<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">WALKING A TIGHTROPE is normal business at the Federal Reserve, where manipulation of interest rates </div>

WALKING A TIGHTROPE is normal business at the Federal Reserve, where manipulation of interest rates

<div>WALKING A TIGHTROPE is normal business at the Federal Reserve, where manipulation of interest rates must always balance competing goals of inflation control and economic growth. This week's indications of rising inflation make the tightrope act even more treacherous.Under Chairman Alan Greenspan, the Fed has talked tough about inflation but has followed a cautious, gradual program of fighting it. Economic growth and exchange rate levels, not near-term price stability, have been the central bank's major concerns. The Fed has repeatedly nudged up interest rates to slow the pace of growth but avoided shocking the economy withsharp hikes. Over the past...

WALKING A TIGHTROPE is normal business at the Federal Reserve, where manipulation of interest rates must always balance competing goals of inflation control and economic growth. This week's indications of rising inflation make the tightrope act even more treacherous. Under Chairman Alan Greenspan, the Fed has talked tough about inflation but has followed a cautious, gradual program of fighting it. Economic growth and exchange rate levels, not near-term price stability, have been the central bank's major concerns. The Fed has repeatedly nudged up interest rates to slow the pace of growth but avoided shocking the economy withsharp hikes. Over the past year that program has pushed short-term rates considerably higher, while the long-term rates held steady in a vote of confidence by investors.Nonetheless, the newly released forecast of the Fed's monetary policy arm, the Federal Open Market Committee, concedes inflation this year will be higher than in 1988. Some see this as acquiescence to rising prices, others as just honest forecasting. Either way, the Fed is saying that its strategy of gradual restraint will not bring inflation down very soon. The bad news that both retail and wholesale prices rose briskly in January buffets the Fed anew. Too much should not be made of one month's data, and some signs, such as relatively weak durable goods orders in January, point toward an easing of price pressures. Mr. Greenspan appropriately found the latest consumer price increase "disturbing," and both the price hike and his implied threat of still-higher interest rates in turn swept through newly concerned financial markets. The Fed's restraint in the face of substantial uncertainty about price trends has been the only sensible course. The Fed's slowing of money growth cuts inflation only after an unpredictable lag. Too much push on interest rates could accidentally bring on recession even though the delayed price improvements are coming. But the Fed is fast approaching a point where it needs hard evidence that the economy is finally slowing or that extra plant capacity is coming on stream to relieve cost pressures. There are a few signs this may be occurring, but without more concrete indications the Fed may have to apply painful remedies to keep inflation from getting out of control. If the January numbers showing inflation in the range of 7 percent were no aberration, the time to abandon gradualism will be at hand. So long as price increases are small, it is reasonable to seek painless ways of dealing with them. But the experience of the 1970s suggest that there is no painless way to cure high and sustained inflation. The parallel is not precise: current Fed policy is a good deal steadier than it was during the Nixon, Ford and Carter years. But the lesson remains valid. Wringing inflation out of an economy hurts people. But allowing it to fester uncontrolled ends up hurting even more in the end.

THE FED'S TIGHTROPE

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Cedar Port industrial park and barge port says the construction of a new ship channel could pave the way for potential development of a container terminal at the site.</div>

The Cedar Port industrial park and barge port says the construction of a new ship channel could pave the way for potential development of a container terminal at the site.

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<div class="phx-topic">A Houston-area industrial park and barge port is moving ahead with early plans to develop a $1 billion container terminal at the site that, if built, would double the area’s existing container capacity. The next step for operators of the park and port, known as Cedar Port, is to provide the appropriate state and federal environmental agencies with the findings of a feasibility study that was undertaken to map out the logistics of dredging a new shipping channel between the existing Houston Ship Channel and Cedar Port. “We are literally drafting the final [feasibility and environmental] findings, and that’s what will get published in June in the final Federal Register,” Clayton Henderson, Cedar Port’s director of port development, told the Journal of Commerce. If the dredging project is granted Congressional approval next year and the container terminal project receives all necessary permitting, it could be completed as early as 2032, Cedar Port officials said. Cedar Port Industrial Park consists of 15,000 acres, about 10,000 of which are still undeveloped. The proposed $500-million Cedar Port Terminal Channel Deepening Project — which would be executed under the authority of the US Army Corps of Engineers — would enable a potential Cedar Port container terminal to host vessels up to approximately 15,000 TEUs in size. The new ship channel would be dredged to a depth of 50 feet, matching the nearby Port Houston. Still, key facets of the proposed project remain unclear, including funding sources and who would ultimately operate the port. One potential partner would be Port Houston, which has been considering its own growth plans. “Port Houston has been investigating alternatives for future expansion of Port Houston container operations, including further optimization of our existing terminals and a potential third container terminal complex,” the port told the Journal of Commerce. “As part of this long-range planning, Cedar Port is one potential option that the Port Houston team has been examining.” If the Cedar Port container terminal comes to fruition independently of Port Houston, Cedar Port’s additional container capacity would effectively compete with Port Houston for volumes. Either way, Henderson said expected container volume growth in the region over the next decade will require capacity expansion. “There is so much between now and then,” Henderson said, referring to the timeline for the terminal. “We anticipate 2032 [to open] would be about the earliest, to 2035. This is the timeframe we estimate a terminal could be operational, and that seems to correlate with when the market will need an extra 5 million TEUs — to use round numbers — that will need a home somewhere based on current capabilities.” Contact Laura Robb at <a href="mailto:Laura.Robb@spglobal.com">laura.robb@spglobal.com</a>.  </div>

