Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Shifting supply chains boost trade in California-Baja mega-region; Union Pacific opens expanded Phoenix intermodal terminal; Radiant Logistics expands air cargo operations in Texas; and avocado workers in Mexico file labor complaints.
Shifting supply chains boost trade in California-Baja mega-region
Foreign companies looking to diversify their supply chains have...
BNSF plans to spend more than $1.5 billion on a new multiuse rail facility in Southern California to facilitate inland container moves from the West Coast ports.
The Barstow International Gateway facility, which BNSF (NYSE: BRK.B) says will be the first of its kind developed by a Class I railroad, will sit on approximately 4,500 acres and consist of a rail yard, an intermodal facility and warehousing enabling transloading from international containers to domestic containers.
BNSF will pick up...
BNSF is planning a temporary embargo of westbound automotive shipments and specific agricultural and industrial commodities to address congestion in Southern California, according to a Thursday service advisory.
The embargo will take effect Monday for waybills that have a shipment date of Wednesday. The embargo will expire July 31 and doesn’t include intermodal shipments because they are managed using an alternate system, BNSF (NYSE: BRK.B) said.
“We have experienced a sharp increase in...
Every Friday, FreightWaves takes a look at the past week or so in social media, highlighting images in trucking, transportation and weather. This week features whiteout conditions in the Upper Midwest, dusty conditions in the northern Plains and a California brush fire fanned by high winds.
WhiteoutAn Alberta Clipper system — a fast-moving winter storm that typically enters the north-central U.S. from Canada — hit the Upper Midwest on Thursday. It dumped 3 to 7 inches of snow in northern parts...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/hot-shots-blizzard-dust-storm-brush-fire
A winter heat wave that began Wednesday will continue to scorch Southern California through Super Bowl weekend.
Daily record highs were set in several places Wednesday and Thursday in the Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan area. These included Santa Ana, Oceanside, Vista, Burbank and Escondido, where highs hit the upper 80s and lower 90s. Other spots had record highs in the lower to mid-80s. These highs range from 15 to 25 degrees above normal for early to mid-February.
Similar temperatures...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/winter-heat-wave-still-scorching-southern-california
An unusual winter heat wave will hit truckers in Southern California the rest of the week.
A strong ridge of high pressure, plus persistent dry offshore winds, will allow afternoon highs to reach the 80s to 90 degrees in parts of the Los Angeles and San Diego areas. This is 15 to 25 degrees above normal for early to mid-February, flirting with record highs.
HEAT ADVISORY now in effect from Wed morning through Sun afternoon. Highs will reach 85-90 degrees each day: 15-20 degrees above normal!...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/winter-heat-wave-to-scorch-southern-california
Part 1 of a two-part investigation into an alleged double-brokering scheme from Southern California
Frustrated with brokers and carriers being looted by a sophisticated network of load-board scammers posing as legitimate companies, Joe Howard created a spreadsheet to track a list of suspect companies, largely based in Southern California, to warn others to do their due diligence or pay the price.
When he started the project two years ago, Howard, who works for a Midwestern logistics company that...
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has sent three investigators to determine what led to the early Wednesday morning death of a BNSF (NYSE: BRK) worker at the La Mirada rail yard near Los Angeles.
The employee was fatally injured during yard operations. BNSF is cooperating in the investigation.
According to Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), which received an emergency call at approximately 12:37 a.m. local time, one individual was trapped under a train. OCFA determined after...
FreightWaves Classics articles look at various aspects of the transportation industry’s history. If there are topics that you think would be of interest, please send them to [email protected].
The many industries that make up the world of freight have undergone tremendous change over the past several decades. Each week, FreightWaves explores the archives of American Shipper’s nearly 70-year-old collection of shipping and maritime publications to showcase interesting freight stories of...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-flashback-la-long-beach-set-records
Major ocean freight consolidators in the U.S. market see no shortage in demand for expedited less-than-container load (LCL) service requests from freight forwarders during the ongoing global pandemic.
These services promise roughly 12-day port-to-port transits between China’s dominant seaports and Los Angeles and Long Beach in Southern California, compared to mostly standard, monthlong ocean transits for eastbound, trans-Pacific container traffic.
Although expedited LCL services are three to four...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/expedited-trans-pacific-lcl-filling-a-growing-niche