Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.
The five-year, $305 billion federal transport spending bill negotiated by House and Senate conferees has given freight interests the best seat at the table they've ever had. But freight is still not on the dais.
The compromise version, announced yesterday afternoon, allocates $4.5 billion in grants for what are considered "nationally significant" freight and highway projects. The program provides up to $500 million in funding for nonhighway projects that nevertheless improve the movement of highway freight. The bill provides an additional $6.3 billion to a formula program that states can use to facilitate freight mobility on a national-highway freight network. It also creates a multimodal freight policy, and it directs the Department of Transportation to establish a multimodal freight network that would identify the segments of the national freight-moving system most critical to goods transport. The industry has lobbied for years to have such an endeavor codified.
The bill, known as the "Fixing America's Surface Transportation" (FAST) Act, now returns to the House and Senate for floor votes. Each chamber must adopt the bill and vote for its final passage. If that happens, the bill is sent to President Obama's desk for signature. The current law, which was signed in July 2012 and has since been living on short-term extensions, expires Dec. 4. The so-called FAST Act would be the first transport-spending bill since 2005 that was more than 27 months in duration.
Never before has freight been showered with so much money and attention from a federal transport-spending bill. For the Coalition for America's Gateways and Trade Corridors (CAGTC), a public-private intermodal advocacy group that has spent 15 years arguing for a minimum $2 billion annual investment in the nation's freight network, the outcome was all it could have hoped for. "We are thrilled to see conferees recognize so many of the coalition's long-standing priorities," CAGTC President Leslie Blakey said in a statement. Blakey said the size of the proposed funding would "increase the efficiency and reliability" of the nation's transport and logistics network.
From a process standpoint, the bill streamlines the path of funding freight projects, which are generally large in scale and which cross multiple jurisdictions, causing delays and conflicts, according to CAGTC.
Despite the funding breakthrough, freight interests—particularly the trucking industry—got almost nothing that they sought. Negotiators dropped an amendment that would have established a federal hiring standard for motor carriers. The initial proposal would have deemed a trucker to be fit if it were properly licensed, had sufficient insurance, and received a better than unsatisfactory safety rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the agency that oversees the truck, freight brokerage, and freight forwarding sectors. The amendment, which had been contained in the House's version of transport funding legislation, would have qualified a motor carrier as fit even if it were unrated by FMCSA.
Industry groups said that because the agency lacks the resources to conduct full safety reviews of most of the nation's 530,000 registered truckers, the original bill threatened to exclude thousands of operators that remain unrated, yet operate in a satisfactory manner.
Negotiators also dropped an amendment requiring DOT to develop a program allowing licensed drivers between the ages of 19 years, six months, old and 21 years old to operate commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce as long as the routes were between adjacent states that enter into special bistate agreements. Currently, commercial drivers under the age of 21 cannot drive across state lines, though they can operate within the boundaries of their state of residence. However, conferees adopted a pilot program allowing certain under-21 military veterans to drive across state lines.
Conferees agreed to language directing FMCSA to commission a three-year study by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the agency's controversial "Compliance, Safety, and Accountability" program (CSA), which grades carriers based on a series of metrics and then assigns them performance scores under what is known as a Safety Measurement System, or SMS. The bill requires FMCSA to remove SMS scores and analysis, but allows the raw data used to compile the scores to remain in public view. On that score, negotiators bowed to the language contained in the Senate version of transport funding legislation, which was passed in July. The House version, passed in early November, would have removed all data elements from public scrutiny. CSA's critics argue that the scores are based on flawed methodology, and discriminate against many of the thousands of truckers that operate safely and legally.
The legislation does not call for raising excise taxes on diesel fuel and gasoline, the primary mechanism for funding transport projects, keeping the tax levels unchanged for the 22nd year. The bill would be financed in part by a one-time $19 billion draw of Federal Reserve surplus funds and by a cut in the 6-percent dividend that national banks receive from the Fed. The dividend would be reduced by an amount tied to yields on 10-year U.S. Treasuries, currently about 2.2 percent. If Treasury yields rose higher than 6 percent, the Fed wouldn't pay the banks more. Banks with $10 billion or less in assets would be exempt from the cut.
Funds would also be raised by selling oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which serves as an emergency source of oil in the event overseas supplies are disrupted. The reserve stood at 695.1 million barrels as of the end of November, below its capacity of 727 million barrels.