A Houston-area industrial park and barge port is moving ahead with early plans to develop a $1 billion container terminal at the site that, if built, would double the area’s existing container capacity. The next step for operators of the park and port, known as Cedar Port, is to provide the appropriate state and federal environmental agencies with the findings of a feasibility study that was undertaken to map out the logistics of dredging a new shipping channel between the existing Houston Ship Channel and Cedar Port. “We are literally drafting the final [feasibility and environmental] findings, and that’s what will get published in June in the final Federal Register,” Clayton Henderson, Cedar Port’s director of port development, told the Journal of Commerce. If the dredging project is granted Congressional approval next year and the container terminal project receives all necessary permitting, it could be completed as early as 2032, Cedar Port officials said. Cedar Port Industrial Park consists of 15,000 acres, about 10,000 of which are still undeveloped. The proposed $500-million Cedar Port Terminal Channel Deepening Project — which would be executed under the authority of the US Army Corps of Engineers — would enable a potential Cedar Port container terminal to host vessels up to approximately 15,000 TEUs in size. The new ship channel would be dredged to a depth of 50 feet, matching the nearby Port Houston. Still, key facets of the proposed project remain unclear, including funding sources and who would ultimately operate the port. One potential partner would be Port Houston, which has been considering its own growth plans. “Port Houston has been investigating alternatives for future expansion of Port Houston container operations, including further optimization of our existing terminals and a potential third container terminal complex,” the port told the Journal of Commerce. “As part of this long-range planning, Cedar Port is one potential option that the Port Houston team has been examining.” If the Cedar Port container terminal comes to fruition independently of Port Houston, Cedar Port’s additional container capacity would effectively compete with Port Houston for volumes. Either way, Henderson said expected container volume growth in the region over the next decade will require capacity expansion. “There is so much between now and then,” Henderson said, referring to the timeline for the terminal. “We anticipate 2032 [to open] would be about the earliest, to 2035. This is the timeframe we estimate a terminal could be operational, and that seems to correlate with when the market will need an extra 5 million TEUs — to use round numbers — that will need a home somewhere based on current capabilities.” Contact Laura Robb at laura.robb@spglobal.com . 

Container Shipping News

North American ports

Port News

Stakeholders look to advance possible Houston-area dredging project

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The railroad says it acted fast to resolve issues at its Dallas-area terminal and denies there have been any significant problems in Calgary and the Toronto area. </div>

The railroad says it acted fast to resolve issues at its Dallas-area terminal and denies there have been any significant problems in Calgary and the Toronto area.

<div class="phx-topic">A series of operational challenges at intermodal terminals owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) over the past 30 days has triggered rail delays and rising container dwell times, leading to frustration among some of the railroad’s customers, sources say. But the severity of the impact appears to vary, with other logistics providers reporting stable service and timely communication from CPKC. While the most significant delays have occurred in Wylie, Texas, outside of Dallas, issues have also been raised in Calgary and the Toronto suburb of Vaughan, Ontario. The issues in Wylie stem from technical glitches linked to the early May switch from legacy Kansas City Southern operating systems to CPKC systems. The rollout on May 3 caused problems with driver registration and container notifications, prompting CPKC to fly staff from Canada to Texas and deploy terminal employees to sit at the gates in Wylie to handwrite receipts to enter and exit the premises. Three CPKC customers — two intermodal providers and one trucking company — told the Journal of Commerce that truck drivers have sat in traffic for more than five hours since the switchover. One of the intermodal providers said delays are still rampant at the Wiley terminal, with some of its containers stuck for more than nine days as of May 21. The three companies asked not to be identified because of their ongoing business relationship with CPKC. “The last several weeks of grounding containers [at Wylie] has been horrid,” said the trucking executive. “[CPKC has] fallen flat on their face.” CPKC, meanwhile, acknowledged delays in Wylie but denied there were any disruptions in Calgary or Vaughan.“We had a very large systems change from legacy Kansas City Southern to CPKC systems,” said Jonathan Wahba, senior vice president of sales at CPKC. “Where we fell down was around driver training in the Wylie market about the switch.” Wahba noted the railroad brought staff in from Canada to help steady operations at the terminal. “We took it seriously and corrected it,” he said. Schneider National, CPKC’s top partner in the US, characterized the Wylie disruption as a minor setback, saying its drivers were prepared for the systems switchover at Wylie and that CPKC worked quickly to resolve any issues.<h3>Dispute over Canadian service </h3>Amid the Texas disruption, two CPKC partners in Canada have complained about delays inside the Calgary and Vaughan (Toronto) terminals. Both partners said while train departures remained on schedule, there have been delays in the time between when containers are in-gated at the terminals and when they depart, known as origin dwell. The Canadian partners asked not to be identified because of their ongoing relationship with CPKC. The first partner showed the Journal of Commerce a list of nearly two dozen empty containers in Calgary that have dwelled for more than a week and another 20 loaded boxes in Vaughan dwelling between four and five days. The second CPKC partner confirmed its dwell in Calgary has exceeded seven days in recent weeks compared with the normal two-day dwell to reposition empty boxes. “I can’t satisfy my outbound demand [in eastern Canada] when I’ve got those delays,” said the first CPKC partner. Wahba disputed that there are major disruptions in Calgary or Vaughan. Any delays were confined to a small number of containers shipped under CPKC’s lowest-tier offering, known as the “Flex” service, he said, adding that customers using the railroad’s “Premium” or “Standard” services have not seen delays. “Flex is the lowest-cost service we offer. It gives us the discretion to move containers at our convenience,” Wahba said. “If someone says their box waited five days but they bought Flex, that’s not a failure; that’s what was purchased.” But the two Canadian partners say they have also experienced delays for containers booked under CPKC’s Premium and Standard tiers. Ron Tepper, CEO of Fastfrate Group, said his company has not experienced service issues in Canada, where Fastfrate is CPKC’s highest-volume intermodal marketing company. Fastfrate books containers with CPKC through a mix of all three service levels, although a majority of its business is not moved via Flex. “We’re doing just fine. Calgary’s running great, Vaughan is fine,” Tepper told the Journal of Commerce. “From our perspective, CPKC is running well. We don’t have any issues. If we have an issue, we raise our hand, and they fix it.” CPKC said longer dwells are not unusual under the Flex tier, especially with its intermodal volume being up 11% year over year in the second quarter through last week, according to data submitted to the Association of American Railroads. “We’re handling record volumes right now, double-digit growth, and we’re doing it with high service levels,” Wahba said. “We’re not perfect. We know that. But I do believe a lot of the experience customers are having is dependent on what product they’re buying and how they’re set up to execute with us.” Contact Ari Ashe at <a href="mailto:ari.ashe@spglobal.com">ari.ashe@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

A series of operational challenges at intermodal terminals owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) over the past 30 days has triggered rail delays and rising container dwell times, leading to frustration among some of the railroad’s customers, sources say. But the severity of the impact appears to vary, with other logistics providers reporting stable service and timely communication from CPKC. While the most significant delays have occurred in Wylie, Texas, outside of Dallas, issues have also been raised in Calgary and the Toronto suburb of Vaughan, Ontario. The issues in Wylie stem from technical glitches linked to the early May switch from legacy Kansas City Southern operating systems to CPKC systems. The rollout on May 3 caused problems with driver registration and container notifications, prompting CPKC to fly staff from Canada to Texas and deploy terminal employees to sit at the gates in Wylie to handwrite receipts to enter and exit the premises. Three CPKC customers — two intermodal providers and one trucking company — told the Journal of Commerce that truck drivers have sat in traffic for more than five hours since the switchover. One of the intermodal providers said delays are still rampant at the Wiley terminal, with some of its containers stuck for more than nine days as of May 21. The three companies asked not to be identified because of their ongoing business relationship with CPKC. “The last several weeks of grounding containers [at Wylie] has been horrid,” said the trucking executive. “[CPKC has] fallen flat on their face.” CPKC, meanwhile, acknowledged delays in Wylie but denied there were any disruptions in Calgary or Vaughan. “We had a very large systems change from legacy Kansas City Southern to CPKC systems,” said Jonathan Wahba, senior vice president of sales at CPKC. “Where we fell down was around driver training in the Wylie market about the switch.” Wahba noted the railroad brought staff in from Canada to help steady operations at the terminal. “We took it seriously and corrected it,” he said. Schneider National, CPKC’s top partner in the US, characterized the Wylie disruption as a minor setback, saying its drivers were prepared for the systems switchover at Wylie and that CPKC worked quickly to resolve any issues. Dispute over Canadian service Amid the Texas disruption, two CPKC partners in Canada have complained about delays inside the Calgary and Vaughan (Toronto) terminals. Both partners said while train departures remained on schedule, there have been delays in the time between when containers are in-gated at the terminals and when they depart, known as origin dwell. The Canadian partners asked not to be identified because of their ongoing relationship with CPKC. The first partner showed the Journal of Commerce a list of nearly two dozen empty containers in Calgary that have dwelled for more than a week and another 20 loaded boxes in Vaughan dwelling between four and five days. The second CPKC partner confirmed its dwell in Calgary has exceeded seven days in recent weeks compared with the normal two-day dwell to reposition empty boxes. “I can’t satisfy my outbound demand [in eastern Canada] when I’ve got those delays,” said the first CPKC partner. Wahba disputed that there are major disruptions in Calgary or Vaughan. Any delays were confined to a small number of containers shipped under CPKC’s lowest-tier offering, known as the “Flex” service, he said, adding that customers using the railroad’s “Premium” or “Standard” services have not seen delays. “Flex is the lowest-cost service we offer. It gives us the discretion to move containers at our convenience,” Wahba said. “If someone says their box waited five days but they bought Flex, that’s not a failure; that’s what was purchased.” But the two Canadian partners say they have also experienced delays for containers booked under CPKC’s Premium and Standard tiers. Ron Tepper, CEO of Fastfrate Group, said his company has not experienced service issues in Canada, where Fastfrate is CPKC’s highest-volume intermodal marketing company. Fastfrate books containers with CPKC through a mix of all three service levels, although a majority of its business is not moved via Flex. “We’re doing just fine. Calgary’s running great, Vaughan is fine,” Tepper told the Journal of Commerce. “From our perspective, CPKC is running well. We don’t have any issues. If we have an issue, we raise our hand, and they fix it.” CPKC said longer dwells are not unusual under the Flex tier, especially with its intermodal volume being up 11% year over year in the second quarter through last week, according to data submitted to the Association of American Railroads. “We’re handling record volumes right now, double-digit growth, and we’re doing it with high service levels,” Wahba said. “We’re not perfect. We know that. But I do believe a lot of the experience customers are having is dependent on what product they’re buying and how they’re set up to execute with us.” Contact Ari Ashe at ari.ashe@spglobal.com .

