The Jones (Maritime) Act of 1920 applies only to ships carrying commercial cargo from one place in the U.S. to another. It forces shipments between US ports to be on US-built and registered ships with US crews. For example, it does not affect a non-US ship carrying the load from Mexico to Puerto Rico. Likewise, […]
Why is diesel so expensive in California? $6.08 in CA vs $4.84 in the rest of the US. California has additional costs: These are serious additional costs. View this post on my LinkedIn […]
Truck rates are down, ocean carriers are charging less (See graph) and package volume is down. Does this mean we are returning to a more normal time? My answer is “no.” There are a number of new and not-so-nice headwinds or factors, affecting supply chain: […]
While 2 unions are threatening a walkout this week, if there isn’t a stoppage, there will be more humping. Even if there is a stoppage, when they come back to work, there will be more humping. Before your mind goes in the wrong direction, humping is a way of sorting rail cars onto trains that […]
Railroads are limiting container loads into locations like Chicago. Here is why: But there appears to be less rail traffic density as less crude oil is on the rails — half of what it was in 2020 (See graph)— but don’t forget railroads are contending with higher turnover and less ability to recruit and train. […]
I advocate weighing the trucks to see where payload targets should be set. Here is a sample of refrigerated trucks from major carriers in 2021: What does this tell you? In this sample, which was large enough to be valid, 69% of all trucks could carry more than 45,000# and 77% could carry more […]
Good News (Price will go down): Today: Crude oil prices are way down + refiners’ margins are down by ~50% Future: High prices ~$100/barrel for oil and $9+ for gas mean that economically recoverable reserves rise. e.g. Eagle Ford sees a fifteen-fold increase from 0.5 billion barrels to 8.4 billion barrels Bad news: Refineries that […]
No one deliberately picks the wrong carrier for a shipment… often we are forced into it because the preferred carrier doesn’t have the available equipment to cover the spike in demand or there has been insufficient lead-time provided. The impact of this can be alarming: There is a solution: The Transportation Planning suite created by […]
Transportation Planning provides an incredible competitive edge. To quote a VP at a Fortune 50 consumer goods manufacturer: “We deploy, at premium cost, product that may not be needed, from sites that may struggle to ship it, to sites that may not be able to receive it.” It’s well known that deployment volumes (from Plants to DCs) […]
The “new order” in energy: “The new order promises to make the energy trade less efficient and more expensive, potentially putting commodities at the center of the next global economic crisis” former Treasury official — Zoltan Pozsar. So, oil is no longer freely traded — hence it will be more expensive/less efficient to transport. (Think […]