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<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The head of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition told TPM25 that US exports of logs, fruits, nuts, soybeans and other agricultural products appear to be slowing due to China’s tariff countermeasures.</div>

The head of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition told TPM25 that US exports of logs, fruits, nuts, soybeans and other agricultural products appear to be slowing due to China’s tariff countermeasures.

Feature image

<div class="phx-topic">Long Beach, California — Ocean carriers and US shippers are preparing themselves for the Trump administration’s reciprocal measures against China’s shipping industry, even as the details of those measures remain to be worked out. A leading lobbyist for US shippers says the escalating trade war is already hurting US exporters, who may be the one voice in Washington that can temper Trump’s moves. Several shippers told the Journal of Commerce that during meetings they held at TPM25 to discuss new ocean freight contracts, they discussed <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/us-port-tax-would-scramble-ocean-services-raise-shipper-costs-drewry-5952046">the US Trade Representative’s (USTR’s) proposed $1 million fee on US port calls by Chinese ocean carriers</a>, as well as similar fees on other ocean carriers with ships on order from China. <div class="wrapper-narrow float-right-element"><img src="/images/phoenix/5951879_0.1.jpg"></img></div> The USTR has scheduled a March 24 public hearing on the fees. While the actual regulation still needs to be worked out, ocean carriers are readying a variety of responses, the shippers said. Those include spinoffs of their China-built ships into separate fleets that serve intra-Asia and European markets. Non-Chinese carriers are also floating surcharges to cover the port fees or asking for premium rates due to their lack of exposure to China-built ships. The risk of surcharges and the potential for reduced port calls due to the port fees will impact a broad swath of US shippers, Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC), said Wednesday at TPM25. However, the political will to halt those fees, as well the onslaught of Trump’s other actions that will affect shippers, is lacking, he added. While trade groups such as AgTC consistently voice concerns about how Trump’s actions affect shippers, Friedmann questioned the usefulness of those actions, saying that members of Congress “are not going to feel sorry for Walmart or Amazon.” However, he said appeals by individual constituents appear to be carrying more political weight. “When you’ve got a family pistachio grower, a congressman will drop everything on his schedule to drive 40 miles out to their orchard,” Friedmann said. Those types of appeals may be having some influence, he added, as some Republican lawmakers have started pushing back on Trump’s moves due to their impact on US farmers. China’s counter-tariffs on US imports appear to be already having an effect, Friedmann said, citing a log exporter that halted shipping several containers from the Pacific Northwest to China because of higher costs. He said exports of fruits, nuts, soybeans and other agricultural products also appear to be slowing due to China’s countermeasures. Even more troubling, China explicitly banned US soybean exports from three major traders — Louis Dreyfus, CHS and Export Trading Group, a joint venture of Bunge, South Korea’s Pan Ocean and US farmer cooperative Agtegra. While China used the pretext of sanitary issues with the exports, Friedmann said the move suggests a long-term decoupling from the US as China sources from other countries. “We don’t grow anything in the US that can’t be sourced from other countries,” he said. <h3>Dockworkers exposed </h3>Along with US farmers and small businesses sharing their stories of pain due to Trump’s moves, Friedmann said dockworkers are very exposed to Trump’s actions to reduce trade. While it was ironworker and shipbuilder unions that pushed the port fees, Friedmann said that longshore unions are well-placed to lobby against further trade measures. “Everybody in the trade community has got to convince the [longshore unions] that, regardless [of] what these other unions say, you need to protect your own jobs,” he said. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Long Beach, California — Ocean carriers and US shippers are preparing themselves for the Trump administration’s reciprocal measures against China’s shipping industry, even as the details of those measures remain to be worked out. A leading lobbyist for US shippers says the escalating trade war is already hurting US exporters, who may be the one voice in Washington that can temper Trump’s moves. Several shippers told the Journal of Commerce that during meetings they held at TPM25 to discuss new ocean freight contracts, they discussed the US Trade Representative’s (USTR’s) proposed $1 million fee on US port calls by Chinese ocean carriers , as well as similar fees on other ocean carriers with ships on order from China. The USTR has scheduled a March 24 public hearing on the fees. While the actual regulation still needs to be worked out, ocean carriers are readying a variety of responses, the shippers said. Those include spinoffs of their China-built ships into separate fleets that serve intra-Asia and European markets. Non-Chinese carriers are also floating surcharges to cover the port fees or asking for premium rates due to their lack of exposure to China-built ships. The risk of surcharges and the potential for reduced port calls due to the port fees will impact a broad swath of US shippers, Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC), said Wednesday at TPM25. However, the political will to halt those fees, as well the onslaught of Trump’s other actions that will affect shippers, is lacking, he added. While trade groups such as AgTC consistently voice concerns about how Trump’s actions affect shippers, Friedmann questioned the usefulness of those actions, saying that members of Congress “are not going to feel sorry for Walmart or Amazon.” However, he said appeals by individual constituents appear to be carrying more political weight. “When you’ve got a family pistachio grower, a congressman will drop everything on his schedule to drive 40 miles out to their orchard,” Friedmann said. Those types of appeals may be having some influence, he added, as some Republican lawmakers have started pushing back on Trump’s moves due to their impact on US farmers. China’s counter-tariffs on US imports appear to be already having an effect, Friedmann said, citing a log exporter that halted shipping several containers from the Pacific Northwest to China because of higher costs. He said exports of fruits, nuts, soybeans and other agricultural products also appear to be slowing due to China’s countermeasures. Even more troubling, China explicitly banned US soybean exports from three major traders — Louis Dreyfus, CHS and Export Trading Group, a joint venture of Bunge, South Korea’s Pan Ocean and US farmer cooperative Agtegra. While China used the pretext of sanitary issues with the exports, Friedmann said the move suggests a long-term decoupling from the US as China sources from other countries. “We don’t grow anything in the US that can’t be sourced from other countries,” he said. Dockworkers exposed Along with US farmers and small businesses sharing their stories of pain due to Trump’s moves, Friedmann said dockworkers are very exposed to Trump’s actions to reduce trade. While it was ironworker and shipbuilder unions that pushed the port fees, Friedmann said that longshore unions are well-placed to lobby against further trade measures. “Everybody in the trade community has got to convince the [longshore unions] that, regardless [of] what these other unions say, you need to protect your own jobs,” he said. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Container Shipping News

