<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Known as Eagle GO Guaranteed, APL is extending the service to Asia-Europe and Asia-Mediterranean trades, following a successful implementation of the shipping option on the trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic, and Oceania routes.</div>

Known as Eagle GO Guaranteed, APL is extending the service to Asia-Europe and Asia-Mediterranean trades, following a successful implementation of the shipping option on the trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic, and Oceania routes.

<div><div><img></div>Known as Eagle GO Guaranteed, APL is extending the service to Asia-Europe and Asia-Mediterranean trades, following a successful implementation of the shipping option on the trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic, and Oceania routes. Photo credit: Shutterstock.com.<a>APL</a> continues to build out its service offering that targets shippers who are prepared to pay premium rates for a faster and guaranteed service that provides a 100 percent refund if the carrier fails to meet the delivery date.Known as Eagle GO Guaranteed, APL is extending the service to Asia-Europe and Asia-Mediterranean trades, following implementation of the shipping option on the trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic, and Oceania routes. The Singapore-based...

Known as Eagle GO Guaranteed, APL is extending the service to Asia-Europe and Asia-Mediterranean trades, following a successful implementation of the shipping option on the trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic, and Oceania routes. Photo credit: Shutterstock.com. APL continues to build out its service offering that targets shippers who are prepared to pay premium rates for a faster and guaranteed service that provides a 100 percent refund if the carrier fails to meet the delivery date. Known as Eagle GO Guaranteed, APL is extending the service to Asia-Europe and Asia-Mediterranean trades, following implementation of the shipping option on the trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic, and Oceania routes. The Singapore-based carrier’s premium service will be offered on its Asia-Europe network on July 1, giving shippers of time-sensitive cargo guaranteed space on 13 Europe-bound services from 27 Asian ports. Calvin Leong, APL chief trade officer, said more customers were exploring the option in anticipation of the upcoming peak trading season. “We see a consistent take-up of the APL Eagle GO Guaranteed service across Asia-North America each week, particularly by shippers from the electronic and apparel sectors,” he said. The expansion of its Eagle product across several trade lanes indicates that there is shipper demand for such a time definite and guaranteed option, but the strength of that demand is difficult to gauge as APL has declined to provide the volume of containers being carried in the service. When the premium service was launched in the fourth quarter of 2017, APL CEO Nicolas Sartini told JOC.com that it was a new approach the carrier had developed after its CMA CGM acquisition in 2016, and the right solutions rather than the lowest price would be the way forward. “We need to be more imaginative. This is what we are trying to do with our Eagle Guaranteed program,” he said. “The program is highly successful and we have launched a suite of guaranteed services to deliver to shippers and create value at premium rates.” Shippers using a service in the Eagle Guaranteed program pay a surcharge, and 100 percent of the surcharge is refunded if the delivery date is not met. The service enables APL to develop time-definite business arrangements with importers of certain products when it has a critical mass of shippers at designated destinations. “Of course, the guy who ships two containers won’t be interested, because he doesn’t need it. But for those customers with a sophisticated supply chain we want to make sure there is a just-in-time delivery that they are prepared to pay for,” Sartini said. A money-back guarantee The new service, which comes with a money-back guarantee, will apply to APL services loading cargo in the Asian ports of Dalian, Nansha, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shanghai, Shekou, Xiamen, Xingang, Yantian, Djibouti, Hong Kong, Hazira, Mundra, Nhava Sheva, Busan, Port Klang, Tanjung Pelepas, Karachi, Port Qasim, Hamad, Jeddah, King Abdullah Port, Singapore, Colombo, Kaohsiung, Taipei, and Jebel Ali. Launched in October 2017, Eagle GO Guaranteed is currently offered on 22 North America-destined services from 29 Asian ports; six US-bound services from 17 European ports, and seven services destined for Australia and New Zealand from 15 Asian ports. It is a result of ocean carriers striving to differentiate services in an increasingly commoditized business, and is leading to new offerings that range from faster ocean transits, booking guarantees, and fixed prices to further integrating landside logistics into the supply chain. The Ocean Alliance has deployed what it calls its Day Two Product incorporating 41 services across seven trades, and Maersk Line is expanding its online platform to China-Mediterranean shippers, ship.maerskline.com . It will include China-based shippers exporting to all Mediterranean destinations via Shanghai, Ningbo, and Qingdao, the carrier’s latest move to tackle the long-standing industry problem of container no-shows and cancellations. Hyundai Merchant Marine re-entered the Asia-Europe trade in April with the Asia Europe Express (AEX), which has the fastest Busan-Rotterdam transit in the market (by one day, at least). HMM already operates a premium service on the trans-Pacific that charges 10-20 percent higher rates for faster and guaranteed service. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@ihsmarkit.com and follow him on Twitter: @greg_knowler .

Container lines

APL expands guaranteed service to Asia-Europe trade

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Shippers must weigh the merits of a single-source relationship on drayage through key ports over splitting volume among regional and national carriers, or even brokers. </div>

Shippers must weigh the merits of a single-source relationship on drayage through key ports over splitting volume among regional and national carriers, or even brokers.

