Surface

Importers’ failure to return chassis equipment in a timely manner is tying up equipment, causing disruption that has spurred the top US rail regulator to ask whether the railroads have gone too far in paring intermodal networks to please investors.

Norfolk Southern Railway, which expects all chassis subject to a June safety recall to be repaired by next month, will buy more chassis in 2022 to address supply chain congestion.

Canadian National has bowed out of its pursuit of Kansas City Southern, two weeks after US regulators threw up a major roadblock to a proposed deal, clearing the way for Canadian Pacific to apply for regulatory approval for its deal with the US-Mexico railroad.

With shippers facing crippling congestion in Southern California, the Port of New York and New Jersey is seeing more volume and the demand has spilled over to long-haul trucking.

Iowa-based CRST is installing a telematics-based fleet management system the truckload carrier claims will benefit both drivers and shippers seeking supply chain intelligence.

The $1.3 billion acquisition of Echo Global Logistics by a private equity company will fuel an automation drive at the third-party logistics provider as shippers dealing with disruption demand more sophisticated technology.

Chemicals transportation and logistics specialist A&R Logistics is rebranding and reorganizing as Quantix, adding trucking assets to meet growing demand from shippers.

While container dwell may be up, intermodal volume on the UP network — domestic and international combined — is down 4.6 percent since July 1 from a year ago, according to the Association of American Railroads.

The chairman of the US Surface Transportation Board urged railroads to focus less on serving Wall Street investors and more on serving shippers, employees, and the public interest — or else the agency may have to intervene.

Less-than-truckload carrier Old Dominion Freight Line hopes to counter the threat of COVID-19 to its own employees and its customers with a financial vaccination incentive.

The impact of Hurricane Ida pushed already high truckload spot prices even higher this week, digital brokers say, as capacity becomes more dislocated at the start of trucking’s peak season.

A stronger than expected round of hiring in August brought transportation and warehousing payrolls back to pre-pandemic levels, but new employees aren’t distributed evenly.

Rather than adding terminals, XPO says it is deploying technology to better utilize existing space in its trailers and speed trucks, effectively expanding the capacity it can offer customers.

Canadian Pacific CEO Keith Creel, in a new hardline stance, said his company has been patient long enough with Kansas City Southern and will walk away on Sept. 13 unless it has a deal in place.

The US Surface Transportation Board has rejected Canadian National Railway’s use of a voting trust to acquire Kansas City Southern, setting up a difficult choice for KCS and its shareholders to either stick with CN or re-engage Canadian Pacific Railway in a deal.

Shippers will see spot market truck rates rise in lanes across the US as Hurricane Ida’s powerful punch adds to growing supply chain disruption.

With e-commerce growth shifting to in-store sales, US trucking companies should not expect e-commerce sales at traditional retailers to return to the pre-pandemic growth rate.

Instead of waiting for autonomous trucks, shippers starving for capacity should automate processes starting with freight pickup and delivery to save drivers time, says MIT FreightLab’s co-director.

Johnsonville Transport & Logistics, an arm of Wisconsin-based sausage giant Johnsonville, is looking to collaborate with its retail customers and other food shippers and carriers to solve truck capacity, delivery challenges.

CSX has been restricting how many domestic containers can be brought into Bedford Park, Illinois, causing shippers to pay accessorial fees, or consider alternatives such as Norfolk Southern Railway or spot market trucking to get their goods out of Chicago.

US railroads have begun to control the number of containers leaving ports on trains per day to tailor volume to equipment and labor capacity, but some are skeptical this new strategy will resolve the crippling congestion in inland US markets.

High demand on the China-Europe rail route has collided with construction works to increase capacity at the network’s European gateway terminal in Poland, and congestion is growing.

A rising tide of late shipments in the trans-Pacific trade is tying knots in US surface transportation networks and increasing the need for safety stock.

There is little clarity in Shanghai airport’s evolving COVID-19 lockdown situation, with forwarders in China asked not to deliver export cargo to the terminals and airlines suspending inbound shipments.

Short-term, lane-specific mini-bids are becoming a semi-permanent part of the trucking procurement process for many US shippers, as market disruption pushes up contract truck pricing.

Block train activity has lately become a hot carrier play as operators active out of India work to deftly manage available capacity in an elevated freight market.

As supply chain disruption increases, tracking technology and higher detention charges are two methods LTL carriers are using to combat trailer detention and encourage shippers to speed turns

US rail regulators are warning railroads that the industry could end up re-regulated if it doesn’t move to stem inland rail congestion and skyrocketing rates.

DB Schenker’s Thorsten Meincke says container lines are doing their “best possible to get the supply chain running,” although he warns US landside challenges will continue to challenge efforts.

Completion of the Long Beach Container Terminal expansion project provides an additional 1 million TEU in annual capacity as new trans-Pacific services and extra-loader vessels search for terminal space amid record import volumes.

Shippers are changing their networks and procurement strategies to secure truck capacity, but street- or yard-level chaos amid supply chain disruption can undo their plans.

BNSF and Norfolk Southern look to spare yard capacity to deal with rising intermodal volumes across their networks.

Trucking load board DAT’s partnerships with a range of small carrier software vendors signify the importance of aggregating small carrier demand in a market in which brokers are hungry for capacity.

With ocean carriers pushing importers toward transloading in California amid record-high spot intermodal rates, trucks are becoming a hot commodity in Los Angeles in August.

Forget the fall, the peak US truck shipping season is under way now, trucking analysts say, with spot truckload rates elevated and contract rates still climbing.

By transloading railed goods from ocean containers into domestic containers at Ashcroft inland port, Canadian Tire aims to take greater control of its import flows through the Port of Vancouver.

The FRONTdoor Collective will provide franchised last-mile options to providers, logistics providers, and shippers looking to expand or build out last-mile capabilities.

Trucking rates may be nearing their high point, but there’s little sign they will drop anytime soon in a market still dealing with chaos caused by COVID-19 disruption, high demand, and constrained capacity.

Both of the primary ingredients to the traditional US intermodal peak season — a seasonal increase in demand and an increase in the number of TEU processed — are in question in 2021.

Old Dominion Freight Line, the second-largest US LTL carrier, is accelerating a $275 million expansion plan as surging LTL becomes more central to the consumer economy.