September 14, 2020 – Canaan Transport is increasingly taking ‘pre-emptive action’ to guarantee space for our customers during the looming peak season and beyond, with already-diminished capacity expected to tighten further in the coming months. Recent estimates by IATA that the global delivery of billions of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine will require thousands of flights to support its worldwide distribution have brought into sharp relief the risk of a worsening of the current serious capacity shortage in the air cargo sector over the coming months. With this reduced capacity pending, air freight rates will likely skyrocket as well. Customer who are looking at shipping air cargo in the coming months are advised to contact us as soon as possible to discuss your options.
September 9, 2020 – The controversy surrounding unlicensed off-dock trucking at the Port of Vancouver deepened this week, with the Office of the B.C. Container Trucking Commissioner (OBCCTC) defending the work.
“The off-dock container trucking activity Unifor refers to as (a) ‘black market’ activity and the United Truckers Association (UTA) calls ‘illegal’, is not illegal,” Commissioner Michael Crawford said Tuesday. Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, had demanded a crackdown on what it called a large container trucking black market at the port, and the UTA is planning to hold a Labour Day protest outside the commissioner’s office to highlight the issue. The two groups say unlicensed truckers are moving containers off-dock within the Lower Mainland area at steeply discounted prices and undermining licensed, fee-paying companies. In a written response to Today’s Trucking, Crawford said that under the Container Trucking Act and Regulation, the commissioner has jurisdiction to regulate and licence container trucking work that requires access to a marine terminal. If a trucking company needs access to a marine terminal, it requires a licence and then must pay the commissioner’s trucking rates for on and off-dock work, he said. “Trucking companies engaged only in off-dock trucking are not required to have a licence, and do not fall within the scope of the Container Trucking Act and Regulation,” he said.
September 8, 2020 – The UK withdrew from the European Union in January, but little has changed in terms of trade: The two sides are still operating under a transition agreement that keeps the existing rules in place. That deal expires December 31, and negotiators from London and Brussels are in an eighth round of talks about what post-Brexit trade will look like. On Monday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that his government would be comfortable with ending the talks if they do not produce a result before an upcoming EU summit scheduled for October 15. "If we can’t agree by [October 15], then I do not see that there will be a free-trade agreement between us, and we should both accept that and move on," Johnson said. "I want to be absolutely clear that, as we have said right from the start, that would be a good outcome for the UK. As a government we are preparing, at our borders and at our ports, to be ready for it." The UK’s leading logistics, road haulage and forwarding associations have called for an “urgent roundtable” with government ministers to address the “significant gaps” in border plans to take effect after the Brexit transition period on December 31. A letter to Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, from Logistics UK, the British International Freight Association, the Road Haulage Association and the UK Warehousing Association, said: “As key participants in the supply chain who will be required to deliver a functional operating border for GB and EU traders next year, we have visibility of the current state of preparedness, which, as it stands, has significant gaps.” The letter continued: “If these issues are not addressed disruption to UK business and the supply chain that we all rely so heavily on will be severely disrupted."
August 31, 2020 – The Longshore workers’ union CUPE Local 375 and the Maritime Employers Association (MEA), the MPA expects backlog from the work stoppage to be cleared within three to four weeks. While the MEA and CUPE Local 375 will make the most of the truce period to reach an agreement, note that the MEA and the Port of Montreal Checkers’ Union successfully achieved an agreement in principle, which was ratified on August 24 by union members.
August 24, 2020 – Longshore workers at the Port of Montreal headed back to work on Sunday, after a truce declared in a labour dispute allowed activities to resume after a 12-day strike. The two sides announced on Friday that they’d reached a deal putting the labour action on hold. The deal lays out a seven-month period where talks will continue without a threat of work stoppage. Both sides said they’re confident a deal can be ironed out before March 20, 2021, at which point the agreement would end.
August 21, 2020 – The Port of Montreal will be resuming normal operations, ending an 11 day-old strike. The Maritime Employers Association announced this afternoon that a truce, for a seven months period, has been agreed to with the Montreal Stevedores Union. Earlier today, an agreement was also reached with the Montreal Checkers Union. The Maritime Employers Association will be communicating more details on the return to work schedule, so that shipping lines can take the appropriate steps to adjust their vessel schedules.
August 21, 2020 – Management and union parties reached a partial agreement yesterday as to the fate of some of the 477 shipping containers sitting in the Port of Montreal amid a longshore workers’ strike. Under the agreement, "anything dangerous or related to COVID-19 will be taken out quickly by longshoremen," the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said. As for the other containers among the 477, they will be "studied one at a time, in order to judge their urgency," said the union. The MEA said a partial agreement was confirmed "to move containers of controlled products, merchandise related to COVID-19 and unload a sugar shipment."
The group added that "containers of refrigerated products are still the subject of discussions and a joint decision will be made shortly" on the subject.
August 17, 2020 – Due to the ongoing Longshoremen’s strike at the Port of Montreal, berthage services and cargo handling normally provided by dockworkers are suspended at several Port of Montreal terminals.
If you are currently expecting to receive goods at the Port of Montreal or to export goods internationally, your shipment will be delayed. Negotiations are ongoing, but a resolution to this labour dispute between the Maritime Employers Association (MEA), and the Longshoremen’s Union, CUPE Local 375 must be reached quickly in order to avoid further damage.
August 17, 2020 – The air cargo market is building up pricing momentum towards the fourth quarter, putting all-cargo carriers and airlines with cargo-only passenger freighters in a strong position relative to shippers. Freight rates have climbed since early July with the slow return of international passenger capacity combined with consistent growth in cargo shipments as the global economy, notably in China, continues to recover from the coronavirus. Export demand to the U.S. and Canada is very high, as is traffic from Shanghai and Singapore to Europe, according to various reports and our own internal figures. Overall, rates from Asia to North America and Erurope are rising.
August 16, 2020 – The coming week will show how well the Port of Montreal recovers from a few weeks of strike action. Although no strike action has been announced or planned, we continue to advise customers to be patient as delays will inevitably occur as a result of this recovery from the labour shutdown.