Earlier this week on Tuesday, the US Senate confirmed Buttigieg by a 86-13 vote as Secretary of Transportation. Buttigeig was sworn in to his new position the next day on February 3rd by VP Kamala Harris. Issues to be considered as he begins his new position includes infrastructure programs, autonomous vehicles, freight mobility, as well as reviewing federal hours-of-service regulations for commercial drivers.

The continuing shortage of containers is causing shipping rates to dramatically rise, due to the ongoing pandemic and related issues, and an “uneven global economic recovery” according to a CNBC report this week. Rates from China to the U.S. and Europe sharply rose by 300% compared to March 2020, as Chinese exports far exceed imports from these same regions.

US President Biden has selected a host of new DOT officials including Meera Joshi as the Deputy Administrator of the US Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA.) Lana Hurdle (DOT Deputy Assistant Secretary) will fill in as acting secretary of transportation while Pete Buttigieg (former Mayor of South Bend, IN) proceeds through the current confirmation process by the Senate. In the meanwhile, Biden has proposed ....

Entering the market in 2015, Sennder, now a large contender as a digital freight forwarder has raised a total of over $260 million with this most recent addition of $160M Series D financing. Based in Germany, Sennder counters the traditional model by connecting enterprise shippers with trucking companies as it currently focuses primarily on the European freight Market.

The One Apus containership came to berth at the Port of Kobe, Japan yesterday, Tuesday, December 8, 2020 after experiencing a massive container collapse accident due to severe weather conditions out in the Pacific on November 30th.  A report by gCaptain states that 1,816 containers were lost overboard. Local emergency services were called in to the port and operations are now in process, including damage assessment and determining the safety...

Lloyd’s Loading List reported today that the Asia to northern Europe container spot rates rose to over $2,000 per teu, a level that has been unsurpassed since 2010 following the global financial crisis. Other increases were seen this week in the Asia-Mediterranean rates and are also expected as well for China to UK trade as the Brexit deadline approaches at the end of the year.