Intermodal providers

North-American rail

CPKC grapples with complaints over US, Canada terminal operations

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Indian capacity to the West Coast is in large part confined to extended Asian networks connecting over regional hubs, so space availability remains exposed to demand volatility at origin load ports. </div>

Indian capacity to the West Coast is in large part confined to extended Asian networks connecting over regional hubs, so space availability remains exposed to demand volatility at origin load ports.

<div class="phx-topic">Indian freight forwarders have reported a sharp upswing in ocean rates for loads to the US West Coast (USWC) — as high as 60% over the past two weeks — amid capacity pressures linked to the now-heated eastbound trans-Pacific trade. Indian capacity to the West Coast is in large part confined to extended Asian networks connecting over regional hubs, so space availability remains exposed to demand volatility at origin load ports. Bookings from China to the US have jumped sharply over the past two weeks given the 90-day tariff cooldown period between Washington and Beijing. “With China volumes now peaking, we are noticing a cutback in allocations for India loading,” an executive at an Asian carrier who didn’t want to be identified told the Journal of Commerce. “We expect this crunch to tighten further in the coming weeks.” Average spot rates on the India-USWC trade lane have climbed 50% to 60% over the last two weeks, according to data obtained by the Journal of Commerce from forwarders. Booking rates from Nhava Sheva to Los Angeles on sailings through early June now stand at $3,000 per TEU and $3,500 per FEU, although varying from carrier to carrier. Sources put port-to-port rate quotes by carrier at: CMA CGM — $3,186 per TEU and $3,646 per FEU; Maersk — $4,141 and $4,000; and Hapag-Lloyd — $2,734 and $2,784. Forwarders who spoke with the Journal of Commerce noted somewhat similar rate indications for other active carriers. And significant increase plans are in the offing, including $3,600 per TEU and $4,000 per FEU announced by CMA CGM from June 15; $1,800 and $2,000 in two rounds by Mediterranean Shipping Co. from June 1 and June 15; and $3,200 and $4,000 in two attempts by Wan Hai Lines beginning July 1 and July 15. “We could very well see rates for India-USWC bookings go up to $7,000 per container over the next month,” a forwarder said. Asian carriers are more aggressive than their European peers for India-USWC coverage. Notably, Ocean Network Express’ Pacific South 3 (PS3) service is the only direct routing for Indian shippers, linking Nhava Sheva and Pipavav to Los Angeles and Oakland. Contact Bency Mathew at <a href="mailto:bencyvmathew@gmail.com">bencyvmathew@gmail.com</a>. </div>

Indian freight forwarders have reported a sharp upswing in ocean rates for loads to the US West Coast (USWC) — as high as 60% over the past two weeks — amid capacity pressures linked to the now-heated eastbound trans-Pacific trade. Indian capacity to the West Coast is in large part confined to extended Asian networks connecting over regional hubs, so space availability remains exposed to demand volatility at origin load ports. Bookings from China to the US have jumped sharply over the past two weeks given the 90-day tariff cooldown period between Washington and Beijing. “With China volumes now peaking, we are noticing a cutback in allocations for India loading,” an executive at an Asian carrier who didn’t want to be identified told the Journal of Commerce. “We expect this crunch to tighten further in the coming weeks.” Average spot rates on the India-USWC trade lane have climbed 50% to 60% over the last two weeks, according to data obtained by the Journal of Commerce from forwarders. Booking rates from Nhava Sheva to Los Angeles on sailings through early June now stand at $3,000 per TEU and $3,500 per FEU, although varying from carrier to carrier. Sources put port-to-port rate quotes by carrier at: CMA CGM — $3,186 per TEU and $3,646 per FEU; Maersk — $4,141 and $4,000; and Hapag-Lloyd — $2,734 and $2,784. Forwarders who spoke with the Journal of Commerce noted somewhat similar rate indications for other active carriers. And significant increase plans are in the offing, including $3,600 per TEU and $4,000 per FEU announced by CMA CGM from June 15; $1,800 and $2,000 in two rounds by Mediterranean Shipping Co. from June 1 and June 15; and $3,200 and $4,000 in two attempts by Wan Hai Lines beginning July 1 and July 15. “We could very well see rates for India-USWC bookings go up to $7,000 per container over the next month,” a forwarder said. Asian carriers are more aggressive than their European peers for India-USWC coverage. Notably, Ocean Network Express’ Pacific South 3 (PS3) service is the only direct routing for Indian shippers, linking Nhava Sheva and Pipavav to Los Angeles and Oakland. Contact Bency Mathew at bencyvmathew@gmail.com .

