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The day’s most important moves across every mode — air, rail, road, ocean and the trade that ties them together.
| ● On the Wire |
FRI · SEP 4 · 2026 |
4 stories |
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Avoid congestion and costly delays. Seattle-Tacoma’s fluid terminal operations, on-dock rail and 2-3 day rail dwell will speed your cargo to its final destination.
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OCEAN · SCHEDULE RELIABILITY
BY STUART CHIRLS · AMERICAN SHIPPER · SEP 3, 2026
Sea Intelligence data shows global vessel schedule reliability plunged to 56.4% in July, the sharpest monthly decline since January 2021, as weather disruptions across Asia sent Shanghai’s on-time rate to a 14-year low of just 21%.
| THE TAKE — THE TAKE — With Yantian, Hong Kong and Ningbo all posting 20-point-plus reliability drops in the same month, this isn’t a one-port problem — shippers should expect the schedule chaos to cascade into missed connections and container shortages on other trade lanes for at least the next month or two. |
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LOGISTICS · FULFILLMENT
Flexport opened its first international fulfillment centers in Mississauga, Ontario and Manchester, England, both running AutoStore robotics that pack the same inventory into a quarter of the warehouse space, with continental European sites planned for 2027.
| THE TAKE — THE TAKE — Flexport’s customs chief is right that origin rules and import eligibility, not tariff rates, are becoming the harder compliance problem — shippers using Flexport’s network into Canada and the UK should get ahead of country-of-origin documentation now rather than after a shipment gets held up. |
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TRADE · CROSS-BORDER
Mexican drivers blockaded the Calexico East-Mexicali crossing, which normally handles about 1,255 trucks and $2 billion in trade a day, after roughly a dozen B-1 visas were revoked this week, with parallel protests at San Luis Río Colorado and warnings of wider crossing closures.
| THE TAKE — THE TAKE — B-1 visa holders can legally carry international cargo but not haul domestically, and enforcement ambiguity around that line is what’s driving the protest — shippers routing freight through Calexico or nearby Arizona crossings should have contingency capacity lined up in case the blockade spreads. |
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RAIL · CARLOADS
U.S. rail traffic rose 4.1% year over year for the week ending Aug. 29, led by an 11% jump in metallic ores and metals for steelmaking and an 8.4% gain in petroleum shipments, even as chemicals and motor vehicle carloads both declined.
| THE TAKE — THE TAKE — Intermodal keeps outgrowing carloads, up 5.7% versus 2.2%, and with the truck-to-rail rate gap still around 34%, that shift should keep favoring rail as long as tender acceptance rates hold near current tightening levels. |
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| Get a behind-the-scenes look at one of North America’s leading trade gateways. This short video shows how the Northwest Seaport Alliance is creating opportunities, moving cargo, and keeping supply chains connected: Watch the video. |
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OCT 27–28, 2026 · THE SIGNAL, CHATTANOOGA · CHATTANOOGA, TN
Your team works hard every day to keep supply chains moving. This Labor Day, invest in their growth—and your company’s bottom line—by sending them to F3: Future of Freight Festival (Oct. 27-28 in Chattanooga). Get ahead of market trends and regulatory shifts, experience the latest FreightTech insights that directly impact your margins, and expand high-value relationships with 1,000+ supply chain leaders spanning the industry.
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American Shipper · The Daily — published weekdays
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