Although U.S. railroads' intermodal traffic fell 14.6 percent to 993,235 units in September, average weekly intermodal units in the month reached their highest level since November 2008, according to the AAR (Association of American Railroads).  The slight uptick in intermodal traffic might be related to retailers restocking shelves for the upcoming holiday season, said AAR officials.  "The data in the October report gives us some indication that better things may be on the horizon," said AAR Senior VP John Gray.  "While some of this activity is seasonal, railroads have taken more than 15,000 cars out of storage between September 1 and October 1." 

 

Truckload demand is improving across parts of the U.S., helping turn around a decline in pricing and raise prospects for higher rates in coming months.  Lee Klaskow, an equities analyst at Longbow Research  said demand in the industrial trucking business improved in September, with the dry-van segment that includes large retail shipments heading to distribution centers improving, and that building and construction supplies also picked up ahead of expectations.  "Excess capacity continues to be the No. 1 problem plaguing the truckload market, in our view", said the Longbow report.

 

The ILA delegates voted overwhelmingly September 30 for a two-year extension of the union contract covering 18,500 Atlantic and Gulf dockworkers.  The contract extension will be submitted to the union's members for ratification on November 17.  "As far as we were concerned, it made a lot of sense not to have to sit down and bargain next year, particularly in these economic times," said James Capo, Chairman of the U.S. Maritime Alliance.  "We received a lot of cargo after the West Coast port shutdown in 2002.  We've retained most of it and don't want to be in a position to send it back".

 

Stung by diminishing work and concerned about a further loss of cargo when the Panama Canal is enlarged in 2014, the ILWU is embarking upon a new era of cooperation with others in the transportation industry.  The powerful West Coast Longshore union is working with employers, ports and inland carriers to promote their coast as the logical gateway for U.S. Trade with Asia.  The ILWU is concerned about the loss of jobs during the global trade recession.  The union also recognizes that cargo has been diverted to Prince Rupert in Canada, and to East and Gulf Coast ports, and the union's image outside of the West Coast contributed to the diversion. 

 

The US-based National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) and ISO plan to create a national information sharing system to combat cargo crime.  By networking existing databases and adding secure reporting and analytic functions, the new system will enable more efficient, accurate and timely sharing of cargo-theft information between theft victims, their insurers, and law enforcement.  Cargo theft is a multi-billion dollar economic drain that exploits existing gaps in the nations information sharing framework.   This will be the first time a nationally coordinated data-sharing system will be built based on the needs of insurers, law enforcement, transportation companies, manufacturers, retailers , and their many agents and service providers.   The core of the network is a new database called CargoNet, which will be launched in early 2010.