Intermodal chassis leasing firm Direct ChassisLink Inc. (DCLI) said today it acquired all 11,000 marine chassis owned by the North American arm of Japanese liner shipping company Nippon Yusen Kaisha Inc. (NYK) that were operated on the U.S. mainland. The move furthers the trend of shipping lines exiting the U.S. chassis business in favor of leasing companies that rent out the equipment to truckers and other stakeholders through third-party pools at marine and inland port terminals.
The 11,000 units will be placed in pools managed by Consolidated Chassis Management LLC (CCM), as well as in the Hampton Roads, Va. pool. DCLI controls about 133,000 chassis out of 160 U.S. locations. NYK will continue to own chassis used in Alaska and Hawaii.
Charlotte-based DCLI said it has been designated by NYK as its exclusive chassis provider in CCM pools. Truckers that use the equipment to haul goods for NYK's customers will begin receiving rental invoices from DCLI effective March 1, DCLI said.
The CCM model follows port and railroad industry guidelines calling for one primary chassis pool to operate at a given terminal facility. The CCM pools enable chassis leasing companies to conduct business as neutral providers while still working within the CCM pools. CCM is based in Budd Lake, N.J.
With the advent of containerization in the mid-1950s, ship lines calling U.S. ports would make chassis available to truckers free of charge, making the U.S. the only global maritime market that followed such an approach. This was done to promote the containerization concept, and to assure shippers and receivers that they would be able to find a trucker with an available chassis. In recent years, however, carriers burdened with high chassis repair, maintenance, and storage costs began leaving the market, paving the way for the entry of chassis leasing companies and neutral chassis pools.
DCLI was formed in 1974 as Maersk Container Service Co. (MCSC), a unit of Danish liner giant Maersk Line that focused on maintenance and repair of containers, chassis, and refrigeration-unit generator sets. The unit was reorganized in the late 1990s as Maersk Equipment Service Co. (MESC) to reflect a larger portion of its work being devoted to servicing chassis and containers.
As its chassis fleet expanded, Maersk in 2007 shifted container and refrigerator-unit repairs to another division and made MESC solely responsible for chassis maintenance and leasing. In 2009, Maersk decided to exit the chassis provisioning business, and MESC re-branded itself as DCLI and began marketing chassis on a fee-per-day basis to motor carriers.
Besides motor carriers, DCLI provides chassis to marine terminal operators, non-vessel operating common carriers (NVOCCs), steamship lines, and beneficial cargo owners (BCOs). In 2016, DCLI was acquired by EQT, a private equity firm.
States across the U.S. East and Southeast are continuing to recover this week from a triple-whammy of logistics and transportation disruptions that happened in quick succession earlier in the month, according to analysis by supply chain visibility provider Project44.
Within a short span, Hurricane Helene devastated the Southeast, the ILA port strike shut down ports along the East and Gulf Coasts for three days, and Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm. These consecutive disruptions hit an already fragile supply chain environment, amplifying delays and creating widespread challenges across all transportation modes, Project44 said.
Because they occurred in such short order, Hurricane Milton exacerbated existing supply chain vulnerabilities in the wake of Hurricane Helene and the ILA port strike, leading to widespread delays across ocean freight, truckload shipments, and last-mile deliveries, the report found.
Some of the lingering delays are found at ports; while inbound container vessel traffic recovered quickly after the strike, port congestion, especially in Savannah and Norfolk, continues to cause delays. Meanwhile, truckload shipments in the Southeast remain particularly impacted, with on-time performance significantly lower than in other regions. And Florida's last-mile deliveries have also faced severe disruptions, but service levels are gradually improving, Project44 said.
In a statement this week, the Florida Ports Council said its members had shown resiliency in coping with those challenges. Specifically, the ports were able to keep critical supplies of fuel flowing to affected areas despite the damage, thanks to tight coordination with Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, the Florida Department of Transportation and the U.S. Coast Guard.
“In the last 30 days, several of our ports have overcome two hurricanes and a port worker strike. While each presented very different challenges, strong leadership at our 16 public ports were able to quickly recover and resume their essential roles in Florida’s supply chain,” Mike Rubin, President & CEO of the Florida Ports Council, said in a release. “It is standard protocol that after a hurricane makes landfall, our ports prioritize petro, people and perishables as they come back online. Florida’s fuel ports play an outsized role in helping all Floridians recover.”
Regular online readers of DC Velocity and Supply Chain Xchange have probably noticed something new during the past few weeks. Our team has been working for months to produce shiny new websites that allow you to find the supply chain news and stories you need more easily.
It is always good for a media brand to undergo a refresh every once in a while. We certainly are not alone in retooling our websites; most of you likely go through that rather complex process every few years. But this was more than just your average refresh. We did it to take advantage of the most recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI).
Most of the AI work will take place behind the scenes. We will not, for instance, use AI to generate our stories. Those will still be written by our award-winning editorial team (I realize I’m biased, but I believe them to be the best in the business). Instead, we will be applying AI to things like graphics, search functions, and prioritizing relevant stories to make it easier for you to find the information you need along with related content.
We have also redesigned the websites’ layouts to make it quick and easy to find articles on specific topics. For example, content on DC Velocity’s new site is divided into five categories: material handling, robotics, transportation, technology, and supply chain services. We also offer a robust video section, including case histories, webcasts, and executive interviews, plus our weekly podcasts.
