U.S. ports received an early Christmas present this year. On Dec. 20, Congress passed a fiscal 2008 spending package that includes $400 million for the Port Security Grant (PSG) program—$80 million more than the ports received in 2007. The news came as a welcome surprise. Earlier reports had indicated that port security grants would likely be eliminated altogether from the 2008 budget.
Port officials had been particularly concerned that the loss of federal funding for security programs would slow implementation of the federally mandated Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. That program requires individuals who have unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities and ships to undergo a full background check and fingerprinting to verify that they are not security threats. TWIC credentials are stored on biometric identification cards that include detailed information about the holders. Cardholders will be required to scan their cards each time they enter a port facility.
Instead of losing out, U.S. ports now expect to receive the highest level of security-program funding ever. The legislation includes $8.1 million to fully fund the Transportation Security Administration's pilot projects for biometric card readers, which are part of the TWIC program. Those projects will test the effectiveness of TWIC card readers at several ports before installation of the devices becomes mandatory at ports nationwide. Initially, ports had been expected to foot 25 percent of the bill for the pilots.
In addition to funding the TWIC tests, the budget includes $50 million for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA). The DERA program provides federal grants for reducing emissions from older diesel engines, including those in trucks and cargo-handling equipment used at seaports. Last year's funding was only $12 million.
American Association of Port Authorities President Kurt Nagle said in an interview that the decision to fully fund the PSG program is evidence that Congress understands that U.S. ports are critical to the nation's infrastructure and must be protected. According to the AAPA, international trade accounts for more than one-quarter of the U.S. gross domestic product, and 99 percent of overseas trade volume moves through America's ports.
"With this trade and its share of our economy expected to continue to grow substantially, it is vital that ports be able to meet the multiple and at times competing challenges of investing in the infrastructure needed to accommodate increasing volumes safely and efficiently," Nagle said in a statement hailing the legislation's passage. "Our ports also proactively serve as stewards of the coastal environment and enhance security at critical junctions of our nation's international border. That's why the federal help provided to America's ports via the Port Security Grant program is so vital."
Rolling forward
With funding now virtually assured, registration for the TWIC program rolls on. The TSA expects to have TWIC registration in place at nearly 50 ports by mid-January. At press time, 28 ports had already begun enrollment, and approximately 10,000 port workers had signed up for cards.
Some of the country's largest ports are getting on board. In early December, a group of 10 additional ports, including New York/New Jersey, became eligible to begin the enrollment process. The Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex, which is by far the largest port operation in the United States, was scheduled to begin on Dec. 12, and the Port of Virginia is expected to go live with registration sometime in the first quarter of 2008.
Joe Harris, media relations director for the Port of Virginia, says that his port is ready to begin enrollment once it gets the word from the federal government. "We've already installed the software and the system to read the cards," he says, noting that there are about 10,000 names in the Port of Virginia's database, from longshoremen to workers needing access to service vending machines. "We've been planning for this for two to three years. We're ready to go."
Individual ports are responsible for administering their own access controls. As for the timeline, the federal government will be issuing "drop-dead" enforcement dates this year. Those dates will be rolled out regionally, with 90 days' notice.
Fits and starts
Since enrollment began with the Port of Wilmington, Del., in mid-October, there have been sporadic glitches in the system, such as fingerprinting difficulties at some locations.
The TSA chalks that up to the scale of the initiative. Nationwide, more than 1 million workers will enroll for the TWIC program by the end of 2008. "Anytime you have a program the size of TWIC that is running throughout the nation there will be hurdles to overcome," says TSA spokesman Darrin Kayser. "But overall, enrollment is going very well."
Susan Monteverde, the AAPA's vice president of government relations, says that the federal government is processing registration cards far more quickly than expected. According to Kayser, the TSA is turning around enrollment applications and issuing cards in as little as five days, but in some cases it can take two weeks, depending on how thoroughly the applicant fills out the registration form.
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.