View from the ports' side: interview with Kurt J. Nagle
With more than 30 years of experience promoting international trade, Kurt Nagle has the right stuff to lead the American Association of Port Authorities—a group that serves ports from Alaska to Argentina.
Contributing Editor Toby Gooley is a writer and editor specializing in supply chain, logistics, and material handling, and a lecturer at MIT's Center for Transportation & Logistics. She previously was Senior Editor at DC VELOCITY and Editor of DCV's sister publication, CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly. Prior to joining AGiLE Business Media in 2007, she spent 20 years at Logistics Management magazine as Managing Editor and Senior Editor covering international trade and transportation. Prior to that she was an export traffic manager for 10 years. She holds a B.A. in Asian Studies from Cornell University.
Despite its name, the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) is a truly international organization. Its 160-plus member ports hail from throughout the Western Hemiäphere, from Alaska to Argentina. It's a constituency whose main business is facilitating global commerce; it is fitting, then, that President and CEO Kurt J. Nagle has a long history in promoting international trade.
After earning a master's degree in economics from George Mason University, Nagle went to work in the Office of International Economic Research at the U.S. Department of Commerce. From there, he became director of international trade for the National Coal Association and assistant secretary for the Coal Exporters Association. This year, he celebrated his 25th anniversary with AAPA, which he has headed since 1995. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Propeller Club of the United States and is a former commissioner of PIANC, the International Navigation Congress.
Nagle speaks quickly but quietly, and his style is low-key—it's hard to imagine him getting angry or confrontational. But that calm demeanor doesn't mean he lacks passion for his subject. His enthusiasm was clearly evident when he spoke with DC Velocity about AAPA's four-part mission—advocacy, professional development and education, information sharing and relationship building among members, and promoting public awareness of the role and economic value of ports.
Q: You have a background in international economics and trade development. Does that help you to work more effectively with and on behalf of AAPA's members? A: It is relevant, and it has been helpful. In addition to my education, earlier in my career I worked for the U.S. Commerce Department's international trade branch on global economic issues. I also worked on international trade and related competitive issues while at the National Coal Association.
Certainly, that background has been helpful in recognizing that we're competing in a global economy and in understanding how that relates to our industry and to our members' competitiveness. It helps to understand what we have to do in the port industry and in the country as a whole about the issue of infrastructure investment. It is absolutely critical that we invest in infrastructure not only within the ports themselves but also in the connections to ports on the land side and on the water side to enable our country to be competitive.
Q: Your staff has changed in recent years. What kinds of expertise have you brought on board, and why? A: Our backgrounds and experiences reflect what is most important and relevant to our members and to our industry. First, we've added some resources that focus on initiatives like SHARE, which stands for Seaports of the Hemiäphere Allied in Relationships for Excellence. One of the key missions of this organization is to help members share lessons learned, best practices, and information about what works and what doesn't. ... We started SHARE about six years ago to enhance members' ability to share that kind of information. This also includes processes that facilitate electronic communication, such as our newsletter and webinars for education and for committee meetings.
More recently, we have increased resources for our "awareness" initiative, which is geared toward increasing recognition and understanding among policymakers—whether in Washington, in the various national governments throughout the Hemiäphere, or at the local level—of the critical importance of ports to national, regional, and local economies. We've also increased staff relative to U.S. transportation policy. With the surface transportation reauthorization coming up, it's critical that we work closely with government to develop a transportation policy that will help us as a nation to not only improve efficiency but also reduce congestion and improve air quality.
The third area where we've made staff changes is in adding someone who focuses on the Latin American delegation. His job is to ensure that issues that are particularly relevant and important to Latin American members are addressed and to facilitate the exchange of information. We also now have people on staff who have Spanish language and translation capabilities.
Q: AAPA's members include port authorities and managers from countries throughout the Western Hemiäphere. How does the organization meet the needs of such a diverse membership? A: One way we do that is by ensuring that resources that are contributed by everyone are not being used for something that benefits only some of our members. For example, our U.S. advocacy and government relations efforts are segregated in terms of staff, budget, and funding. Only U.S. members fund those resources.
Another way is that about 20 years ago, we separated our organizational structure into four delegations: Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States. The delegations' leadership is represented on AAPA's executive committee and on the board of directors. By having all of the delegations represented in the broader policy and leadership positions, we are ensuring that the association provides value and is relevant to ports throughout the Hemiäphere. Certainly, when ports in different countries are looking at information technology or at developing a terminal, there are a lot of similar issues, questions, and practices. I think that's what members are looking for from us: to facilitate that exchange of information and lessons learned, and to provide a network and clearinghouse.
