Darren Prokop

Commentary: Crude oil tankers on hold

The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FreightWaves or its affiliates.

Crude oil tankers came to the rescue early in the COVID-19 pandemic by acting as floating storage tanks. Saudi Arabia and Russia increased crude oil production in early 2020, launching a price war that ran through April while the pandemic was spreading. Each agreed to a cut in production, and “OPEC+” members are continuing with various cuts in month-to-month...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/commentary-crude-oil-tankers-on-hold

Commentary: Choppy skies post-Brexit

The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FreightWaves or its affiliates.

The United Kingdom officially leaves the European Union on Dec. 31 after an 11-month easing-out period. The final closing of the door, so to speak, on Brexit involved many preliminary steps. One of these was for the U.K. to establish a bilateral air service agreement with the United States. This open skies agreement was crafted in November 2018, finally signed by...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/commentary-choppy-skies-post-brexit

Commentary: Another iron link for USMCA?

The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FreightWaves or its affiliates.

Economic integration within North America cannot work without a reliable transportation infrastructure. Two important forces come into play when building transportation infrastructure: favorable geography and the magnetic pull of preexisting transportation hubs and population centers. Sometimes new locales become prominent and sometimes older ones regain their...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/commentary-another-iron-link-for-usmca

Commentary: Data sharing offers limited customer service

The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FreightWaves or its affiliates.

To shine light into the metaphorical black box where transporting items from point A to B takes place, reliable data is necessary to understand what is happening over the network as time passes by. As a physical activity subject to time, and taking place over a defined route, for-hire transportation services are quite measurable. When data is generated, it makes...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/commentary-data-sharing-offers-limited-customer-service

Commentary: Cargo keeps Alaska’s skies very busy

The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FreightWaves or its affiliates.

In Alaska, the aviation sector is crucial. Small, isolated communities that have no road networks or are hundreds of miles from coastal ports rely on airplanes for travel and for cargo deliveries. Most of that cargo is transshipped though Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC).

What makes ANC one of the busiest cargo airports in the world is its...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/commentary-cargo-keeps-alaskas-skies-very-busy

Commentary: A strategy for tactics?

The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FreightWaves or its affiliates.

Is strategic thinking necessary at the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)? Its 118-page National Freight Strategic Plan (NFSP), released on Sept. 3, suggests that it is.

NFSP, as a national multimodal plan, fulfills a mandate set out in Section 8001 of the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. Of course, the federal government is...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/commentary-a-strategy-for-tactics