Even before Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff went on record last month stating that Al Qaeda was rebuilding and that he had a "gut feeling" the United States faces a heightened risk of attack this summer, the transportation community already had terrorist threats on its mind.
Chertoff 's remarks came just days after the release of a new report that says U.S. railroads are extremely vulnerable to terrorist attacks. In the report, Securing and Protecting America's Railroad System: U.S. Railroad and Opportunities for Terrorist Threats, two professors from Penn State contend that traditional approaches to rail security are inadequate against post-9/11 terrorist threats. Citizens for Rail Safety Inc., a public-interest organization, sponsored the study.
The North American rail network, the report says, is too vast and diverse to be protected through traditional approaches, such as more policing, surveillance, or anti-trespassing measures. "Resources currently directed to rail security are inadequate, given the potential for catastrophic loss of life or economic disruption from attacks on the rail system," wrote co-authors Jeremy Plant, professor of public administration and public policy, and Richard Young, professor of supply chain management at Penn State's Harrisburg campus. To illustrate the scope of the challenge, Plant, who is a former chemicals industry logistics executive, noted that even if every one of the country's 2,300 railroad special agents were assigned to a specific bridge or tunnel, "you would run out of police long before you run out of infrastructure."
The report also details other key findings from Plant and Young's rail security study, including the following:
Responsibilities for rail security remain divided among a number of federal agencies; between federal and state agencies; between government and the private sector; and between shippers and service providers.
Terrorist acts directed against freight railroads could not only destroy freight and infrastructure, but could also harm the economy as a whole.
Intermodal shipping, especially when it involves ports, represents a major area of risk. "The whole rail-freight security issue is tied heavily to port security, which has received a fair amount of attention," says Plant. "But we still don't have a secure way of checking all the containers coming into the country, many of which move on in their journey by rail."
A first step toward helping the rail industry overcome some of those security challenges, suggest Plant and Young, would be for Congress to pass comprehensive rail security legislation and allocate adequate financial and administrative resources to existing security efforts. A second step would be to help rail carriers limit their exposure to attacks by allowing them to deal more harshly with trespassers. Right now, railroads bear some liability for the safety of trespassers. Furthermore, the penalties for trespassing on rail property are not equal to those for other transportation modes.
"We've had a real focus on protecting our airports and air traffic," says Young. "There are strong regulations in place at those facilities, and people know that if you jump a fence at an airport, you'll have quite a problem on your hands. Yet you can trespass on railroad property, and not a lot happens to you. We think the U.S. government needs to get a bit more serious by creating more severe penalties for trespassing."
The researchers also say that coordination between the railroads' own police forces and the various law enforcement agencies involved needs to be improved. At the same time, they caution, the railroads' effective security efforts ought to be further leveraged and not displaced by government resources.
The study also recommends the following steps:
Creation of a congressionally established National Commission on Rail Security that would study the state of rail security;
Expanded efforts to involve the general public and rail enthusiasts in promoting security;
Examination and possible adoption of the lessons learned from efforts to protect other modes of transportation; and
Enhanced training of rail personnel in how to deal with both the prevention of terrorism and its aftermath, which should be a shared public and private responsibility.
Whether a threat to rail security is imminent or not—and Secretary Chertoff emphasized that he had no specific information that Al Qaeda was planning an attack in the United States—the country cannot afford to sit back and do nothing. "There is a balance that needs to be reached between security and maintaining the economic vitality of the railroads," says Plant, "because they are certainly the most energy-efficient way of moving large cargo and … the only way of moving certain cargo."
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.