Q: AAPA has developed a training and certification program for port managers. What are the goals of that program? A: We started the Professional Port Manager, or PPM, program in the mid '90s. One of our key goals in the association is to enhance professional development. We also want to identify up-and-coming port leaders and provide them with the ability to develop their knowledge, skills, and relationships. These are all part of the PPM program.
About seven or eight years ago, we started a related program that includes issues that are particularly relevant to Latin American members. The program is offered in Spanish, or in Portuguese for the Brazilian ports.
This past year, we modified the regular program, which had been principally structured for individual study. We changed it to a class-based program; people now apply for a specific class and then go through the program together, for the most part, and we added group projects. That has really taken off. Our first class, the Class of 2014, started this year with 19 people. They've been together for two programs already, but there has been a lot of additional communication and correspondence among them. We're extremely pleased and excited by their enthusiasm and energy.
We have had about 80 people receive the PPM certification so far, and right now we have 150 total in the program. One of the requirements is a research project, a paper, or other type of project. ... Because our purpose is to educate and share information, we have made those papers and projects available so people can access and learn from them. This has been very beneficial to both individuals and ports.
Q: Transportation infrastructure is a hot topic in Washington now. Has AAPA been consulted on this issue? What are you telling Congress and the White House about how ports can contribute to efforts to revitalize the U.S. economy? A: We definitely have been asked to contribute to the dialogue. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood very early on had a conference call with many of the transportation stakeholder organizations, and AAPA was asked to be part of that. ... In February of this year, Secretary LaHood held a port summit, where he invited port directors from throughout the country to talk to him personally on key issues related to ports. That was the first time something like that has been done.
We've had very good ongoing dialogue not only with the secretary himself but also throughout his department, and more broadly within the administration. ... Commerce Secretary Locke, the former governor of the state of Washington, where he was a supporter of the state's ports, is another high-level official in the current administration who understands the importance and value of international trade and ports. He also recognizes the need to have infrastructure that allows us to be competitive in international commerce.
The message we're giving them is that ports are literally economic lifelines. They are critical links that provide access to the global economy, to the goods consumers expect to be in the stores when they go shopping, to the parts and components manufacturers rely on, and to farmers' being able to ship their grain overseas. We need all of that to work efficiently in order to compete, especially with the president's call for doubling U.S. exports in the next five years.
Another thing we're stressing is that transportation infrastructure investment and projects provide not only short-term economic benefits and jobs, but also long-term benefits that can improve the entire system's performance and help our nation in terms of economic efficiency and competitiveness. There are also environmental benefits, because infrastructure investment can help to reduce congestion and airborne emissions. We think there needs to be a greater emphasis on freight transportation than there has been historically.
Q: The Panama Canal expansion is expected to change shipping and trade patterns. Meanwhile, the container shipping business has been very volatile. How are ports responding to such uncertainty—especially when these factors are beyond their control? A: Economic conditions have had a significant impact on global trade, and obviously that has had an impact on ports' revenues and resources. Many of our members have had to undergo fairly significant belt tightening and look at reducing costs everywhere possible. But they still have to think about where to put their resources to manage through this. In many cases, ports are continuing to move forward with projects that will be needed when trade and commerce pick up again. These are long-term infrastructure projects that ports were building not for five years but for 30, 40, or 50 years down the road.
One of the things ports have become good at is strategic management—"adaptive management in uncertain times," as AAPA's former chairperson Geraldine Knatz called it. Ports are continually adapting their management strategies as situations change and evolve. Our members are looking at the Panama Canal expansion and other factors in international trade to determine what they mean for individual ports, as well as how to prepare themselves and adapt successfully to the new environment, whatever their role might be, whether as major load centers, feeder ports, or sites for handling specialized or niche cargoes.