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<div class="phx-topic">Industry dynamics are driving shippers to diversify their allocation of volume to drayage carriers in a bid to manage increased volatility through the US ports they use for their import supply chains. Whereas shippers have historically tended to rely on a single drayage carrier in a specific gateway, the underlying technology and changing attitudes toward resilience on a chronically overlooked transportation leg are enabling that diversification. The change impacts a part of the industry that is especially fragmented, with more than 12,000 drayage carriers operating in the US on a local, regional or national basis, accounting for more than 49,000 drivers, according to the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA). And that fragmentation includes everything from national providers with as many as 2,500 trucks, to owner-operators running single-vehicle businesses. Drayage is also notorious for thin margins for operators, a reality that only deviated from the norm temporarily during the pandemic. For shippers, the hard work of managing a network of dray partners, as opposed to a single relationship, is theoretically offset by better performance and more flexibility to get the capacity required through a given gateway. While drayage capacity has been largely loose in aggregate the past two years despite solid container growth in 2024, shippers still deal with episodic periods of tightness week to week or through specific ports. “The landscape has changed significantly over the last five years,” said Reade Kidd, CEO of EDRAY, a managed transportation platform that helps importers, including Crate &amp; Barrel, Floor &amp; Decor and Samsung, to coordinate their shipments. “Pre-COVID, you saw many shippers with large volume lanes allocated to one dray carrier, leveraging one contract, one integration and one feedback loop,” Kidd said “While there are synergies and benefits from increasing scale with one provider, we have seen a significant adoption of strategies around diversification of carriers, ports and overall networks across the industry.” Michael Kroul, CEO of drayage broker KTI, said the days of using a single carrier for large volumes in a single gateway are largely gone. “There are examples of shippers only using one primary carrier in a market, but in truth they always now have backups as COVID taught them that exceptions can occur no matter how tight the bond is,” Kroul said. “We have shippers use us and two other carriers in a market, and others put 30% for spot price moves. Others stick solely through what they granted through their requests for proposal (RPFs). My safe answer would be four to five at minimum per market, even if you primarily use one for everything.” <h3>No single solution </h3>As with every other aspect of international logistics, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy that applies to all shippers, or even for a single shipper across all the US import gateways they use. The decision to allocate cargo to more than one dray carrier is primarily influenced by the overall volume moved and the week-to-week consistency of that volume. “If you have 50 containers a week on a lane, that could be ideal to have multiple carriers on the lane,” Kidd said. “However, if the volume is not consistent – 30 containers on week one and 70 containers on week two -- you could be at risk of increasing bobtails if you diversify your carrier mix.” There are ways to offset that inconsistency while using multiple carriers through the use of empty container pools and dedicated chassis programs. But most shippers have historically tended to take the path of least resistance and just pick one drayage carrier, or hand off the allocation of drayage volume to a 3PL or shipping line, many of which route that to a favored or in-house carrier. Kidd advocates for some sort of split – generally between 50-50 to 70-30 between two carriers -- that keeps options open and costs in a manageable band. “We have a number of shippers with five or more carriers on lanes, some of which are due to certain container types, like overweight, refrigerated, or hazardous, and some are just due to a high-volume lane that they keep highly competitive across their carriers,” he said. <h3>Benefit of multiple relationships </h3>Kroul said the complexity of the shipper’s needs at destination also determines the extent to which they are willing to diversify, or to stick with one carrier. “It depends on the time of year, the specific gateway, whether it’s a port or inland move, the equipment needed, and the delivery need,” he said. “Do they need transload, a distribution center, direct to warehouse, a drop yard, a reload?” Additional relationships always are of benefit, said Paul Brashier, vice president of global supply chain at the third-party logistics provider ITS Logistics, which specializes in drayage. For instance, he said that a shipper may add a 3PL not just to diversify its drayage options, but to add a specialized service, like warehousing or domestic truckload, in addition to drayage. “Depending on the complexity of a shipper’s supply chain, it is usually best to delineate the spend by the mode or services supplied,” he said. “If a shipper is going to bring on multiple partners, it is best to ensure that they add a mode or service diversity to your portfolio.” Kroul agreed. “That is why you have seen large national carriers add transload, container yards, drop yards, and warehouses in specific areas,” he said. “The goal is to lure large national enterprise accounts that need all of those services. Some large national carriers, like IMC and RoadOne, have done a great job of that.” But even all large shippers are not alike in their usage of national drayage providers with broad service capabilities. “Many like to prioritize the local carriers or the brokers with the relationships with the local carriers, and then work with a broker like us and a large national carrier,” Kroul said. <h3>Ease of procurement </h3>Kidd said a proliferation of transportation procurement tools, which simplify the bidding process for shippers, is allowing importers that previously single-sourced to dabble in dual sourcing. “This enables shippers to try out a new carrier in a market, putting them at a smaller percentage – around 20% of their volume through a gateway - and earning their way into the network,” he said. Kidd ultimately recommends shippers with a significant enough threshold of volume, even if inconsistent, to dual source because it minimizes the vulnerability to both shippers and their capacity providers. “If one dray carrier has 30 containers a week and then needs to surge up to 100 a week during certain times of the year, that could be challenging,” he said. “As long as freight is balanced, having two carriers evenly split, each would need to surge from 15 to 50, instead of 30 to 100, containers for that week. Having a smaller volume of surge is easier for an asset-based carrier to absorb.” <h3>Size of carrier a factor </h3>Ian Weiland, chief operating officer at Southern California drayage provider Junction Collaborative Transports, said the size of the asset-based carrier factors into these decisions as well. Junction operates more than 350 trucks, so Weiland said the carrier can “easily commit to a 2,500-TEU to 4,000-TEU annual account on the fly, and it does not cause an operational disaster.” For a smaller dray carrier, one with around 10 trucks, a comfortable volume commitment level would be around 300 TEU to 500 TEU per year. “Many in the drayage industry try to sell themselves or their services as if they are larger than they actually are,” Weiland said. “I assume it has to do with appealing to a larger account.” Once a small carrier lands a large account, it then has to figure out how to provide the capacity, Weiland said, and if the account leaves, that carrier is back to square one, sometimes with excess trucks that it cannot immediately fill. As a local operator, Weiland also has to consider how Junction fits into a larger framework where its customers have volume moving through gateways outside of Southern California. Junction could theoretically be the sole provider in Southern California, but not the sole provider nationwide, so some of its customers may use a national dray carrier for some volume in its territory in service of maintaining a strong relationship with the national carrier. “It really depends on the volume per gateway,” Weiland said. “We have a few customers where we are the only carrier at 300-plus containers per month. We have some where we are the primary, but at around 50% of their total volume.” Diversification is primarily about giving shippers options, and a part of that is maintaining communication with both asset-based and broker partners, sources emphasized. “We have a customer who has not given us a load in almost a year when we used to do a ton with them because the market for their particular commodity went south,” Kroul said. “They had to give more to their primary carrier. But they talked to us every week. And sure enough, two weeks ago they sent more than 50 loads. Relationships matter.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com. </div>

