b'OCTOBER 11- 24, 2021NORTH AMERICAS TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICSNEWSPAPER 15I NtErmodal& l ogIStIcSN EWSContainers piling up at rail yardsElectric vans roll off line that once made add to port strains gas-guzzling HummersTounderstandwhymorehours to nights and weekends to than100containershipsareeasepileupsinintermodallotsWhen the first snub-nosed, electric van rolledMishawakaplant.Taylorsuggestedpivotingto waiting to enter U.S. ports fromjammed with both full and emptyoff the assembly line at the Electric Last Mile Solu- electric delivery vans, which Sokon already was Southern California to Savannah,containers.Thedelaysthroughtions Inc. plant in Mishawaka, Indiana, it was aproducing in Asia. Sokon, however, didnt want to Georgia, it helps to keep tabs ontheportsofLosAngelesandproud moment for the companys co-founder andspend more in the U.S. market, so Taylor offered to the congestion thats building atLong Beach in particular, it said,chief executive officer, Jim Taylor. The van, one instart a new company that would raise the funds to anotherkeyjunctionoffreightare expected to continue for thea run of 1,000 scheduled for this year, is among thebuy the Mishawaka plant.transportation: rail yards. remainder of the year. first of its kind in the U.S. market: a fully electric,Taylor, 64, knows the 675,000-square-foot space The so-called dwell time forOn top of the strong demandlight-duty vehicle meant for delivery workers, con- well: Two decades ago, when he was an executive in containers at 11 major railroadforimports,abigpartofthetractors and other commercial fleets. the truck group at GM, he outfitted it to assemble depotsreachedanaverageofproblem is a shortage of truckWhoelseisstartingupthismonth?asksHummers. In 1999, GM bought the Hummer brand 9.8 days this month, accordingdriverstocollectanddropoffTaylor, checking through the list of major auto man- from AM General and contracted with them to build to a tally of its own boxes main- the 20- and 40-foot steel boxes,ufactures and startups, from Ford Motor Co. andamass-marketversionoftheSUV. AMGeneral tained by Hapag-Lloyd AG, theas executives of packaged goodGeneral Motors Co. to Arrival Ltd. and Canoo Inc.,built a plant for the job next door to the one where it worldsfifth-largestcontainergiant General Mills Inc. pointedthat have announced plans to build electric vans. makes Humvees for the military. Taylor, who over-carrier. Thats up from 6.7 daysout during an earnings call. Deliveryvansandotherlightcommercialsaw purchasing for GM trucks, chose the equipment.in May and 5.9 in February. So we have literally hun- vehiclesofferfertilegroundforelectricvehicleBy2005,1,000workerswerebuildingtens LeadingthepackisLosdreds of disruptions in our supplymakers, according to James Martin, a consultingof thousands of Hummers per year in Mishawaka. Angeles, where containers wait anchain and it really changes on aassociate director at the research house IHS Markit.When the financial crisis arrived three years later, average of almost 16 days beforedailyandweeklybasis,saidBuyers arent commuters, concerned about rangethe fad was fading and GM, forced into bankruptcy, being picked up. The delays areJonathon Nudi, group presidentestimates and how to handle the occasional longdecidedtoshutterthemoney-losingbrand.The also surging in Charleston, Southof North America retail at Gen- road trip. Instead, theyre fleet managers who knowplant revived in 2015, when Daimler AG hired AM Carolina,andinDetroit.Theeral Mills. The bulk of our dis- precisely how far their vehicles will travel each dayGeneral to build Mercedes-Benz minivans there for numbersshowsomeimprove- cussions right now with retailersand where they plan to recharge them during off- the Chinese market. But Mercedes walked away ments in Long Beach, Californiaarereallyaroundserviceandduty hours. We think its going to be swifter thantwo years later and AM General announced plans and Kansas City. making sure that we can ship thethe ramp-up of electrification in personal vehicles,toclosetheplant,ademisethatwasseemingly Hapag-Lloydhassaidportproduct that our consumers aresays Martin. averted with the arrival of SF Motors.officials are extending operatingultimately looking for. IHS expects North American commercial-vanInthesummerof2020,Taylorandhisco-productiontogrowfromaround400,000unitsfounder Jason Luo, a longtime auto executive who this year to nearly 600,000 by 2028, with electricbriefly ran Ford China, began trying to raise money vehicles growing from almost nonexistent to nearlyfor ELMS. This was during the rise of SPAC fever. Norfolk Southern selects40 % of the market in that span. Electric Last MileIn the six months before ELMSs founding, electric Solutions,knownasELMS,isaimingforthevehicle