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Rail container dwells in Seattle-Tacoma still high, but relief in sight

The port congestion and elevated rail container dwell times that have been a fact of life in the Pacific Northwest for weeks appear to be peaking and some relief is expected later this month. Until then, however, shippers will be forced to contend with delays in the movement of intermodal containers to inland destinations.

Rail container dwell times at marine terminals in the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) of Seattle and Tacoma have doubled in recent weeks as intermodal container moves spiked amid peak season imports.

Retailers shifted some discretionary import volumes to the Pacific Northwest gateway because of concerns over strike threats by Teamsters Union rail workers in Canada and by East and Gulf coast dockworkers amid the coming expiration of their contract at the end of this month.

US imports from Asia increased almost 51% in July 2024 from July 2023, according to PIERS, a Journal of Commerce sister company within S&P Global. The import surge strained the capacity of the western railroads and terminal operators in the NWSA.

“No mode can accommodate that kind of volatility without disruption,” rail industry analyst Lawrence Gross, president and founder of Gross Transportation, told the Journal of Commerce last week.

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Ashe, A., & Mongelluzzo, B. (2024, September 6). Rail container dwells in Seattle-tacoma still high, but relief in sight. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/rail-container-dwells-in-seattle-tacoma-still-high-but-relief-in-sight-5721796

 

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New NS Norfolk-Memphis service aims to grab East Coast cargo shift

Norfolk Southern Railway will launch a new international intermodal service between the Port of Virginia and Memphis beginning April 1 in a move to capture trans-Atlantic business from Europe and Asia as more cargo owners shift freight to ports along the US East Coast.

NS now serves Memphis primarily through Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. Trains moving the roughly 900 miles between Norfolk and Memphis will take four days, roughly a day longer than Savannah trains but a day shorter than trips from Charleston.

Like Charleston and Savannah, trains will run every day and serve both terminals at the Port of Virginia — Norfolk Intermodal Terminals and Virginia International Gateway. NS service out of the Port of Virginia had previously been restricted to the Midwest, or destinations in Missouri, Kentucky, and points north.

“BCOs [beneficial cargo owners] and others are continuing to look for more options, so we’re trying to provide them with another service product for capacity to get into and out of Memphis,” Alexander Luc, group vice president of international intermodal for NS, told the Journal of Commerce Wednesday.

Luc said three out of every four import loads moving to Memphis come from ports other than Charleston and Savannah, including from the West Coast. So as the share of Asian imports shift from the West Coast to East and Gulf coast ports, new opportunities may arise to capture Memphis business through Virginia and other East Coast ports.

West Coast market share of Asian imports dropped to 54.1 percent in January from 57.2 percent in January 2022, according to PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. The East Coast share of 36.2 percent in January was up from 34.8 percent a year ago The West Coast cargo bleed comes as retailers shift their discretionary freight to avoid potential disruption linked to the failure of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and marine terminal operators to hammer out a new labor agreement after 10 months of negotiations.

“We’re not looking to just shift freight going through Savannah and Charleston today,” Luc said. “We’re targeting freight that is potentially hitting the West Coast from BCOs looking to shift their overall services and diversify their port pairings and logistics solutions.”

The Port of Virginia will place chassis in Memphis to prevent additional strain on other third-party chassis pools. The Port of Virginia owns its chassis pool, rather than relying on outside providers such as DCLI, Flexi-Van Leasing, and TRAC Intermodal.

Memphis ready for Virginia business

Luc said one reason why the service is launching in April is that Norfolk Southern wanted to ensure its Memphis-area terminal was capable of handling the new import and export volumes. The NS Rossville terminal, located about 30 minutes outside Memphis, was overwhelmed last fall with cargo from Charleston and Savannah; NS was forced to open three auxiliary lots to handle the spillover cargo.

“One of the reasons we didn’t launch this sooner is because we wanted to make sure that we were taking care of the existing business into the Memphis market,” Luc said.

Another reason: NS just last week completed an expansion project to increase the capacity of the Rossville terminal by 50 percent. It can now hold about 1,500 ocean containers, up from about 900 to 1,000 containers last fall.

To make the new Norfolk-to-Memphis service succeed, NS and the Port of Virginia are not only targeting importers using trans-Atlantic services from Europe and Asia, but also exporters moving goods through Memphis, like the cotton industry.

Cotton exporters could benefit from the Port of Virginia option given they have run into congestion issues getting their product to Houston, Charleston, and Savannah in the last 12 months. NS was restricting exports out of its Rossville terminal last spring as it dealt with an influx of imports and chassis shortages.

“We have talked to exporters in (Memphis) shipping products like cotton, and they’re certainly interested in looking for more port combinations to diversify,” Luc said. “Getting that balance will allow us to keep the equipment flowing in both directions.”

Source:

Ashe, A. (2023, March 9). New NS Norfolk-Memphis Service aims to grab East Coast Cargo Shift: Journal of Commerce. New NS Norfolk-Memphis service aims to grab East Coast cargo shift | Journal of Commerce. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.joc.com/article/new-ns-norfolk-memphis-service-aims-grab-east-coast-cargo-shift_20230309.html

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President Biden calls on Congress to intervene as rail dispute threatens US industry

With a rail strike that could cripple industry just 10 days away, US president Joe Biden has called on Congress to legislate to force all the unions involved to agree a deal struck in September.

