Mark Twain's love affair with the Mississippi River notwithstanding, for most American transportation buffs, nothing comes close to the romance of the rails. Almost since the first mile of track was laid, the railroads have been immOréalized in music and literature—not to mention toys. What young boy hasn't fantasized about holding the throttle of a powerful locomotive laboring up the eastern slope of the Rockies or speeding past the prairies of Kansas or the buffalo herds of Wyoming?
"When I hear the iron horse make the hills echo with a snort like thunder," wrote Henry David Thoreau, "it seems as if the earth has got a race now worthy to inhabit it."
But it seems that not everyone is enamored with the railroads these days. We've been hearing a chorus of complaints from shippers and organizations that believe the rails are abusing their market power and overcharging customers—particularly those with limited or no service alternatives.
Congress has responded to their concerns. On March 5, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Railroad Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009, a bill that would rewrite the rules of the game. Among other provisions, it would eliminate antitrust law exemptions for railroads and change the way the industry is regulated. Right now, the Surface Transportation Board has sole oversight over the railroads' rate activities. The new bill, which many industry watchers expect will ultimately pass, would extend jurisdiction over rate cases to the Department of Justice in addition to the STB.
Proponents of the bill argue that sweeping changes are needed because rail carriers are exercising monopolistic power over captive shippers—those that are served by just one railroad. They also charge that the current system has failed to safeguard shippers' interests. Bob Szabo, executive director of the lobbying group Consumers United for Rail Equity (CURE), was quoted in a Reuters news story as saying, "The railroads have unrestrained monopoly pricing power and the STB protects the rails' interests instead of their customers."
The rail carriers deny that they are trying to take advantage of anyone. They insist that they're simply trying to make a fair return and pay for capital expenditures made necessary by increased demand and deteriorating infrastructure.
Ironically, many of these same arguments were raised during a similar dispute back in the 1870s, when a small number of railroads controlled the movement of freight. That fight, which was sparked by shippers who accused the "robber baron" rail owners of exploitation, ultimately led to the Act to Regulate Commerce of 1887.
The difference is that then, those charges were true; today, they're not. Furthermore, we now have 100 years of proof that rail regulation doesn't work. Since 1980, when many of the regulatory restrictions were lifted from the railroads, rates have declined significantly, productivity has tripled, and much-needed infrastructure improvements have been made.
While the current Senate bill does not advocate total re-regulation, it is considered by many, including me, to be a dangerous first step.
Do captive shippers deserve consideration? Yes, indeed. No system should give a carrier total control over its customers' destiny. Nor should an agency be allowed to promote inequities.
But that doesn't appear to be the case here. In fact, the STB recently ruled against a railroad in a price dispute, finding that the BNSF Railway had charged unlawfully high rates to move coal from the Powder River Basin. The agency awarded the shippers in the case $345 million in rate cuts and reparations.
The decision is under appeal, and ultimately, the courts will decide the final outcome. But as it now stands, it could hardly be described as a decision that gives preferential treatment to carriers or as an endorsement of monopolistic powers.
Warehouse automation orders declined by 3% in 2024, according to a February report from market research firm Interact Analysis. The company said the decline was due to economic, political, and market-specific challenges, including persistently high interest rates in many regions and the residual effects of an oversupply of warehouses built during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The research also found that increasing competition from Chinese vendors is expected to drive down prices and slow revenue growth over the report’s forecast period to 2030.
Global macro-economic factors such as high interest rates, political uncertainty around elections, and the Chinese real estate crisis have “significantly impacted sales cycles, slowing the pace of orders,” according to the report.
Despite the decline, analysts said growth is expected to pick up from 2025, which they said they anticipate will mark a year of slow recovery for the sector. Pre-pandemic growth levels are expected to return in 2026, with long-term expansion projected at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% between 2024 and 2030.
The analysis also found two market segments that are bucking the trend: durable manufacturing and food & beverage industries continued to spend on automation during the downturn. Warehouse automation revenues in food & beverage, in particular, were bolstered by cold-chain automation, as well as by large-scale projects from consumer-packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers. The sectors registered the highest growth in warehouse automation revenues between 2022 and 2024, with increases of 11% (durable manufacturing) and 10% (food & beverage), according to the research.
The logistics tech provider Körber Supply Chain Software continues to position itself in a fast-changing business landscape, aligning itself today with the digital transformation consulting firm Zero100.
Körber Supply Chain Software—to be formally known as Infios beginning in March—has plenty of funding to make those strategic changes, since the company is a joint venture between its parent company, the German business technology powerhouse Körber AG and KKR, the California-based merger and acquisition specialist.
London-based Zero100 calls itself a membership-based intelligence company connecting, informing, and inspiring the world’s supply chain leaders to accelerate progress on digital supply chain transformation. In January the company gained new financial backing through a “growth investment” from the private equity firm Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. According to Zero100, that new financing will accelerate its tech, data, research, and talent capabilities, further strengthen its team, and enable further product and service innovation on behalf of the company’s customers.