Industry dynamics are driving shippers to diversify their allocation of volume to drayage carriers in a bid to manage increased volatility through the US ports they use for their import supply chains. Whereas shippers have historically tended to rely on a single drayage carrier in a specific gateway, the underlying technology and changing attitudes toward resilience on a chronically overlooked transportation leg are enabling that diversification. The change impacts a part of the industry that is especially fragmented, with more than 12,000 drayage carriers operating in the US on a local, regional or national basis, accounting for more than 49,000 drivers, according to the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA). And that fragmentation includes everything from national providers with as many as 2,500 trucks, to owner-operators running single-vehicle businesses. Drayage is also notorious for thin margins for operators, a reality that only deviated from the norm temporarily during the pandemic. For shippers, the hard work of managing a network of dray partners, as opposed to a single relationship, is theoretically offset by better performance and more flexibility to get the capacity required through a given gateway. While drayage capacity has been largely loose in aggregate the past two years despite solid container growth in 2024, shippers still deal with episodic periods of tightness week to week or through specific ports. “The landscape has changed significantly over the last five years,” said Reade Kidd, CEO of EDRAY, a managed transportation platform that helps importers, including Crate & Barrel, Floor & Decor and Samsung, to coordinate their shipments. “Pre-COVID, you saw many shippers with large volume lanes allocated to one dray carrier, leveraging one contract, one integration and one feedback loop,” Kidd said “While there are synergies and benefits from increasing scale with one provider, we have seen a significant adoption of strategies around diversification of carriers, ports and overall networks across the industry.” Michael Kroul, CEO of drayage broker KTI, said the days of using a single carrier for large volumes in a single gateway are largely gone. “There are examples of shippers only using one primary carrier in a market, but in truth they always now have backups as COVID taught them that exceptions can occur no matter how tight the bond is,” Kroul said. “We have shippers use us and two other carriers in a market, and others put 30% for spot price moves. Others stick solely through what they granted through their requests for proposal (RPFs). My safe answer would be four to five at minimum per market, even if you primarily use one for everything.” No single solution As with every other aspect of international logistics, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy that applies to all shippers, or even for a single shipper across all the US import gateways they use. The decision to allocate cargo to more than one dray carrier is primarily influenced by the overall volume moved and the week-to-week consistency of that volume. “If you have 50 containers a week on a lane, that could be ideal to have multiple carriers on the lane,” Kidd said. “However, if the volume is not consistent – 30 containers on week one and 70 containers on week two -- you could be at risk of increasing bobtails if you diversify your carrier mix.” There are ways to offset that inconsistency while using multiple carriers through the use of empty container pools and dedicated chassis programs. But most shippers have historically tended to take the path of least resistance and just pick one drayage carrier, or hand off the allocation of drayage volume to a 3PL or shipping line, many of which route that to a favored or in-house carrier. Kidd advocates for some sort of split – generally between 50-50 to 70-30 between two carriers -- that keeps options open and costs in a manageable band. “We have a number of shippers with five or more carriers on lanes, some of which are due to certain container types, like overweight, refrigerated, or hazardous, and some are just due to a high-volume lane that they keep highly competitive across their carriers,” he said. Benefit of multiple relationships Kroul said the complexity of the shipper’s needs at destination also determines the extent to which they are willing to diversify, or to stick with one carrier. “It depends on the time of year, the specific gateway, whether it’s a port or inland move, the equipment needed, and the delivery need,” he said. “Do they need transload, a distribution center, direct to warehouse, a drop yard, a reload?” Additional relationships always are of benefit, said Paul Brashier, vice president of global supply chain at the third-party logistics provider ITS Logistics, which specializes in drayage. For instance, he said that a shipper may add a 3PL not just to diversify its drayage options, but to add a specialized service, like warehousing or domestic truckload, in addition to drayage. “Depending on the complexity of a shipper’s supply chain, it is usually best to delineate the spend by the mode or services supplied,” he said. “If a shipper is going to bring on multiple partners, it is best to ensure that they add a mode or service diversity to your portfolio.” Kroul agreed. “That is why you have seen large national carriers add transload, container yards, drop yards, and warehouses in specific areas,” he said. “The goal is to lure large national enterprise accounts that need all of those services. Some large national carriers, like IMC and RoadOne, have done a great job of that.” But even all large shippers are not alike in their usage of national drayage providers with broad service capabilities. “Many like to prioritize the local carriers or the brokers with the relationships with the local carriers, and then work with a broker like us and a large national carrier,” Kroul said. Ease of procurement Kidd said a proliferation of transportation procurement tools, which simplify the bidding process for shippers, is allowing importers that previously single-sourced to dabble in dual sourcing. “This enables shippers to try out a new carrier in a market, putting them at a smaller percentage – around 20% of their volume through a gateway - and earning their way into the network,” he said. Kidd ultimately recommends shippers with a significant enough threshold of volume, even if inconsistent, to dual source because it minimizes the vulnerability to both shippers and their capacity providers. “If one dray carrier has 30 containers a week and then needs to surge up to 100 a week during certain times of the year, that could be challenging,” he said. “As long as freight is balanced, having two carriers evenly split, each would need to surge from 15 to 50, instead of 30 to 100, containers for that week. Having a smaller volume of surge is easier for an asset-based carrier to absorb.” Size of carrier a factor Ian Weiland, chief operating officer at Southern California drayage provider Junction Collaborative Transports, said the size of the asset-based carrier factors into these decisions as well. Junction operates more than 350 trucks, so Weiland said the carrier can “easily commit to a 2,500-TEU to 4,000-TEU annual account on the fly, and it does not cause an operational disaster.” For a smaller dray carrier, one with around 10 trucks, a comfortable volume commitment level would be around 300 TEU to 500 TEU per year. “Many in the drayage industry try to sell themselves or their services as if they are larger than they actually are,” Weiland said. “I assume it has to do with appealing to a larger account.” Once a small carrier lands a large account, it then has to figure out how to provide the capacity, Weiland said, and if the account leaves, that carrier is back to square one, sometimes with excess trucks that it cannot immediately fill. As a local operator, Weiland also has to consider how Junction fits into a larger framework where its customers have volume moving through gateways outside of Southern California. Junction could theoretically be the sole provider in Southern California, but not the sole provider nationwide, so some of its customers may use a national dray carrier for some volume in its territory in service of maintaining a strong relationship with the national carrier. “It really depends on the volume per gateway,” Weiland said. “We have a few customers where we are the only carrier at 300-plus containers per month. We have some where we are the primary, but at around 50% of their total volume.” Diversification is primarily about giving shippers options, and a part of that is maintaining communication with both asset-based and broker partners, sources emphasized. “We have a customer who has not given us a load in almost a year when we used to do a ton with them because the market for their particular commodity went south,” Kroul said. “They had to give more to their primary carrier. But they talked to us every week. And sure enough, two weeks ago they sent more than 50 loads. Relationships matter.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com.