Maritime

Supply chain

Container lines

Forwarding

Trans-Pacific

India-US West Coast rates jump as capacity suffers from Asia cargo rush

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The move to ensure commercial drivers comply with US law requiring English-language proficiency will have ramifications for shippers, carriers and drivers. </div>

The move to ensure commercial drivers comply with US law requiring English-language proficiency will have ramifications for shippers, carriers and drivers.

<div class="phx-topic">Truck drivers in the US who can’t speak English are facing a crackdown, with the Department of Transportation (DOT) promising to take them off the road. The step to ensure commercial drivers comply with US law requiring English-language proficiency (ELP) will have ramifications for shippers, carriers and drivers. Loads could be delayed, driver hours of service affected, and truck capacity may get tighter. But supporters of the move claim US highways will be safer and point out that ELP is the law. Starting June 25, truck drivers who cannot communicate with law enforcement during roadside inspections or at weigh stations will be placed out of service, meaning they will not be permitted to drive, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Tuesday. “We are issuing new guidance that ensures a driver who can’t understand English will not drive a commercial vehicle in this country,” Duffy said at a press conference in Austin, Texas, that was livestreamed by DOT. Duffy signed an order replacing guidance issued by the Obama administration in 2016. That guidance removed the requirement to place drivers out of service for an ELP violation if they could communicate with inspectors or police by other means. “[If] someone is pulled over and can’t speak the language, they’ll be pulled out of service,” Duffy said. “Before, they’d be given a slap on the wrist and allowed to go on.” The new guidance will make employing non-English speaking drivers “very costly,” he said. <h3>DOT says safety at risk </h3>ELP enforcement is primarily a safety issue, Duffy said, adding that “allowing drivers who cannot read stop signs threatens the safety of every American on our roadways.” But other issues are contributing to calls for tighter ELP enforcement, especially from US trucking organizations. One is the allegation that some carriers are using non-English speakers as “cheap labor,” and thus denying work to qualified US truck drivers. “There are far too many unqualified drivers driving on the road today, too many loopholes that result in drivers who lack the basic skills,” Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), said at the Austin event. The DOT will review how states issue commercial driver’s licenses and review the security of licenses issued by states to drivers outside their jurisdiction, or non-domiciled licenses. “It feels like the trucking industry has become the Wild West with a lot of bad actors who have been allowed to play in this space,” said Duffy. “We’re going to improve verification protocols for both domestic and international credentials to ensure that only qualified drivers are behind the wheel on American roads,” he added. Contact William B. Cassidy at <a href="mailto:bill.cassidy@spglobal.com">bill.cassidy@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Truck drivers in the US who can’t speak English are facing a crackdown, with the Department of Transportation (DOT) promising to take them off the road. The step to ensure commercial drivers comply with US law requiring English-language proficiency (ELP) will have ramifications for shippers, carriers and drivers. Loads could be delayed, driver hours of service affected, and truck capacity may get tighter. But supporters of the move claim US highways will be safer and point out that ELP is the law. Starting June 25, truck drivers who cannot communicate with law enforcement during roadside inspections or at weigh stations will be placed out of service, meaning they will not be permitted to drive, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Tuesday. “We are issuing new guidance that ensures a driver who can’t understand English will not drive a commercial vehicle in this country,” Duffy said at a press conference in Austin, Texas, that was livestreamed by DOT. Duffy signed an order replacing guidance issued by the Obama administration in 2016. That guidance removed the requirement to place drivers out of service for an ELP violation if they could communicate with inspectors or police by other means. “[If] someone is pulled over and can’t speak the language, they’ll be pulled out of service,” Duffy said. “Before, they’d be given a slap on the wrist and allowed to go on.” The new guidance will make employing non-English speaking drivers “very costly,” he said. DOT says safety at risk ELP enforcement is primarily a safety issue, Duffy said, adding that “allowing drivers who cannot read stop signs threatens the safety of every American on our roadways.” But other issues are contributing to calls for tighter ELP enforcement, especially from US trucking organizations. One is the allegation that some carriers are using non-English speakers as “cheap labor,” and thus denying work to qualified US truck drivers. “There are far too many unqualified drivers driving on the road today, too many loopholes that result in drivers who lack the basic skills,” Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), said at the Austin event. The DOT will review how states issue commercial driver’s licenses and review the security of licenses issued by states to drivers outside their jurisdiction, or non-domiciled licenses. “It feels like the trucking industry has become the Wild West with a lot of bad actors who have been allowed to play in this space,” said Duffy. “We’re going to improve verification protocols for both domestic and international credentials to ensure that only qualified drivers are behind the wheel on American roads,” he added. Contact William B. Cassidy at bill.cassidy@spglobal.com .

Trucking News

Transport, Trade and Regulation News

Surface

US DOT initiates crackdown on non-English-speaking truckers

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Carriers may find it difficult to bring trans-Pacific capacity back quickly because they repositioned ships into other trades outside of the region amid the tariff-linked demand drop in April and early May. </div>

Carriers may find it difficult to bring trans-Pacific capacity back quickly because they repositioned ships into other trades outside of the region amid the tariff-linked demand drop in April and early May.

