Articles
Trucking
Supply Chain Velocity: Shifting Into Overdrive
When expediting shipments, visibility, communication, and customer service get into gear.
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How to Drive Collaborative Distribution
MORE TO THE STORY: Playing the Part In the retail space, competition among small and medium manufacturers is fierce. But many are missing out on significant cost savings by failing to recognize and execute shared strategies that consolidate shipments in the interests of all supply chain stakeholders. The collaborative distribution concept leverages freight consolidation as […]
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Trends—November 2010
A Break in the Chain: Solving the Port Chassis Problem When the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) started enforcing its discursive Requirements for Intermodal Equipment Providers and for Motor Carriers and Drivers Operating Intermodal Equipment rule in December 2009, there weren’t enough containers flowing through U.S. ports to cause immediate alarm. Shippers and trucking […]
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Memphis: America’s Aerotropolis
Geography, transportation infrastructure, and a strong distribution sector make Memphis a natural logistics hub.
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Trucking Alert: Steep Grade Ahead
A capacity shortage and a driver deficit that’s likely to grow worse are putting the squeeze on companies that ship by truck. Times like these call for shifting gears and trying new tactics.
Read MoreExclusive Research: Trucking Perspectives 2010
Every place you turn there are signs pointing to where the motor freight industry is treading—both good and bad. Near coastal ports and along hinterland highways, at truck stops and across borders, the day-to-day travels of shippers and carriers alike expose the hairpin turns and straightaways that are emerging in an otherwise shiftless economy. Around […]
Read MoreBalancing Risk Management With Your Operations Strategy
As the nation’s economy recovers from the recent downturn, the domestic freight industry represents a leading indicator of commercial activity and (hopefully) corporate profits. Asset-based carriers, a segment that has taken it on the chin the past few years, are thought to have pricing power because increasing freight volumes—albeit off severe lows—have been met with […]
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First They Came For Our Trucks
The War on Trucking. Are You Prepared? That’s the headline of the ad on page 111 of this issue, sponsored by NASSTRAC, an association comprised of a cross-section of shippers. Citing the challenges posed by CSA 2010, cap and trade, and Hours-of-Service changes, NASSTRAC is undertaking advocacy to guard the interests of anyone using trucks […]
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Want Better Service? Take the Driver-Friendly Approach
Q: How are you addressing the shipper’s concern about capacity now and in the future? Miller: I believe shippers understand that capacity issues are stimulated more by the driver shortage than any other single factor. At Miller Transporters, we are asking our shippers to help us be more driver- friendly. Keep detention low and utilization […]
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The Best Partner Carriers Provide Transparency
Q: How can service accountability and innovation help shippers stay one step ahead in a tough economic climate? O’Dell: Vigilant shippers make sure every dollar they spend counts by choosing carriers who offer them the opportunity to shine in front of their customers. While there are different ways to accomplish this, one of the best […]
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Trends—September 2010
U.S. Ports Dig Panama Gold For a wee slip of waterway, 48 miles in length and 33 feet wide at its narrowest, the Panama Canal has publicity buoyancy the likes of the two great oceans it connects—and the buzz is only building. Despite technology and globalization, the Canal has remained a vital gateway in the […]
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It’s Time to Implement Cross-Border Trucking
When the United States signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which included a commitment to open our roads to Mexico’s cargo trucks, we were paving the way for economic opportunity, job growth, and prosperous foreign investment. Unfortunately, the United States has never fully complied with NAFTA’s cross-border trucking program, costing our country billions […]
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Trends—July 2010
21st annual State of Logistics Report: Beating the Recession; Making dollars and Sense out of Jabulanis and Vuvuzelas; Mergers and Acquisitions Show signs of Recovery
Read MoreDeregulation Amended and Upended
Dust off your legal textbooks. It’s time to revisit transportation deregulation’s rocky history and defend what we have.
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It’s Time to Start Looking at the Future and Preparing for the Long Haul
The challenges of the current economy and the availability of capacity have driven truckload prices to their lowest point since 2005. While most shippers have seen great opportunities with the decline in pricing, the market is changing. As recent research from Noel Perry and FTR Associates indicates, market pricing bottomed out in the second quarter […]
Read MoreVR Training Combats Trucking Industry’s Critical Driver Shortage
To many of us, truck driving and virtual reality (VR) using simulation are at the opposite end of the technology spectrum. However, VR using proper simulation is the solution to a major problem that exists in the world of trucking and freight movement. That problem is replacing the professional drivers who are retiring. We will […]
Read MoreShifting Gears from Inventory to Motor Freight Costs
The nation’s motor carrier freight bill for 2001 was $494 billion—more than 50 percent of total U.S. business logistics costs ($970 billion) and 82 percent of total U.S. business transportation costs ($605 billion), according to Robert Delaney’s annual State of Logistics Report released in June 2002. The implication for the nation’s shippers and receivers is […]
Read MoreSelecting Core Carriers
Choosing core carriers can be a daunting task, especially with so many carriers out there wooing your business. Here are 10 tips to help you keep a clear head when carriers come courting with all their bells and whistles, from Bob Belshaw, vice president business development and Robert Harper, product support manager, transportation, Insight Inc., […]
Read MoreCF Bankruptcy: Labor Day
Consolidated Freightways files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Labor Day. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Can part of the reason for the demise of this once great carrier be laid at organized labor’s door? I remember meeting with two highly-placed CF executives six years ago. They were making the rounds, explaining to the press […]
Read MoreBecoming a Better Trucking Customer
Put yourself in your motor carriers’ place for a moment. This past year brought more than a few bumps in the road. Union battles, driver shortages, rising insurance premiums, fluctuating fuel prices and surcharges, and increased safety and security costs have deflated profits and forced shippers, carriers, and supply chain partners to plug expectation gaps […]
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