Logistics Technology News

North American ports

Marine terminals

Truck brokers

Drayage

Drayage diversification emerging as shipper priority amid supply chain volatility

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The charges come as spot rates for ex-Asia cargo into the US have climbed sharply over the past month.</div>

The charges come as spot rates for ex-Asia cargo into the US have climbed sharply over the past month.

<div class="phx-topic">The number of container lines preparing surcharges ahead of potential disruption to US East and Gulf coast service networks has reached at least five as a Jan. 15 longshore strike deadline nears and new carrier alliances launch. CMA CGM, Yang Ming and Hapag-Lloyd said they would implement surcharges ranging from $1,125 to $1,700 per FEU linked to the expected disruption should 45,000 dockworkers from the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) walk off the job in less than two weeks.The three carriers join Mediterranean Shipping Company and Zim Integrated Shipping, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/trans-atlantic-carriers-cue-fresh-surcharges-for-early-2025-risks-5908990">which in December announced they could implement disruption-related surcharges</a> in mid-January. Zim cited the potential ILA strike, while MSC said its charge was linked to the restructuring of its trans-Atlantic network from Feb. 1 when it will <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/mscs-global-scale-enables-standalone-network-coverage-5726563">begin operating as a standalone carrier following its exit from the 2M Alliance with Maersk</a>. CMA CGM said Thursday it will implement a $1,500 per unit “Peak Season Surcharge” (PSS) on Jan. 15 for all cargo from the Indian Subcontinent, Middle East, Red Sea and Egypt to the US East and Gulf coasts.Hapag-Lloyd said it will implement an $850 per TEU or $1,700 per FEU “Work Disruption Surcharge” (WDS) and “Work Interruption Destination Surcharge” (WID) on any cargo gated in on or after Jan. 20. The WID would apply to trans-Pacific cargo, while the WDS would cover trans-Atlantic shipments, the carrier said.“This surcharge covers additional costs from labor disruptions, strikes, slowdowns, unrest, congestion, and other unforeseen events that may delay operations and incur extra handling, storage, and feeder service costs,” Hapag-Lloyd said.Yang Ming will implement a “Port Congestion Surcharge” (PCS) on Jan. 15 for all cargo moving into the US and Canada of $800 per TEU and $1,000 per FEU. The carrier said the potential labor unrest could increase its costs. Sources said other carriers are planning to implement surcharges, which are often actually negotiated between carriers and their customers down from the originally announced amount.“The others are hinting at it with their adjustments, just not openly stating it,” said a freight forwarding source. The announced surcharges come as <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/trans-pacific-spot-rates-on-the-rise-amid-pre-lunar-new-year-cargo-bump-5912763">spot rates for ex-Asia cargo into the US have climbed sharply in the past month</a>, according to Platts, a Journal of Commerce sister company within S&amp;P Global. The Platts Container Index measured trans-Pacific East Coast import rates at $6,400 per FEU and West Coast rates at $5,000 per FEU as of Jan 2. Contact Laura Robb at <a href="mailto:Laura.Robb@spglobal.com">laura.robb@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The number of container lines preparing surcharges ahead of potential disruption to US East and Gulf coast service networks has reached at least five as a Jan. 15 longshore strike deadline nears and new carrier alliances launch. CMA CGM, Yang Ming and Hapag-Lloyd said they would implement surcharges ranging from $1,125 to $1,700 per FEU linked to the expected disruption should 45,000 dockworkers from the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) walk off the job in less than two weeks. The three carriers join Mediterranean Shipping Company and Zim Integrated Shipping, which in December announced they could implement disruption-related surcharges in mid-January. Zim cited the potential ILA strike, while MSC said its charge was linked to the restructuring of its trans-Atlantic network from Feb. 1 when it will begin operating as a standalone carrier following its exit from the 2M Alliance with Maersk . CMA CGM said Thursday it will implement a $1,500 per unit “Peak Season Surcharge” (PSS) on Jan. 15 for all cargo from the Indian Subcontinent, Middle East, Red Sea and Egypt to the US East and Gulf coasts. Hapag-Lloyd said it will implement an $850 per TEU or $1,700 per FEU “Work Disruption Surcharge” (WDS) and “Work Interruption Destination Surcharge” (WID) on any cargo gated in on or after Jan. 20. The WID would apply to trans-Pacific cargo, while the WDS would cover trans-Atlantic shipments, the carrier said. “This surcharge covers additional costs from labor disruptions, strikes, slowdowns, unrest, congestion, and other unforeseen events that may delay operations and incur extra handling, storage, and feeder service costs,” Hapag-Lloyd said. Yang Ming will implement a “Port Congestion Surcharge” (PCS) on Jan. 15 for all cargo moving into the US and Canada of $800 per TEU and $1,000 per FEU. The carrier said the potential labor unrest could increase its costs. Sources said other carriers are planning to implement surcharges, which are often actually negotiated between carriers and their customers down from the originally announced amount. “The others are hinting at it with their adjustments, just not openly stating it,” said a freight forwarding source. The announced surcharges come as spot rates for ex-Asia cargo into the US have climbed sharply in the past month , according to Platts, a Journal of Commerce sister company within S&P Global. The Platts Container Index measured trans-Pacific East Coast import rates at $6,400 per FEU and West Coast rates at $5,000 per FEU as of Jan 2. Contact Laura Robb at laura.robb@spglobal.com .

Supply chain

Container Shipping News

Port News

Trucking News

Surface

LTL carriers expanding networks to prepare for long-term growth

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The deal will see Acuitive Solutions’ AcuAudit product integrated into Cass’ freight audit and payment platform, one widely used by large shippers.</div>

The deal will see Acuitive Solutions’ AcuAudit product integrated into Cass’ freight audit and payment platform, one widely used by large shippers.