Q: Exporters and importers—the ports' ultimate customers—say their top concerns are service quality, responsiveness, and efficiency. How can ports, which have limited flexibility because of their fixed infrastructure, ensure that they meet those needs? A: Ports are doing everything they can to make their own operations and the things they have direct control over as efficient, responsive, and flexible as possible to ensure the ultimate customer's needs are met. But this issue gets into the less clear or less direct role of public port authorities. A lot goes on at ports involving participants in the logistics chain that public port authorities don't have direct control over, such as terminal operators if the port is a landlord, tugs, pilots, the Coast Guard, Customs, security, labor, the Army Corps of Engineers, and private railroads and trucking companies. Public port agencies can serve as a vehicle to help coordinate, collaborate, partner, and facilitate the broad range of interests in and around the port. This is critical to achieving efficiency and supporting the customer.
Ports are, to a larger extent than in the past, looking to take on leadership roles that extend far beyond the terminal gates to whatever impacts them and their customers. That includes transportation policy affecting landside and waterside issues that are not in their direct control. The port authority is playing an increasingly vital, expanded role that is not limited to the confines of its facilities.
Generative AI (GenAI) is being deployed by 72% of supply chain organizations, but most are experiencing just middling results for productivity and ROI, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc.
That’s because productivity gains from the use of GenAI for individual, desk-based workers are not translating to greater team-level productivity. Additionally, the deployment of GenAI tools is increasing anxiety among many employees, providing a dampening effect on their productivity, Gartner found.
To solve those problems, chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) deploying GenAI need to shift from a sole focus on efficiency to a strategy that incorporates full organizational productivity. This strategy must better incorporate frontline workers, assuage growing employee anxieties from the use of GenAI tools, and focus on use-cases that promote creativity and innovation, rather than only on saving time.
"Early GenAI deployments within supply chain reveal a productivity paradox," Sam Berndt, Senior Director in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in the report. "While its use has enhanced individual productivity for desk-based roles, these gains are not cascading through the rest of the function and are actually making the overall working environment worse for many employees. CSCOs need to retool their deployment strategies to address these negative outcomes.”
As part of the research, Gartner surveyed 265 global respondents in August 2024 to assess the impact of GenAI in supply chain organizations. In addition to the survey, Gartner conducted 75 qualitative interviews with supply chain leaders to gain deeper insights into the deployment and impact of GenAI on productivity, ROI, and employee experience, focusing on both desk-based and frontline workers.
Gartner’s data showed an increase in productivity from GenAI for desk-based workers, with GenAI tools saving 4.11 hours of time weekly for these employees. The time saved also correlated to increased output and higher quality work. However, these gains decreased when assessing team-level productivity. The amount of time saved declined to 1.5 hours per team member weekly, and there was no correlation to either improved output or higher quality of work.
Additional negative organizational impacts of GenAI deployments include:
Frontline workers have failed to make similar productivity gains as their desk-based counterparts, despite recording a similar amount of time savings from the use of GenAI tools.
Employees report higher levels of anxiety as they are exposed to a growing number of GenAI tools at work, with the average supply chain employee now utilizing 3.6 GenAI tools on average.
Higher anxiety among employees correlates to lower levels of overall productivity.
“In their pursuit of efficiency and time savings, CSCOs may be inadvertently creating a productivity ‘doom loop,’ whereby they continuously pilot new GenAI tools, increasing employee anxiety, which leads to lower levels of productivity,” said Berndt. “Rather than introducing even more GenAI tools into the work environment, CSCOs need to reexamine their overall strategy.”
According to Gartner, three ways to better boost organizational productivity through GenAI are: find creativity-based GenAI use cases to unlock benefits beyond mere time savings; train employees how to make use of the time they are saving from the use GenAI tools; and shift the focus from measuring automation to measuring innovation.
According to Arvato, it made the move in order to better serve the U.S. e-commerce sector, which has experienced high growth rates in recent years and is expected to grow year-on-year by 5% within the next five years.
The two acquisitions follow Arvato’s purchase three months ago of ATC Computer Transport & Logistics, an Irish firm that specializes in high-security transport and technical services in the data center industry. Following the latest deals, Arvato will have a total U.S. network of 16 warehouses with about seven million square feet of space.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Carbel is a Florida-based 3PL with a strong focus on fashion and retail. It offers custom warehousing, distribution, storage, and transportation services, operating out of six facilities in the U.S., with a footprint of 1.6 million square feet of warehouse space in Florida (2), Pennsylvania (2), California, and New York.
Florida-based United Customs Services offers import and export solutions, specializing in remote location filing across the U.S., customs clearance, and trade compliance. CTPAT-certified since 2007, United Customs Services says it is known for simplifying global trade processes that help streamline operations for clients in international markets.
