Less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier ABF Freight System hit back yesterday at a Teamsters union official who urged members to reject a tentative contract hammered out by management and Teamsters negotiators, saying the official speaks for a small fraction of ABF's union workers and is misleading members about what is at stake for the company and its workers.
On Friday, Sean M. O'Brien, who runs Teamsters Joint Council 10 in the New England region, advised ABF members to vote down the proposed agreement because it calls for changes to the pension funding mechanism that could result in significant cuts for ABF workers. In a communique yesterday, the Fort Smith, Ark.-based carrier said that no such scenario is forthcoming, noting that all Teamsters would be provided for in the event the union's New England pension fund refuses to accept the pension contributions that have been negotiated in the tentative agreement.
The company also disputed O'Brien's claim that the New England fund would cut benefits of covered workers and would impose a very costly "default schedule" of contribution increases on ABF unless the carrier agrees to the fund's escalating financial demands. Because Congress eliminated the so-called default treatment option in 2015, the fund cannot act in the manner that O'Brien has warned about, ABF said.
According to ABF, O'Brien is speaking only for a small number of potentially affected union workers, and not the vast majority of employees covered under other pension funds. The Joint Council represents about 200 of the 8,600 or so unionized ABF workers, according to the company. The Council covers 22 Teamsters locals in six states.
Pension funding is perhaps the key issue in the ABF-Teamsters negotiations, which are aimed at replacing a five-year compact ratified in 2013. ABF contends that its pension obligations, which are well above those of its one main unionized LTL rival, YRC Worldwide Inc., put it at a competitive disadvantage. Without an acceptable compromise on the pension front, ABF will need to find labor savings elsewhere, the company has said. In 2009, YRC's union workers agreed to draconian pension cuts to keep the company solvent.
Union officials are expected to meet with ABF's rank and file tomorrow and Thursday to discuss the language in the tentative proposal. The current compact, which was set to expire April 1, has been extended until a final agreement is reached. ABF is a unit of ArcBest Corp.
ABF said it contributes about $12.27 an hour per employee to the New England fund. That would be well above the $7.83 an hour a Teamsters official said the company pays in to cover ABF employees systemwide. The company said overall contributions to the fund have been steadily declining, and the fund will become insolvent should the trend continue.
In what is evolving into one of the company's core messages, it said only about 38 percent of the New England fund's contributions accrue to ABF workers. The balance goes to subsidize the retirement benefits of employees at other companies, both still in business and defunct, the company said. Even workers at YRC are accruing pension benefits at the expense of ABF, it said.
The current pension obligation structure is an unintended consequence of a long-ago era when unionized freight labor was riding high, with membership of around 400,000 or so. Back then, union and management negotiators agreed to a multi-employer pension model, where companies would contribute to pensions of all workers, regardless of where they worked or would work. However, even as union ranks were decimated in the subsequent decades by bankruptcies, buyouts, and the rise of non-union truckers, existing employers were obligated to fund pensions of workers whose employers may have gone out of business, or who may never have worked for a company that was funding their pensions.
In its communique, ABF said O'Brien is "not suggesting an increase in your pension benefit as an ABF employee; rather his focus is only on increasing what ABF contributes, which as we stated above will not benefit ABF Teamsters but will only benefit individuals outside of our company."
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.