<div class="phx-topic">Freight payment and audit provider Cass Information Systems on Thursday said it has acquired AcuAudit, a product it says will enable it to deepen its reach in ocean and air freight auditing. Terms were not disclosed. The seller is logistics technology provider Acuitive Solutions, which predominantly serves the retail and high fashion industries with expedited shipment routing, parcel carrier management and auditing tools. Acuitive CEO Phil Marlowe will retain ownership of the rest of the company and serve as an advisor to Cass. Shippers use AcuAudit to audit ocean air freight bills, with an emphasis on understanding how transportation costs factor in a product’s total landed cost. It competes with a range of international freight-focused audit solutions as well as those offered by multimodal audit firms that tend to specialize in truckload invoice auditing. Cass is a part of the latter category as one of the largest audit and payment platforms for US shippers, with an associated index tracking freight economic activity using data from reconciled freight bills. “The Acuitive team has built a truly exceptional solution to support the advanced needs of global shippers,” Tony Urban, president of Cass’ freight audit and payment group, said in a statement. Marlowe said AcuAudit’s customers “will benefit from ... being integrated into Cass, with its financial capabilities and global reach.” Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Freight payment and audit provider Cass Information Systems on Thursday said it has acquired AcuAudit, a product it says will enable it to deepen its reach in ocean and air freight auditing. Terms were not disclosed. The seller is logistics technology provider Acuitive Solutions, which predominantly serves the retail and high fashion industries with expedited shipment routing, parcel carrier management and auditing tools. Acuitive CEO Phil Marlowe will retain ownership of the rest of the company and serve as an advisor to Cass. Shippers use AcuAudit to audit ocean air freight bills, with an emphasis on understanding how transportation costs factor in a product’s total landed cost. It competes with a range of international freight-focused audit solutions as well as those offered by multimodal audit firms that tend to specialize in truckload invoice auditing. Cass is a part of the latter category as one of the largest audit and payment platforms for US shippers, with an associated index tracking freight economic activity using data from reconciled freight bills. “The Acuitive team has built a truly exceptional solution to support the advanced needs of global shippers,” Tony Urban, president of Cass’ freight audit and payment group, said in a statement. Marlowe said AcuAudit’s customers “will benefit from ... being integrated into Cass, with its financial capabilities and global reach.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

Air Cargo

Cass acquires international freight invoice auditing tool to widen modal reach

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Shippers moving cargo on the inter-Americas lane can expect to see further volume growth in 2025, potentially reflected by increased attention and capacity from carriers.</div>

Shippers moving cargo on the inter-Americas lane can expect to see further volume growth in 2025, potentially reflected by increased attention and capacity from carriers.

<div class="phx-topic">The big picture: A combination of growing demand, port bottlenecks and vessel and equipment shortages pushed rates from the East Coast of South America to the US to their highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic last year. This year, the inter-Americas trade is poised for more growth, but that growth will likely come with congestion at South American ports and tight capacity on northbound services from the East Coast of South America that keeps rates elevated. <div class="wrapper-narrow float-right-element"><img src="/images/phoenix/5914445_0.1.png"></img></div>A look back: Freight demand on the north-south trade connecting Latin America with North America increased in 2024, but actual volume growth was hindered by port congestion and a lack of available vessel space. Total container volumes between the US and the Carribean, Central America and South America rose 4.3% in the first 10 months of the year, with northbound shipments up 3.8% and southbound volumes up 4.8%, according to PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. Growing import demand in South America and poor vessel schedule reliability resulted in tight capacity for imports to the East Coast of South America throughout the year. At the same time, infrastructure projects at multiple ports in Latin America aimed at attracting additional volumes reduced operating capacity at those gateways. Vessel delays caused by the International Longshoremen’s Association’s (ILA’s) strike, which shut down all US East and Gulf coast ports for three days at the beginning of October, further exacerbated vessel bunching at South American ports. That, in turn, worsened existing equipment shortages, as ports and container carriers prioritized clearing the backlog of ships over repositioning empty containers inland for exporters. Some carriers opted to divert ships to lesser-used ports and/or blank sailings to keep ships on schedule, which further reduced effective vessel capacity on the trade and resulted in rolled cargo. Steady growth in rates accelerated in the lead up to the ILA strike, with average spot rates from the East Coast of South America to the US Gulf Coast peaking at $5,800 per FEU in late October, more than double the rate recorded just three months prior and up 251.5% from the same week in 2023, according to Platts, also part of S&amp;P Global. Those rates have since cooled, but only slightly, settling at $5,600 per FEU in the three weeks ending Dec. 13. A look ahead: Shippers moving cargo on the inter-Americas lane can expect to see further volume growth in 2025, potentially reflected by increased attention and capacity from carriers. Demand for US-made products in South America continues to increase, with petrochemicals offering another source of substantial southbound volume growth. The implications of a second Donald Trump presidency for trade policy remain unclear, but the change in administration — particularly the threat of universal tariffs on US imports — could increase costs. However, if Trump imposes much higher tariffs on imports from China, this could prompt US importers to shift some sourcing to Latin America, increasing north-south volumes. Another potential spanner in the works for intra-Americas shippers are the still-unresolved contract talks between the ILA and port employers on the US East and Gulf coasts. If an agreement is not reached by Jan. 15, the union will strike again, and if East and Gulf coast ports are closed for any meaningful amount of time, congestion and equipment shortages in South America are likely to flare up again. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="09c5f6da-205d-43ca-83e7-ae8373849666"></dynamic-object></div>The next inflection: With demand already growing and Trump tariffs potentially accelerating the nearshoring of US imports, the north-south trade is positioned for long-term growth. However, that growth remains dependent on ports expanding and carriers flexing up vessel capacity and equipment supply to handle the rising volumes. Contact Laura Robb at <a href="mailto:laura.robb@spglobal.com">laura.robb@spglobal.com.</a></div>

