Knight and Swift Merger

Trucking companies Knight Transportation and Swift transportation agreed to merge into one company. It’s an all stock deal and creates a behemoth of a trucking company. Forbes reported the combined enterprise value of a whopping $6 billion dollars. The new name will be Knight-Swift. The new organization will have about 70 terminals, 23,000 power units, and 28,000 employees. Now that… Read more »

Failing Retails Impact on Logistics

Bricks and mortar merchandise retailers across the country are singing the blues. Screaming the blues may be more accurate. The plight of the now gone Radio Shack, the soon to be gone HH Gregg, and a long list of shrinking retailers including Sears/K-Mart closing stores tell the story. It seems almost a certainty the story line won’t be… Read more »

Alliance, cargo insurance, limits

Many things have a limit. Transit speeds have a limit, technology has a limit, and even science must concede limits for the time period it is in. Of course limits do expand over time, but in general the environment we live in is saddled with limits for the time we are in.  As most of us know… Read more »

Container Shortage, Equipment Shortage

The word on the street is some US exporters are having a harder time finding empty containers for their goods. Is there an upcoming shortage of containers ahead? Definitely maybe is my answer. Well maybe not a true shortage as in ‘not enough’. It may be more of a matter of containers not being in the right spot. My guess… Read more »

Bulk Freight, Containerized Cargo

In the fourth quarter of last year we earned a new containerized freight customer. Earning a new customer to supply cargo insurance to in itself isn’t unusual. What was unusual was it was a commodity that would typically go bulk in a ship’s hold. If you are not familiar with bulk shipping think of the difference between buying… Read more »

Cargo damage, reducing freight damage, reducing claims

Whether they are importers, exporters, or freight forwarders, most of my cargo insurance customers are international shippers. It’s the nature of the business. With this in mind I reviewed the articles and blogs I have written and the heavy international theme shows in most articles. To that I can only say…shame on me. I have been totally neglecting the… Read more »

Hats Off To a New Type of Shipping Container The Sequel, ‘The Pop Top Box’​

Have I ever mentioned I am a little obsessive? Not obsessive about everything, just some things. I drag my forgiving wife Cyndi to many places she really does not want to visit to see things she really doesn’t want to see, but I just ‘had to see it’. From the ruins of colonial towns and forts to vintage… Read more »