<div class="phx-topic">Ocean carriers are bringing suspended container services back to the trans-Pacific next month due to heavy import demand from China. Even so, capacity remains tight in the near term as some ships that once served the trans-Pacific have been redeployed to other lanes. President Donald Trump’s temporary reprieve on reciprocal tariffs against China has meant the resumption of previously canceled ocean freight bookings, as well as likely frontloading of imports during the 90-day reprieve period, which ends Aug. 14. That means container capacity from China is “tight” through the first week of July, Hong Kong-based logistics provider Honour Lane Shipping said in its most recent trans-Pacific market update, adding that cargo may likely be rolled to later voyages due to space constraints. “All carriers are facing serious space shortages as they’ve cut a large percentage of their capacities by service suspension and blank sailings in the previous two months,” Honour Lane said. “Most vessels are very full by the end of the month, and many of them have overbooking.” Zim Integrated Shipping Service was one of the first out of the gate to announce <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/zim-restarts-china-los-angeles-service-to-capture-fresh-import-demand-6007601">it will restart an express service</a> from China to the Port of Los Angeles, and now other carriers are following suit. After <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/april-blank-sailings-ramp-up-amid-push-to-finalize-long-term-contracts-5974802">a slate of blank sailings</a>, Mediterranean Shipping Co. is resuming regular weekly sailings on its Orient service between China and the Port of Long Beach starting with the June 9 departure from Shanghai of the 8,500-TEU MSC Tianshan, according to MSC’s vessel schedule. The Premier Alliance also appears to be planning a restart of its PS5 service from China to the ports of Long Beach and Oakland. Alliance member Ocean Network Express (ONE) shows four vessels already nominated to the string, with the first voyage from Qingdao on June 6 on the 6,589-TEU YM Mobility. The resumption of the PS5, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/trans-pacific-capacity-cuts-accelerating-amid-sharp-reduction-in-chinese-cargo-5992769">originally planned for May</a>, was delayed due to the downturn in import demand. <h3>‘Takes time to resume services’ </h3>Other carriers, though, may find it more difficult to bring trans-Pacific capacity back quickly because they have repositioned ships into other trades outside of the region, Honour Lane’s report said. “Despite the demand spikes, carriers have yet to return capacity to China,” Honour Lane said. “It takes time to resume services or cancel blank sailings which have been announced months ago.” Cosco Shipping’s AAC4 service from central China to Long Beach went to a biweekly schedule, instead of weekly, through May due to the post-tariff demand downturn. While the service is set to resume weekly voyages in June, Cosco redeployed two vessels in the AAC4 service to other markets. The 14,568-TEU Cosco Shipping Alps, which had called Long Beach regularly since 2023 as part of the AAC4 service, is now destined for the Port of Rotterdam with a May 24 estimated arrival, according to data from Sea-web, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. Likewise, the 13,386-TEU Cosco Portugal, which had been in the AAC4 rotation since 2021, is also scheduled to call Rotterdam in June. Evergreen Marine may also have to reposition ships to the trans-Pacific to meet the renewed demand. After its CPS service to Los Angeles blanked five weekly voyages through April and May, two vessels in that service went to other trades. Evergreen’s 11,888-TEU Ever Fame had been in the rotation for the carrier’s CPS service since this year, port call data shows. However, since the CPS started blanking its weekly calls, the Ever Fame is now en route to Rio De Janeiro as part of Evergreen’s Far East-South America service. The 12,118-TEU Ever Frank, which was also put into the CPS rotation at the start of 2025, is now en route to Southampton, England, as part of Evergreen’s China-Europe Shuttle service. Evergreen is now looking to backfill capacity in the wake of the schedule changes. The carrier scheduled two ad hoc calls to Los Angeles in May on its Asia-Northwest Pacific service. Evergreen’s HTW service also made ad hoc calls to Shanghai and Ningbo after service from those ports was curtailed. Other Ocean Alliance members are resuming regular trans-Pacific services. CMA CGM’s Pearl River Express service to Los Angeles, which canceled nearly all its sailings from April through May, plans to return to a regular weekly cadence in June, as does OOCL’s Pacific South China Express service. Cosco Shipping is set to deploy two extra loaders from China to Long Beach this week to handle the sudden demand surge, but it’s “not sure whether it would be enough to mitigate the short supply,” Honour Lane said in its advisory. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Ocean carriers are bringing suspended container services back to the trans-Pacific next month due to heavy import demand from China. Even so, capacity remains tight in the near term as some ships that once served the trans-Pacific have been redeployed to other lanes. President Donald Trump’s temporary reprieve on reciprocal tariffs against China has meant the resumption of previously canceled ocean freight bookings, as well as likely frontloading of imports during the 90-day reprieve period, which ends Aug. 14. That means container capacity from China is “tight” through the first week of July, Hong Kong-based logistics provider Honour Lane Shipping said in its most recent trans-Pacific market update, adding that cargo may likely be rolled to later voyages due to space constraints. “All carriers are facing serious space shortages as they’ve cut a large percentage of their capacities by service suspension and blank sailings in the previous two months,” Honour Lane said. “Most vessels are very full by the end of the month, and many of them have overbooking.” Zim Integrated Shipping Service was one of the first out of the gate to announce it will restart an express service from China to the Port of Los Angeles, and now other carriers are following suit. After a slate of blank sailings , Mediterranean Shipping Co. is resuming regular weekly sailings on its Orient service between China and the Port of Long Beach starting with the June 9 departure from Shanghai of the 8,500-TEU MSC Tianshan, according to MSC’s vessel schedule. The Premier Alliance also appears to be planning a restart of its PS5 service from China to the ports of Long Beach and Oakland. Alliance member Ocean Network Express (ONE) shows four vessels already nominated to the string, with the first voyage from Qingdao on June 6 on the 6,589-TEU YM Mobility. The resumption of the PS5, originally planned for May , was delayed due to the downturn in import demand. ‘Takes time to resume services’ Other carriers, though, may find it more difficult to bring trans-Pacific capacity back quickly because they have repositioned ships into other trades outside of the region, Honour Lane’s report said. “Despite the demand spikes, carriers have yet to return capacity to China,” Honour Lane said. “It takes time to resume services or cancel blank sailings which have been announced months ago.” Cosco Shipping’s AAC4 service from central China to Long Beach went to a biweekly schedule, instead of weekly, through May due to the post-tariff demand downturn. While the service is set to resume weekly voyages in June, Cosco redeployed two vessels in the AAC4 service to other markets. The 14,568-TEU Cosco Shipping Alps, which had called Long Beach regularly since 2023 as part of the AAC4 service, is now destined for the Port of Rotterdam with a May 24 estimated arrival, according to data from Sea-web, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. Likewise, the 13,386-TEU Cosco Portugal, which had been in the AAC4 rotation since 2021, is also scheduled to call Rotterdam in June. Evergreen Marine may also have to reposition ships to the trans-Pacific to meet the renewed demand. After its CPS service to Los Angeles blanked five weekly voyages through April and May, two vessels in that service went to other trades. Evergreen’s 11,888-TEU Ever Fame had been in the rotation for the carrier’s CPS service since this year, port call data shows. However, since the CPS started blanking its weekly calls, the Ever Fame is now en route to Rio De Janeiro as part of Evergreen’s Far East-South America service. The 12,118-TEU Ever Frank, which was also put into the CPS rotation at the start of 2025, is now en route to Southampton, England, as part of Evergreen’s China-Europe Shuttle service. Evergreen is now looking to backfill capacity in the wake of the schedule changes. The carrier scheduled two ad hoc calls to Los Angeles in May on its Asia-Northwest Pacific service. Evergreen’s HTW service also made ad hoc calls to Shanghai and Ningbo after service from those ports was curtailed. Other Ocean Alliance members are resuming regular trans-Pacific services. CMA CGM’s Pearl River Express service to Los Angeles, which canceled nearly all its sailings from April through May, plans to return to a regular weekly cadence in June, as does OOCL’s Pacific South China Express service. Cosco Shipping is set to deploy two extra loaders from China to Long Beach this week to handle the sudden demand surge, but it’s “not sure whether it would be enough to mitigate the short supply,” Honour Lane said in its advisory. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Trans-Pacific services set for restart as carriers scramble to restore capacity

