Transportation Happenings – August7, 2017

The following “Transportation Happenings” occurred during the past week that you may find of interest.

1. The South Carolina Port Authority is requesting Funds to study a proposal the shuttle import/export containers from a railhead to the Port’s Terminals in an effort to reduce road congestion.
2. South Korea’s 14 Container Carriers are forming a Consortium in which HYUNDAI will undoubtedly take the lead.
3. The Port of Oakland is going to test a battery powered drayage tractor.   Electric powered trucks using electricity from a LNG powered generator make sense.
4. The immediate forecast is for growth in the Asia/Europe tradelane but, it still will be insufficient to fill the MegaShips that are sailing therein.
5. The Port of Houston has announced that they will extend the working hours at their Bayport Terminal starting October 2.  The new hours will be 7 AM – 11 PM with the last entry being at 10 PM.
6. As the ‘petya’ cyberattack on many companies including Moller-Maersk demonstrates, we are all at risk.  Please review your terminal’s strategy with VP IT Jeff Burch and make sure you’ve got a clear strategy and contingency plans as well.  (see attached).
7. The West Coast Ports and Labor are running scared of both the loss of freight during their labor troubles of a couple of years back and, of some re-routing of freight due to the new Panama Canal Locks.  (See attached article).  The East Coast/Gulf Coast Ports will also be initiating contract talks soon so as to preclude problems there as well.