The big picture: A combination of growing demand, port bottlenecks and vessel and equipment shortages pushed rates from the East Coast of South America to the US to their highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic last year. This year, the inter-Americas trade is poised for more growth, but that growth will likely come with congestion at South American ports and tight capacity on northbound services from the East Coast of South America that keeps rates elevated. A look back: Freight demand on the north-south trade connecting Latin America with North America increased in 2024, but actual volume growth was hindered by port congestion and a lack of available vessel space. Total container volumes between the US and the Carribean, Central America and South America rose 4.3% in the first 10 months of the year, with northbound shipments up 3.8% and southbound volumes up 4.8%, according to PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. Growing import demand in South America and poor vessel schedule reliability resulted in tight capacity for imports to the East Coast of South America throughout the year. At the same time, infrastructure projects at multiple ports in Latin America aimed at attracting additional volumes reduced operating capacity at those gateways. Vessel delays caused by the International Longshoremen’s Association’s (ILA’s) strike, which shut down all US East and Gulf coast ports for three days at the beginning of October, further exacerbated vessel bunching at South American ports. That, in turn, worsened existing equipment shortages, as ports and container carriers prioritized clearing the backlog of ships over repositioning empty containers inland for exporters. Some carriers opted to divert ships to lesser-used ports and/or blank sailings to keep ships on schedule, which further reduced effective vessel capacity on the trade and resulted in rolled cargo. Steady growth in rates accelerated in the lead up to the ILA strike, with average spot rates from the East Coast of South America to the US Gulf Coast peaking at $5,800 per FEU in late October, more than double the rate recorded just three months prior and up 251.5% from the same week in 2023, according to Platts, also part of S&P Global. Those rates have since cooled, but only slightly, settling at $5,600 per FEU in the three weeks ending Dec. 13. A look ahead: Shippers moving cargo on the inter-Americas lane can expect to see further volume growth in 2025, potentially reflected by increased attention and capacity from carriers. Demand for US-made products in South America continues to increase, with petrochemicals offering another source of substantial southbound volume growth. The implications of a second Donald Trump presidency for trade policy remain unclear, but the change in administration — particularly the threat of universal tariffs on US imports — could increase costs. However, if Trump imposes much higher tariffs on imports from China, this could prompt US importers to shift some sourcing to Latin America, increasing north-south volumes. Another potential spanner in the works for intra-Americas shippers are the still-unresolved contract talks between the ILA and port employers on the US East and Gulf coasts. If an agreement is not reached by Jan. 15, the union will strike again, and if East and Gulf coast ports are closed for any meaningful amount of time, congestion and equipment shortages in South America are likely to flare up again. The next inflection: With demand already growing and Trump tariffs potentially accelerating the nearshoring of US imports, the north-south trade is positioned for long-term growth. However, that growth remains dependent on ports expanding and carriers flexing up vessel capacity and equipment supply to handle the rising volumes. Contact Laura Robb at laura.robb@spglobal.com.