startups Nikola Corp., Fisker Inc., Lord-INFORM to deliver stackbottom end via a bare-bones vehicle with relativelystown Motors Corp. and Canoo all had announced low range thats ideal for customers who carry lightplans to enter the public markets via mergers with and crane management packages on short, repetitive routes. The segmentspecial purpose acquisition companies.has exploded with the rise of e-commerce. SPACs intrigued Taylor. Since leaving GM in ELMS began in August 2020 as a plan B for2010, he had done stints at a pair of electric vehicle INFORM has been selectedbecustomconfiguredforboththe Chinese auto manufacturer Chongqing Sokoncompanieswhat are now Workhorse Group and to deliver their proven solutionsites to enable each site to reachIndustryGroup.In2017,SokonsubsidiarySFKarma Automotiveand seen enough of the tra-for yard management and opti- theiruniqueoperationalandMotors bought the Mishawaka plant from contractditional fundraising process to know that hed be mization as well as their craneoptimization goals. manufacturer AM General with a plan to build anhappy to fast-forward through it. This allows you optimizer at Norfolk SouthernsDr. Savelsberg added, Ourelectric SUV called the SF5. But the SF5 neverto get the money much quicker, he says, and it Rossville and Austell terminals. intermodal solutions have beencame to Mishawaka, a city of 50,000 on the east- arrives in a gigantic trainload.Inadditiontodeliveringused in Germany going on twoern edge of South Bend. When Sokon hired Taylor,In fall 2020, Taylor and Luo began discussing a INFORMs Yard Optimizer anddecades and were very exciteda 30-year GM veteran, to take over as CEO at SFmerger with a SPAC called Forum Merger III, which Crane Optimizer add-on modulesto be able to bring our stackedMotors in the summer of 2019, he reviewed therecently had raised $250 million. By late October, integratedintoNorfolkSouth- yardoptimizationandcranebusiness plan and concluded that it was doomed.they were ready to approach private equity firms, ernsTOS,INFORMwillalsooptimizationexperiencetotheLaunching an electric SUV brand in the U.S. wouldhedge funds and investment banks about adding to provideseveralmodulesfromNorth American market. befarmoreexpensivethanSokonanticipated,this pool of funds through a so-called private invest-theirpurposebuiltIntermodalINFORMsYardOptimizerTaylor told the companys leadership, and it wouldmentinpublicequities,orPIPE.InDecember, TOS to add several elements toprovidestheTOSwithanopti- land them in a brutal competition with some veryForum announced the planned merger, which valued enhancethestackedoperationsmizer allocation for each containerlarge players. Sokon heeded his advice and aban- ELMS at $1.4 billion. With $155 million in PIPE atbothfacilitiesformingwhatto be positioned into the stackeddoned its U.S. plans for the vehicle. money, the deal was set to generate nearly $380 mil-INFORM has called its Optimi- yardinreal-time.WorkingwithThis left the question of what to do with thelion in gross proceeds for ELMS.zation Plus solution. The soft- cuttingedgeAIandOperations warewillcombineINFORMsResearch (OR) based algorithms, industryprovenSyncrotessopti- theconfigurableadd-onmodule mizersleveragingstate-of-the-artwill assist the operational teams in Artificial Intelligence and optimi- decreasing unproductive container zation techniques and INFORMsmoves during peak operations as 50-plusyearsofoptimizationwell as recommending proactive experience. housekeepingmovesduringoff-Dr.EvaSavelsberg,SVPpeak operations.ofINFORMsLogisticDivi- INFORMsCraneOpti-sionsaid,ExpandingourUSmizer provides the TOS with an footprint with an innovative railoptimizedallocationoftrans-operatorlikeNorfolkSouthernport jobs to each available crane shows both our commitment tooperating within the stacked yard strengtheningandgrowingouroperations via an in-cab hardware USoperationsbutaswellourdevice thats purpose designed to commitmenttoenablingourstreamlinethecraneoperators customerstoleveragethebestworkflows while decreasing stress experiencesfromaroundtheandworkingtoensurethatthe globe to drive their innovation. optimized results of the Yard Opti-Thesoftwaresolutionwillmizer are implemented efficiently.be delivered to Norfolk South- INFORM specializes in AI erns Rossville, TN and Austell,andoptimizationsoftwareto GAterminals.Bothterminalsimproveoperationaldecision areoperatinguniquestackedmaking. Based in Aachen, Ger-yardconfigurationsanddiffer- many, the company has been in ent crane hardware proving thatthe optimization business for 50 onesizedoesnotfitall.Theyears and serves a wide span of Optimization Plus solution willlogistics industriesThe assembly line at the Electric Last Mile Solutions Inc. plant in Mishawaka, Indiana'