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 lead attorney for shipper group NASSTRAC waxed optimistic today over the prospects of Congress passing legislation allowing an expansion in the size of twin-trailers operating nationwide.
John Cutler, a veteran of Washington's transport policy wars and NASSTRAC's general counsel since 1999, said "I've never been as optimistic as I am now about (the) productivity gains" achieved by extending the size of each twin-trailer to 33 feet from the current 28-foot maximum, which has been in place since 1982. Speaking at the NASSTRAC annual shipper conference in Orlando, Fla., Cutler cited a renewed pro-business atmosphere in Washington, the defeat or retirement of members of Congress who had opposed the trailer expansion, and the potential influence of a coalition of 20 companies and trade groups, called "Americans for Modern Transportation," that support the effort and will actively lobby for its passage.
The coalition includes Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc.; Atlanta-based UPS Inc.; Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx Corp.; and Overland Park, Kan.-based YRC Worldwide Inc.; the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA); the National Retail Federation (NRF); NASSTRAC and fellow shipper group National Industrial Transportation League; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; the International Warehouse Logistics Association (IWLA), and the National Association of Manufacturers. Its formation was announced in mid-January. In its mission statement, the group said it would "advocate for policies that modernize the delivery of products and consumer goods to businesses and consumers across the country."
Cutler's comments are in contrast to statements made in January by top executives at the American Trucking Associations (ATA) that the proposal would not be on its legislative agenda in 2017. The trucking group, which supported the measure in 2015, said the proposed law caused an uncomfortable split among its top members, with some supporting it but most in opposition. The House killed the proposal before passing a five-year federal transport-funding bill in late 2015.
Twenty states currently allow operation of the longer twin-trailers.
Supporters of the initiative, namely shippers and less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers, said longer trailers would boost productivity and reduce the number of trips because each trailer could haul more goods. The longer trailers would not add weight to each vehicle, would conserve fuel, and would not come at a cost to taxpayers. Each carrier would make a business decision as to whether to invest in them or not, they said.
Opponents, which include safety advocates, labor unions, and independent truckers, said the extended trailers poses a safety risk because the national highway system's merge lanes and on-off ramps were not designed to accommodate tractors carrying twin-trailers longer than 28 feet each. Supporters said the longer trailers would be equipped with extended wheelbases that enable more stable handling than do rigs hauling 28-foot equipment.
Twin-trailers are used mostly by parcel and less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers, whose cargo routinely fills all the available trailer space long before the nationwide limit on so-called gross vehicle weight—which is set at 80,000 pounds when combining tractor, trailer, and cargo—is reached. The increase in trailer length would add 16 percent of cubic capacity to each truck run, allowing carriers and shippers to more efficiently utilize the space aboard each trailer, supporters have said.
In his remarks, Cutler said something must be done for the trucking industry to handle the expected increase in freight traffic without putting more vehicles on the road. According to Department of Transportation forecasts, truck tonnage will increase by 44 percent by 2045, and the value of trucked goods will rise by 84 percent by that time. It is expected that a large percentage of that growth will come from e-commerce shipments, which generally cube out before they weigh out.
The projected growth in e-commerce is the most compelling reason for Congress to pass legislation enabling longer twin-trailers, supporters contend.
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 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.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.