November 12 2018
|
The Journal of Commerce 15 www.joc.com
International Maritime
Jim Endres, general manager of
Paragon Software Systems. Drayage
companies in Southern California
are responding to the needs of
e-commerce fulfillment centers by
establishing satellite yards where
containers from the harbor are
stored overnight so they can be
delivered the next morning to the
fulfillment centers, which normally
do not have much storage capacity.
Chassis dislocations at ports and
inland hubs, and inconsistencies in
the handling of chassis at different
facilities, are having a significant
impact on driver productivity. Each
Class I railroad has its own process
for handling containers and chassis,
causing BCOs and truckers to won-
der, "Is my container going to be on
the ground or on wheels?", transpor-
tation consultant Andrew Nutting
said. This is not a new problem, but
the industry now has technology
that can help BCOs and truckers if
only more facilities would push this
information to the users, he said.
The management of chassis
pools also has room for improve-
ment if the needs of truckers are
to be met, said Donna Lemm,
executive vice president, national
sales, at IMC Companies. Although
the intention of pools is to provide
interoperability of assets so that
truckers are free to pick up and de-
liver chassis throughout the region
without regard to the owner of the
asset, the so-called pool of pools
would benefit from a single manager
for the competing pools. That is
why some truckers advocate a "pool
of pools-plus" solution with one
manager in charge of managing and
coordinating the activities of the
entire pool, she said.
While the transportation
industry is looking to technology
solutions to address many of the
efficiencies it faces, each segment of
the transportation supply chain, in-
cluding ocean carriers, port author-
ities, marine terminals, equipment
providers, truckers, and railroads,
has access to a number of technolo-
gy products that can address specific
issues particular to each sector, but
they are all siloed in their respective
industries.
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and a dozen container terminals,
the job is becoming increasingly
complex, Hacegaba said.
Therefore, even though the
growth in cargo volumes will likely
slow somewhat in the coming year,
BCOs will continue to deal with a
"massive increase in complexity" as
they attempt to coordinate freight
movements through marine termi-
nals and along the overland truck
and rail networks to their distribu-
tion facilities, said Matthew Gordon,
director, transportation engineering
at Anheuser-Busch InBev. If drivers
are experiencing delays at the ter-
minals, rail facilities, and receiving
warehouses, they are experiencing
"too much down time," he said.
The 'Amazon effect'
Complexity is also increasing
due to the "Amazon effect" that
expects shorter lead times, tighter
delivery windows and smaller,
more frequent shipments, said
Freight
volumes have
increased this
year, impacting
ports and
the inland
transportation
network.
Shutterstock.com
Prepared
for takeoff
Asia air freight carriers
say they are confident
of meeting peak-season
space needs
By Greg Knowler
ASIAN AIRLINES HAVE
moved to allay
shipper fears of chronic space con-
straints this peak season and believe
belly cargo and flexible freighter
flights should be able to handle cargo
owners front-loading shipments
ahead of the Jan. 1 round of US trade
tariffs on China. But the Association
of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) and
two of its member carriers warned
it's becoming very difficult to predict
demand beyond the peak season.
Andrew Herdman, director
general of the AAPA, said the peak
air cargo shipping season, currently
under way, is not yet showing a
shortage of capacity.
"In the short term, load factors
are actually edging down, which
is an indication that additional
capacity is available. The tariffs are
stimulating the trans-Pacific and
there could be pressure, but there
is additional flexible capacity on
many of the major routes," he told
reporters at the association's annual
gathering of airline executives in
Jeju, South Korea.
Cathay Pacific's recently released
September cargo figures show a
growth of 1.7 percent year over year,
and CEO Rupert Hogg said the rest
of the year would remain as a tradi-
tional peak.
"I don't know if the peak this
year will look like last year, but we
have about 20 freighters and take a
lot of volume in our widebody fleet
that we expanded quite a bit, so
there are a lot more destinations,"
he said. "But going into next year,
the future is unknown."
This uncertain outlook for 2019
was supported by Walter Cho, Korean
