Logistics News and Insights | RedArrowLogistics.com

News and Insights

Shipping

Optimizing Your Freight Spend

  • June 30, 2017
“How do I optimize my freight budget?” This is one of the first questions every business owner asks a logistics professional, and the first step is educating yourself about your specific needs in the current freight environment. All too often, businesses treat their transportation budgets as a chore or an afterthought, but they can be ripe […]
Shipping

Congress Moves to Stop Shipping Alliance Collusion

  • June 23, 2017
Congress is eyeing changes to the Shipping Act in an effort to support domestic service providers in rate negotiations with carrier alliances. The tugboat industry has led the charge in protesting the alliances’ plan to jointly negotiate for contracts, which they maintain would foster an anti-competitive environment and force them to accept non-compensatory rates for […]
International, Shipping

West Coast Ports Lose Their Grip on Asian Imports

  • June 16, 2017
For decades, the majority of Asian Imports have passed through West Coast ports, but that balance seems to be shifting. The East Coast, Gulf Coast, and even Canada are each claiming a larger share of the market, a trend that will likely continue as ports grow to accommodate a new wave of mega carriers. According […]
Shipping

Making Intermodal Shipping Work For You

  • June 9, 2017
This year, logistics professionals have noticed a resurgence of interest in intermodal shipping, the practice of moving containers across multiple forms of transport (rail, ship, and/or truck). Intermodal’s popularity subsided somewhat in 2015 and 2016, when excess capacity caused trucking prices to plummet. But as trucking rates rise in 2017, shippers are once again interested […]
Trucking

Spot Rates Climb, Contract Rates to Follow

  • June 2, 2017
National spot rate averages have been on a slow and steady climb through the beginning of 2017, and analysts predict further gains as the year continues. The spot rate increases come in response to both a relatively robust economy and tightening capacity in the face of the truck driver shortage. Shippers and carriers alike are […]
Technology

Protecting the Supply Chain from Ransomware Attacks

  • May 25, 2017
This month, over 300,000 computers around the world were subjected to a massive cyberattack from the aptly-named WannaCry software. This attack is the latest and largest appearance of an emerging type of hacking known as “ransomware.” In a ransomware attack, victims find themselves locked out of their own data, which is encrypted unless they agree to pay […]
International, Shipping

Are Carrier Alliances Colluding Against Domestic Service Providers

  • May 19, 2017
The international shipping industry is caught in a dramatic conflict between US legislators and several massive carrier alliances, with the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) and domestic service providers caught in the crossfire. This conflict raises many questions regarding whether these alliances violate US antitrust law, whether the laws themselves need to be updated, and what […]
Industry News, Trucking

America’s Driver Shortage

  • May 12, 2017
The American trucking industry is in a period of upheaval, contending with a rising wave of consolidation, the impending ELD mandate, and the promise of driver automation on the horizon. In addition to these new issues, trucking is also facing a perennial problem: a serious driver shortage. The American Trucking Association estimates that at present, […]
Industry News, Trucking

Knight-Swift Kicks Off Wave of Trucking Mergers

  • May 5, 2017
Earlier last month, Phoenix-based trucking firms Knight Transportation and Swift Transportation caught the industry by surprise when they announced their merger, which will make them one of the largest trucking companies in North America. The merger has been hailed as a positive move for both companies, but some observers see it as a herald of […]
Industry News, Trucking

Will ELDs Hurt or Help Trucking?

  • April 28, 2017
The trucking industry is preparing to adjust to the federal Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandate, which is set to take effect in December 2017. The controversial rule requires nearly all truckers to install an ELD to log their hours of service (HOS)and replace the paper logs that have been in use for decades. An ELD […]