Insights - October 2015 - (Page 5)

EXPO - from page 3 stakeholders and recommendations for action items for IANA. From the Operations Committee, driver turn times and road ready chassis were also conversation starters. Across the committee meetings, panel discussions and Dialogue Box roundtables, one of the goals of EXPO was to raise important issues, address stakeholder needs, and develop a clear set of targets to resolve issues and improve the overall performance of intermodal. Facing the Economy EXPO's opening general sessions provided a look, from various perspectives, at where the U.S. economy was headed and how it would affect intermodal markets. GDP growth will hover at a normal rate of around 2.25 percent for the remainder of 2015 and into 2016. - William Strauss, senior economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago A continued but weakening economic recovery can be expected through next year, according to two panels of expert observers. Sounding a warning in the FreightCast session, William Strauss, senior economist of the Chicago Federal Reserve, noted that the U.S. economy is approaching the seventh year of recovery since the recession officially ended in mid-2009. Such recovery periods historically have not lasted more than 10 years following any recession. This and other factors lead Strauss to believe another recession could occur as early as 2017. GDP growth will hover at what Strauss said is a normal rate of around 2.25 percent for the remainder of 2015 and into 2016. "The last two years were about as good as you're ever going to see," observed Noël Perry, managing director of FTR. Perry was describing intermodal's competitive situation relative to truckload. A temporary suspension of the hours of service rules restart provision by Congress has given the trucking sec- Gooden Presented with Silver Kingpin Award Clarence Gooden, president of CSX Corporation, received IANA's 2015 Silver Kingpin Award at this year's Intermodal EXPO. Under Gooden's leadership, CSX Intermodal progressed the integration of long-term strategy, capital investment and continuous customer engagement. CSX and Union Pacific piloted the UMAX domestic interline container service, one of the many examples of his focus on broadening collaborative relationships in a business where more than half of the traffic travels over two or more railroads. tor a 2-4 percent boost in productivity. (Perry's FTR colleague Larry Gross described that gain in a later session as being as high as 4.5 percent.) But while trucking has gained back some productivity, freight growth will be slowing to 3 percent in 2016. But just wait, Perry says. The current softer trucking market will tighten up quickly once new federal safety and labor regulations go into effect for motor carriers, recreating the effects of 2014's driver shortage. The driver shortage won't be a topic of discussion in 10 years, but it will peak before it goes away. - Noël Perry, managing director, FTR Further down the road, after 2020, Perry suggested automation will double trucking productivity, all but eliminating any discussion of driver shortages. Commenting on slowing domestic intermodal growth, Gross attributed it to a rise in intermodal rates in the face of tightening trucking capacity, along with some lingering service issues. A larger theme emerged throughout the EXPO, however: the collaborative efforts to improve the industry's efficiency and productivity from the ground level of the driver up. Gooden Seeking Consistency From the port to the intermodal connection, the issue of service consistency grows from many roots. The West Coast labor agreement and the disruption to the 2014 shipping season is just one example. There is a return on investment in ports. - Kevin Lynskey, deputy director, PortMiami Congestion issues are not limited to West Coast ports affected by labor actions. Larger ships making fewer calls are placing higher throughput demands on ports, and this will not go away soon. Hayes Howard, CEO of American Shipper, pointed out that infrastructure development that was aimed at improving operations and efficiency at many ports was curtailed during the recession. Amplifying Hayes' comment in a later concurrent session, Kevin Lynskey, deputy director, PortMiami, stressed there is a return on infrastructure investment in ports that benefits all stakeholders. To make his point about infrastructure development, Lynskey noted that at the size of containerships just a few years ago, ports would load and unload 250 to 300 containers during a vessel call. The larger ships can now EXPO - continued on page 7 October 2015 | Intermodal Insights 5

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Insights - October 2015

Fed Update
GAO Report Expresses PTC Concern
Positive Note for Positive Train Control
Peak Charges Proposed at Oakland
Intermodal EXPO 2015 Addresses Stakeholder Needs
Nominations for Election to the 2016 Board of Directors
University of North Texas Three-Peats at Intermodal EXPO
Gooden Presented with Silver Kingpin Award
Freight Reports
Sustainability News
Port News
People in the News
In Brief
2015 Sponsors
Welcome New Members
Size and Weight Comments Due Oct. 13th
Intermodal Calendar

Insights - October 2015