Articles by Gary Frantz

As shippers and carriers adjust and adapt to a post-pandemic world, technology providers face a fast-changing market full of new entrants and fresh demands as well as old challenges.

With the Covid-19 shipping boom fading into history, the maritime community faces a new crisis: slumping demand and plummeting rates.

The pandemic supercharged last-mile delivery as stuck-at-home consumers ordered everything from treadmills to computers and furniture for their homes. Now with Covid subsiding, pocketbooks thinner, and inflation rising, is last-mile growth hitting a wall?

A number of factors are conspiring to tap the brakes on two years of accelerated, pandemic-driven growth in parcel volumes. That means that unlike last year, shippers in 2022 are finding ample capacity and competition for their parcels.

Rail intermodal operators, already challenged on numerous fronts, have little ability to flex up as peak season rolls on. Shippers are wise to make contingency plans to avoid further supply chain pain.

The last two years have invigorated the bottom lines of the nation’s trucking fleets. As inflation powers ahead, consumers switch spending from goods to services, and supply chains remain disrupted, is the trucking profit party about to end?

Containership lines racked up record profits in 2021. Entering the second half of 2022, protecting those margins is job one, but as demand eases, a softer market may have other ideas. For the nation’s ports, congestion once again may raise its ugly head as the 2022 peak season swings into full gear. 

Persistently high trucking rates are busting shipper budgets. At the same time, costs are escalating for all forms of packaging equipment and material. How can shippers and carriers manage these costs, while still delivering goods on time, intact, and claims-free?

Fleet installs renewable electricity generating infrastructure, trains drivers on new tech.

Covid lockdowns in China. Moderating demand easing capacity constraints. Softening e-commerce sales as brick-and-mortar stores make a comeback. Is it just an early, temporary seasonal lull for parcel carriers or a harbinger of a shifting market?