Barack Obama and Congress had the chance to chart transport infrastructure's course for the next 60 years as Eisenhower did for the last 60. It didn't happen.
Mitch Mac Donald has more than 30 years of experience in both the newspaper and magazine businesses. He has covered the logistics and supply chain fields since 1988. Twice named one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the U.S., he has served in a multitude of editorial and publishing roles. The leading force behind the launch of Supply Chain Management Review, he was that brand's founding publisher and editorial director from 1997 to 2000. Additionally, he has served as news editor, chief editor, publisher and editorial director of Logistics Management, as well as publisher of Modern Materials Handling. Mitch is also the president and CEO of Agile Business Media, LLC, the parent company of DC VELOCITY and CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly.
It is early February 2009. Confronting a damaged financial system and an economy hemorrhaging nearly a million jobs a month, President Barack Obama takes unprecedented action. He proposes an 88-month, $2 trillion stimulus package, the centerpiece being a $1.5 trillion program to modernize the nation's infrastructure. Funding will come from tax credits provided to U.S. companies for repatriating, at a 10-percent tax rate, nearly $2 trillion of overseas profits. Congress approves the package. Work commences within a year, creating millions of jobs in construction and ancillary industries. Symbolically, the last disbursement occurs on June 29, 2016, the 60th anniversary of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's signing of the Federal Highway-Aid Act, which created the Interstate Highway System, into law.
It's a great story, replete with pomp and substance. And totally fictitious. What is all too real, however, is the missed opportunity to raise the nation's transport infrastructure to levels where it is seen as an asset, not a liability. In 2013, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave the nation's roads a "D" on its report card, meaning they were in poor condition. The next report card is slated to be issued March 9. By then, all of this becomes President Trump's problem.
Since everything is about money, let's start with the actual 2009 stimulus package, which allocated less than $30 billion of the $787 billion total for transport infrastructure. The meager funding put transport quickly behind the curve. So-called shovel-ready projects primed for launch were found not to be shovel-ready at all. The term became one of the biggest misnomers of the past eight years.
The failure to develop a sustainable funding source would become an overarching narrative. It took the administration, in the person of Treasury Secretary Jacob L. Lew, two years to publicly support an innovative proposal from a member of his own party, Rep. John K. Delaney (D-Md.), to leverage up to $2 trillion of repatriated foreign earnings of U.S. corporations to pay for infrastructure projects. By the time the White House stepped up, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had killed the proposal, saying such initiatives would be best left for discussion within the framework of broad tax reform.
Other efforts to create funding programs went nowhere. The idea of a national infrastructure bank was floated a number of times, and remained stillborn. A 2010 proposal by the president to strip the U.S. oil and gas industry of two tax breaks and use the proceeds to pay for infrastructure never saw the light of day. Meanwhile, in a reflection of political timidity at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, a simple and logical stopgap measure—raising the federal motor fuels tax (for the first time in more than two decades) and index its rise to the inflation rate—was never pushed aggressively, despite broad-based support from virtually every business group. Taking matters into their own hands, 17 states have raised gas taxes since 2013.
Obama shouldn't shoulder all the blame. Congressional Republicans were hell-bent on thwarting all of his plans and seemed unwilling to commit to the truly massive investments everyone says the system needs to bring it up to speed and position it for the surge in traffic expected over the next 30 years. Yet Eisenhower also faced severe political opposition to building an interstate network. Told in 1955 he'd never get a bill through a Democratic Congress heading into a presidential election year, he did what many thought to be impossible. And the country would be transformed.
If there's one thing that can be said about the past eight years, it's that it was not like Ike.
Motion Industries Inc., a Birmingham, Alabama, distributor of maintenance, repair and operation (MRO) replacement parts and industrial technology solutions, has agreed to acquire International Conveyor and Rubber (ICR) for its seventh acquisition of the year, the firms said today.
ICR is a Blairsville, Pennsylvania-based company with 150 employees that offers sales, installation, repair, and maintenance of conveyor belts, as well as engineering and design services for custom solutions.
