Posted June 1, 2018

Posted March 5, 2018

Posted February 8, 2018

Posted January 17, 2018

In an effort to further meet the complex challenges of today’s global marketplace and our clients’ specific needs, Headwin International is excited to announce our new Chicago based third party logistics Warehouse and Distribution Center. With 300,000 square feet of storage capacity and over 30 dedicated dock doors this brand-new facility further enhances our capabilities to offer a tailored end to end supply chain solution. 

Take advantage of our state of the art WMS platform which provides our customers 24/7 inventory reporting, offering visibility of inventory in route, on hand and shipped. 

Effective supply chain management creates value for both your customers and your business.  

By utilizing our resources and team of experienced professionals we will customized a solution that will ensure quick and safe shipping, warehousing and delivery of your product to your customers. We will incorporate our services in a way that adds value to your business and delivers your product to the right place on time. 

Posted January 3, 2018

Beginning in 2018 truckers will be legally required to maintain Electronic Logging Devices within their vehicles which will replace manual logs. 

The electronic logging device (ELD) rule – congressionally mandated as a part of MAP-21 – is intended to help create a safer work environment for drivers. It makes it easier and faster to accurately track, manage, and share records of duty status (RODS) data. It records drivers hours and miles and replaces the paper logbook some drivers currently use to record their compliance with Hours of Service (HOS) requirements. There is a government mandate that requires all trucks to be equipped with these devices. Fleets had until December 2017 to implement certified ELDs to record HOS. If requested by law enforcement, drivers must also be able to immediately present the required AOBRD display information for the previous seven days, plus the current day.

The FMCSA believes the new ELD mandate will eliminate 1,844 truck-related accidents per year, saving 26 lives and preventing 562 injuries. The rule also stands to force those drivers and carriers that make a living breaking the rules off the road.

ELD mandate impact the freight costs. The FMCSA estimates that the average annual cost of an ELD will be $495 per truck, with a total range of $165 to $832 per truck on an annualized basis. The cost of the devices is being passed on to the consumer and many owner operators who are not equipped with these devices cannot be utilized. 

The biggest concern surrounding ELDs is that they may force a decrease in driving hours and thus hurt productivity. The ELD will not give them the authority to decide when they can take breaks or not drive through inclement weather. These concerns may be valid, especially given that there is already a shortage of qualified commercial drivers in many areas. If the existing drivers are held to extremely strict regulations, the industry as a whole could suffer. 

As of last week, van ratio hits an all-time high. There was urgency to move freight before the end of the year, but the combination of frigid weather and tight capacity due to both the holiday and the recently implemented ELD mandate meant that it cost more to move those loads last week. Load-to-truck ratios surged, setting a new all-time record-high of 12.2 loads per truck for vans. Rates reached historic highs (see graph below):

Frequently Asked Questions- ELD Rule:

Posted December 5, 2017

We are now offering LCL/Consolidation service from Shanghai/Ningbo (China) to Montreal/Toronto (Canada) weekly.

 Please contact us directly for additional information.

Posted November 12, 2017

CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) is Canada's biggest bilateral initiative since NAFTA. CETA is a major new business deal that was negotiated in secret between the EU and Canada over five years from 2009 to 2014. CETA would eliminate about 98% of the tariffs between Canada and the EU. All 28 European Union member states approved the final text of CETA for signature. The EU and Canada formally signed the landmark free trade deal September 21, 2017.

CETA has some of the strongest commitments ever included in a trade deal to promote labour rights, environmental protection and sustainable development. CETA integrates the EU's and Canada's commitments to apply international rules on workers' rights, environmental protection and climate action. And these obligations are binding.

Find out more about CETA in the Government of Canada’s CETA Toolkit: 

Check out the new Canada Tariff Finder, an online tool that can help you find the Harmonized System codes for products and the corresponding EU preferential tariff rate: 

Posted October 5, 2017

The national average van rate rose for the fifth week in a row. At $1.97 per mile, the average rate in September was 18¢ higher than the August average, and 35¢ higher than September 2016. The national load-to-truck ratio also hit 7.0 last week – cracking the 7 loads-per-truck mark is uncharted territory for a national van average.

