AgTC

The Daily Dash: Trucking loses reprieve from California independent contractor law

The Daily Dash is a quick look at what’s happening in the freight ecosystem. In today’s edition, we highlight the end of an injunction in California that had kept an independent contractor law from applying to trucking, as well as a funding round for Arrive Logistics and more.

The High Five

1. An injunction that stopped the California trucking industry from coming under AB5, the state’s law governing the use of independent contractors, has been overturned. John Kingston with details

2. Austin,...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/the-daily-dash-trucking-loses-reprieve-from-california-independent-contractor-law

Congress pushes FMC to act on carriers opting for empty boxes vs exports

Political pressure is mounting on US authorities to crack down on shipping lines that refuse to carry American exports in preference to loading empty containers.
Yesterday, 111 members of Congress jointly signed a letter calling for the FMC to hold carriers to account.
They said: “Over the past year, American producers, exporters and entire economic sectors have grappled with widespread delays, bottlenecks and increasing fees at our ports.
“These challenges are exacerbated by …

The post Congress...

https://theloadstar.com/congress-pushes-fmc-to-act-on-carriers-opting-for-empty-boxes-vs-exports/

Ocean carriers take heat for profiting ‘so handsomely’ while service plunged

The Agriculture Transportation Coalition’s Peter Friedmann took exception to what Hapag-Lloyd’s CEO didn’t say during a recent videoconference with media from around the world. 

“It is one thing for ship schedule reliability to be at all-time low levels, but quite another for carriers to profit so handsomely by such collapse in dependable service,” Friedmann, executive director of the Washington-based AgTC, told American Shipper after reading about Rolf Habben Jansen’s press conference. 

Habben...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/ocean-carriers-take-heat-for-profiting-so-handsomely-while-service-plunged

Congress will have to control ‘damaging’ detention and demurrage charges by law

One the largest US shipper associations, the Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC) has renewed its criticism of demurrage and detention (D&D) charges and called for the Federal Maritime Commission to control it.
In a letter to US president Joe Biden on Wednesday, the organisation said shipping lines and terminals had ignored guidelines set out in the FMC’s interpretative rule developed last year by FMC commissioner Rebecca Dye.
“While the FMC is undertaking further …

The post Congress will...

https://theloadstar.com/congress-will-have-to-control-damaging-detention-and-demurrage-charges-by-law/

Maersk collaborating to ‘alleviate supply chain pain points’

A.P. Møller – Maersk said it is taking container congestion and intermodal equipment scarcity seriously and addressing “the concerns of the U.S. export community and the trucking industry feeling the impact during this already difficult time.”

Maersk North America said in a press release Monday that as a result of “surging U.S. imports and the resulting intermodal equipment flow imbalances, all members of the logistics sector have been challenged to find solutions. Maersk senior officials have...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/maersk-collaborating-to-alleviate-supply-chain-pain-points

Commentary: AgTC applauds FMC’s push of Shipping Act mandates

The Agriculture Transportation Coalition and a broad array of exporters, importers, truckers, forwarders — essentially the entire American shipping public — is encouraged and grateful to the Federal Maritime Commission leaders for their initiatives this past week. 

For several years, we have petitioned the FMC to intervene to help U.S. ag exporters (and all shippers) survive debilitating and unfair detention and demurrage, punitive “free time” policies (imposed on smaller shippers and...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/commentary-agtc-applauds-fmcs-push-of-shipping-act-mandates

Carriers must keep returning empty boxes to avoid shortage going into February

Unless carriers continue to “aggressively” repatriate boxes to Asia, the equipment shortage crisis will last until February according to SeaIntelligence.
Carriers are maximising procurement of new containers, but the impact of new equipment into the supply chain will take some time.
“The market is faced with a stark choice,” said SeaIntelligence chief executive Alan Murphy. “Either carriers pursue the current strategy and there is a possibility of resolving the container shortage during …

The...

https://theloadstar.com/carriers-must-keep-returning-empty-boxes-to-avoid-shortage-going-into-february/

US exporters in revolt over the cost of changing earliest return dates

US agricultural exporters are demanding shipping lines end frequent changes to earliest return dates (ERD) – the earliest an export container can be delivered to the carrier – which can incur significant extra costs.
More than three-quarters of responding exporters reported that at least 5% of their shipments incurred more costs as a result of ERD changes, according to a survey conducted by the US Agriculture Transport Coalition (AgTC) and tech company …

The post US exporters in revolt over the...

https://theloadstar.com/us-exporters-in-revolt-over-the-cost-of-changing-earliest-return-dates/

Port of LA gives The Signal to cargo stakeholders

The Port of Los Angeles announced it is sharing Wabtec’s Port Optimizer data so all supply chain stakeholders can better plan for incoming cargo.

“We’re giving all of our partners — railroads, chassis providers, truckers, warehouse operators and others in the supply chain — a three-week look at cargo coming into Los Angeles,” said Port of LA Executive Director Gene Seroka. “This planning tool will help make our partners more nimble and efficient, especially during volume surges like we are...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/port-of-la-gives-the-signal-to-cargo-stakeholders

Reefer Containers Pile up in China Due To COVID-19 Restrictions

  • February’s coronavirus shutdown in Wuhan, China hit American food exports hard.
  • Reefer plugs at China ports filled up after the Wuhan outbreak.
  • Reefer-plug capacity maxed out in February because China severely restricted trucking.
  • The logjam stems from the COVID outbreak at a Beijing food market.

According to an article published in Freightwaves and authored by Greg Miller, February’s coronavirus shutdown in Wuhan, China hit American food exports hard. Shippers transport perishable food in...

https://mfame.guru/reefer-containers-pile-up-in-china-due-to-covid-19-restrictions/

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