Topic: Features

The $387 billion U.S. truckload sector is still stuck in a three-year freight recession, with soft demand, rising bankruptcies, and tariff-driven volatility continuing to weigh on carriers. Yet, amid mergers, bankruptcies, and shifting global trade, leading operators like J.B. Hunt, Knight-Swift, and Werner are adapting business models, pursuing cross-border growth, and investing in efficiencies to weather the downturn.

The 15th Annual Rail/Intermodal Roundtable examines the current state of the U.S. rail and intermodal markets, highlighting modest carload growth, improving service levels, and the ongoing impact of tariffs, truck competition, and emerging technology. Experts also weigh in on the potential Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger, forecasting that regulatory review and broader economic conditions will shape service, pricing, and growth opportunities over the next several years.

Trucking interests are getting an additional 30 days to comment on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) advance notice of proposed rulemaking related to a potential revamp of its carrier rating system.

With the help of its 3PL partner, Musco Family Olive Co. converted its manual processes to an automated transportation management system, allowing the shipper to lower its total spending by more than 10% in the first year. Here’s how this shipper implemented new solutions for age-old problems.

The auto industry is learning to bob and weave as one disruption after another takes hold.

Entitled Beon, TI said that this new platform gives shippers and carriers a single point of access to access both TI’s and Atlanta-based Nolan Transportation Group’s (NTG) logistics network and services, “from port to porch.”

It’s clear that the pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of global supply chains—a problem the logistics industry will continue to face this year. A high degree of flexibility and close cooperation between all parties in the supply chain is required to be well prepared to respond to the crisis and, hopefully, to a post-COVID era.

Our annual survey reveals that logistics is no longer just a cost of doing business. Today, it’s the source of strategic innovation and an essential part of how organizations are competing and preparing for an unpredictable tomorrow.

As e-commerce exploded over the past year, so too did the need for narrow-aisle layouts and the trucks that can accommodate them.

In a year of unprecedented disruption, U.S. business logistics costs fell 4% as shippers found new ways of moving freight. Like the supply chains they serve, logistics managers must now fundamentally rethink and redesign their solutions—and how they do will define their future success.

With 92% of companies already using the Cloud, the race is on to get even more supply chain management solutions into this convenient, accessible and affordable delivery model.

The increased e-commerce volume generated by the pandemic has no end in sight—and signals a permanent behavioral shift of an indeterminate magnitude. In fact, it has provided an opportunity for carriers, vehicle manufacturers and tech companies to research, test and invest in alternative ways to provide pick up, transport, sortation and delivery.

Consolidation in the global container shipping industry in recent years has been the key factor behind improved supply discipline. Ocean cargo carrier financial performance has been improving as a result.

Despite the scares COVID-19 has hurled on other industries, e-commerce has ensured high demand for warehousing, distribution and fulfillment.

Freight transportation providers responded to COVID-19 pressures heroically, becoming leaner, more collaborative and efficient. And while this is good news for the nation’s freight network, shippers should expect significantly higher rates across all modes in the months ahead as the world moves through recovery.

The shiny new technology may be autonomous lift trucks, but the driverless truck is far from the only trend—and may not be the best step for some operations. Other technologies, including fleet management and telematics, cameras and virtual reality training present a spectrum of technologies that can make lift truck operations more efficient.

Although a fleet’s power source is often taken for granted, the benefits of adding, changing or replacing power sources can have far-reaching operational impacts.

A mobile technology “arms race” is underway as companies re-imagine their supply chains, incorporate more mobility solutions into those networks, and work harder to future-proof their business models.

The future of the third-party domestic transportation management market is now centered on creating digital experiences, workflow automation, and optimizing customer and carrier focused service performance. Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening in what many call the most dynamic segment in logistics.

As we roll through 2020, logistics managers are fending off COVID-19 worries and adapting to the new realities. However, a new report warns against single-sourced supply chains and cites the need for more flexibility in adjustments to economic upheavals.