newsworthy
Two agent-based third-party transportation and logistics
management service providers, Jacksonville, Fla.-based
Sunteck Transport Group and Dallas-based TTS LLC,
have merged and will operate under the name Sunteck/
TTS Holdings LLC. … Celadon Logistics, a subsidiary of
Celadon Group Inc., has opened a sales office in the
Greater Columbus, Ohio, area. … Supply chain solutions
provider NFI has continued its growth in Canada by opening the Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec,
office in the Greater Montreal
area. … Dorner’s 3200 Series modular and flat belt conveyors, 2200
Series Precision Move conveyor, and
SmartFlex conveyor platforms have
received the Ultraclean Products Approval Laboratory
certification for use in ISO Standard 14644-1 Class 5 and
Federal Standard 209 Class 100-rated cleanrooms. … In
order to provide fast-growing industries in Vietnam with
logistics services for their exports, Dachser has opened a
branch office in Hanoi that will support its location in
Ho Chi Minh City. … RoadOne IntermodaLogistics has
acquired C&V Trucking of Milford, Conn., in a bid to
enhance its Southern New England operations and New
York/New Jersey port business. … In September, the
Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA)
inducted Bastian Solutions into the organization as its
newest manufacturing member. … AFN Logistics, which
provides customized logistics and supply chain services
to manufacturers, retailers, and carriers, has acquired
HA Advantage, the transportation management system
(TMS) and less-than-truckload division of HA Logistics
Inc. As part of the purchase, AFN will absorb HA’s propri-
etary TMS, a scalable Web-based and mobile-optimized
solution. … Logistics Plus Inc. has celebrated its 20th
anniversary. … Mezzanine Safeti-Gates Inc. has launched
a new website that provides for easier communication
between the company and its customers, as well as a
greater focus on custom designs for safety solutions.
short takes
DORNER
there is a strong chance the new administration will
gut the rule. If so, it has a tailwind from a federal court
judge in Texas who last month temporarily enjoined the
rule on grounds that DOL overstepped its authority and
frustrated the will of Congress.
Although a number of the pro-union rulings have emanated from the courts and state legislatures, critics contend
that the impetus comes from a labor-friendly DOL as well
as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an independent three-member panel nominated by the president
to safeguard employees’ right to organize and to decide
whether to have unions as their bargaining representative. While employer interests understand the NLRB is
structured to protect workers, they are hopeful the Trump
administration will choose board members who will restore
some balance between the twin imperatives of labor and
management.
; Trade: As a candidate, President-elect Trump voiced
strong opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP),
the largest regional trade agreement in history, calling it a
job-killer for American workers. His election has effectively
killed the 12-nation pact. Trump has the authority to negotiate a new trade agreement. However, given his statements
on the stump and animus toward past trade deals such as
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), it is
unlikely to happen.
In an impassioned defense of TPP’s benefits and the
risks of scuttling it, Michael F. Ducker, president of
FedEx Freight, FedEx’s less-than-truckload unit, said the
morning after the election that U.S. businesses would lose
out on the opportunity to sell to a market of 480 million
consumers living in the TPP-signatory nations outside the
U.S. As an example of trade’s importance to the U.S. econ-
omy, Ducker noted that plantings on one of every three
acres of America’s farms yield crops that are designated
for export.
TPP’s rejection will not improve the lot of U.S. workers
whose jobs may have been lost to foreign competition,
Ducker said at the Journal of Commerce Inland Distribution
Conference in Memphis, Tenn. In fact, those workers may
be further disadvantaged as other nations begin to negotiate
their own pacts without U.S. involvement, he said.
—Mark Solomon
go figure …
$17.3 billion
The revenue generated by the U.S. Postal Service’s
“shipping and packages” segment in its 2016 fiscal
year. That amounted to one-quarter of USPS’s
total revenue, the largest contribution, in percentage terms, ever from the segment.
SOURCE: USPS DATA
