News & Insights

May 26, 2016

Logistics service providers (LSPs) and transportation intermediaries are being warned to ensure their security practices are up to date and beefed up for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, a holiday linked to record-high cargo thefts. According to FreightWatch International’s Supply Chain Intelligence Center (SCIC), Memorial Day weekends in the past recorded elevated theft levels up to 40% higher than non-holiday weekends. In fact, the 2015 Memorial Day weekend recorded a record-high 15 cargo theft incidents averaging in excess of $600,000. Following is a list of notable cargo thefts that occurred during past Memorial Day weekends, courtesy of FreightWatch. These include: […]

May 25, 2016

For the past 23 years, Roanoke Trade and the National Customs Brokers & Forwarder’s Association of America (NCBFAA) have together presented a $5,000 scholarship to a high school senior or undergraduate at an accredited college or university who is focusing on obtaining a degree in customs brokerage, freight forwarding or a related field, such as international trade. At this year’s annual NCBFAA conference in Tucson, Arizona, Jordan Abisch was awarded the 2016 scholarship. We invite you to read Jordan’s essay, “Wage Inequality and Trade – Data indicates a growing gap between the wages for skilled and unskilled labor. What role has […]

May 24, 2016

Roanoke will be attending the AirCargo 2016 Conference, taking place in Phoenix, AZ from June 8 – 10, 2016. This conference brings together all actors in the air cargo supply chain in one location to discuss trends, challenges, opportunities and the future of the air cargo industry. Airlines, airport authorities, freight forwarders and expediting companies along with the vendors who support them are all in one place. We hope to catch you at the conference!

May 23, 2016

Increasingly more employees across all industry sectors are filing lawsuits against their employers claiming they should be classified as employees instead of independent contractors and entitled to back wages, overtime, and other benefits. This is especially more so in the wake of ride-sharing companies like Uber Technologies, which agreed to pay as much as $100 million to drivers in April in a suit over employee status, and FedEx’s $228 million settlement last year with drivers. Now, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the nation’s busiest ports are emerging as a key battleground in the legal fight […]

May 20, 2016

The newly widened Panama Canal is set to re-open later this year, and just as it did 102 years ago the Canal will again be transformative for the shipping industry. How prepared are our seaports to accommodate the new generation of larger cargo ships that will be making their way through the Panama Canal? The larger canal is set to accommodate a new line of Post-Panamax vessels — supertankers, container and passenger ships, which will be able to hold upwards of 18,000 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs). According to an op-ed piece in The Baltimore Sun, written by Ray LaHood, a former […]

May 13, 2016