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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has told the CEOs of the western US railroads to address the problem of rising rail container dwell times in Los Angeles-Long Beach that is contributing to terminal congestion at the largest gateway in the country.

Better use of existing trucks and trailers is creating truckload capacity and reducing transportation costs, but it’s not clear how long that fresh capacity will be available, DAT principal analyst Dean Croke says.

Although rates could plateau or slide as global stressors impact the MPV market, underlying demand will not soften as the energy transition accelerates.

This year was expected to be a year of rebuilding for domestic intermodal, with recovery of some of the recent significant share losses; it isn’t working out that way so far, writes JOC analyst Larry Gross.

Exactly one month before the start of contract talks between West Coast employers and the ILWU, the union is claiming that a 2008 deal between the two sides has been violated at Terminal 5 in Seattle, a foreboding sign for those hoping this year’s negotiations would go smoothly.

Officials at the busiest ports in the southeast US believe import volumes will grow through the summer, meaning vessels will continue to anchor outside the major gateways.

Veteran port executive Bethann Rooney will become the next director of the Port of New York and New Jersey upon next month’s departure of Sam Ruda.

The National Labor Relations Board said it will hold an election for longshore union representation for Caribbean specialist Tropical Shipping at the Port of Palm Beach.

For Indian shippers, frustration over capacity shortages have been compounded by rising vessel skips or port call changes.

Shippers of time-sensitive goods on the North Europe-North America trade are increasingly being forced into the air as rising congestion on the US East Coast extends vessel delays.

Shipment tracking device maker Tive has landed a $54 million cash infusion to build its global footprint and target more categories of shippers with location and condition monitoring solutions.

A recent resurgence in international intermodal volumes is causing BNSF Railway to struggle to provide consistent service, disrupting the flow of containers between Los Angeles and Chicago.

The Montreal Port Authority is partnering with Canadian National Railway to develop intermodal service to the port’s proposed Contrecoeur container terminal.

Reduced trucking capacity in Shanghai and the closure of factories and warehouses there have caused some ocean freight to be diverted, with Ningbo, Qingdao, and Tianjin topping the list of alternative ports.

Union Pacific Railroad is reducing its surcharge on certain loads in 53-foot containers out of Oakland and Seattle because more boxes are available for shippers.

Huge amounts of container shipping capacity are being tied up in congested ports on the key trades, blurring the line typically drawn between falling volume and weakness in demand.

CMA CGM has made another major acquisition, bringing Europe’s main automotive logistics service provider under the wing of CEVA Logistics.

The shift of containerized freight from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast and Southeast is absorbing truck capacity in those regions and pushing up spot rates, including rates from Houston to California.

Forecasting strong import growth this summer, US retailers warn ports of the urgency they face in addressing port-related supply chain bottlenecks.

If California ports are going to survive a second consecutive summer of congestion, shippers and their truckers must begin using newly created inland sites for temporary container storage even if those facilities are 50 miles from the water, port officials say.

The bull run that drove carrier profits to extreme levels last year has continued into 2022, with Cosco the first to predict multi-billion-dollar first-quarter earnings.

Forwarding software provider Magaya is wading into the less-than-truckload technology market with an automated pricing tool meant to help its customers quote faster to shippers.

Falling consumer demand amid rising inflation in Brazil and the launch of a new service that has added capacity have conspired to push rates from Asia to the East Coast of South America to their lowest level in about 18 months.

Sailing disruptions out of the East Coast of India are getting worse, forcing shippers to find alternatives, including rerouting cargo via West Coast ports.

Truckers working the Port of New York and New Jersey say they are not always being paid enough for increasingly longer trips away from the port to deliver empty containers.

A major disruption in Kansas City Southern’s terminal near Dallas is causing some shippers to wait more than a month to get their containers, and there is no timeline on when KCS will return to normal operations.

Fresh off a seed funding round in February, truckload pricing intelligence provider Greenscreens.ai has built connectivity with procurement technology partners FreightFriend and 3Gtms.

Shippers and their service providers exiting the China-Europe rail route through Russia has slammed the brakes on a trade lane that expanded by almost 30 percent in 2021.

The strong likelihood of continued growth in the reefer trade creates questions about supply meeting demand given recent world events and the potential upstream production dependencies linked to raw material sourcing.

ONE is using Google Cloud to further its ability to automate back office and customer-facing solutions, a sign that the cloud infrastructure giant sees container shipping as a key vertical to target.

Analysts worry that a lack of long-term cargo growth in the Arabian Gulf could result in large amounts of unused capacity at the competing ports of Jebel Ali in Dubai and Khalifa in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Maersk and GCT New York have settled a lawsuit over the switch of three vessel services to APM Terminals that GCT alleged was a breach of contract.

Carriers and forwarders say Shanghai will be hit by a raft of blank sailings through early May amid a now-indefinite COVID lockdown, while carriers are also implementing ad hoc omissions at the world’s busiest container port.

The differential between short- and long-term rates on Asia-North Europe has narrowed dramatically in the past few days, while spot rates on the trans-Atlantic have taken off.

The state of Pennsylvania said it will extend for another year an incentive program aimed at drawing ocean carriers to offload cargo at the Port of Philadelphia.

Freight marketplace Emerge has designs on reshaping the truckload procurement space in North America, with an ambitious target of $20 billion in freight spend through its platform this year.

The Panama Canal Authority is proposing a new tolling plan that would assess the first fees on empty containers returning from North America to Asia.

Third-party logistics providers (3PLs) took advantage of 2021’s roaring rate environment to expand their net revenue, with rapid growth among the largest forwarders further compounded by merger and acquisition activity.

Although OSRA22 is now almost certain to become law, it’s not clear how the law’s provisions regarding fair rates, reasonable accessorial charges, and determination of best practices will be implemented.

Proceeds from a clean truck fee launched Friday at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will go toward trucker subsidies and charging infrastructure needed to deploy a zero-emission drayage fleet.