Maritime

Supply chain

TPM25: US exporters starting to feel pinch of Trump trade war with China

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The new service that will start in April will enhance Vietnam’s connectivity with Brazil, which is already Vietnam’s largest trading partner in Latin America. </div>

The new service that will start in April will enhance Vietnam’s connectivity with Brazil, which is already Vietnam’s largest trading partner in Latin America.

<div class="phx-topic">CMA CGM and Maersk will become the latest carriers to launch a joint Asia-East Coast South America (ECSA) service with a semi-express loop that is specifically targeting the significant trade growth between Brazil and Vietnam. The move follows a tie-up between HMM and Ocean Network Express (ONE) that will see the two carriers begin an express service linking Busan and South China with Brazil. Both the CMA CGM/Maersk and HMM/ONE connections will begin in April, just as container freight rates are anticipated to rise, according to one Brazilian-based freight forwarder. “Demand is stable and freight rates on Asia-ECSA are around $2,100 per FEU, at least until the middle of March,” Fabrizio De Paulis, managing director of forwarder De Paulis Logistics &amp; SCM, told the Journal of Commerce. “Rates will likely increase in April on improved demand,” he added. De Paulis pointed out rates have seen a steep decline since hitting about $8,000/FEU last July. CMA CGM said its Asia-South America East Coast 3 (SEAS3) service — known as the ASAS2 for Maersk — will provide a “unique service from Vietnam” while also streamlining shipments between Asia and Brazil with the limited number of port calls improving transit times. This is the first time CMA CGM and Maersk have teamed up on an Asia-ECSA service. Their separate existing services involve multiple ports calls in Asia and South America, including Argentina and Uruguay. Maersk said there will be a 37-day transit from Shanghai to Santos, 33 days from Shekou (Shenzhen) to Santos, and 29 days from Vung Tau to Santos, Latin America’s largest port. CMA CGM is providing seven vessels with a nominal capacity of 6,500 TEUs, while Maersk is deploying four ships on the service. The full rotation is Shanghai-Shekou-Vung Tau-Singapore-Santos-Singapore-Shanghai. <h3>Boost for Vietnam-Brazil connectivity </h3>Both CMA CGM and Maersk said the Vung Tau call will enhance Vietnam’s connectivity with Brazil, which is already Vietnam’s largest trading partner in Latin America. That comes as bilateral trade between the two countries is set to top $10 billion this year and $15 billion by 2030, up from about $8 billion last year, according to comments made last November by Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. Vietnam’s exports to Brazil include seafood, rubber, textiles and footwear, while Brazil’s exports to Vietnam comprise soybeans, animal feed and cotton. CMA CGM said the calls at Vung Tau and Singapore will provide opportunities for transshipment cargo from other countries in Southeast Asia, including Thailand. The loop will be the first new service to call at the Santos Brasil Tecon Terminal since CMA CGM last September said it would acquire a 48% stake in Santos Brasil, the country’s leading terminal operator. The new service will provide shippers in Latin America and the Caribbean with additional options for Asia-bound cargo, with Santos acting as CMA CGM’s regional hub connecting other countries in the region. ONE and HMM will start their joint Asia-ECSA service in April from Busan, also with limited port calls to enhance transit times. The rotation is Busan–South China–Singapore–Rio Grande–Santos–Santa Catarina–Singapore–Hong Kong–Busan. Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com</a>.</div>

