Transportation

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) issued a memorandum on the situation, replete with information on the current situation and adding that “railroads take their responsibility to move goods critical to the economy safely across the country seriously.”

Company officials said that this new facility, which represents a $5 million investment, is 60% larger than the previous one, adding that it offers up myriad customer benefits, including increasing shipment capacity and faster shipment processing, which provide earlier deliveries for customers in the Long Beach and South Bay area.

On this episode, Byron Bennett, CEO of Zergratran, describes an underground alternative to the Panama Canal. Peerless Media editor Bob Trebilcock hosts.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Doug Waggoner, CEO of Chicago-based Echo Global Logistics about various topics, including: the freight economy, how Peak Season went, and rates and capacity, among others.

The United States Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rolled out proposed changes to its Safety Measurement System (SMS) focused on reducing and preventing crashes.

Waterloo, Ontario-based Descartes, a provider of logistics based on-demand, software-as-a-service offerings, is expanding its final-mile services portfolio, announcing this week it has acquired Minneapolis-based GroundCloud, a cloud-based provider of final-mile carrier solutions and road safety compliance tools. The purchase price was $138 million, according to Descartes.

January’s shipment reading—at 1.124—saw a 4.3% annual increase and up 1.3% compared to December. Expenditures—at 4.096—saw a 1.7% annual increase and were down 3.2% compared to December.

Seattle-based digital freight network Convoy introduced a new service that it said provides shippers with dedicated truck and trailer capacity that can flex to accommodate surges in freight. Entitled Convoy Dedicated On Demand, the company said this new service offers shippers things like cost stability and quality service expected from traditional asset carriers, coupled with the company’s flexibility, for sourcing a single truck or an entire fleet in a matter of days.

For the month of January, Descartes noted that U.S. container volumes—at 2,068,943 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units)—were up 7.2% compared to December’s 1,929,032 TEU, which were down 1.3% compared to November, and its largest December to January increase in the last six years. While volume saw a sequential gain, they were down 16.1% annually, with the caveat that this tally was only 0.3% below a pre-pandemic January 2019. The report also noted that even though the Lunar New Year was in January, the subsequent...

Rail carloads—at 216,700—were off 0.9% annually, and intermodal containers and trailers—232,886—were off 2.9%.

Revenue came in at $1.83 billion, for a 3.3% annual increase, and adjusted earnings per share, at $0.98, topped the $0.64 recorded for the same quarter a year ago. XPO officials cited various growth drivers that factored into its quarterly earnings growth, including growing volumes, pricing, margins, and earnings, in what is called a “challenging macro environment,” and growing its shipment count and tonnage, outperforming negative trends in the industry and typical seasonality.

CBRE found that the largest 100 industrial lease transactions in 2022 included a record-high 63 deals for 1 million square-feet or more—known as “megawarehouses”—topping the 57 deals recorded in 2021. What’s more, it added that the average size of the top 100 leases was 1.07 million square-feet (MSF), supplanting the previous record, of 1.05 million MSF, set in 2021.

A pairing of ongoing economic uncertainty and lower import volumes were the key themes in the new edition of the Port Tracker report, which was issued by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and maritime consultancy Hackett Associates.

With an 8.3-cent decrease, the national average fell to $4.539 per gallon, which was preceded by a 1.8-cent increase, to $4.622 per gallon, for the week of January 30 and an 8.0-cent increase, to $4.604, for the week of January 23, with a 2.5-cent decline, to $4.524, for the week of January 16.

For the fourth quarter, IANA reported that total intermodal volume—at 4,237,605 units—were off compared to the fourth quarter 2021. Total calendar year 2022 volume—at 17,716,445 units—were down 3.9% compared to 2021.