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The world of LTL is slow to embrace change. Business anachronisms permeate current supply chain processes. These vestiges of the way things used to work define the LTL freight transportation procurement process of many modern shippers.David Knuth, logistics specialist at IEWC, a global supplier of cable and wire based in Wisconsin, is happy to have modernized the RFP process, automating the entire LTL bidding procedure with Bid$ense, SMC³’s automated truckload and LTL freight transportation sourcing solution. But when prompted, he can still recall what once was.In his previous job, a large part of his duties were consumed by creating an intermodal bid package for carriers. In a spreadsheet, Knuth detailed the company’s volumes lane by lane, taking care to delete any errant keystrokes or misleading data. He would then email out the information to each carrier, taking time to respond to detailed technical questions about the spreadsheet data. Finally, he had to compile all the results, create an algorithm that would compare the carriers on each lane, and award the business.“It was a huge undertaking. It took about four months to do,” Knuth said of the old process. “It was almost a full-time job for that part of the year, every year.”In his new job at IEWC, he sat down with Bid$ense on day one and was amazed at the capabilities. Knuth had never before used a bid tool. SMC³’s latest versions of Bid$ense automate the process even further, taking truckload and LTL RFPs entirely online. The tool draws on RFP best-practices protocols to streamline the bidding communication process, enabling bidding carriers to respond accurately and promptly to shipper requests. The solution also does all the distribution work automatically, electronically submitting shipper bid data to carriers based on their actual service capabilities and performance records. Carriers are alerted with timely prompts for RFP deliverables, so shippers aren’t waiting by the phone for responses.Another benefit of automating the process is the data-cleansing assistance. When Knuth sent spreadsheets to carriers, data errors might cloud the bidding process; he might have to resend data or simply accept a price that did not truly reflect the costs of doing business. Data cleansing is incredibly beneficial, he said.The spreadsheet technique also made bidding analysis an onerous task. Since Bid$ense automates and streamlines the entire RFP process, intensive examination is now simple. SMC³ knows that each bid has more than one best outcome. With uniform responses from each carrier, shippers can quickly rank results and create an unlimited quantity of what-if scenarios to make the optimal procurement decision.Jesse Burnett of Central Garden &amp; Pet experiences many of the same benefits. Founded in 1980, Central Garden &amp; Pet has spent the last three decades growing from a small garden supply company to a provider of a range of products from dog chews and bird seed to soil supplements and natural insecticides. For much of its life, the company shipped these disparate goods via LTL and truckload carriers to retailers throughout the country, relying on each business unit to negotiate directly with their freight transportation providers. This arrangement worked fairly well for a small company, but as Central Garden &amp; Pet expanded, leadership decided to consolidate decision making.Burnett helped centralize the transportation decision making in 2015 with SMC³’s Bid$ense. Before Bid$ense, every business unit operated independently as far as negotiating with carriers.“There were a lot of different things just floating around,” he said. “We didn’t have master agreements in place; no national pricing at all. The pricing from carriers was just all over the place, depending on where you were.”The transformations he saw with Bid$ense were immediate. Burnett has been using the tool about every other year since its implementation at the company. Central Garden and Pet’s $19.6 million 2019 LTL bid saved the company just more than 9 percent when compared to its historical average. For Burnett, though, bid automation extends far beyond savings.“We knew that we weren’t getting the best pricing offer from our carriers just because nothing was centralized,” he continued. “We knew that if we combined everything from all these business units and paired it with one corporate offering, then it would drive some cost benefit with it.”When the company initially decided to centralize bid procurement, executives researched a number of different methodologies and technologies. In the end, though, Burnett found that Bid$ense was both widespread and well known, and that his carrier partners already knew how to use the application. Burnett also highlighted the data-cleansing process as a major benefit, saying the rigorous process ensures that carriers always return the best price.“It definitely has helped drive savings,” he said. “Any time you go out there and you drive that competitiveness with the carriers and they know they’re in a bid environment, it seems to sharpen their pencils.”Transportation procurement is an integral part of the modern supply chain. With Bid$ense, shippers can develop a strategic implementation plan that saves them time and money, but also helps them create strong relationships with their carrier partners. These carriers appreciate the solution’s data-cleansing process; when carriers receive a complete shipment history and future volume forecast, they don’t have to guess on pricing. Carriers that receive more data from shippers get a complete picture of that shipper’s freight, allowing them to accurately plan instead of simply preparing for the worst-case scenario. Clean data presented through an automated system can lead to both bigger shipment savings and a lasting partnership between carrier and customer.Whether customers are looking to streamline over-the-road transportation bidding by automating the RFP process or create an entirely new, centralized sourcing process, Bid$ense has the analytical horsepower to get the job done.SMC³ 2020 Customer Case Study