CMA CGM and Maersk will become the latest carriers to launch a joint Asia-East Coast South America (ECSA) service with a semi-express loop that is specifically targeting the significant trade growth between Brazil and Vietnam. The move follows a tie-up between HMM and Ocean Network Express (ONE) that will see the two carriers begin an express service linking Busan and South China with Brazil. Both the CMA CGM/Maersk and HMM/ONE connections will begin in April, just as container freight rates are anticipated to rise, according to one Brazilian-based freight forwarder. “Demand is stable and freight rates on Asia-ECSA are around $2,100 per FEU, at least until the middle of March,” Fabrizio De Paulis, managing director of forwarder De Paulis Logistics & SCM, told the Journal of Commerce. “Rates will likely increase in April on improved demand,” he added. De Paulis pointed out rates have seen a steep decline since hitting about $8,000/FEU last July. CMA CGM said its Asia-South America East Coast 3 (SEAS3) service — known as the ASAS2 for Maersk — will provide a “unique service from Vietnam” while also streamlining shipments between Asia and Brazil with the limited number of port calls improving transit times. This is the first time CMA CGM and Maersk have teamed up on an Asia-ECSA service. Their separate existing services involve multiple ports calls in Asia and South America, including Argentina and Uruguay. Maersk said there will be a 37-day transit from Shanghai to Santos, 33 days from Shekou (Shenzhen) to Santos, and 29 days from Vung Tau to Santos, Latin America’s largest port. CMA CGM is providing seven vessels with a nominal capacity of 6,500 TEUs, while Maersk is deploying four ships on the service. The full rotation is Shanghai-Shekou-Vung Tau-Singapore-Santos-Singapore-Shanghai. Boost for Vietnam-Brazil connectivity Both CMA CGM and Maersk said the Vung Tau call will enhance Vietnam’s connectivity with Brazil, which is already Vietnam’s largest trading partner in Latin America. That comes as bilateral trade between the two countries is set to top $10 billion this year and $15 billion by 2030, up from about $8 billion last year, according to comments made last November by Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. Vietnam’s exports to Brazil include seafood, rubber, textiles and footwear, while Brazil’s exports to Vietnam comprise soybeans, animal feed and cotton. CMA CGM said the calls at Vung Tau and Singapore will provide opportunities for transshipment cargo from other countries in Southeast Asia, including Thailand. The loop will be the first new service to call at the Santos Brasil Tecon Terminal since CMA CGM last September said it would acquire a 48% stake in Santos Brasil, the country’s leading terminal operator. The new service will provide shippers in Latin America and the Caribbean with additional options for Asia-bound cargo, with Santos acting as CMA CGM’s regional hub connecting other countries in the region. ONE and HMM will start their joint Asia-ECSA service in April from Busan, also with limited port calls to enhance transit times. The rotation is Busan–South China–Singapore–Rio Grande–Santos–Santa Catarina–Singapore–Hong Kong–Busan. Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

Container lines

CMA CGM, Maersk become latest to launch joint express Asia-ECSA service

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The bleak timeline from Europe’s busiest port is based on the chaos that resulted when the Ever Given was freed after six days of blocking the Suez Canal in 2021.</div>

The bleak timeline from Europe’s busiest port is based on the chaos that resulted when the Ever Given was freed after six days of blocking the Suez Canal in 2021.