As the conference bill returns to both chambers, the debate may now center on the manner in which the programs would be paid for. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) has already gone on record saying he would vote against the legislation because the conferees resorted to accounting gimmickry and other revenue-raising techniques that have nothing to do with transportation. Carper had proposed a doubling of motor-fuels taxes that would go directly toward road infrastructure improvements.
For the freight industry, the conferees' report, though not ideal, is a significant improvement over what had—or had not—come before. Not only will there be a higher level of stability that comes with a five-year funding timetable, but the freight side, which has historically been shunted to the back of the bus when it came to Congressional funding, has finally realized tangible benefits from the process. "While not perfect, this bill is a tremendous step forward for trucking in many respects," said Pat Thomas, senior vice president of state government affairs for Atlanta-based UPS Inc. and chairman of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), the trade group representing the nation's largest motor carriers.
The supply chain risk management firm Overhaul has landed $55 million in backing, saying the financing will fuel its advancements in artificial intelligence and support its strategic acquisition roadmap.
The equity funding round comes from the private equity firm Springcoast Partners, with follow-on participation from existing investors Edison Partners and Americo. As part of the investment, Springcoast’s Chris Dederick and Holger Staude will join Overhaul’s board of directors.
According to Austin, Texas-based Overhaul, the money comes as macroeconomic and global trade dynamics are driving consequential transformations in supply chains. That makes cargo visibility and proactive risk management essential tools as shippers manage new routes and suppliers.
“The supply chain technology space will see significant consolidation over the next 12 to 24 months,” Barry Conlon, CEO of Overhaul, said in a release. “Overhaul is well-positioned to establish itself as the ultimate integrated solution, delivering a comprehensive suite of tools for supply chain risk management, efficiency, and visibility under a single trusted platform.”
Artificial intelligence (AI) and data science were hot business topics in 2024 and will remain on the front burner in 2025, according to recent research published in AI in Action, a series of technology-focused columns in the MIT Sloan Management Review.
In Five Trends in AI and Data Science for 2025, researchers Tom Davenport and Randy Bean outline ways in which AI and our data-driven culture will continue to shape the business landscape in the coming year. The information comes from a range of recent AI-focused research projects, including the 2025 AI & Data Leadership Executive Benchmark Survey, an annual survey of data, analytics, and AI executives conducted by Bean’s educational firm, Data & AI Leadership Exchange.
The five trends range from the promise of agentic AI to the struggle over which C-suite role should oversee data and AI responsibilities. At a glance, they reveal that:
Leaders will grapple with both the promise and hype around agentic AI. Agentic AI—which handles tasks independently—is on the rise, in the form of generative AI bots that can perform some content-creation tasks. But the authors say it will be a while before such tools can handle major tasks—like make a travel reservation or conduct a banking transaction.
The time has come to measure results from generative AI experiments. The authors say very few companies are carefully measuring productivity gains from AI projects—particularly when it comes to figuring out what their knowledge-based workers are doing with the freed-up time those projects provide. Doing so is vital to profiting from AI investments.
The reality about data-driven culture sets in. The authors found that 92% of survey respondents feel that cultural and change management challenges are the primary barriers to becoming data- and AI-driven—indicating that the shift to AI is about much more than just the technology.
Unstructured data is important again. The ability to apply Generative AI tools to manage unstructured data—such as text, images, and video—is putting a renewed focus on getting all that data into shape, which takes a whole lot of human effort. As the authors explain “organizations need to pick the best examples of each document type, tag or graph the content, and get it loaded into the system.” And many companies simply aren’t there yet.
Who should run data and AI? Expect continued struggle. Should these roles be concentrated on the business or tech side of the organization? Opinions differ, and as the roles themselves continue to evolve, the authors say companies should expect to continue to wrestle with responsibilities and reporting structures.
Shippers today are praising an 11th-hour contract agreement that has averted the threat of a strike by dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports that could have frozen container imports and exports as soon as January 16.
The agreement came late last night between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) representing some 45,000 workers and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) that includes the operators of port facilities up and down the coast.
Details of the new agreement on those issues have not yet been made public, but in the meantime, retailers and manufacturers are heaving sighs of relief that trade flows will continue.
“Providing certainty with a new contract and avoiding further disruptions is paramount to ensure retail goods arrive in a timely manner for consumers. The agreement will also pave the way for much-needed modernization efforts, which are essential for future growth at these ports and the overall resiliency of our nation’s supply chain,” Gold said.