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The world of LTL is slow to embrace change. Business anachronisms permeate current supply chain processes. These vestiges of the way things used to work define the LTL freight transportation procurement process of many modern shippers.David Knuth, logistics specialist at IEWC, a global supplier of cable and wire based in Wisconsin, is happy to have modernized the RFP process, automating the entire LTL bidding procedure with Bid$ense, SMC³’s automated truckload and LTL freight transportation sourcing solution. But when prompted, he can still recall what once was.In his previous job, a large part of his duties were consumed by creating an intermodal bid package for carriers. In a spreadsheet, Knuth detailed the company’s volumes lane by lane, taking care to delete any errant keystrokes or misleading data. He would then email out the information to each carrier, taking time to respond to detailed technical questions about the spreadsheet data. Finally, he had to compile all the results, create an algorithm that would compare the carriers on each lane, and award the business.“It was a huge undertaking. It took about four months to do,” Knuth said of the old process. “It was almost a full-time job for that part of the year, every year.”In his new job at IEWC, he sat down with Bid$ense on day one and was amazed at the capabilities. Knuth had never before used a bid tool. SMC³’s latest versions of Bid$ense automate the process even further, taking truckload and LTL RFPs entirely online. The tool draws on RFP best-practices protocols to streamline the bidding communication process, enabling bidding carriers to respond accurately and promptly to shipper requests. The solution also does all the distribution work automatically, electronically submitting shipper bid data to carriers based on their actual service capabilities and performance records. Carriers are alerted with timely prompts for RFP deliverables, so shippers aren’t waiting by the phone for responses.Another benefit of automating the process is the data-cleansing assistance. When Knuth sent spreadsheets to carriers, data errors might cloud the bidding process; he might have to resend data or simply accept a price that did not truly reflect the costs of doing business. Data cleansing is incredibly beneficial, he said.The spreadsheet technique also made bidding analysis an onerous task. Since Bid$ense automates and streamlines the entire RFP process, intensive examination is now simple. SMC³ knows that each bid has more than one best outcome. With uniform responses from each carrier, shippers can quickly rank results and create an unlimited quantity of what-if scenarios to make the optimal procurement decision.Jesse Burnett of Central Garden &amp; Pet experiences many of the same benefits. Founded in 1980, Central Garden &amp; Pet has spent the last three decades growing from a small garden supply company to a provider of a range of products from dog chews and bird seed to soil supplements and natural insecticides. For much of its life, the company shipped these disparate goods via LTL and truckload carriers to retailers throughout the country, relying on each business unit to negotiate directly with their freight transportation providers. This arrangement worked fairly well for a small company, but as Central Garden &amp; Pet expanded, leadership decided to consolidate decision making.Burnett helped centralize the transportation decision making in 2015 with SMC³’s Bid$ense. Before Bid$ense, every business unit operated independently as far as negotiating with carriers.“There were a lot of different things just floating around,” he said. “We didn’t have master agreements in place; no national pricing at all. The pricing from carriers was just all over the place, depending on where you were.”The transformations he saw with Bid$ense were immediate. Burnett has been using the tool about every other year since its implementation at the company. Central Garden and Pet’s $19.6 million 2019 LTL bid saved the company just more than 9 percent when compared to its historical average. For Burnett, though, bid automation extends far beyond savings.“We knew that we weren’t getting the best pricing offer from our carriers just because nothing was centralized,” he continued. “We knew that if we combined everything from all these business units and paired it with one corporate offering, then it would drive some cost benefit with it.”When the company initially decided to centralize bid procurement, executives researched a number of different methodologies and technologies. In the end, though, Burnett found that Bid$ense was both widespread and well known, and that his carrier partners already knew how to use the application. Burnett also highlighted the data-cleansing process as a major benefit, saying the rigorous process ensures that carriers always return the best price.