Transportation Roundup: Container imports continue to plunge, railroads still under fire

In early December President Biden signed a bill to avoid the rail strike, but tensions are still high between class I railroads and unions.

At a Surface Transportation Board (STB) hearing this week, Union Pacific’s use of embargoes and staffing data is being questioned. This comes after UP failed to provide enough detail to the STB to explain their increase in embargoes since 2017, which jumped to more than 1,000 embargoes in 2022 compared to five in 2017. Read more about the hearing from CNBC.

Meanwhile, the plummet in U.S. imports continues, with November container numbers down 12% month on month, and 19.4% year on year. Imports are down 37% from the peak in May. Export numbers from Asia, especially China, continue to trend down, with China imports down 11% from October, 30.8% from Thailand and 17.4% from Vietnam. Read more from the Descartes report here.

These issues and more will be topics of discussion at the 2023 Transportation Go! In Omaha, Neb. March 15-16. More information and registration will be available soon.