 

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma obviously played a big part in all this, but that wasn't the whole story. A big increase in port volumes back in July led to more truckload demand last month, too, since much of that freight didn’t start moving on trucks until August and September. Other indicators showed an improving economy in Q3, which also contributed to higher demand.

 

Meantime, rates and volumes are starting to come back down to normal in the Southeast, but supply chains throughout the rest of the country are still feeling the ripple effects, as evidenced by all the dark red in the Hot States Map below.

All rates below include fuel surcharges and are based on real transactions between carriers and brokers.

 

 

Columbus is a key distribution point for the Midwest and the Northeast, and it shipped more to the Southeast after the storms. Freight disruptions have caused rates to skyrocket there in the past month.

Chicago prices also continued to climb:

 

Increases were common but less pronounced elsewhere. One exception was out West:

 

 

We’re seeing more of a moderating trend compared to recent weeks, with lower van volumes and some declining prices. Rates were still high on the lanes with the biggest drops, though. 

 

For carriers, van loads coming out of Seattle often pay backhaul rates, but rates have been on the rise on a few lanes in recent weeks. One lane that still doesn’t pay well, though, is the one from Seattle to Stockton, CA. That averaged just $1.43/mile last week. If you need to get from Seattle back to Stockton, though, you can make more money if you create a TriHaul that takes advantage of one of those higher-priced lanes.

 

Vans got paid an average of $2.45/mile last week from Stockton to Seattle. Instead of hauling cheap freight back to California, grab a load from Seattle to Reno, NV. That lane paid an average of $2.49/mile last week. From there, it’s a relatively short haul from Reno to Stockton, for about $2.95.

 

The extra stop adds about 130 miles, not including deadhead, but it can boost your revenue by more than $1,200. That gives you an average of $2.52 per loaded mile for the TriHaul, instead of $1.94 for the roundtrip.

Please visit link below for article:

Posted September 27, 2017

 

Over the past week, we have been studying demand data from across the marketplace. Using over 150 different technical indicators of demand data and rate information, plus talking to a number of executives across the trucking landscape, we are certain that contract rate increases will be sustainable and much larger than most expect. And the intracycle rate increases have started. 

 

Truckstop.com said this was the highest number of load postings in its company’s history. DAT also reported record activity on its load board, suggesting the capacity in the market has been tapped and shippers were resorting to brokers to find capacity in the super-volatile spot market. This is a function of excess demand in the market related to a strengthening economy, a strained labor market that keeps capacity from coming back, and a seasonal peak season shipping cycle (and yes two monsterous hurricanes). 

 

In fact, one CEO of a large asset van carrier that focuses in the expedited team market said, “This is different than any market I have ever seen before. I have been around this business for over 40 years and I have never seen an environment like this. I have heard people compare it to 2004, but that wouldn’t do justice to what we are seeing.”

 

Telling, considering that some lanes in the contract market saw as much as 6% rate increases back in 2004, making it one of the greatest rate accelerators in the market history. Granted, the economy was on fire (the Bush tax cuts had cycled through the economy in 2003) and new hours-of-service rules that were implemented then exacerbated this. Seeing 30-50% jumps in the spot-market were not unheard of. Plus, 2003-2005 seemed like a hurricane factory, with storms like the Florida Four, Jeanne, Isabel, and Katrina. All of this had a tremendous impact to the supply-demand equation.

 

According to one source we spoke with, a super large intermodal player sent out a letter to top shippers on Friday informing of an imminent lane-by-lane rate increase that would take effect almost immediately. This is a significant development and suggests that not only does one of the largest intermodal carriers believe they can get rate increases, they are willing to do so intracycle. 

 

Other carriers mentioned that shippers were complaining about service, but then asking for more capacity in the same conversation. Many of those additional loads came with rate increases. Even shippers with the largest purchased transportation budgets were almost begging for capacity and willing to take very aggressive rate increases, even if it were on their contract business. 