“It definitely has helped drive savings,” he said. “Any time you go out there and you drive that competitiveness with the carriers and they know they’re in a bid environment, it seems to sharpen their pencils.”Transportation procurement is an integral part of the modern supply chain. With Bid$ense, shippers can develop a strategic implementation plan that saves them time and money, but also helps them create strong relationships with their carrier partners. These carriers appreciate the solution’s data-cleansing process; when carriers receive a complete shipment history and future volume forecast, they don’t have to guess on pricing. Carriers that receive more data from shippers get a complete picture of that shipper’s freight, allowing them to accurately plan instead of simply preparing for the worst-case scenario. Clean data presented through an automated system can lead to both bigger shipment savings and a lasting partnership between carrier and customer.Whether customers are looking to streamline over-the-road transportation bidding by automating the RFP process or create an entirely new, centralized sourcing process, Bid$ense has the analytical horsepower to get the job done.SMC³ 2020 Customer Case Study

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If there’s one immutable truth in the world of logistics, it’s this: LTL is an inherently complex form of transportation. Tariffs, rates, DIM weights, transit times — it’s enough to confuse even seasoned logistics professionals. The solution to this knowledge gap has historically been on-the-job training or university supply chain education, but for a variety of reasons there is now a pressing need for third-party, remote LTL training that prepares logistics workers for transportation success. Global Scope Can Overlook Local Intricacies In the past, professionals looking to move into a supply chain career learned about the basics of supply chain from universities. However, many of these college supply chain programs are now global in scope, focusing on worldwide supply chain management instead of the intricacies of specialized domestic transportation. And even these programs, which used to be widespread, are becoming less common. LTL is not an industry of broad-brush strokes; supply chain professionals really need a pointillistic understanding of the logistics of LTL in order to excel in the industry. Accelerating Need for Dedicated LTL Education This lack of specified training put the onus on employers to prepare new hires with the LTL knowledge needed to do their jobs. Dedicated LTL study is a necessity, not a luxury. At the same time, changes in LTL and the broader supply chain world are accelerating. The reliance on e-commerce has ballooned since the start of the pandemic, and last-mile LTL shipments and related e-commerce strains on the supply chain won’t diminish once social distancing abates. That genie isn’t going back into the bottle. So supply chain employers need logistics workers that are fully versed in all aspects of the industry, ready to solve unique shipping and delivery problems based on their extensive supply chain knowledge But why care about LTL? It’s been reported that some shippers in today’s world are no longer concerned with what mode is used to ship their goods. A Multimodal Approach Ensures On-Time Delivery This mode agnosticism means supply chain stakeholders have to be well versed in all modes of transportation. As unforeseen weather events and other disruptions, such as protests, become more common, savvy logistics employees will need to be armed with familiarity of all modes, not just the most popular, to ensure that freight is delivered on time, without damage, and in the most financially expedient way possible. Offerings like SMC³’s LTL online education courses cover a wide range of topics from LTL basics and operations to more advanced concepts like pricing analytics and transportation law. The company also has plans to continually refresh content, adding new expert presenters and taking the feedback of students to make the courses even better as time goes on. Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://logisticstrainingcenter.com/smc3-courses/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">SMC³’s LTL Online Education program</a>&nbsp;and view the 2021 hybrid schedule, featuring live industry experts,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smc3.com/onlinelearning2021/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">here.</a>

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