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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 11 · 2026 |
5 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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PARCEL · LABOR
BY ERIC KULISCH · AMERICAN SHIPPER · SEP 10, 2026
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said the 330,000-member union is preparing to strike UPS when its contract expires in July 2028, more than a year ahead of schedule, citing alleged contract violations and UPS’s push toward automation and non-union outsourcing through subsidiaries like Roadie, with a formal campaign and expanded strike benefits planned for fall 2027.
| THE TAKE — THE TAKE — O’Brien naming a strike date two years out is as much a negotiating opener as a threat, but UPS remembers the 1997 strike cost it more than $600 million — shippers with heavy UPS ground exposure should start building contingency capacity with alternate carriers well before the 2027 campaign season, not after it starts. |
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OCEAN · PORTS
Major construction has begun on the $669 million Delaware Container Terminal on 137 acres of former DuPont land in Edgemoor, a project meant to quadruple the state’s cargo-handling capacity to 1.2 million TEUs annually with a 45-foot berth for post-Panamax vessels, targeting a late-2028 opening despite ongoing legal challenges from rival New Jersey and Philadelphia port operators.
| THE TAKE — THE TAKE — A 45-foot berth built specifically for post-Panamax vessels signals Delaware wants to compete directly with the big East Coast gateways, not just add regional capacity — shippers planning East Coast routing two years out should watch how the New Jersey and Philadelphia legal challenges play out, since they could still delay the 2028 target. |
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OCEAN · SAFETY
A fire aboard the Liberia-flagged bulk carrier Ocean Melody killed 25 of the 42 people aboard during repairs at Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Co., breaking out around 11:15 a.m. local time and taking roughly three hours to extinguish, with five more injured and twelve evacuated safely; Chinese authorities have opened an investigation into the cause aboard the 20-year-old vessel.
| THE TAKE — THE TAKE — A death toll this high during a routine repair period, rather than at sea, points investigators toward shipyard fire-safety protocols and evacuation procedures as much as the ship itself — owners with vessels in for repair at Chinese yards should expect closer scrutiny of yard safety practices once the investigation’s findings come out. |
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RAIL · CARLOADS
U.S. rail traffic for the week of Sept. 5 came in 13.8% above the same week last year at 533,545 combined carloads and intermodal units, with intermodal up 18% and carloads up 8.9%, led by metallic ores and metals up 26.6% and grain up 24.1%, pushing year-to-date U.S. traffic up 3.6% through 35 weeks even as coal kept declining.
| THE TAKE — THE TAKE — Intermodal outgrowing carloads by roughly two-to-one for another week straight suggests the rail recovery is still being carried by containerized freight, not bulk commodities — shippers should keep watching whether metallic ores and grain strength holds into peak season or was a one-week harvest and restocking blip. |
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TRADE · TARIFFS
New Section 338 restrictions on Canadian imports take effect Sept. 29, moving targeted goods from 50% tariffs to outright import bans, but analyst James Ferry says the scope is narrower than headlines suggest — the motorcycle ban only covers bikes over 800cc and the dairy ban is mostly whey and molasses — with a staggered rollout starting Sept. 15 and no USMCA-origin exemption.
| THE TAKE — THE TAKE — The gap between how broad this trade fight sounds and how narrow the actual banned categories are is exactly the kind of detail that gets lost in the first wave of coverage — importers should get their customs brokers checking specific tariff codes now rather than assuming their Canadian goods fall under a to-be-banned category based on the headlines alone. |
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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
FreightWaves’ flagship event blends rapid-fire tech demos and world-class speakers with the most legendary networking in logistics. Join 1,000+ freight and logistics experts, industry leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators for a definitive look at the year ahead. Come for the insights, stay for the celebration and leave with the connections that will define your 2027.
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American Shipper · The Daily — published weekdays
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