capacity

All eras are disruptive—it’s only a question of which disruption and when. The key advice from analysts for both shipper and carriers is to not get too greedy when you have the upper hand—your counterparts will remember when you are on the downside of the next disruption.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently caught up with Ross Spanier, Senior Vice President of Solutions at GlobalTranz, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based full-service 3PL focused on freight brokerage and technology services provider. In a wide-ranging conversation, Berman and Spanier discussed the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic on supply chains, as well as capacity conditions, rates, and intermodal, among others.

The report’s National Shipment Index—at 126.5—was down 4% from the third quarter to the fourth quarter and off 5.4% annually. On the spending side, the report stated that the spending index—at 195.2—was off 2.7% from the third quarter to the fourth quarter and off 2.5% annually.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Trimble, a provider of end-to-end technology solutions to for-hire motor carriers, private fleets, freight brokerage, and third-party logistics providers, announced it has inked a definitive agreement to acquire Maynard, Mass.-based TMS provider and creator of the North America’s largest connected shipping community Kuebix.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Doug Waggoner, CEO of Chicago-based 3PL Echo Global Logistics, about various topics, including pricing, capacity, trucking insurance, and Peak Season.

IANA reported that total September volumes, at 1,489,303, fell 3.7% annually. The AAR reported that September U.S. intermodal container and trailer volumes, at 1.06 million, were off 5.9%, or 65,989 containers and trailers, annually. And it also pointed out that weekly average intermodal originations in September, at 265,371, represent the lowest September tally going back to 2016.

A year ago this time, it is fair to say that the trucking sector was running strongly on all cylinders, buoyed by very strong economic fundamentals, a high level of consumer confidence, and tight capacity, which helped drive rate growth. But fast forward a year later, and it is clear that the tables have turned on myriad fronts, with capacity looser, especially for this time of year on the truckload side, and rates viewed as fair when compared to 2018.

For May, the most recent month for which data is available, the SCI jumped to 5.6, following a 1.9 reading in April, which was almost a full point below March’s 2.8, and marked the highest reading in more than two tears, going back to August 2016.

Chicago-based transportation management services provider Coyote Logistics, a subsidiary of freight transportation and logistics services bellwether UPS, this week introduced a new program and digital freight platform upgrades to better meet the needs and challenges shippers and carriers are facing.

A December 2019 deadline for adopting new systems for carriers to record truck drivers’ hours of service could cause a short-term blip in capacity as truckers convert to the new system. At issue is a Department of Transportation regulation that makes Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) stricter. Come Dec. 16, carriers no longer will be allowed to deploy the Automatic On-Board Recording Devices (AOBRDs) that were grandfathered in for the first two years of the ELD mandate.

The key elements of this partnership include the addition of the Emerge marketplace to the Kuebix Community Load Match, which is a single source offering focused on attractive rates and capacity opportunities through the Kuebix carrier base. The companies said that through this partnership shippers using Kuebix can obtain additional truckload capacity through the Emerge marketplace, coupled with shippers gaining access to contracted rates and the spot market through the same system interface.

In a financial development that shocked the trucking industry, 101-year-old New England Motor Freight and 10 related subsidiaries (including truckload giant Eastern Freightways) voluntarily filed for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey in Newark on February 11.

Trucking executives report they are rejecting record amounts of freight in this current booming peak freight season.Carrier executives say it’s about time rates were rising. It’s been over a decade, veteran truckers say, since profit margins were much above pennies on the dollar, they say.

Spot market data issued this week by Portland, Oregon-based DAT, a subsidiary of Roper Technologies, pointed to a decline in spot market activity for the second month in a row in August.

Uber noted that this enables shippers to see instant upfront load pricing, tender a load with only a few clicks and track their shipment from start to finish. And it added that this platform was built in close collaboration with shippers to help transform a process that would typically take hours to finish and leave them without key information on pricing and carriers.