Over on the Supply Chain Xchange site, we have organized articles into categories that align with the traditional five phases of supply chain management: plan, procure, produce, move, and store. Plus, we added a “tech” category just to round it off. You can also find links to our videos, newsletters, podcasts, webcasts, blogs, and much more on the site.
Our mobile-app users will also notice some enhancements. An increasing number of you are receiving your daily supply chain news on your phones and tablets, so we have revamped our sites for optimal performance on those devices. For instance, you’ll find that related stories will appear right after the article you’re reading in case you want to delve further into the topic.
However you view us, you will find snappier headlines, more graphics and illustrations, and sites that are easier to navigate.
I would personally like to thank our management, IT department, and editors for their work in making this transition a reality. In our more than 20 years as a media company, this is our largest expansion into digital yet.
We hope you enjoy the experience.
Keep ReadingShow less
In this chart, the red and green bars represent Trucking Conditions Index for 2024. The blue line represents the Trucking Conditions Index for 2023. The index shows that while business conditions for trucking companies improved in August of 2024 versus July of 2024, they are still overall negative.
FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index improved in August to -1.39 from the reading of -5.59 in July. The Bloomington, Indiana-based firm forecasts that its TCI readings will remain mostly negative-to-neutral through the beginning of 2025.
“Trucking is en route to more favorable conditions next year, but the road remains bumpy as both freight volume and capacity utilization are still soft, keeping rates weak. Our forecasts continue to show the truck freight market starting to favor carriers modestly before the second quarter of next year,” Avery Vise, FTR’s vice president of trucking, said in a release.
The TCI tracks the changes representing five major conditions in the U.S. truck market: freight volumes, freight rates, fleet capacity, fuel prices, and financing costs. Combined into a single index, a positive score represents good, optimistic conditions, and a negative score shows the opposite.
A coalition of truckers is applauding the latest round of $30 million in federal funding to address what they call a “national truck parking crisis,” created when drivers face an imperative to pull over and stop when they cap out their hours of service, yet can seldom find a safe spot for their vehicle.
According to the White House, a total of 44 projects were selected in this round of funding, including projects that improve safety, mobility, and economic competitiveness, constructing major bridges, expanding port capacity, and redesigning interchanges. The money is the latest in a series of large infrastructure investments that have included nearly $12.8 billion in funding through the INFRA and Mega programs for 140 projects across 42 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The money funds: 35 bridge projects, 18 port projects, 20 rail projects, and 85 highway improvement projects.
In a statement, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) said the federal funds would make a big difference in driver safety and transportation networks.
"Lack of safe truck parking has been a top concern of truckers for decades and as a truck driver, I can tell you firsthand that when truckers don’t have a safe place to park, we are put in a no-win situation. We must either continue to drive while fatigued or out of legal driving time, or park in an undesignated and unsafe location like the side of the road or abandoned lot,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said in a release. “It forces truck drivers to make a choice between safety and following federal Hours-of-Service rules. OOIDA and the 150,000 small business truckers we represent thank Secretary Buttigieg and the Department for their increased focus on resolving an issue that has plagued our industry for decades.”
“While there have been some signs of tightening in consumer spending, September’s numbers show consumers are willing to spend where they see value,” NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said in a release. “September sales come amid the recent trend of payroll gains and other positive economic signs. Clearly, consumers continue to carry the economy, and conditions for the retail sector remain favorable as we move into the holiday season.”
The Census Bureau said overall retail sales in September were up 0.4% seasonally adjusted month over month and up 1.7% unadjusted year over year. That compared with increases of 0.1% month over month and 2.2% year over year in August.
Likewise, September’s core retail sales as defined by NRF — based on the Census data but excluding automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants — were up 0.7% seasonally adjusted month over month and up 2.4% unadjusted year over year. NRF is now forecasting that 2024 holiday sales will increase between 2.5% and 3.5% over the same time last year.
Despite those upward trends, consumer resilience isn’t a free pass for retailers to underinvest in their stores by overlooking labor, customer experience tech, or digital transformation, several analysts warned.
"The 2024 holiday season offers more ‘normalcy’ for retailers with inflation cooling. Still, there is no doubt that consumers continue to seek value. Promotions in general will play a larger role in the 2024 holiday season. Retailers are dealing with shrinking shopper loyalties, a larger number of competitors across more channels – and, of course, a more dynamic landscape where prices are shifting more frequently to win over consumers who are looking for great deals,” Matt Pavich, senior director of strategy & innovation at pricing optimization solutions provider Revionics, said in an email.
Nikki Baird, VP of strategy & product at retail technology company Aptos, likewise said that retailers need to keep their focus on improving their value proposition and customer experience. “Retailers aren’t just competing with other retailers when it comes to consumers’ discretionary spending. If consumers feel like the shopping experience isn’t worth their time and effort, they are going to spend their money elsewhere. A trip to Italy, a dinner out, catching the latest Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds films — there is no shortage of ways that consumers can spend their discretionary dollars,” she said.
Editor's note:This article was revised on October 18 to correct the attribution for a quote to Matt Pavich instead of Nikki Baird.