is happening in the international shipping market, something like “strategic asset optimization” or “yield management.”

The idea that only employee drivers who could eventually be unionized would be able to reduce truck emissions around seaports was preposterous on its face as well as illegal, and it took the federal c

A.P. Moller-Maersk's announcement that it will close its Odensk Steel shipyard in Denmark must have been a wrenching decision at the company's Copenhagen headquarters.

In a world mired in economic and financial woes brought about by dubious business practices, Panama has raised the bar by putting forth an airtight contracting process while awarding its largest-ever