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Exporters and trucking companies are battling delays on Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation in Memphis, causing loaded containers going to Charleston and Savannah to idle for days.

If approved by regulators, the planned merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern railways would offer cargo owners a single network straddling the largest global trade bloc.

The Commerce Department will push ahead with an anti-dumping duty on Chinese-built marine chassis, which would raise prices on equipment at a time when there are dislocations and shortages in several US ports and rail hubs.

A partnership between TMS provider SupplyStack and visibility company project44 is emblematic of a growing need for European shippers to embed visibility into their shipment management workflow.

Shippers and customers are turning to tracking tools to understand where parcels are in networks and when they will be delivered as e-commerce parcel volumes grow.

Tight truck capacity is a prime reason for the growth of dedicated trucking, but not the only one. Shippers are using dedicated as a tool to influence customers and reshape supply chains.

As the market careened downhill in the first half of 2020, many of the largest truckload carriers began reducing their fleets, and many did not begin adding trucks when demand returned and capacity tightened.

Strongly growing volume on China-Europe rail is causing surprisingly few major delays as forwarders find new routes around potential choke points on the network.

Modal-switching technology tested by MIT and broker GlobalTranz is showing that shippers can save costs by grouping less-than-truckload linehaul freight to multi-stop truckloads.

Although the less-than-truckload sector is experiencing unprecedented growth thanks to changes in the e-commerce supply chain, it is still operating with the shackles of decades past and has largely been shielded from new entrants.

Visibility into inventory levels is helping retailers to better position stocks closer to customers while providing more last-mile delivery options.

The rise of e-commerce is leading to growing competition for long-haul truck drivers from local and short-haul businesses, according to a study from Coyote Logistics and Emsi.

Shippers are adding regional, local, and crowd-sourced carriers to the mix of last-mile providers to mitigate costs and delays, TPM21 panelists said.

US freight demand is “through the roof” after supply chains broke down during February’s winter storms, trucking companies say. More freight may be shifting from spot markets to contractual partners as networks are restored.

Small regional or localized LTL carriers may also be riding the e-commerce wave, providing capacity for local fulfillment and delivery, while their larger competitors carve out middle-mile business.

Greater use of drop trailer pools and e-commerce sales are generating demand for yard drivers — also referred to as hostlers — to handle trailers at warehouses and distribution centers, but those drivers are in short supply.

UP will assess a first-ever March surcharge of $250 on “low-volume shippers” in California effective March 21, just days after an announcement that will kick more US shippers into that category.

With the signing of NAFTA and, more recently, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the flow of goods across the US-Mexico border would appear ripe for intermodal participation, but data indicates the market remains in its infancy.

A chassis shortage has slowed the supply chain since storms hit Texas nearly three weeks ago, and it could be another couple weeks before cargo slows return to normal.

The transportation and warehousing sector lost fewer jobs than anticipated in February, but trucking companies saw deeper than expected job losses in a storm-wracked month.

Freight broker Tucker Company said COVID-19 pushed truck drivers to make the switch to larger carriers, but the rise in spot trucking rates is likely to swing them back to smaller fleets.

The digitization of truck manufacturing will directly benefit shippers by creating more capacity and making more capacity readily available, a study by IBM suggests.

To secure capacity, truck shippers must offer freight that ‘fits’ a carrier’s network of lanes, vehicles, and drivers, speakers at a virtual TPM21 panel said.

Old Dominion Freight Line in February handled more and heavier LTL shipments than a year ago as shippers hit hard by winter storms searched for truck capacity.

Knight Swift CEO Dave Jackson tells JOC’s virtual TPM21 conference that trailer pools, agility, and long-term thinking is the way carriers and shippers can reduce the wild swings seen in trucking rates since 2017.

COVID-related dock bans on truck drivers and greater use of digital receipts are leading to more clashes over short or damaged shipments, according to speakers at a T&LC webinar.

FloorFound partners with a network of transportation and logistics providers to handle the return — or resale — of oversized e-commerce goods such as furniture and appliances.

Truckload carrier Werner Enterprises is expanding its Edge technology platform to brokerage partners and shippers, tightening its focus on landside logistics after offloading its ocean and air forwarding unit.

Less-than-truckload carrier Yellow is opening 12 driver training schools as operators across the US trucking industry are struggling to find enough experienced drivers to satisfy growing industrial and retail freight demand.

Relay Payments is expanding its "lumper payment" platform, allowing truck carriers and brokers to automate the settlement of cargo unloading fees to receiving facilities.

Texas is the epicenter of supply-chain damage caused by Winter Storm Uri, but the disruption is being felt nationwide. Mexican imports by truck may be delayed for days.

Cross-border carriers lack a load board analogous to the widely-used tools available to drivers on US domestic moves, something the broker and technology provider Forager is attempting to address.

Union Pacific Railroad is shutting down virtually all business across its intermodal network for 72 hours because of snow and ice in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, and even as far south as Texas.

A growing gap between inventory and sales in many US business sectors is projected to drive replenishment, expedited shipping, and high levels of imports for months to come.

Old Dominion Freight Line is closely following big box retail customers, adding new service centers as e-commerce spurs construction of new distribution centers.

Increasing US truck freight demand from ports to factories may slow the decline in spot truckload rates seen by DAT, while contract motor carriers take on more business.

Investment continues to surge into technologies that enable small truckload carriers to improve administrative and operational aspects of their businesses, with SmartHop’s $12 million funding round the latest example.

The loss of 84,300 trucking and warehousing jobs in January -- actual numbers before seasonal adjustment -- makes prospects for tighter capacity and higher rates for US shippers in the months ahead more certain.

As cost-conscious India shippers seek “more for less,” value-added services have begun to occupy center stage in freight contract negotiations, including bespoke intermodal services.

The problem with a later peak week is that it leaves precious little room for recovery; when things go wrong or the unexpected occurs, the system appears not to be agile enough to avoid stock-outs and disappointment.