Good day,
People in the Great Plains just can’t catch a break. After a “bomb cyclone” in mid-March slammed parts of Colorado, the Dakotas and Nebraska with heavy snow and destructive record-breaking winds – knocking out electricity to hundreds of thousands of customers – another storm is on the way this week. For an April storm, it may become historic for some places.
Similar to the March storm, the next one is beginning its life in the Rockies and will strengthen as it moves toward the target areas today and tomorrow, April 10 and 11. It’s not forecast to “bomb out,” meaning the central barometric pressure would drop at least 24 millibars in 24 hours, but the pressure will be low enough to produce powerful winds and intense snowfall.
For more, read Nick Austin’s article for FreightWaves.
Did you know?
Canadian National (CNI) will spend more than $500 million on upcoming capital projects in the U.S.
In Illinois, CNI plans to spend $190 million, which will include funding to add capacity at its Joliet intermodal terminal. In Louisiana, the company will spend $95 million, with part of that funding going to a multi-year project to rebuild a two-mile long bridge over a spillway near the southwest shore of Lake Pontchartrain. In Tennessee and Wisconsin, CNI will spend $100 million and $120 million, respectively. Capital spending in Wisconsin will include the construction of eight miles of double tracking near Hawthorne.
Quotable:
“Mom-and pop delivery companies are going to be having to raise their prices. They already cannot compete with the bigger corporations.” Ken Thorpe, chairman of the New York Trucking and Delivery Association, told The Wall Street Journal about New York’s proposed congestion pricing plan.
In other news:
Boeing and its 737 MAX jets have a China problem
A state-owned airline is seeking compensation and that could be just the start of headaches for Boeing when it comes to China. (WSJ)
Uber seeks about $10 billion in year’s biggest IPO
Investors could get their first look at hundreds of pages of detailed information about Uber Technologies Inc. as soon as Thursday, as the ride-hailing giant gears up to publicly file for an initial public offering. (Bloomberg)
FreightWaves selects Predata partner for AI-driven risk signals
FreightWaves has chosen Predata, the predictive analytics company for geopolitical risk, to integrate data with FreightWaves’ SONAR. (FW)
China, a major bitcoin source, considers moving against it
China is planning new steps that could put a stop to making Bitcoin there, a move that could cut off one of the world’s largest sources of the popular but unstable cryptocurrency. (NYT)
Women in Trucking Association receives more than $30,000 in donations from UPS, Ryder
The donations came in during its 10th annual Salute to Women Behind the Wheel ceremony. (FW)
Final thoughts:
UPS Inc. (NYSE: UPS) is in the midst of a major transformation of its pricing structure – the byproduct of which could be major rate reductions for many shippers – as the shipping and logistics giant improves the efficiency of its package flow and builds shipment density in ways it has been unable to do before.
According to Rob Martinez, CEO of parcel consultancy Shipware, LLC, employees in UPS’ revenue management operations, the group that along with its executive leadership manages the company’s pricing initiatives, are currently being trained on the new structure. Armed with the retooled pricing, UPS’ sales force will then pitch its own customers, as well as those shipping with rival FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX), UPS’ chief competitor in the U.S. market, Martinez said. Martinez discussed the UPS initiatives during a presentation on April 4 at the Home Delivery World annual conference in Philadelphia.
For more, read the full FreightWaves article.
Hammer down everyone!