The Friday Report: October 30th, 2020

Bet on It, Baby.  Las Vegas is an “Ace” in Distribution Logistics

Shifting away from its reputation as a location for entertainment and gaming, Las Vegas is playing its hand to be the talk of the nation in freight, transportation and logistics, serving major regional markets.  Nevada has 3 million residents.  With 2.3 million residents nestled in the Southern Nevada area, including Las Vegas, Henderson, Clark County and neighboring cities Overton, Boulder City and Mesquite, Nevada has the workforce and geographic position to reach over 40 million consumers.

Southern Nevada is less than a day’s drive to five major U.S. ports which service the Pacific Rim and is within a two-day delivery window of almost every state west of the Mississippi River.  Southern Nevada is five hours closer to Northern California and the Pacific Northwest than Phoenix, for example.

E-commerce retailers favor Southern Nevada as it helps them to keep inventory closer to consumers, lessening the time and cost of deliveries.

For more details, please continue reading here.

Port of Virginia Gets $20 Million Federal Transportation Grant

A new $44 million project to reconfigure and double the size of the on-dock rail yard at the Port of Virginia will expand rail capacity at Norfolk International Terminals and leverage a $20 million federal transportation grant.  The $20 million grant is from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 2020 Port Infrastructure Development Discretionary Grants Program.  In addition, $16.7 million will come from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation’s Rail Enhancement Fund and the remainder of $7.4 million of funding will be provided by the Port of Virginia.

The Port of Virginia is instrumental in moving a huge volume of cargo via rail to the Midwest.  Norfolk International Terminals is undergoing a $450 million investment in expanding its capacity to increase throughput by 400,000 containers.  The expansion of the rail yard will help not only meet growing demand but also better position it to handle future intermodal volume.

For more details, please continue reading here.

FMC Launches Investigation into Billing by Ocean Carriers

Following comments made in response to an official notice regarding proposed rulemaking on detention and demurrage released last year, the Federal Maritime Commission initiated an investigation into claims involving billing.  The issue involves the suspected practice that ocean carriers are billing third party companies which are not listed in the original contract for transportation fees.  The claim is that ocean carriers are collecting freight rates, equipment charges and demurrage and detention charges that the third party companies are not legally obligated to pay.

The issue involves how the ocean carriers are applying the term “merchant” in bills of lading.

For more details, please continue reading here.