The next step in the process is for both sides to ratify the tentative agreement, so negotiators have agreed to keep those details private in the meantime, according to identical statements released by the ILA and the USMX. In their joint statement, the groups called the six-year deal a “win-win,” saying: “This agreement protects current ILA jobs and establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf coasts ports – making them safer and more efficient, and creating the capacity they need to keep our supply chains strong. This is a win-win agreement that creates ILA jobs, supports American consumers and businesses, and keeps the American economy the key hub of the global marketplace.”
The breakthrough hints at broader supply chain trends, which will focus on the tension between operational efficiency and workforce job protection, not just at ports but across other sectors as well, according to a statement from Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos, a freight booking and payment platform. Port automation was the major sticking point leading up to this agreement, as the USMX pushed for technologies to make ports more efficient, while the ILA opposed automation or semi-automation that could threaten jobs.
"This is a six-year détente in the tech-versus-labor tug-of-war at U.S. ports," Levine said. “Automation remains a lightning rod—and likely one we’ll see in other industries—but this deal suggests a cautious path forward."
Editor's note: This story was revised on January 9 to include additional input from the ILA, USMX, and Freightos.
Logistics industry growth slowed in December due to a seasonal wind-down of inventory and following one of the busiest holiday shopping seasons on record, according to the latest Logistics Managers’ Index (LMI) report, released this week.
The monthly LMI was 57.3 in December, down more than a percentage point from November’s reading of 58.4. Despite the slowdown, economic activity across the industry continued to expand, as an LMI reading above 50 indicates growth and a reading below 50 indicates contraction.
The LMI researchers said the monthly conditions were largely due to seasonal drawdowns in inventory levels—and the associated costs of holding them—at the retail level. The LMI’s Inventory Levels index registered 50, falling from 56.1 in November. That reduction also affected warehousing capacity, which slowed but remained in expansion mode: The LMI’s warehousing capacity index fell 7 points to a reading of 61.6.
December’s results reflect a continued trend toward more typical industry growth patterns following recent years of volatility—and they point to a successful peak holiday season as well.
“Retailers were clearly correct in their bet to stock [up] on goods ahead of the holiday season,” the LMI researchers wrote in their monthly report. “Holiday sales from November until Christmas Eve were up 3.8% year-over-year according to Mastercard. This was largely driven by a 6.7% increase in e-commerce sales, although in-person spending was up 2.9% as well.”
And those results came during a compressed peak shopping cycle.
“The increase in spending came despite the shorter holiday season due to the late Thanksgiving,” the researchers also wrote, citing National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates that U.S. shoppers spent just short of a trillion dollars in November and December, making it the busiest holiday season of all time.
The LMI is a monthly survey of logistics managers from across the country. It tracks industry growth overall and across eight areas: inventory levels and costs; warehousing capacity, utilization, and prices; and transportation capacity, utilization, and prices. The report is released monthly by researchers from Arizona State University, Colorado State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, and the University of Nevada, Reno, in conjunction with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP).
As U.S. small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face an uncertain business landscape in 2025, a substantial majority (67%) expect positive growth in the new year compared to 2024, according to a survey from DHL.
However, the survey also showed that businesses could face a rocky road to reach that goal, as they navigate a complex environment of regulatory/policy shifts and global market volatility. Both those issues were cited as top challenges by 36% of respondents, followed by staffing/talent retention (11%) and digital threats and cyber attacks (2%).
Against that backdrop, SMEs said that the biggest opportunity for growth in 2025 lies in expanding into new markets (40%), followed by economic improvements (31%) and implementing new technologies (14%).
As the U.S. prepares for a broad shift in political leadership in Washington after a contentious election, the SMEs in DHL’s survey were likely split evenly on their opinion about the impact of regulatory and policy changes. A plurality of 40% were on the fence (uncertain, still evaluating), followed by 24% who believe regulatory changes could negatively impact growth, 20% who see these changes as having a positive impact, and 16% predicting no impact on growth at all.
That uncertainty also triggered a split when respondents were asked how they planned to adjust their strategy in 2025 in response to changes in the policy or regulatory landscape. The largest portion (38%) of SMEs said they remained uncertain or still evaluating, followed by 30% who will make minor adjustments, 19% will maintain their current approach, and 13% who were willing to significantly adjust their approach.