 

One of the largest shippers in the US, spending nearly $5B freight transportation mentioned double-digit increases were expected in their budget, suggesting that +10% contract rate increases would not be shocking. 

 

The larger carriers are not waiting to have out-of-cycle rate increase conversations. In fact, when shippers scream about service failures, the savviest carriers are using this as an opportunity to get rate increases, reminding shippers that their days of setting the market are over with. For months we heard that contract rates in 2018 would increase by 2-4%. In the past few weeks, our estimates are closer to 9%, plus or minus 2.5% percent (6.5% to 11.5%) in terms of year-over-year increases in contract rates. This is unusually high, but this is an unusual market where carriers have gained instant control over pricing in the market and shippers have little capacity elasticity.

 

Wall Street is also taking notice. The truckload carrier stocks have been on a run lately, suggesting that the big-money traders also see the same trends (Wall Street is usually ahead of the game in understanding the freight markets vs. the folks in the physical market). When the truckload providers report in a few weeks, we won't be surprised to see the carrier CEOs report very bullish outlooks into next year. 

 

Please visit link below for article:

 

Posted August 30, 2017

Truckload carriers have been watching the data for months wondering when the capacity shortage is going to come, always disappointed that any shortage was short-lived and was not translating into contractual rate increases.

 

The spot market has been on fire for months, indicating that demand is outstripping capacity in the truckload market. The larger asset carriers had not been finding any real traction with rate increases on intra-bid commitments, but this changed in mid-August as some larger carriers started to see signs that contract rate increases were imminent. 

 

One large national carrier we spoke with suggested that 3% rate increases are a lay-up and any customer that did not agree to at least this would find themselves paying more later, as much as 8-10%. In fairness, the larger guys have a lot more leverage than the small fleets, but they tend to be the ones to lead the market and if they are seeing rate increases hold, then the rest of the market should as well. 

 

Add Harvey into the mix and everything just got crazy. The mother of all capacity shortages is upon us and carriers will be in the lead on pricing for the next 24 months. How can we be so sure? 

 

First off, capacity is already tight. The spot-market has already recovered and is starting to show real sustainable rate increases. Spot data from every spot index provider is showing large increases year-over-year. Morgan Stanley’s survey of carriers was showing super positive sentiment from the carriers that were interviewed. 

 

The labor market is super tight. The major sectors of employment that tend to pull from the driver force are already at full employment. Construction demand is super-high across the market, the oil sector is relatively healthy and coming back, and the overall economy is on solid ground. Add to this an aging driver population and an administration that has been cracking down on immigration and what we are left with is a tight labor pool. 

 

The resupplying and rebuilding of South Texas will make any Keynesian economist blush with the level of spending that will take place. Texas is a rich state with vast resources. The area that Harvey hit was a very important part of the state and national economy, with large concentration of petro-chemical companies.

 

Short-term, the focus will be on relief. Many homes and businesses were completely ruined. According to Moody Analytics, the damage is estimated to be $50-100B, including $30-40B in property damage alone. Add another $10B per week in lost retail sales and taxes for every week that retailers are closed, and you have a massive economic loss coming to the area. The Feds and State of Texas will most certainly foot the bill for a portion of this and insurance will come in as well with fresh dollars. Also, expect the large companies in the area to play a big role (good news for Houston and South Texas is the sheer number of oil companies in the area that are known to write big checks for projects). 

 

One big box retailer we spoke with mentioned they have over 150 plus stores that are currently closed or

approximately 5% of their national footprint. Many of these stores are without power and many are flooded, which means their stock is completely ruined. First, they will be scrambling to get the stores cleaned up and then focus on rebuilding them. Next, will come the replenishment and restocking (assuming there isn't a chance to remodel the stores while rebuilding them). This will mean a massive amount of truckloads. Keep in mind that 150 stores is only one retailer. In total, there are thousands of stores that are currently off line and will need repair and replenishment. 

 

These companies will place a significant amount of pressure on state and federal officials to rebuild quickly. Any student of government spending can tell you that quick spending is over-spending, which will mean that Texas will come back with much better and more expensive infrastructure. Plus, when does Texas ever do anything small?

