<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">LOS ANGELES -- Importers and exporters who ship their cargo through Los Angeles-Long Beach during th</div>

LOS ANGELES -- Importers and exporters who ship their cargo through Los Angeles-Long Beach during th

<div class="phx-topic">LOS ANGELES -- Importers and exporters who ship their cargo through Los Angeles-Long Beach during the day will pay a fee of $20 starting Nov. 1.At the same time, all terminal operators in the port complex will phase in a program of extended gate hours, beginning with a full day shift each Saturday. The terminals will add another weekend or weekday night shift at a rate of one per month.The purpose of the extended gate hours program, which has been under development for the past year, is to reduce cargo delays, traffic congestion and air pollution at the nation's busiest container complex, which last year handled almost 12 million TEUs.Terminal operators hope that their plan, which was approved by the Federal Maritime Commission, will encourage importers and exporters to move more cargo during night and weekend hours when Southern California freeways are the least crowded and truckers make faster turn times.It still remains to be seen if the day use fee for cargo movements between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. -- the first ever charged by a U.S. port -- will change shipper behavior and result in greater use of off-peak gate hours, or if the fee will result in a diversion of cargo to other ports.Jon Hemingway, president of SSA Marine and chairman of the marine terminal operators group that developed the plan, said only about 5 to 10 percent of the cargo moves in LA -Long Beach now occur during off-peak hours. Rick Gabrielson, senior manager for import operations at Target Corp., said large retailers intend to work with the terminal operators to ship more cargo during the off hours. "No one likes to see transportation costs increase, but our industry felt it was best to work together to develop a private-sector program to reduce day-time traffic," Gabrielson said.The terminal operators' program produced an immediate result in that Calif. Assemblyman Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, told a press conference Monday at the Port of Long Beach he will withdraw legislation that would have established a mandatory program of extended gate hours. Lowenthal had pledged to drop his proposal, which the maritime industry considered to be more onerous, if the private sector developed its own plan by the close of the current legislative session on Aug. 31.Hemingway said some details remain to be worked out by Nov. 1. The plan calls for a $20 per-TEU fee to be assessed on all cargo movements at the ports. The fee will be assessed against the cargo interests, but it will be refunded to shippers who move their cargo in the off-peak hours or by rail on the Alameda Corridor.A newly-created marine terminal operators group known as PierPass Inc. will collect the fee and administer the program, known as PierPass. The group, along with an advisory committee from the shipper and transportation community, will meet regularly and will assess the program after six months to determine if the fees being collected cover the true costs incurred by terminal operators for running extended gates. The terminal operators estimate that it will cost them an additional $150 million a year to staff and operate night and weekend gates.</div>

North American ports

Daytime fee to move So.Calif. boxes

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Virginia Port Authority said container cargo moving through the Port of Virginia during the fisc</div>

The Virginia Port Authority said container cargo moving through the Port of Virginia during the fisc

<div class="phx-topic">The Virginia Port Authority said container cargo moving through the Port of Virginia during the fiscal year grew 9.3 percent, to 1.7 million TEUs.Container rail volume for the port also increased 9.4 percent to 188,739 containers. Port officials in a media release attributes the growth in container cargo to imports from Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The port posted increases of 38.7 percent from North Asia; 40 percent from South Asia, and 45.8 percent from the Indian subcontinent."Asia continues to be the dominant trading partner with the Port of Virginia and now accounts for 38 percent of all container volume at the port. Most of this growth is feeding newly constructed and expanded retail distribution centers in Virginia." said Tom Capozzi, senior managing director of marketing services for the VPA, in a statement."The Virginia Port Authority has invested heavily in new cranes, container handling equipment, empty container yards, and a new ported chassis pool to better serve our customers. We are well positioned to handle projected growth in the next fiscal year." said VPA Executive Director, J. Robert Bray, also in a statement.</div>

Imports power Virginia port traffic

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">MIAMI - A hold was put on more import cargo as the Port of Miami continues to clear thousands of con</div>

MIAMI - A hold was put on more import cargo as the Port of Miami continues to clear thousands of con

<div class="phx-topic">MIAMI - A hold was put on more import cargo as the Port of Miami continues to clear thousands of containers that stacked up during a two-week strike by truckers.The Port of Miami Terminal Operating Co. on Tuesday put more hold orders on cargo from the following vessels: CMA CGM Arno, MOL Initiative, CMA CGM Rhone, CSAV New York, and TMM Guanajuato (40-foot containers only).The terminal earlier said it would hold cargo from the OOCL Faith, OOCL Fortune, MSC Arizona, MSC Aniello Villa de Taurus, Libra Santos, Katsuragi, and Lykes Achiever.POMTOC on Monday said it would waive some charges for containers that sat during the drivers' protest, either by extending free time or postponing a vessel's first free day, but only for vessels whose free time had not expired by June 24 or arrived after the start of the boycott.The terminal said the held containers will not be available "until such time that we can adequately prepare for their delivery."The terminal plans to deal with the 8,000-container quandary "on a first arrived/first served basis." On Monday, POMTOC Chief Executive, Brooks Royster, said it could take two weeks to reduce the backlog to normal levels.In an e-mail message, Javier Miranda, senior manager of customer services, advised forwarders, customs brokers and their trucking companies to check the POMTOC Forecast information portal to review the status of their cargo.A federal judge on July 9 granted a temporary injunction ending the two-week protest. A hearing on a permanent injunction is scheduled for Thursday.</div>

