This is a guest post by Alice Lawrence. In today's frantic business environment, meeting deadlines is more important than ever. When shipments are late, businesses risk losing customers and [...]
Patrick E. McLean wrote in his book How to Succeed in Evil, "There is no such thing as coincidence, Topper. It is always, always your enemies conspiring against you." Shippers may feel that's an [...]
The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach suddenly shut down Thursday night. The closure of the country's busiest port complex continued Friday. "Terminals noted they closed due to labor [...]
One of the things we often do in Universal Cargo's blog is give shippers an outlook for how the international shipping freight rate market is behaving and looks to behave. Over the years, [...]
Last week, four witnesses representing U.S. and international supply chain stakeholders appeared before the House's Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation subcommittee to speak and be questioned [...]
Shippers have long complained about unfair detention and demurrage fees at the ports. A particular point of contention is getting charged for days when port terminals are closed, and it's [...]
A group of 238 state, local, and federal trade associations sent a letter to President Biden, imploring him and his administration to mediate the International Longshore & Warehouse Union [...]
Shippers may find themselves uneasy when they realize North American dockworker unions coast to coast will be negotiating contracts at the same time. As port disruption from labor slowdowns is [...]
This is a guest post by Geoff Whiting. Freight rates can fluctuate wildly, and those fluctuations can have a significant impact on your bottom line. For manufacturers, these are even more [...]
What goes up must come down. Despite many experts saying we would never see pre-pandemic-level freight rates again when the cost of ocean shipping skyrocketed out of control during and after the [...]
This is a guest post by Angela Murphy. Companies everywhere have been on the lookout for new ways to save expenses, boost productivity, and gain an edge in recent years. One method gaining [...]
Shippers, get ready for the freight rate war saga of the ocean carriers to continue. Perhaps the biggest reason for shippers to pay attention to what's happening with carriers is because it [...]
When the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) master contract expires, it tends to be bad news for U.S. shippers. Often, a great deal of the focus is on retailers importing from [...]
At last there’s news about the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) contract negotiations. After months of being completely stalled, negotiations have reportedly resumed. [...]
This is a guest post by Kayla Hyde. Logistics and supply chain management is becoming increasingly important in today's fast-paced business world. Outsourcing logistics services could help many [...]
Maersk doesn't believe any of the ocean freight carriers outside of itself and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) have the ability to stand alone. For this reason, the company doesn't believe [...]
After a couple years of out of control, skyrocketing freight rates, ocean freight pricing finally came tumbling down. Freight rates have gone from peaks, including cargo routes getting carriers [...]
Ocean freight rates have fallen, for which U.S. importers can rejoice. Readers of Universal Cargo's blog certainly don't need a recap of how freight rates skyrocketed during the pandemic, thanks [...]
On Thursday, Universal Cargo's blog was about MSC and Maersk announcing they're ending the 2M Alliance. The world's top two shipping lines said they're doing this to "pursue individual [...]
Like a bad hairstyle fad, the 2M Alliance is coming to an end. But that end won't be abrupt. The process is not as simple as combing hair along a part, sending this section of hair that way and [...]