While the ongoing labor negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) ostensibly going from bad to worse, following the ILWU’s announcement late last week that it was halting negotiations from November 20 through November 30, a Congressional group last week penned a letter to PMA and ILWU leadership expressing concern over the state of the negotiations. The PMA and ILWU contract expired on July 1, and talks between the PMA and ILWU have been ongoing since May 12.
News
Dan Bentzinger, MIQ Logistics CIO, was recently interviewed by Ingram’s Magazine for the November 2014 issue. The interview appears in an article is titled: Masters of the Digital Universe, which discusses how the IT world is changing.
The truck driver shortage is worsening, threatening the trucking industry’s ability to serve the nation’s supply chains. The shortage will almost certainly cause fleets’ costs to increase and shippers’ rate to continue to rise.
As we have chronicled here in recent days, U.S. agricultural shippers are demanding that a solution to the West Coast dockside labor problem be made a national priority. They argue – and quite rightly from our point of view – that the lack of progress in contract talks between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) threaten the President’s own National Export Initiative.
“The LEI picked up in September, after no change in August, and the strengths among its components have been very widespread over the past six months,” said Ataman Ozyildirim, Economist at The Conference Board. “The outlook for improving employment and further income growth are expected to support the moderate expansion in the U.S economy for the remainder of the year.” – Conference Board
The November 17th, port congestion surcharge previously announced last Friday has been postponed by ocean carriers. This halt to the surcharge implementation has come after FMC review, and other contributing factors. The postponed surcharge would have affected cargo moving both eastbound and westbound from West coast ports.
American Trucking Associations
American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose 0.5% in October, following a revised decline of 0.8% during the previous month. In October, the index equaled 132.1 (2000=100), which was the second highest level on record after August.
Compared with October 2013, the SA index increased 4.5%, up from September’s 2.9% year-over-year gain. Year-to-date, compared with the same period last year, tonnage is up 3.2%.
MIQ Logistics is providing you with an amendment to our earlier Supply Chain Alert.
Since 12:00 (noon) c.t. today, several ocean carriers are sending customer advisory notices regarding a Transpacific Westbound (TPWB) port congestion surcharge, which comes on the heels of the last update which was related to the Transpacific Eastbound (TPEB) port congestion surcharge.
