Drayage

AB5-type legislation in New Jersey that truckers say will shrink the drayage fleet at the Port of New York and New Jersey won’t be enacted by the end of the current legislative session, but the sponsor said he’ll push to pass the bill in the next session.

AB5 in California is pushing drayage companies and drivers toward the freight brokerage model, but that involves additional costs and legal challenges.

Truckers at the Port of New York and New Jersey can now plan their schedules based on traffic levels on key roads within the port, as seen in newly available video streams.

The US District Court has issued a last-minute reprieve for the trucking industry looking to block AB5, issuing a temporary restraining order on Dec. 31 to protect the industry until a Jan. 13 hearing.

While drayage operators in California await the fate of legal challenges to AB5, some are shifting to a freight-broker model, and owner-operators are becoming licensed as individual companies.

Going into 2020, chassis providers in the US are hopeful that fleet upgrades over the last two years have made the network more resilient, while also acknowledging that there is still little they can do to absorb sudden, unanticipated spikes in cargo.

The US Federal Maritime Commission has proposed a rule that would see the agency take a more active role in detention and demurrage disputes, but container carriers are laying the groundwork for a potential legal challenge in 2020 should the FMC enact the rule.

New legislation will take effect in California Jan. 1 that would make it much more difficult for truck drivers to retain independent contractor status, but owner operators are stuck in limbo pending a court decision on a legal challenge to the new rules.

Owner-operator truckers face big changes if New Jersey legislation is enacted that would reshape the way the state determines whether a driver is an employee or independent contractor. But stakeholder assessments vary over the impact on the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Traffic problems that slowed trucks in BNSF’s Lot 16 outside of Chicago have been resolved through a partnership between the railroad and an Intermodal Cartage-owned yard operator.

Hapag-Lloyd has turned to Blume Global, which supplies a range of industry brand names, to help digitally manage its North American door moves.

The Port of Montreal on Tuesday began posting artificial-intelligence driven predictions for next-day truck turn times to help truckers and BCOs make decisions on when to drop-off or pick-up a containers.

Chassis solutions such as the pool of pools in Southern California and the pool arrangement in the southeast US are still falling short of their goal of establishing fully interoperable chassis pools because of carrier-imposed box rules, drayage operators say.

Trucking marketplace provider NEXT Trucking is offering BCOs a way to manage and predict fees associated with chassis management at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

An online petition posted by truckers in the Port of New York and New Jersey has collected 7,000 names in opposition to a bill in the New Jersey legislature that would redefine how state officials determine whether a driver is an owner-operator or an employee. The bill is advancing nonetheless.

Austin-based technology company Shipwell has in the past been dubbed a freight marketplace, a broker, and a software provider, but bolstered by a large funding round in October, the company is focusing on automation and connectivity for shippers.

Asset-monitoring technology will help Canadian Pacific and intermodal shippers to locate and better utilize the railroad’s chassis pool.

Using technology to correct documentation errors before trucker appointments are made and the terminals’ use of appointment systems to meter gate traffic reduced turn times in in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to a six-year low in October.

Trucking companies that employ owner operator drivers in the Port of New York and New Jersey are again battling an attempt to change the rules that determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee, while unions are pushing for the legislation to become law.

A New Jersey law that reshapes the way the state assesses whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee has triggered opposition from truckers who say it will damage the Port of New York and New Jersey’s drayage fleet.

Weston LaBar, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association, said turn times in Los Angeles-Long Beach have improved noticeably this year due to collaboration among truckers and marine terminal operators.

A California Court of Appeals has ruled that the “ABC” test can be applied retroactively, a decision that means truck drivers can calculate damages for past misclassification.

A California-based digital freight marketplace sets a five-year goal to replace its asset-based diesel fleet with alternative power.

Truckers in the Port of New York and New Jersey say extra trips required by ocean carriers to deliver empty containers are consuming their driver time and hurting productivity.

Los Angeles’ 2018 inventory of air emissions, like the Long Beach report that preceded it by a week, shows the largest US container port has already met or exceeded to emission-reduction goals that had been set for 2023.

Some trucking industry representatives say recently passed California bill AB 5 will severely restrict the independent contractor model in harbor drayage, although the owner of a Southern California trucking company isn't worried about significant changes.

Expanding an appointment system in the Port of New York and New Jersey could hamper the ability of truckers to pick up cargo, according to the head of the largest drayage group operating at the port.

Digital freight broker Loadsmart is adding to the list of startups aiming to revamp way shippers can procure drayage capacity in an effort backed by sizable investment from Maersk and Ports America.

JOC Associate Editor Ari Ashe explains why chassis shortages are such a problem in the international transportation space and why finding a solution is so difficult.

The strong quarter for Maersk will strengthen its resolve in making what amounts to an existential bet that the integrator path is the best response to the commodification of ocean shipping.

The 2019 JOC Directory of Trucking Companies is a one-stop source of information for North American shippers and third-party logistics providers on nearly 180 select trucking companies in the United States and Canada.

The first use of an electric drayage truck in the Port of New York and New Jersey adds to the portfolio of initiatives in use by the port in a bid to reduce truck pollution without hurting port efficiency.

A VIP program to be rolled out by Fenix Marine and Blume Global in Los Angeles this autumn aims to push actionable shipment data and appointment slots for specific containers to BCOs, NVOs, and truckers to reduce truck visit times as well as cut down on multiple handling of containers.

Although drayage rates are rising annually, digital load-matching platform DrayNow says expenses are dropping due to shorter lengths of haul, a trend true for international containers, too.

Truckers continue to battle turns of more than an hour at times in BNSF’s Lot 16 outside Chicago, where the railroad has instructed all empty containers to be returned. This means drivers complete fewer jobs per day and shippers have to wait longer for service.

Union Pacific Railroad will begin charging truckers and logistics providers for missed appointments for intermodal terminals and tighten free storage time for demurrage to 24 hours in all terminals beginning this autumn.

There has been progress in finding a solution to the chassis woes plaguing the containerized shipping industry, but those advancements have been very slow coming. Larger solutions will take years and face many hurdles along the way.

Although chassis discussions usually are focused on marine ports, figuring out a solution to chronic equipment shortages must take into account an equally complex set of railroad operations across the US heartland.

The technology is available and money can be found to add visibility into the black hole of the marine terminal, but increasing complexity caused by bigger ships and larger container exchanges — and difficulties in getting supply chain partners to share data — are limiting stakeholders’ ability to optimize performance.

TRAC and DCLI have reached an interoperability agreement for the BNSF terminal outside of Dallas, which could lower the likelihood of chassis shortages. Open choice advocates worry this "duopoly" will spread to other Gulf Coast markets and limit trucker choice.