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 ongoing battle between the federal government and motor carriers, brokers, and their customers
over the government's controversial "Compliance, Safety, and
Accountability (CSA) 2010" truck-safety rating program has taken an unusual turn.
On May 16, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the sub-agency of the Department of
Transportation that oversees truck safety, posted a slide
presentation on its website that has generated controversy.
The presentation is designed to provide shippers, freight brokers, and insurers with additional resources and guidance on
how to use the "Safety Measurement System" (SMS) data embedded in CSA in order to determine a trucker's safety fitness.
Included in the notes accompanying two of the slides was language the program's critics say is a strong sign the agency wants to shed its statutory role as the final arbiter of highway safety and instead put the burden of evaluating a carrier's fitness on shippers and brokers. Such a change would expose both groups to significant liability risk should plaintiffs' lawyers show that their decisions contributed to injuries or fatalities resulting from an accident involving a motor carrier.
Under a 2011 legal settlement, the FMCSA affirmed its statutory obligation to conduct what are known as "Safety Fitness Determinations" of all DOT-licensed truckers. After conducting safety compliance reviews, the agency would rate each carrier as satisfactory, unsatisfactory, or "conditional," the last meaning the carrier would be allowed to operate but would continue to be monitored. Shippers and brokers interpreted the settlement to mean the FMCSA's authority would give them proper liability protection in the event of legal action arising from a truck-related accident.
But in the mid-May presentation notes, the FMCSA said that a "satisfactory or conditional rating does not mean ... that the public should ignore all other reasonably available information about the motor carrier operations." In another slide, the agency said that a "satisfactory" rating issued at the time of a prior compliance review "does not mean (a) carrier is currently in compliance and operating safely. A rating is only a snapshot based on the date of the most recent compliance review."
The Alliance for Safe, Efficient and Competitive Truck Transportation (ASECTT), a group of shippers, carriers, and brokers that is highly critical of the CSA process, said in a Web posting expected to appear today that the FMCSA's disclaimers indicate the agency "has now crossed the line" by stating that its safety ratings were relevant only at the time they were issued, and by advising shippers and brokers on how to use the SMS to make their own fitness determinations.
FMCSA has "abdicated its role as the ultimate judge of highway safety," ASECTT said in a two-page missive entitled "A Call for Action to Shippers and Brokers."
ASECTT also said the FMCSA has created a "constitutional crisis" by waiving the precepts of federal pre-emption "on its own motion in order to pursue the alleged benefits of 'raising the safety bar.' "
FMCSA officials said the information was compiled after meetings with leading industry groups, and that the agency was providing the industry with the tools needed to use the SMS data to help with carrier selection. In a statement, the FMCSA said it is "committed to working with the trucking industry, safety advocates, and other stakeholders to make (CSA) as effective as possible."
The agency recently extended until July 30 a public comment period on potential changes to the program, adding, "we want to take the time to get this right."
Industry groups call CSA flawed
Industry groups are skeptical, to say the least. The Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) said in a statement issued May 25 that safety ratings must be "retired" and replaced by what would effectively be considered a "thumbs-up, thumbs-down" determination by the agency.
TIA President Robert Voltmann said his group's biggest concern is that the data built into the SMS "will be misused, misunderstood, and cause a sweep of unnecessary and unfounded litigations against shippers and brokers."
The American Trucking Associations (ATA), which represents large trucking concerns, continues to endorse CSA's objectives but in recent months has grown increasingly concerned about what Rob Abbott, vice president of safety policy, called "numerous flaws" in the program.
"We met with FMCSA in April to present our list of concerns/solutions, but believe FMCSA is unlikely to address most of them," said Abbott in an e-mail.
Perhaps the most glaring flaw, in the ATA's view, is that truckers' scores in several of CSA's measurement components don't bear a strong relationship to future crash risk. In a May 11 letter to House-Senate conferees who are trying to hash out a new surface transportation reauthorization bill, ATA President Bill Graves said Congress should prevent the DOT from assigning safety-fitness determinations based on CSA scores until a proven link can be made between elevated CSA ratings and the carrier's likelihood of being involved in a crash.
States across the Southeast woke up today to find that the immediate weather impacts from Hurricane Helene are done, but the impacts to people, businesses, and the supply chain continue to be a major headache, according to Everstream Analytics.
The primary problem is the collection of massive power outages caused by the storm’s punishing winds and rainfall, now affecting some 2 million customers across the Southeast region of the U.S.
One organization working to rush help to affected regions since the storm hit Florida’s western coast on Thursday night is the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). As it does after most serious storms, the group continues to marshal donated resources from supply chain service providers in order to store, stage, and deliver help where it’s needed.
Support for recovery efforts is coming from a massive injection of federal aid, since the White House declared states of emergency last week for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Affected states are also supporting the rush of materials to needed zones by suspending transportation requirement such as certain licensing agreements, fuel taxes, weight restrictions, and hours of service caps, ALAN said.
E-commerce activity remains robust, but a growing number of consumers are reintegrating physical stores into their shopping journeys in 2024, emphasizing the need for retailers to focus on omnichannel business strategies. That’s according to an e-commerce study from Ryder System, Inc., released this week.
Ryder surveyed more than 1,300 consumers for its 2024 E-Commerce Consumer Study and found that 61% of consumers shop in-store “because they enjoy the experience,” a 21% increase compared to results from Ryder’s 2023 survey on the same subject. The current survey also found that 35% shop in-store because they don’t want to wait for online orders in the mail (up 4% from last year), and 15% say they shop in-store to avoid package theft (up 8% from last year).
