Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.
The legislative push to reform the nation's multi-employer pension programs, which funds the retirements of 940,000 workers and retirees in the trucking industry, is gaining momentum.
On Monday, Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) introduced legislation that he said would "ensure the solvency" of multi-employer plans and protect the pensions of more than 10 million Americans covered under multi-employer plans. An arrangement between a union and at least two employers usually in a common industry, a multi-employer plan requires participating companies to fund the pensions of workers and retirees from their companies and from other firms included in the plan.
The Casey bill, the Create Jobs & Save Benefits Act of 2010, mirrors legislation introduced last year in the House by Reps. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) and Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio).
Of particular interest to the trucking industry is a provision of the Casey bill that would transfer all pension liabilities of "orphan" retirees—those who had worked at now-defunct trucking firms whose pensions are being funded by the surviving truckers—to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC), a federal corporation that protects more than 29,000 pension plans. Under the Casey bill, the benefits to the "orphan" workers would be fully guaranteed so as to assure that the orphans continued to receive the same benefits they had collected under the multi-employer plan.
The bill would spell relief for unionized trucking companies responsible not only for the pensions of their own workers but of employees at failed businesses who may never have worked for the surviving companies. It would be a huge boon to YRC Worldwide Inc. and ABF Freight System, which employ about 45,000 unionized workers represented by the Teamsters. Casey introduced the bill at a YRC facility in Carlisle, Pa., with ABF and Teamster representatives also in attendance.
Overburdened plans
The multi-employer scheme was created as an amendment to the landmark 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act, commonly known as ERISA. Its main objective at the time was to allow workers to change employers without losing their vesting privileges.
In the trucking industry, the multi-employer concept worked fine as long as there were enough unionized firms to spread the cost. However, as company failures and consolidations winnowed the universe of unionized firms, the burden fell on those remaining to absorb an even larger portion of total retirement obligations.
Michael H. Belzer, a professor at Detroit's Wayne State University and one of the nation's foremost experts on trucking labor law, has called the multi-employer concept "dumb" and an "inconceivably great failure" of public policy.
In a statement, Casey said multi-employer plans, which as of the end of 2008 funded the pensions of 10.3 million Americans, face insolvency because so many participating companies have gone under and have left huge unfunded obligations that must now be paid by a smaller band of survivors.
"Multi-employer plans face unique challenges that are overburdening pension plans and the bottom lines of companies," the senator said.
The Teamsters hailed the legislation, saying it would strengthen the finances of multiple industries, including trucking, and change the pension funding rules so "employers won't have to make payments that could force them into bankruptcy."
Calling the current costs of multi-employer pension compliance a "huge, hidden tax" on large and small businesses, Mike Smid, chief operations officer of YRC Worldwide, said the Casey bill "will protect our employees' retirements and lead to a more competitive retirement contribution system for the industry. This is an issue that has the strong backing of labor and management. This is an opportunity to protect jobs and pensions."
The Casey proposal would also allow multi-employer plans to combine resources in an effort to reduce administrative costs. In addition, the Department of Treasury and Department of Labor would be required to report on whether the program had strengthened the financial condition of the original plans and improved the ability of the contributing employers to remain in business.
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 U.S. manufacturing sector has become an engine of new job creation over the past four years, thanks to a combination of federal incentives and mega-trends like nearshoring and the clean energy boom, according to the industrial real estate firm Savills.
While those manufacturing announcements have softened slightly from their 2022 high point, they remain historically elevated. And the sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of the November U.S. presidential election, the company said in its September “Savills Manufacturing Report.”
From 2021 to 2024, over 995,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs were announced, with two thirds in advanced sectors like electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries, semiconductors, clean energy, and biomanufacturing. After peaking at 350,000 news jobs in 2022, the growth pace has slowed, with 2024 expected to see just over half that number.
But the ingredients are in place to sustain the hot temperature of American manufacturing expansion in 2025 and beyond, the company said. According to Savills, that’s because the U.S. manufacturing revival is fueled by $910 billion in federal incentives—including the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—much of which has not yet been spent. Domestic production is also expected to be boosted by new tariffs, including a planned rise in semiconductor tariffs to 50% in 2025 and an increase in tariffs on Chinese EVs from 25% to 100%.
Certain geographical regions will see greater manufacturing growth than others, since just eight states account for 47% of new manufacturing jobs and over 6.3 billion square feet of industrial space, with 197 million more square feet under development. They are: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee.
Across the border, Mexico’s manufacturing sector has also seen “revolutionary” growth driven by nearshoring strategies targeting U.S. markets and offering lower-cost labor, with a workforce that is now even cheaper than in China. Over the past four years, that country has launched 27 new plants, each creating over 500 jobs. Unlike the U.S. focus on tech manufacturing, Mexico focuses on traditional sectors such as automative parts, appliances, and consumer goods.
Looking at the future, the U.S. manufacturing sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of November’s presidential election, Savills said. That’s because both candidates favor protectionist trade policies, and since significant change to federal incentives would require a single party to control both the legislative and executive branches. Rather than relying on changes in political leadership, future growth of U.S. manufacturing now hinges on finding affordable, reliable power amid increasing competition between manufacturing sites and data centers, Savills said.
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.