Tag: shippers

Loadsmart SmartWay Transport Partnership

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January 15, 2015

LOADSMART JOINS U.S. EPA SMARTWAY TRANSPORT PARTNERSHIP

New York, New York — Loadsmart today announced that it joined SmartWay Transport Partnership, an innovative collaboration between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an industry that provides a framework to assess the environmental and agency efficiency of goods movement supply chains.

Loadsmart will contribute to the Partnership’s savings of 144.3 million barrels of oil, $20.6 billion in fuel costs, 61.7 MMT of carbon dioxide (CO2 ), 1,070,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 43,000 tons of particulate matter, the equivalent of taking 13 million cars off of roads.

Developed jointly in early 2003 by the EPA and Charter Partners represented by industry stakeholders, environmental groups, American Trucking Associations, and Business for Social Responsibility, this innovation program was launched in 2004. Partners rely upon SmartWay tools and approaches to track and reduce emissions and fuel use from goods movement. The Partnership currently has over 3,000 Partners including Shipper, logistics companies, truck, rail, barge and multimodal carriers.

Loadsmart is a proud advocate for a cleaner environment. Our goal is to reduce the total number of deadhead miles travelled annually until they are eliminated completely. 

For more information on Loadsmart visit www.loadsmart.com or call 1-646-88-SMART.
For information about the SmartWay Transport Partnership visit www.epa.gov/smartway

U.S Secretary of Labor Meets With Both Parties in the West Coast Port Dispute

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The white house sent the Secretary of Labor to discuss the contract dispute that has been dragging on for 9 months. The Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez urged all parties to resolve the issue quickly. Further delay can risk tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars.

This contract dispute is truly affecting ports with the port of Oakland imports falling 39% in January. This is occurring at all U.S. West Coast Ports with production down and a breakdown in vessel schedules.

For more info go to WSJ>>

 

How to use Technology to Prevent Delays in Holiday Deliveries

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Last year the boost in demand for holiday shipments was unprecedented. Cyber Monday saw a 20.6% jump in online retail sales and the last weekend before Christmas saw a 37% increase in online sales (compared to the year before). Amazingly, online sales are expected to rise even more this year. FedEx expects an 8.8% increase in holiday shipping and UPS expects an 11% increase. Last year with bad weather and unexpected demand, shippers were unprepared to meet the expected dates of many deliveries leaving many consumers disappointed. Will shippers be prepared this year?

Only time will tell, but technology expected to be used more frequently, and frankly should have been used last year, is real time operation optimization technology. This technology helps companies manage fleets properly in real time. With up to date changes that take in to consideration all variables from bad weather to equipment failures, while also lowering fuel costs and providing excellent customer service. Real Time Operation Optimization shows you how realistic your current goals are and how to maximize your resources to reach your end goal.

For more go to Inbound Logistics>

 

Shippers Starting to Accept Higher Truck Rates

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The annual shipper- carrier rate discussion has ended and it has gone very differently then last years. Although it was a bit more convoluted with rising carrier costs, the shippers have finally, yet arduously, accepted these rates. The price of shipping has gone up, one reason being driver shortage/retention rates which has finally led to raising drivers pay (which LoadSmart discussed in the following article). The rise in drivers pay has been taken into account by motor carriers who have altered their rates to make this change less impactful on themselves and putting it on shippers.

Motor Carrier Advice

Motor Carriers are concerned about alienating their big shippers and are strategically raising their rates.The new motor carrier strategy is “lower frequency of accepting shippers initial rates” Those acceptance rates are currently 90% carrier acceptance rates which are expected to drop to 85% in 2015. Motor Carriers are now saying no to shipping a load at 1.30 cents per mile when they can now get 1.75 cents a mile.

Shippers Who Should Worry?

Most affected area are spot rates.

If you are a larger shipper if it will be easier to negotiate prices but the worries are on small shippers who will most likely be taken advantage of.

For more information go to DC Velocity>>

Investors Looking for the Next Big Start Up Logistic Company

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The trucking industry in the US brings in over $600 Billion in gross freight revenue and employes 6.8 million people. With the technological advances that are occurring exponentially the consumers are demanding their e-commerce goods to arrive faster from shippers. With the rise in demand of e-commerce goods, shippers are looking for more efficient ways of send their loads. With this being common knowledge, start up logistic companies have been popping up and although investors have been investing, they seem to believe the next big logistics start up company hasn’t arrived yet, with their investments being a bit reserved. There are some companies with backers that are popping up with potential like Shippo, Cargomatic, Traansmission, OneMorePallet, ShipHawk, and Peloton. For more info on these companies go to Tech Crunch>> 

Shippers using the spot market poorly

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Attention Shippers, the price of transportation is going up for multiple reasons but if you could do something to lower those prices wouldn’t you? Shippers are impairing themselves in the spot freight market. Most shippers release their list of loads to all of the brokers they know looking for the best options. What shippers are actually doing is creating more options for drivers that are not actually there.This creates a hyped up demand for trucks and drivers that are not actually there. (Now we all know there is a huge demand for drivers as a whole, I am addressing the spot market specifically). As this “demand” increases truckers expect higher prices. As the trucking industry evolves the hassle of trying to find trucks for your loads will become easier but for now trying to stop going to multiple brokers, know where the smartest and quickest way to gain access to truckers at low prices are and stop creating false demand that raise prices. Shippers and truckers for more info go to Inbound Logistics>>

Canadian Pacific trying to Merge w CSX could become $60B transportation company

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Although LoadSmart likes to focus on the trucking industry more so then other transportation outlets, such a large merger could affect the transportation sector as a whole. Canadian Pacific is worth $32.5 billion, while CSX is worth $30 billion, a merger like that would leave us with a transportation company worth over $60 billion. Although Canadian Pacific is pursuing this merger and stating that a merger would help congestion. CSX is a bit ambivalent with their shareholders most likely expecting high premiums for their shares. Mergers in the railroad industry are difficult. LoadSmart will keep you up to date on this. For more info go to New York Times>>

Attention Shippers and Logistic Service Provider’s, CargoSmart has new planning tools

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CargoSmart is helping improve schedule reliability and growing schedule disruption data for shippers and Logistic Service Providers with multiple tools including their mobile app. They have improved their product, shippers and logistic service providers will now be able to have up-to-date access to the sailing schedule and any changes to said schedule with their mobile app. CargoSmart is improving shipment planning with these three updates.

CargoSmart’s 3 new improvements for Shippers

1. Private Label Sailing Schedule- Forwarders can edit schedule w/ additional info.   2. Schedule Delay Alert- Alerts shippers and Logistics of any changes or delays.       3. SSM+ Mobile App- all access to sailing schedule search for all ports.

For more info go to Street Insider>>

Driver Shortage finally developing a competitive pay structure for truckers.

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With a driver shortage like none we’ve ever seen before, finally the transportation industry is starting to get smarter. To keep our supply of truckers equivalent to its demand by shippers we have finally started listening to basic supply and demand and compensate our truckers better. Con-Way will hopefully lead the pack.

The article by trucking info.com states “The carrier has been evaluating and implementing changes in its compensation program to reflect the evolving market conditions and ensure competitive pay structures for its drivers, accordign to Con-way.”

The question is why the trucking industry keeps fighting against the evolving market conditions? Con-Way also went on to say they do not believe that others public LTL carriers will follow by example.  With the shortage of truckers that will presumably continue to be a problem in the future. We must find a more competitive way to keep these truckers in the transportation sector.

Trucking Info>>