Transportation

February’s shipment reading—at 1.167—was down 0.3% annually, up against an easy annual comparison, while rising 3.8% over January’s 1.124 reading. And the February expenditures reading—at 4.020—was off 9.7% annually, while seeing a 1.9% decline, from January to February.

Logistics Management (LM) Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Matt Muenster, Chief Economist for Green Bay, Wisc.-based Breakthrough, an innovator in transportation management, dedicated to creating transparent and fair strategies for the world’s leading shippers. Muenster provided Berman with an overview of steps shippers need to take and consider, relating to inventory management, and the impact of key economic indicators on freight volumes, among others.

The decades-long and ever-perplexing truck driver shortage—estimated in excess of 80,000 by the American Trucking Associations—has eased somewhat, according to leading trucking executives. In exclusive interviews with LM, top executives say years of pay increases have apparently paid off in better retention and recruitment of qualified drivers.

The LTL market’s surprising profitability and ability to not only exist, but to become the most lucrative and well-managed niche of the overall $830 billion trucking industry, is astounding to even veteran leaders in the sector. How is this happening?

The long litany of headaches now includes ongoing labor negotiations on the West Coast that could quickly shift priorities of ports in the region. While the East Coast may continue to benefit from the uncertainty, the overall forecast for volumes in 2023 remains foggy.

Rail carloads—at 237,413—fell 1.0% annually, and intermodal containers and trailers—at 236,778—fell 11.1%.

A Reuters report published today indicated that Jim Barber, former chief operating officer for Atlanta-based global freight transportation and logistics services provider UPS, is next in line to become CEO of Minneapolis, Minn.-based global logistics services provider and freight forwarder C.H. Robinson (CHR). Davis would replace former CHR president and CEO Bob Biesterfeld, who was released from his executive roles, as well as his CHR board of directors’ position, after a 3.5-year tenure, effective December 31, 2022. While CHR said...

For January, the most recent month for which data is available, Port Tracker noted that import volumes, for the ports covered in the report, came in at 1.81 million TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units), for a 4.4% increase compared to December and a 16.5% annual decrease.

The United States Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said this week that it has updated its Safety Measurement System (SMS) website, adding that complete SMS results are now available to enforcement users and motor carriers that are logged into the SMS website.

DHL said it invested $9.6 million into this facility, which it said is comprised of almost 56,000 square-feet of combined warehouse and office space, coupled with 60 positions for vehicles to load and unload shipments around its conveyable sort system.

For the month of February, Descartes observed that U.S. container volumes—at 1,734,272 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units)—were off 16.2% compared to January, while falling 25.0% annually, and down 0.3% compared to February 2019 prior to the pandemic.

Atlanta-based Class I railroad carrier Norfolk Southern (NS) rolled out a six-point plan to “immediately enhance the safety of its operations.” The company said that this plan is based on preliminary findings made by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) after an NS train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio on February 3.

RK Logistics Group, a Silicon Valley provider of warehousing, e-commerce fulfillment and supply chain management services, recently announced it has opened up a new Hayward, Calif.-based commercial logistics facility to support the local manufacturing of electric vehicles. The company said that this is its 12th Bay Area warehousing facility, covering a cumulative 1.3 million square-feet.

The Services PMI—at 55.1 (a reading of 50 or higher signals growth)—was essentially even with January’s reading with a 0.1% decline, growing, at a slower rate, for the second consecutive month. January was 6.0% above December’s 49.2, which was down 6.9% compared to November’s 55.5. ISM added that the overall economy also grew, at a slower rate, in February, for the second consecutive month.

FTR reported that February preliminary net orders—at 22,800—saw a 13% increase, from January to February, and a 10% annual gain, heading up for the first time in five months. ACT reported that preliminary February Class 8 net orders—at 26,300 units—rose 13% annually and were up 27% compared to January.