Infios says it is joining that community to access Zero100’s data-driven research insights and advisory, and to integrate innovative sustainability practices and digital tools into its adaptable solutions. Infios’s catalog of technology includes order management, warehousing and fulfillment, and transportation management.
By harnessing advanced technologies such as AI and data analytics and providing businesses with the right level of flexibility and control to evolve and adapt solutions to their needs, Infios says it can help its customers optimize their entire supply chain ecosystem and create a more optimistic outlook.
The Swedish supply chain software company Kodiak Hub is expanding into the U.S. market, backed by a $6 million venture capital boost for its supplier relationship management (SRM) platform.
The Stockholm-based company says its move could help U.S. companies build resilient, sustainable supply chains amid growing pressure from regulatory changes, emerging tariffs, and increasing demands for supply chain transparency.
According to the company, its platform gives procurement teams a 360-degree view of supplier risk, resiliency, and performance, helping them to make smarter decisions faster. Kodiak Hub says its artificial intelligence (AI) based tech has helped users to reduce supplier onboarding times by 80%, improve supplier engagement by 90%, achieve 7-10% cost savings on total spend, and save approximately 10 hours per week by automating certain SRM tasks.
The Swedish venture capital firm Oxx had a similar message when it announced in November that it would back Kodiak Hub with new funding. Oxx says that Kodiak Hub is a better tool for chief procurement officers (CPOs) and strategic sourcing managers than existing software platforms like Excel sheets, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, or Procure-to-Pay suites.
“As demand for transparency and fair-trade practices grows, organizations must strengthen their supply chains to protect their reputation, profitability, and long-term trust,” Malin Schmidt, founder & CEO of Kodiak Hub, said in a release. “By embedding AI-driven insights directly into procurement workflows, our platform helps procurement teams anticipate these risks and unlock major opportunities for growth.”
Here's our monthly roundup of some of the charitable works and donations by companies in the material handling and logistics space.
For the sixth consecutive year, dedicated contract carriage and freight management services provider Transervice Logistics Inc. collected books, CDs, DVDs, and magazines for Book Fairies, a nonprofit book donation organization in the New York Tri-State area. Transervice employees broke their own in-house record last year by donating 13 boxes of print and video assets to children in under-resourced communities on Long Island and the five boroughs of New York City.
Logistics real estate investment and development firm Dermody Properties has recognized eight community organizations in markets where it operates with its 2024 Annual Thanksgiving Capstone awards. The organizations, which included food banks and disaster relief agencies, received a combined $85,000 in awards ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.
Prime Inc. truck driver Dee Sova has donated $5,000 to Harmony House, an organization that provides shelter and support services to domestic violence survivors in Springfield, Missouri. The donation follows Sova's selection as the 2024 recipient of the Trucking Cares Foundation's John Lex Premier Achievement Award, which was accompanied by a $5,000 check to be given in her name to a charity of her choice.
Employees of dedicated contract carrier Lily Transportation donated dog food and supplies to a local animal shelter at a holiday event held at the company's Fort Worth, Texas, location. The event, which benefited City of Saginaw (Texas) Animal Services, was coordinated by "Lily Paws," a dedicated committee within Lily Transportation that focuses on improving the lives of shelter dogs nationwide.
Freight transportation conglomerate Averitt has continued its support of military service members by participating in the "10,000 for the Troops" card collection program organized by radio station New Country 96.3 KSCS in Dallas/Fort Worth. In 2024, Averitt associates collected and shipped more than 18,000 holiday cards to troops overseas. Contributions included cards from 17 different Averitt facilities, primarily in Texas, along with 4,000 cards from the company's corporate office in Cookeville, Tennessee.
Electric vehicle (EV) sales have seen slow and steady growth, as the vehicles continue to gain converts among consumers and delivery fleet operators alike. But a consistent frustration for drivers has been pulling up to a charging station only to find that the charger has been intentionally broken or disabled.
To address that threat, the EV charging solution provider ChargePoint has launched two products to combat charger vandalism.
The first is a cut-resistant charging cable that's designed to deter theft. The cable, which incorporates what the manufacturer calls "novel cut-resistant materials," is substantially more difficult for would-be vandals to cut but is still flexible enough for drivers to maneuver comfortably, the California firm said. ChargePoint intends to make its cut-resistant cables available for all of its commercial and fleet charging stations, and, starting in the middle of the year, will license the cable design to other charging station manufacturers as part of an industrywide effort to combat cable theft and vandalism.
The second product, ChargePoint Protect, is an alarm system that detects charging cable tampering in real time and literally sounds the alarm using the charger's existing speakers, screens, and lighting system. It also sends SMS or email messages to ChargePoint customers notifying them that the system's alarm has been triggered.
ChargePoint says it expects these two new solutions, when combined, will benefit charging station owners by reducing station repair costs associated with vandalism and EV drivers by ensuring they can trust charging stations to work when and where they need them.