“Retail and e-commerce continue to evolve,” Jeff Wolpov, Ryder’s senior vice president of e-commerce, said in a statement announcing the survey’s findings. “The emergence of e-commerce and growth of omnichannel fulfillment, particularly over the past four years, has altered consumer expectations and behavior dramatically and will continue to do so as time and technology allow.
“This latest study demonstrates that, while consumers maintain a robust
appetite for e-commerce, they are simultaneously embracing in-person shopping, presenting an impetus for merchants to refine their omnichannel strategies.”
Other findings include:
• Apparel and cosmetics shoppers show growing attraction to buying in-store. When purchasing apparel and cosmetics, shoppers are more inclined to make purchases in a physical location than they were last year, according to Ryder. Forty-one percent of shoppers who buy cosmetics said they prefer to do so either in a brand’s physical retail location or a department/convenience store (+9%). As for apparel shoppers, 54% said they prefer to buy clothing in those same brick-and-mortar locations (+9%).
• More customers prefer returning online purchases in physical stores. Fifty-five percent of shoppers (+15%) now say they would rather return online purchases in-store–the first time since early 2020 the preference to Buy Online Return In-Store (BORIS) has outweighed returning via mail, according to the survey. Forty percent of shoppers said they often make additional purchases when picking up or returning online purchases in-store (+2%).
• Consumers are extremely reliant on mobile devices when shopping in-store. This year’s survey reveals that 77% of consumers search for items on their mobile devices while in a store, Ryder said. Sixty-nine percent said they compare prices with items in nearby stores, 58% check availability at other stores, 31% want to learn more about a product, and 17% want to see other items frequently purchased with a product they’re considering.
Ryder said the findings also underscore the importance of investing in technology solutions that allow companies to provide customers with flexible purchasing options.
“Omnichannel strength is not a fad; it is a strategic necessity for e-commerce and retail businesses to stay competitive and achieve sustainable success in 2024 and beyond,” Wolpov also said. “The findings from this year’s study underscore what we know our customers are experiencing, which is the positive impact of integrating supply chain technology solutions across their sales channels, enabling them to provide their customers with flexible, convenient options to personalize their experience and heighten customer satisfaction.”
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.
Two European companies are among the most recent firms to put autonomous last-mile delivery to the test with a project in Bern, Switzerland, that debuted this month.
Swiss transportation and logistics company Planzer has teamed up with fellow Swiss firm Loxo, which develops autonomous driving software solutions, for a two-year pilot project in which a Loxo-equipped, Planzer parcel delivery van will handle last-mile logistics in Bern’s city center.
The project coincides with Swiss regulations on autonomous driving that are expected to take effect next spring.
Referred to as “Planzer–Dynamic Micro-Hub w LOXO,” the project aims to address both sustainability issues and traffic congestion in urban areas.
The delivery vehicle, a Volkswagen ID. Buzz battery-electric minivan, will feature Loxo’s Level 4 Digital Driver navigation software, a highly automated solution that allows driverless operation. The van was retrofitted to include space for two swap boxes for parcel storage.
During the two-year pilot phase, Loxo’s Digital Driver will navigate a commercial vehicle several times a day from Planzer’s railway center to various logistics points in Bern's city center. There, the parcels will be reloaded onto small electric vehicles and delivered to end customers by Planzer’s parcel delivery staff.
Following the completion of the pilot phase, Planzer and Loxo will build on the program for rollout in other Swiss cities, the companies said.
The partners said the project addresses the increasing requirements of urban supply chains and aims to ensure the “scalability of their disruptive solution.” With largely emission-free delivery, it contributes to greater levels of sustainability for the city as a living space, they also said.
“The uniqueness of this project lies in the fact that it will have a direct impact on society,” Planzer’s CEO and Chairman Nils Planzer said in a statement announcing the project. “We didn't just want to integrate automated technology into existing systems, we wanted to develop a completely new concept and a new business model.”
As the hours tick down toward a “seemingly imminent” strike by East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers, experts are warning that the impacts of that move would mushroom well-beyond the actual strike locations, causing prevalent shipping delays, container ship congestion, port congestion on West coast ports, and stranded freight.
However, a strike now seems “nearly unavoidable,” as no bargaining sessions are scheduled prior to the September 30 contract expiration between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) in their negotiations over wages and automation, according to the transportation law firm Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary.
The facilities affected would include some 45,000 port workers at 36 locations, including high-volume U.S. ports from Boston, New York / New Jersey, and Norfolk, to Savannah and Charleston, and down to New Orleans and Houston. With such widespread geography, a strike would likely lead to congestion from diverted traffic, as well as knock-on effects include the potential risk of increased freight rates and costly charges such as demurrage, detention, per diem, and dwell time fees on containers that may be slowed due to the congestion, according to an analysis by another transportation and logistics sector law firm, Benesch.
The weight of those combined blows means that many companies are already planning ways to minimize damage and recover quickly from the event. According to Scopelitis’ advice, mitigation measures could include: preparing for congestion on West coast ports, taking advantage of intermodal ground transportation where possible, looking for alternatives including air transport when necessary for urgent delivery, delaying shipping from East and Gulf coast ports until after the strike, and budgeting for increased freight and container fees.
Additional advice on softening the blow of a potential coastwide strike came from John Donigian, senior director of supply chain strategy at Moody’s. In a statement, he named six supply chain strategies for companies to consider: expedite certain shipments, reallocate existing inventory strategically, lock in alternative capacity with trucking and rail providers , communicate transparently with stakeholders to set realistic expectations for delivery timelines, shift sourcing to regional suppliers if possible, and utilize drop shipping to maintain sales.