In January, spot market freight volume declined seasonally, falling 11% from an abnormal December high.
Volume also collapsed 27% compared to the same time in 2014. It was the first time in 19 months, which the year-over-year declined for the index that measures truckload freight demand and capacity,
An agreement to solve the slowdown in shipping on the West Coast may be reached soon. According to Dustin Stoker, the Director of Operations at Port of Tacoma “We remain hopeful that there will be a tentative agreement in place by today or tomorrow to discuss at the meeting next week, and that voting will take place after that. Hopefully productivity will get back to normal”.
The following some general best practices for shippers with regard to dealing with oversized items being shipped by common carriers.
Choose pallets large enough to prevent overhang of shipment pieces. Many times, shippers will place oversized items (even if only by a few inches) on standard sized pallets. This means that sections of the freight will hang over the sizes of the pallets. Not only can this cause problems with billing, if the pallets can't fit next to other freight int the truck, but it can also result in damage to the item being shipped.