From its seven locations, ICR serves customers in the sectors of mining and aggregates, power generation, oil and gas, construction, steel, building materials manufacturing, package handling and distribution, wood/pulp/paper, cement and asphalt, recycling and marine terminals. In a statement, Kory Krinock, one of ICR’s owner-operators, said the deal would enhance the company’s services and customer value proposition while also contributing to Motion’s growth.
“ICR is highly complementary to Motion, adding seven strategic locations that expand our reach,” James Howe, president of Motion Industries, said in a release. “ICR introduces new customers and end markets, allowing us to broaden our offerings. We are thrilled to welcome the highly talented ICR employees to the Motion team, including Kory and the other owner-operators, who will continue to play an integral role in the business.”
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. But the deal marks the latest expansion by Motion Industries, which has been on an acquisition roll during 2024, buying up: hydraulic provider Stoney Creek Hydraulics, industrial products distributor LSI Supply Inc., electrical and automation firm Allied Circuits, automotive supplier Motor Parts & Equipment Corporation (MPEC), and both Perfetto Manufacturing and SER Hydraulics.
The move delivers on its August announcement of a fleet renewal plan that will allow the company to proceed on its path to decarbonization, according to a statement from Anda Cristescu, Head of Chartering & Newbuilding at Maersk.
The first vessels will be delivered in 2028, and the last delivery will take place in 2030, enabling a total capacity to haul 300,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEU) using lower emissions fuel. The new vessels will be built in sizes from 9,000 to 17,000 TEU each, allowing them to fill various roles and functions within the company’s future network.
In the meantime, the company will also proceed with its plan to charter a range of methanol and liquified gas dual-fuel vessels totaling 500,000 TEU capacity, replacing existing capacity. Maersk has now finalized these charter contracts across several tonnage providers, the company said.
The shipyards now contracted to build the vessels are: Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and New Times Shipbuilding—both in China—and Hanwha Ocean in South Korea.
Specifically, 48% of respondents identified rising tariffs and trade barriers as their top concern, followed by supply chain disruptions at 45% and geopolitical instability at 41%. Moreover, tariffs and trade barriers ranked as the priority issue regardless of company size, as respondents at companies with less than 250 employees, 251-500, 501-1,000, 1,001-50,000 and 50,000+ employees all cited it as the most significant issue they are currently facing.
“Evolving tariffs and trade policies are one of a number of complex issues requiring organizations to build more resilience into their supply chains through compliance, technology and strategic planning,” Jackson Wood, Director, Industry Strategy at Descartes, said in a release. “With the potential for the incoming U.S. administration to impose new and additional tariffs on a wide variety of goods and countries of origin, U.S. importers may need to significantly re-engineer their sourcing strategies to mitigate potentially higher costs.”
The New Hampshire-based cargo terminal orchestration technology vendor Lynxis LLC today said it has acquired Tedivo LLC, a provider of software to visualize and streamline vessel operations at marine terminals.
According to Lynxis, the deal strengthens its digitalization offerings for the global maritime industry, empowering shipping lines and terminal operators to drastically reduce vessel departure delays, mis-stowed containers and unsafe stowage conditions aboard cargo ships.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
More specifically, the move will enable key stakeholders to simplify stowage planning, improve data visualization, and optimize vessel operations to reduce costly delays, Lynxis CEO Larry Cuddy Jr. said in a release.
Cowan is a dedicated contract carrier that also provides brokerage, drayage, and warehousing services. The company operates approximately 1,800 trucks and 7,500 trailers across more than 40 locations throughout the Eastern and Mid-Atlantic regions, serving the retail and consumer goods, food and beverage products, industrials, and building materials sectors.
After the deal, Schneider will operate over 8,400 tractors in its dedicated arm – approximately 70% of its total Truckload fleet – cementing its place as one of the largest dedicated providers in the transportation industry, Green Bay, Wisconsin-based Schneider said.
The latest move follows earlier acquisitions by Schneider of the dedicated contract carriers Midwest Logistics Systems and M&M Transport Services LLC in 2023.