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Shippers save money, time with automated transportation bidding tools

If there’s one immutable truth in the world of logistics, it’s this: LTL is an inherently complex form of transportation. Tariffs, rates, DIM weights, transit times — it’s enough to confuse even seasoned logistics professionals. The solution to this knowledge gap has historically been on-the-job training or university supply chain education, but for a variety of reasons there is now a pressing need for third-party, remote LTL training that prepares logistics workers for transportation success. Global Scope Can Overlook Local Intricacies In the past, professionals looking to move into a supply chain career learned about the basics of supply chain from universities. However, many of these college supply chain programs are now global in scope, focusing on worldwide supply chain management instead of the intricacies of specialized domestic transportation. And even these programs, which used to be widespread, are becoming less common. LTL is not an industry of broad-brush strokes; supply chain professionals really need a pointillistic understanding of the logistics of LTL in order to excel in the industry. Accelerating Need for Dedicated LTL Education This lack of specified training put the onus on employers to prepare new hires with the LTL knowledge needed to do their jobs. Dedicated LTL study is a necessity, not a luxury. At the same time, changes in LTL and the broader supply chain world are accelerating. The reliance on e-commerce has ballooned since the start of the pandemic, and last-mile LTL shipments and related e-commerce strains on the supply chain won’t diminish once social distancing abates. That genie isn’t going back into the bottle. So supply chain employers need logistics workers that are fully versed in all aspects of the industry, ready to solve unique shipping and delivery problems based on their extensive supply chain knowledge But why care about LTL? It’s been reported that some shippers in today’s world are no longer concerned with what mode is used to ship their goods. A Multimodal Approach Ensures On-Time Delivery This mode agnosticism means supply chain stakeholders have to be well versed in all modes of transportation. As unforeseen weather events and other disruptions, such as protests, become more common, savvy logistics employees will need to be armed with familiarity of all modes, not just the most popular, to ensure that freight is delivered on time, without damage, and in the most financially expedient way possible. Offerings like SMC³’s LTL online education courses cover a wide range of topics from LTL basics and operations to more advanced concepts like pricing analytics and transportation law. The company also has plans to continually refresh content, adding new expert presenters and taking the feedback of students to make the courses even better as time goes on. Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://logisticstrainingcenter.com/smc3-courses/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">SMC³’s LTL Online Education program</a>&nbsp;and view the 2021 hybrid schedule, featuring live industry experts,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smc3.com/onlinelearning2021/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">here.</a>

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