<div class="phx-topic">Long Beach, California — The backlog of containers that would result from ocean carriers resuming Red Sea transits would take months to clear from Europe’s port hubs, Hanna Stelzel, the director of containers for the Port of Rotterdam, told the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference this week. Once the Red Sea is deemed safe enough for commercial shipping, vessels taking the shorter route would overtake those diverting around southern Africa, with severe congestion expected as a result. <div class="wrapper-narrow float-right-element"><img src="/images/phoenix/5951879_0.1.jpg"></img></div>Stelzel said the timeline for clearing the backlog of boxes at Rotterdam was based on the disruption caused when the Ever Given was freed after six days of blocking the Suez Canal in 2021. “It will be very challenging, but what we learned from the Suez blockage was that by widening our anchorage area it gave us an advantage and we have put that into practice,” Stelzel said. It is estimated that more than 1.9 million TEUs of capacity were delayed during the six-day Ever Given blockage in 2021. Carrier schedules were heavily disrupted for months at ports in North Europe and along the US East Coast. But the diversions around Africa over the past 15 months as carriers avoid potential attacks in the Red Sea by Houthi militants operating in Yemen have absorbed about 10% of global container shipping capacity, and the impact of resuming Suez transits will be far greater. In addition to expanding its anchorage area, Rotterdam has improved its sharing of data and collaboration across its customer supply chain to manage the expected congestion, Stelzel said. <h3>‘Severe risk’ to vessels remains </h3>But given the fragility of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the potential for the Hamas-backing Houthis to resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, the port congestion that will emerge from a return to the Suez is unlikely to be this year’s problem. Jack Kennedy, head of Middle East and North Africa country risk at S&amp;P Global, parent company of the Journal of Commerce, said in his one-year outlook there remains a “severe risk” to vessels transiting the Red Sea. “We expect the ceasefire process is likely to break down in the next 12 months and military operations will resume in Gaza,” was Kennedy’s bleak assessment given during a TPM25 session on the Red Sea situation. Kennedy said the Houthis will use that as a justification for resuming their own rocket attacks on Israel, which he predicts will result in airstrikes from the US, thus triggering a resumption of attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. A more optimistic view of the resumption of Suez Canal transits was presented by Tom Behrens Sorensen, chairman of ECCO Global Shoe Production, who said Chinese- and Russian-flagged carriers were already transiting the Red Sea. “Once the carriers in the first alliance return to Suez, all the rest will have to follow, and in my view, that will happen in the second half,” he told an Asia-Europe panel discussion at TPM25. “Obviously, there are lot of caveats in this in terms of how the political situation evolves, but I’m cautiously optimistic that it will happen in the third or fourth quarter because the temptation [to resume Suez transits] is too big,” Behrens Sorensen added. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Long Beach, California — The backlog of containers that would result from ocean carriers resuming Red Sea transits would take months to clear from Europe’s port hubs, Hanna Stelzel, the director of containers for the Port of Rotterdam, told the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference this week. Once the Red Sea is deemed safe enough for commercial shipping, vessels taking the shorter route would overtake those diverting around southern Africa, with severe congestion expected as a result. Stelzel said the timeline for clearing the backlog of boxes at Rotterdam was based on the disruption caused when the Ever Given was freed after six days of blocking the Suez Canal in 2021. “It will be very challenging, but what we learned from the Suez blockage was that by widening our anchorage area it gave us an advantage and we have put that into practice,” Stelzel said. It is estimated that more than 1.9 million TEUs of capacity were delayed during the six-day Ever Given blockage in 2021. Carrier schedules were heavily disrupted for months at ports in North Europe and along the US East Coast. But the diversions around Africa over the past 15 months as carriers avoid potential attacks in the Red Sea by Houthi militants operating in Yemen have absorbed about 10% of global container shipping capacity, and the impact of resuming Suez transits will be far greater. In addition to expanding its anchorage area, Rotterdam has improved its sharing of data and collaboration across its customer supply chain to manage the expected congestion, Stelzel said. ‘Severe risk’ to vessels remains But given the fragility of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the potential for the Hamas-backing Houthis to resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, the port congestion that will emerge from a return to the Suez is unlikely to be this year’s problem. Jack Kennedy, head of Middle East and North Africa country risk at S&P Global, parent company of the Journal of Commerce, said in his one-year outlook there remains a “severe risk” to vessels transiting the Red Sea. “We expect the ceasefire process is likely to break down in the next 12 months and military operations will resume in Gaza,” was Kennedy’s bleak assessment given during a TPM25 session on the Red Sea situation. Kennedy said the Houthis will use that as a justification for resuming their own rocket attacks on Israel, which he predicts will result in airstrikes from the US, thus triggering a resumption of attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. A more optimistic view of the resumption of Suez Canal transits was presented by Tom Behrens Sorensen, chairman of ECCO Global Shoe Production, who said Chinese- and Russian-flagged carriers were already transiting the Red Sea. “Once the carriers in the first alliance return to Suez, all the rest will have to follow, and in my view, that will happen in the second half,” he told an Asia-Europe panel discussion at TPM25. “Obviously, there are lot of caveats in this in terms of how the political situation evolves, but I’m cautiously optimistic that it will happen in the third or fourth quarter because the temptation [to resume Suez transits] is too big,” Behrens Sorensen added. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Port News

Asia-Europe

International ports

TPM25: Months of port congestion face carriers’ Red Sea return: Rotterdam

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>

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