“With deep expertise in retail and apparel logistics services, Carbel and United Customs Services are the perfect partners to strengthen our ability to provide even more tailored solutions to our clients. Our combined knowledge and our joint commitment to excellence will drive our growth within the US and open new opportunities,” Arvato CEO Frank Schirrmeister said in a release.
And many of them will have a budget to do it, since 51% of supply chain professionals with existing innovation budgets saw an increase earmarked for 2025, suggesting an even greater emphasis on investing in new technologies to meet rising demand, Kenco said in its “2025 Supply Chain Innovation” survey.
One of the biggest targets for innovation spending will artificial intelligence, as supply chain leaders look to use AI to automate time-consuming tasks. The survey showed that 41% are making AI a key part of their innovation strategy, with a third already leveraging it for data visibility, 29% for quality control, and 26% for labor optimization.
Still, lingering concerns around how to effectively and securely implement AI are leading some companies to sidestep the technology altogether. More than a third – 35% – said they’re largely prevented from using AI because of company policy, leaving an opportunity to streamline operations on the table.
“Avoiding AI entirely is no longer an option. Implementing it strategically can give supply chain-focused companies a serious competitive advantage,” Kristi Montgomery, Vice President, Innovation, Research & Development at Kenco, said in a release. “Now’s the time for organizations to explore and experiment with the tech, especially for automating data-heavy operations such as demand planning, shipping, and receiving to optimize your operations and unlock true efficiency.”
Among the survey’s other top findings:
there was essentially three-way tie for which physical automation tools professionals are looking to adopt in the coming year: robotics (43%), sensors and automatic identification (40%), and 3D printing (40%).
professionals tend to select a proven developer for providing supply chain innovation, but many also pick start-ups. Forty-five percent said they work with a mix of new and established developers, compared to 39% who work with established technologies only.
there’s room to grow in partnering with 3PLs for innovation: only 13% said their 3PL identified a need for innovation, and just 8% partnered with a 3PL to bring a technology to life.
Volvo Autonomous Solutions will form a strategic partnership with autonomous driving technology and generative AI provider Waabi to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks, with testing scheduled to begin later this year.
The announcement came two weeks after autonomous truck developer Kodiak Robotics said it had become the first company in the industry to launch commercial driverless trucking operations. That milestone came as oil company Atlas Energy Solutions Inc. used two RoboTrucks—which are semi-trucks equipped with the Kodiak Driver self-driving system—to deliver 100 loads of fracking material on routes in the Permian Basin in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico.
Atlas now intends to scale up its RoboTruck deployment “considerably” over the course of 2025, with multiple RoboTruck deployments expected throughout the year. In support of that, Kodiak has established a 12-person office in Odessa, Texas, that is projected to grow to approximately 20 people by the end of Q1 2025.
Women are significantly underrepresented in the global transport sector workforce, comprising only 12% of transportation and storage workers worldwide as they face hurdles such as unfavorable workplace policies and significant gender gaps in operational, technical and leadership roles, a study from the World Bank Group shows.
This underrepresentation limits diverse perspectives in service design and decision-making, negatively affects businesses and undermines economic growth, according to the report, “Addressing Barriers to Women’s Participation in Transport.” The paper—which covers global trends and provides in-depth analysis of the women’s role in the transport sector in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA)—was prepared jointly by the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the International Transport Forum (ITF).
The slim proportion of women in the sector comes at a cost, since increasing female participation and leadership can drive innovation, enhance team performance, and improve service delivery for diverse users, while boosting GDP and addressing critical labor shortages, researchers said.
To drive solutions, the researchers today unveiled the Women in Transport (WiT) Network, which is designed to bring together transport stakeholders dedicated to empowering women across all facets and levels of the transport sector, and to serve as a forum for networking, recruitment, information exchange, training, and mentorship opportunities for women.
Initially, the WiT network will cover only the Europe and Central Asia and the Middle East and North Africa regions, but it is expected to gradually expand into a global initiative.
“When transport services are inclusive, economies thrive. Yet, as this joint report and our work at the EIB reveal, few transport companies fully leverage policies to better attract, retain and promote women,” Laura Piovesan, the European Investment Bank (EIB)’s Director General of the Projects Directorate, said in a release. “The Women in Transport Network enables us to unite efforts and scale impactful solutions - benefiting women, employers, communities and the climate.”