Many dealerships struggle with finding the right solution for transporting their vehicles. Shipping to customers, purchasing from auctions, and dealer trades can be a huge source of stress if proper precautions are not taken. Most dealerships are aware of the ways to transport a vehicle: generally, through a broker, carrier, or driveaway service. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, but choosing a method based solely on price may not be the best solution. Dealerships, like most businesses, have survived the past few years by learning how to operate on a shoestring budget. So, what is the best method for each of your vehicle moves?

How can you pick a reputable broker? How can you make sure a carrier is properly insured? Is it safe to just go to the load boards yourself? What if you can’t contact the carrier for the status of your vehicles? Here is the breakdown: [Read more...]

From May 15 to May 17, Long Beach Convention Center welcomes the 2nd edition of the Alternative Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo, which exhibits alternative fuels and advanced transportation technologies.

This cutting-edge exposition gathered around 1700 participants last year, including 300 exhibitors. This industry is quite new to the market and has had impressive growth. We advise all fleet managers, procurement specialists, sea freight forwarders and green-minded logistics service professionals to attend, so as to become familiar with these brand new technologies. [Read more...]

From the 10th to the 12th of April, São Paulo, Brazil welcomes the 18th edition of the renowned Intermodal South America exhibition. The event takes place in the Transamérica Expo Center, offering 28,000 square meters of space to more than 550 exhibitors from 22 different countries and an attendance of over 50,000 high-level professionals. Intermodal South America is the top integrated exhibition and conference event for international trade, logistics services, transport and cargo handling in Latin America. This edition is focused on offering three distinct benefits to its visitors and exhibitors: networking and relationship-building, technical knowledge exchange via high-quality, content-driven conferences, and the generation of new business opportunities.

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It’s not uncommon for today’s business men to visit several countries in the span of 24 hours. Or for customers to receive an intercontinental shipment at home, the very next day after it has been ordered. The Air Freight Forwarding Industry has soared in the last decade (along with international freight forwarding), with global revenue increasing from $322 in 2003 to $547 billion in 2010.

The European Airspace

According to the European Association for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL), in 2011, there were on average 27,000 flights per day in Europe. This number is expected to double by 2020. [Read more...]

The great days of the shipping industry in Brazil were gone a long time ago. Big shipping lines went bankrupt, Brazilian flag ships were sold, arrested, abandoned or scrapped and shipyards had little to no service and were forced to close or stay afloat with minor repairs and dry-docking jobs. The Brazilian shipping industry has a very sad history, but it seems that there is hope for a brighter future for the South Atlantic giant!

The 1960’s and 1970’s were remarkable to the merchant marine history in Brazil. The creation of the “Merchant Marine Fund” and the “Tax for the Merchant Marine Renew”, in 1958, together with other specific targets set by the government at that time, made investments available to the shipbuilding industry and for the development of the merchant marine in general. Counting on such incentives, new shipyards as Ishibras and Verolme were built, old shipyards were renovated and in the late 70’s, the Brazilian ship building industry reached the second position in the world, employing over 40,000 people in 1979, and the country headquartered one of the biggest shipping companies in Latin America, not to say in the world: the former Lloyd Brasileiro.

This positive development was badly hit within the 80’s and 90’s, when the country experienced lots of economic and political problems. The number of employees in shipbuilding decreased to 30,000 within 4 years in 1983 and with the “sinking” of Lloyd Brasileiro in the 90’s after 100 years in service, several Brazilian merchant ships where simply abandoned at anchor as what happened to the former M/V “Lloyd Atlântico”, which was the biggest container ship built in south America in the 80’s and was left at anchor in Rio de Janeiro after only 10 years in service.

With a breakdown in the country’s economy, and public investments being redirected to the building of roads rather than to the development of ports and cabotage, the shipping business almost disappeared in Brazil and companies were one after the other going through financial problems leading to bankruptcy. [Read more...]