Agreement had been reached with eight unions on a pay deal brokered by the Presidential Emergency Board, but four other unions held out over claims for 15 days sick pay a year.

Yesterday, President Biden described the September agreement as: “A historic 24% pay raise for rail workers. It provides improved health care benefits, and it provides the ability of operating craft workers to take unscheduled leave for medical needs.”

The president added there was now “no path to resolve this dispute”, and called on Congress to act to avert major supply chain disruption.

The president said the disruption from a rail strike could see 750,000 people out of work within two weeks and many industries, starved of vital supplies, forced to shut down. Farmers would not be able to feed their animals and key chemicals for purifying water would be caught up.

In asking Congress to prevent the dispute from escalating, Mr Biden said he was acting to protect industry and the jobs of millions of other trade union members across America.

However, the president added that he shared the concerns over sick pay raised by the unions.

“No one should have to choose between their job and their health – or the health of their children. I have pressed for legislation and proposals to advance the cause of paid leave in my two years in office, and will continue to do so. Every other developed country in the world has such protection for its workers.”

But Mr Biden also pointed to a “critical moment for our economy” and the upcoming holiday season, and argued that “we cannot let our strongly held conviction for better outcomes for workers deny them the benefits of the bargain they reached”.

Source: Theloadstar

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Top unions split on tentative agreement with US rails

The two largest rail unions, which announced vote totals on Monday, represent nearly half the 110,000 workers that could go on strike in December.

The labor peace negotiated in September between US railroads and their unions got shakier Monday after a split vote among the country’s two largest rail unions- one’s membership ratifying the tentative deal and the other’s rejecting it.  The split votes raise fresh concerns that a crippling strike could occur in early December.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) ratified the agreement brokered in September with the help of the Biden administration, but it was rejected by members of the International Association of Sheet Metal Workers Air, Rail, and Transportation (SMART-TD).  Four rail unions have now turned down the deal, while eight have approved it.

If any union walks off the job, however, others are unlikely to cross the picket lines.

“Today, the BLET joined the majority of our unions in approving the largest wage increases in nearly five decades and also paved a path toward greater scheduling predictability for its members,” Association of American Railroads CEO lan Jefferies said in a statement Monday. “Let’s be clear, if the remaining unions do not accept an agreement, Congress should be prepared to act.”

A “cooling off” period when no strikes or lockouts can occur will run through Dec. 8 for SMART-TD, leaving less than two weeks for a deal to be ratified. It is not known whether the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division (BMWED) and Brotherhood of Signalmen (BRS), which also rejected the tentative agreement and can walk off the job as soon as Dec. 5, will grant an extension to negotiate in unison with SMART-TD and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB).  The IBB also rejected the deal.

The BLET and SMART-TD are the two most important unions because they represent nearly half the 110,000 US rail employees covered under the tentative agreement, including brakemen, conductors, engineers, trainmen, yardmen, and yard masters.

Jeremy Ferguson, president of SMART-TD, struck a conciliatory tone despite the rejection.

“SMART-TD members with their votes have spoken; it’s now back to the bargaining table for our operating craft members,” Ferguson said in a statement Monday. “This can all be settled through negotiations and without a strike. A settlement would be in the best interests of the workers, the railroads, shippers, and the American people.”

Potential strike ahead of holidays

Lawmakers in Washington will face pressure to bridge the divide between labor and management because any job action could snarl supply chains in the weeks leading up to Christmas and end-of-year holidays. The timing would be particularly bad for parcel shippers because FedEx and UPS are major intermodal shippers using the US rail network to haul ground packages cross country, and business will pick up in December amid holiday shopping.

“American businesses and families are already facing increased prices due to persistent inflation, and a rail strike will create greater inflationary pressures and will threaten business resiliency,” National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement Monday. “Congress must intervene immediately to avoid a rail strike and a catastrophic shutdown of the freight rail system.”

While Congress has the authority to force an agreement on both sides, those involved with the negotiations to date have indicated they prefer any disputes are settled at the bargaining table. That is also the position of the White House.

The major disagreement between management and labor is over sick pay, not salaries.

The unions pushed for 15 paid sick days per year, but the Presidential Emergency Board created by President Joe Biden recommended negotiating the issue on a local level, not nationally. After negotiations with Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, the two sides agreed to a tentative deal that called for one additional paid sick day annually.

But many rank-and-file members do not think that is enough, especially after the work they did during the COVID-19 pandemic when they were viewed as essential workers needed to keep supply chains moving. The BMWED has written to lawmakers to support a compromise of seven days. Workers are worried that getting sick could result in losing their jobs with strict railroad-imposed attendance policies.

Previous collective bargaining agreements did not include paid sick time for short-term absences. Rail management has countered that it provides generous long-term sick benefits and says the average salary for a union employee is in the top 10 percent of all US workers, which management considers compensation for unpaid short-term leave.

Source: JOC news