Forwarding

Drayage

Miami puts hold orders on more cargo

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Ports these days know there's more to capturing steamship lines than marine facilities alone.</div>

Ports these days know there's more to capturing steamship lines than marine facilities alone.

<div class="phx-topic">Ports these days know there's more to capturing steamship lines than marine facilities alone.To that end, Massport officials are working their road and rail access to support the marine side of their business better.While improvements are on the blackboard for the Massachusetts Port Authority's two major container yards, there also are programs in full swing that will improve the port's highway and road structure leading to those yards.One of the cornerstone projects in the intermodal sector of the port is the new access road to Conley Terminal that is in the planning stage. This major road improvement program is part of a $3.1 billion state-federal roadway rehabilitation project called the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project.Improving waterfront access is one of the top priorities for the port, said Anne Aylward, maritime director at the Port of Boston. She said waterfront facilities are plagued by a lack of railroad access and clogged traffic conditions."You can have the best terminals in the world, but if you can't get to them" they won't do you any good, said Ms. Aylward.In addition to some major road improvements, the maritime director for the port said Boston's rail link is also expanding, as is evidenced by the inauguration last month of double-stack train service to and from the West Coast by CSX/Sea-Land Intermodal.CSL Intermodal initiated thrice weekly service inbound from the West Coast and Chicago, and once a week service outbound to Chicago and the West Coast. The Boston area terminus for this service is Worcester, Mass."I think the new intermodal service in the Worcester area is an idea whose time has come," said Paul F. Fitzpatrick, president of W.N. Proctor Co., a Boston freight forwarder."To have the doublestacks come into Worcester is going to save importers thousands of dollars annually," the freight forwarder continued. "They are going to get to their goods faster because they don't have to go through congestion to get the cargo."Other intermodal and shipping executives around the Boston area also expressed optimism about these new intermodal connections that New England has now gained."I think it will help importers and exporters," said Norman Tasgal, president of Patterson, Wylde Co., a ship agent. "In terms of both cost and service time, I think it will be a factor."Robert M. Calder, executive director of the Boston Shipping Association, said he thinks the port expansion and the recent intermodal developments should be good for Boston: "If we can maintain or improve the tonnage we have now, and (boost) this developing intermodalism, then we will be alright," said Mr. Calder.</div>

BOSTON PORT UPGRADING ROAD LINKS

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The arrival here this week of the Nedlloyd Lines vessel Rouen inaugurated the first-ever roll-on rol</div>

The arrival here this week of the Nedlloyd Lines vessel Rouen inaugurated the first-ever roll-on rol

<div class="phx-topic">The arrival here this week of the Nedlloyd Lines vessel Rouen inaugurated the first-ever roll-on roll-off service at the port of Boston.The Rouen, which has a container capacity of 1,200 20-foot equivalent units, is one of four vessels operated by Nedlloyd in its service between U.S. North Atlantic ports and northern Europe. Only two of them, however, will call at Boston.Nedlloyd and Trans Freight Lines have a space chartering agreement whereby the two carriers may book containers on each other's vessels. But under the agreement TFL vessels no longer call at Boston.It's a new opportunity for shippers, and we need to see what the market is, said Lana Razdan, Massachusetts Port Authority spokesman.Kevin Murphy of Johnson Maritime Agency, Nedlloyd's Boston agents, said the three-year-old Rouen will alternate with the Rosario, another 1,200 TEU roll-on ship, whose first call here is set for Sept. 30.Massport has wanted roll-on service for at least 10 years. At one time it was thought that the port agency would build a roll-on ramp at a former Navy facility that ultimately was turned over to the city instead of Massport.As the years passed, and the strong demand for roll-on service to the Mideast declined, officials became concerned that even a used roll-on ramp might be too expensive with a $1 million price tag.Mr. Murphy said, Suddenly we're finding some call for it.Massport built a small ramp at Connolly Terminal to complement the shipboard ramps on the two Nedlloyd vessels. But officials say the size of the market may determine whether Massport dusts off its old dreams of building or buying a special roll-on ramp.</div>

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ROLL-ON SERVICE BEGINS AT PORT OF BOSTON

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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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Shippers save money, time with automated transportation bidding tools

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>

SMC3rates_shutterstock_5247046 (1).jpg

Filling the Supply Chain Education Gap with LTL Education Courses

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