 

Add to it a president that likes to build the greatest and biggest things around (without being concerned about what it costs) and you will have gold plated outcomes in Texas. 

 

With all of this comes additional truckload demand - and not the kind of freight that comes from Amazon. We are talking about massive orders - the kind that it takes to rebuild an entire city. Then add a tight labor pool and you get super-large capacity shortages (04/05 type shortages). 

 

Construction employment has an inverted correlation to trucking employment, meaning that when construction spending is high, people choose those jobs over driving trucks. Add to it that these will be higher paying and very attractive jobs and you will have competition for labor.

 

Slate Magazine argued that the U.S. might not have enough construction workers to rebuild Houston after Harvey and it will require both the government and private individuals to pay higher than market wages to get workers. This will hurt trucking efforts to retain and recruit new drivers into the industry. 

 

The fact is that the labor market is already super-tight, experiencing a record 82 months of job growth and at full employment. Government relief and infrastructure jobs already pay top dollar, so this will be an attractive place for many drivers to exit the industry. Plus, during Katrina, over 100,000 immigrants were used, many of them undocumented. Considering how hard the administration has been on undocumented workers - the labor is unlikely to come from that pool to the degree it did in prior disasters. 

 

So where does this leave us?

 

In the short-term, spot rates will remain super high. Some fleets reported getting as much as a $1,000/day for relief capacity and more from shippers to haul their freight. In the medium and long-term, Harvey replenishment and rebuilding freight will be competing against e-commerce capacity, retail holiday capacity, and into next year's ELD mandate.

Please visit link below for article:

 

Posted July 2, 2017

 

We have been assured teams around the world have been working diligently to bring systems online. Yesterday July 1st we received notice systems are being restored however Customer Service hotlines are still inoperable. Temporary regional phone lines and email are currently being established.

 

We anticipate systems will be fully restored by mid-week. As a precautionary measure we have diverted upcoming shipments to alternative carriers until we are confident this situation has resolved itself. There will most likely be a ripple effect resulting from these circumstances for shipments that have been tendered to Maersk at origin or currently arriving to U.S. port. We will continue to monitor this situation and keep our customers informed of any issues directly pertaining to their shipments.

 

Maersk will continue to provide updates via social media through the following channels:

 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/maersk-line

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaerskLine

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaerskLine/

 

Posted April 26, 2017

We have been informed overnight that the port of Shanghai in China is currently suffering delays and backlogs. The Shanghai International Port Group has forecasted this situation could possibly progress over the next month. Since the beginning of April there has been approximately a forty percent increase in delays from port Shanghai with delays averaging 10 days from expected sailing dates. A variety of factors have contributed to this situation such as a sudden increase in volumes, restructuring and weather. To date we have not experienced many delays to our cargo and we will notify our customers individually should we be informed of any specific delays.

 

In an effort to be proactive we recommend the following:

Request bookings at least two weeks in advance of designated cut off from sailing

Look at alternative routings for urgent shipments such as sailings ex Ningbo

Notify us of any urgent, pending or upcoming bookings

 

Please find below notice received overnight from our corporate office in Shanghai.

 

Please feel free to contact us directly with any questions pertaining to your shipments.

Posted April 5, 2017

We have been informed overnight that the port of Shanghai in China is currently suffering delays and backlogs. The Shanghai International Port Group has forecasted this situation could possibly progress over the next month. Since the beginning of April there has been approximately a forty percent increase in delays from port Shanghai with delays averaging 10 days from expected sailing dates. A variety of factors have contributed to this situation such as a sudden increase in volumes, restructuring and weather. To date we have not experienced many delays to our cargo and we will notify our customers individually should we be informed of any specific delays.

 

In an effort to be proactive we recommend the following.

 

Request bookings at least two weeks in advance of designated cut off from sailing

Look at alternative routings for urgent shipments such as sailings ex Ningbo

Notify us of any urgent, pending or upcoming bookings

 

Please find below notice received overnight from our corporate office in Shanghai.

 

For more information or product specific please contact us directly.