Shipping congestion among all U.S. ports has finally fallen dramatically to pre-covid levels as FreightWaves reports that about 30 ships remain waiting off all coastal ports as of the end of last week. Virtually all coastal ports have none, or only one or two ships waiting for berths, while just a handful of ports still have only single digits of waiting vessels in queues including ports of Savannah, Norfolk, Baltimore and Houston. This sharply contrasts to the 150 ships waiting off of U.S. ports a year ago in January of 2022. (More at: FreightWaves, “Coast is (almost) clear as port congestion fades even further” by Greg Miller, 01/06/2023)

Last month, Chris Spear, President and CEO, ATA, explains that truck engine manufacturers have implemented innovation to dramatically reduce NOx and other particulate emissions since 1988. Mr. Spear continues that “Participating fleets have cut their CO2 emissions by 152 million metric tons and have saved 257 million barrels of oil.” (See more at American Trucking Associations, “Extreme ‘Net-Zero’ carbon timelines are on a collision course with reality” by Chris Spear, 12/16/2022)

Parsifal Corporation maintains a collaboration with ecolegIT, providing a unique and simple technology solution for corporate customers and suppliers – offering a full carbon emission offset compensation for individual moves.

Parsifal’s audit is directed to validate reported carbon offsets and related payments utilizing the Parsifal EcoAudit™. In the process, compensation is traced back to its source verifying that the carbon credits are gained from a carefully maintained sustainable forestry project. This ensures the amount of project credits gained equal the amount of credits necessary to compensate ... (Full RELOINSIGHT - click Read More)

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MSS, Inc. a leader in personalized third party moving-related specialty services did well in managing the unexpected lumber crisis and associated increased crating costs beginning in the Spring of 2021. MSS continued to monitor the situation in May 2021, and over the course of the year saw many ups and downs. One year later in May 2022 during the beginning of the peak move season, rates were at tier 4 which is a 12.18% increase over the base rate of tier 1. Over the next few months the rate varied between tiers 2 (+4.19%) and tier 3 (+8.18%) increases. In this past October the rates .... (Full info at Read More)

At the end of November, FIDI FOCUS provided information that helped to clarify the prohibition in the EU sanctions regarding the “legality of moving household goods across Russian borders, after concerns were raised by Affiliates and non-Affiliates about trucks being held up at the Finnish border.” They provided an excerpt of the related prohibition and submitted that the wording indicates it does not apply to items for “personal use” and therefore household goods as well. (More at: FIDI FOCUS, “FIDI clarifies rule on HHGs delays at Russian borders,” 22nd November 2022)

The U.S. Senate today followed suit of the House-passed bill and voted 80 to 15 in favor of the labor agreement mediated by the emergency board put in place several months ago. This action by congress prevents a national rail shutdown during this holiday season with a major impact on the U.S. economy, as one third of the country’s cargo is transported via rail. (See The Hill, "Senate votes to avert costly rail strike" by Alexander Bolton and Karl Evers-Hillstrom, 12/01/2022)