b'8American Journal of Transportation ajot.comLabor shortages imperil(FREIGHTcontinued fromInthepast,shippersthatconnectsystemsto page 2) have relied on other partiesdraw data, said Proctor. In is data sharing between oceanforthisinformation,saidsmallercompaniesthatmay intermodal performance carriersandoceanterminalProctor.Dependingonthenothaveasrobustcapabili-operators,saidForbes,butIMCorrailroad,theymayties, they may need a hosted Its not just a lack of truck drivers these days, itsnot necessarily for the benefithave had challenges mergingsolution to bring it about.also fewer terminal and warehouse workers con- of railroads. That is where adisparate data sources to getBlume Global has applied tributing to record equipment turnaround timestool like Horizon at the Portacompletepicture.Puttinganalyticstotheintermo-and clogging the system. ofLosAngelescouldhelpthat together has been com- daldatathatitcollectsin extend the availability of data. plex for shippers.an attempt to generate more By Peter Buxbaum, AJOT TransmetriQ has access toaccurate ETAs for its custom-i nTermodalV iSibiliTy location data through the trainers. A terminal might adver-At J.B. Hunt, intermodalThisidlingwreakshavocTransmetriQisdevelop- reportingmessagesthatrail- tise its average dwell time as volumes in the second quarteron their schedules.ingasolutionthatprovidesways provide through Railinc.36 hours, said Dowse, but of 2021 increased by 6%. AndFieldbelievesthattheintermodalvisibilityacrossParticipatingcarriersincludehistoricaldatamightreveal yet,reportedDarrenField,originofthesechallengesNorth American railroads. Aall seven Class I North Ameri- anactualdwelltimeof70 thecompanyspresidentforcenter on the availability ofrebranding of Railincs com- canrailroadsaswellas560hours, triggering adjustments intermodal,Networkveloc- labor for both the railroads,mercialservices,Transmet- regionalandshort-linerail- to estimated times of arrival.ity continues to be well belowparticularlyintheirtermi- riQ leverages Railincs troveways across the United States,TransmetriQsdatasci-our expectations.nals,andourcustomersinof rail data to provide visibil- Canada, and Mexico. enceteamisnowemploy-Itsareflectionofthetheir warehouse operations.ity solutions for its customersTransmetriQ seeks to dis- ing artificial intelligence and supply chain slowdowns thatJ.B.Huntisworkingwithregardless of which rail car- seminate this data to custom- machinelearningneuralnet-havebecomecommonplacerailroadsandcustomers,herieristransportingagiveners of all sizes based on theirworkstomovebeyondana-in the COVID-19 era. Highersaid, to improve our capac- shipment. Railinc, a for-profittechnology needs and capabil- lyzinghistoricalinformation volumes combined with lowerityacrossthenetworkbysubsidiaryoftheAssocia- ities. Customers that have in- andcreatemodelstrained velocity doesnt exactly equatefocusingonreducingthetionof AmericanRailroads,housecapabilitiesmaywantwith trending data from spe-to intermodal success. detentionofequipmentandprovides data and messagingto incorporate a push data feedcificorigin-destinationpairs. A few other numbers shed(SHORTAGEScontinuedservicestoNorthAmericanorleverageAPIsapplica- (FREIGHTcontinued on lightonthereasonsforthison page 16) freight railways. tionprogramminginterfacespage 16)cloggedintermodalsystem. Somecarriershavereported container usage time increas-ingby20%sincethecargo surge started. In the Los Ange-les area, street dwell times for containers increased by 60% just in the last few weeks. J.B. Hunts biggest challenge this year,saidField,hasbeen the detention of our trailing equipment by customers. Theshortageoflaboris chiefamongthereasonsfor these slowdowns, according to Field. The perennial shortage oftruckdrivershasbecome exacerbatedduringthepan-demic, but the same now goes forpersonnelatintermodal terminals and warehouses, all of which accounts for record-highturnaroundtimesfor intermodal equipment. DatafromtheBureau ofLaborStatisticsshowed trucking lost 6% of its labor force at the bottom of the pan-demicrecession. AsofJuly, theindustryhadrecovered 63,000 of those lost jobs but stillremains33,000shortof February2020employment levels.Thedrivermarket remainsaschallengedas Ihaveseeninmy37-year career, said Nick Hobbs, J.B. Hunts chief operating officer.Even with the recovery of some driving jobs, the indus-try has a current shortfall of over 60,000 drivers, accord-ingtotheAmericanTruck-ingAssociations,anumber theorganizationexpectsto growtomorethan160,000 by 2028. Driver salaries are on the rise, and some truck-ing firms are paying signing bonuses, but Chris Spear, the ATACEO,recognizesthat payalonecantsolvethe scarcity of drivers. Among other things, Spear wantssupply-chainpartici-pants to pitch in to improve conditionsfortruckersby reducingwaittimes.Driv-ershavereporteda27% increaseindelaysofsix hoursormore,hesaid.'