AskWaves

How will a government shutdown affect freight railroads?

On the surface, a government shutdown — which can occur if Congress can’t agree on how to handle the appropriations budgets — would have a limited impact on freight rail operations.

Freight railroads will keep running, transporting parts, materials and goods within North America and to and from the coastal ports. Ensuring safe operations will also be paramount, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

“As a privately owned and maintained industry, rail operations will continue...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/how-will-a-government-shutdown-affect-freight-railroads

Is IMO 2020 shipping regulation worsening global warming?

It is scorching out there. High-temperature records are being broken daily. Oceans off some shores are as hot as bathwater. What is to blame? The list of culprits and possible culprits includes fossil fuel emissions, natural climate change, El Nino, changes in the Gulf Stream, the decline in Arctic Sea ice, the so-called Azores High pressure system and one contributing factor that will be familiar to those in ocean shipping: the IMO 2020 regulation.

The IMO 2020 regulation has significantly...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/is-imo-2020-shipping-regulation-worsening-global-warming

Cross-border LTL Q&A with FreightPlus SVP

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Cross-border freight flows have been increasing for years but interest around shipping from Mexico...

What will happen if Russia blocks Black Sea grain ships?

Russia is threatening to pull the plug on the Black Sea Grain Initiative on May 18, blocking Ukrainian seaborne exports of corn and wheat. The European Union has banned Ukrainian agriculture exports to neighboring Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia until June 5, with an extension through year-end possible. The Tolyatti-Odessa pipeline, a key conduit for Russian exports of ammonia — a vital fertilizer feedstock — remains offline.

CNBC recently warned that “the basic food security of...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/what-will-happen-if-russia-blocks-the-black-sea-grain-ships

What do seaport executives expect for the rest of 2023?

WASHINGTON — With the first quarter of 2023 officially in the books, U.S. seaports want to know what the rest of the year holds as they prepare for what they hope will be a fall peak shipping season.

A panel of port executives who gathered here this week for the American Association of Port Authorities’ annual legislative summit (this year’s moniker, “Strong Ports. Strong America.”) attempted to answer that question.

“If you’re looking at current volumes coming through, we’re definitely...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/what-does-the-rest-of-2023-look-like-from-the-waterfront

What is NMFTA and what does it do?

The National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) is a nonprofit trade group that publishes the National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC). The NMFC is essentially a coding system that universally identifies differences in commodities for freight shipments being transported interstate, intrastate and abroad.

Freight classes and codes are determined by “density, handling, stow-ability and liability,” establishing the “transportability” of a commodity, the organization states.

There are 18...

From bull semen to space wires, truckers haul all kinds of cargo

In 2016, more than $50,000 worth of frozen bull semen was stolen from a truck in Turlock, California.

The heist included three tanks and more than 3,500 units of prized semen from an artificial insemination company that sold and shipped the product to impregnate cattle all over the world.

While most of the time trucks are hauling common goods such as food, retail products and construction materials, sometimes they may also end up carrying more unusual items.

On a recent r/Truckers forum on Reddit,...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/from-bull-semen-to-space-wires-truckers-haul-all-kinds-of-cargo

The DFW difference in logistics real estate

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Everything is bigger in Texas, and that includes logistics real estate.

The Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW)...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/the-dfw-difference-in-logistics-real-estate

How much will container lines ‘earn’ in 2023? It depends on the metric

Berkshire Hathaway’s Charlie Munger once famously said, “Every time you hear ‘EBITDA,’ just substitute the phrase ‘bullshit earnings.’”

Public shipping companies in different segments highlight different earnings metrics. Tanker and dry bulk owners focus on adjusted net income. Listed container shipping lines often highlight adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

EBITDA has been criticized for decades — Munger’s quote is from Berkshire Hathaway’s 2003 annual...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/how-much-will-container-lines-earn-in-2023-it-depends-on-the-metric

Who pays when a truck driver dies on the road?

While recruiters are always searching for skilled truck drivers and using sign-on bonuses and paying incentives to attract drivers to come work for their trucking companies, there’s little mention of what happens to the expenses — and who pays for them — if the driver suffers a medical emergency or dies in a fatal crash while under a load. 

That’s because there’s no federal mandate by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requiring trucking companies to pay the expenses when a driver —...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/who-pays-when-a-truck-driver-dies-on-the-road

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