Heavy Duty Trucking, December 2020

FLEET LOGISTICS Port bottlenecks trigger federal investigation S evere bottlenecks at many ocean ports have prompted the Federal Maritime Commission to look into whether ocean lines detention demurrage and container policies are making the situation worse A trade imbalance has pushed freight rates on China to U S business to record highs so container lines rush to get containers turned back around to Asia to reload That has left fewer containers headed inland reports the Wall Street Journal shutting out U S exporters of agricultural products In early November the Harbor Trucking Association and the California Trucking Association released a statement that said cargo flow at the Southern California ports was nearing a complete gridlock due to a lack of dual transactions and the chassis shortage and asked for relief from detention and demurrage charges In a dual transaction a truck brings a container either returning an empty or dropping an export load and picks up a container either an import or an empty for export load in the same trip The Journal of Commerce reports that ocean carriers say theyre working with truckers to address issues contributing to congestion such as restrictions on the return of empty containers to marine terminals elevated truck turn times a severe shortage of chassis and a lack of effort to promote dual transactions for truckers However JOC reported carriers are resisting requests to suspend detention and demurrage charges Without the charges they contend shippers would have no incentive to remove imported containers from the terminals which would only make the congestion problem worse The HTA and nearly 50 other organizations representing truckers shippers and intermediaries submitted a letter to the Federal Maritime Commission asking it to suspend detention and demurrage charges in the San Pedro Bay port complex In response the commission announced it would investigate whether shipping company policies related to detention and demurrage container return and container availability are violating federal rules and causing congestion The time has come to resolve the most serious impediments to port performance said Maritime Commissioner Rebecca Dye in a press release The commission is concerned that certain practices of ocean carriers and their marine terminals may be amplifying the negative effect of bottlenecks at these ports and may be contrary to provisions in the Shipping Act of 1984 Council aims to digitize less thantruckload A group of more than 20 motor carriers brokers 3PLs shippers and technology providers has formed the Digital LTL Council to develop a set of standards that will allow the automation and digitalization of less than truckload shipments The goal is to support the automation of all shipping and billing workflows from payment to settlement Initially the council is concentrating on developing digital standards that address the most urgent and widespread pain points Ultimately this will enable shippers logistics providers and carriers to build their systems to one standard and use it across the industry Over the past 12 months select council members including Uline Quad Graphics Averitt Express and Pitt Ohio have been running beta projects focused on developing more standardized electronic bill of lading solutions or eBOL Carriers will be able to automate or even eliminate certain administrative bill entry and customer service tasks saving up to 13 of their current costs This equates to industry savings of potentially 470 million not including savings from improving operational planning and network optimization Spot rates continue at high levels PHOTO PORT OF LOS ANGELES NOTE THE DAT TRUCKLOAD FREIGHT VOLUME INDEX IS BASED ON LOAD COUNTS AND PERMILE RATES RECORDED IN DAT RATEVIEW WITH AN AVERAGE OF 3 MILLION FREIGHT MOVES PER MONTH SPOT RATES INCLUDE FUEL SURCHARGES Spot freight index Spot truckload rates for dry van and refrigerated freight hit another record high in October according to DAT Freight Analytics Average flatbed rates also increased compared to September but not to a record level Overall the October DAT Truckload Volume Index increased 38 month over month and 87 year over year By the week ending Nov 22 spot rates were still at record levels for this time of the year especially in the refrigerated sector Thanksgiving is one of the busiest food shopping events of the year and more so this year due to the pandemic and increased numbers of consumers celebrating at home HDT DECEMBER 2020 16 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM