UPS announced Sunday it plans to sell its truckload brokerage business Coyote Logistics to the technology-enabled brokerage RXO for $1.025 billion. According to the company, Chicago-based Coyote Logistics manages around 10,000 loads per day with a network of over 10,000 carriers. “As UPS positions itself to become the premium small package provider and logistics partner in the world, the decision to sell our Coyote Logistics business allows an even greater focus on our core business,” said Carol B. Tomé, the chief executive officer at UPS, in the release. In January, UPS announced plans to explore strategic alternatives or a possible sale, for its struggling truckload brokerage business, which it acquired for $1.8 billion in 2015. The company is selling Coyote for $775 million less than the purchase price.
Ship backups that plagued seaports during the Covid pandemic are making a comeback, as vessel diversions because of attacks in the Red Sea trigger gridlock and soaring costs at the start of the peak shipping season. Flotillas of containerships and bulk carriers are growing off the coasts of Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and China while ports in Spain and other parts of Europe look to dig out from container piles. Houthi rebel attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, which have effectively closed the Suez Canal since the end of last year, are being felt at faraway ports as the disruptions extend voyage times, throw ships off schedule and strand sea containers. The snags are complicating logistics for retail and manufactured goods, but importers and exporters say they are most concerned that the backups could expand as demand picks up in the coming months heading into the busy peak shipping season. That could drive already-resurgent freight rates close to levels seen during the pandemic, when companies vied for scarce space on ships and spot-market prices for shipping a 40-foot container surged past $20,000.
Women working as truckers face a host of challenges in a traditionally male-dominated industry, the majority of whom say they’ve experienced discrimination on the job. Of more than 700 women truckers surveyed by the nonprofit American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) in 2023, roughly one in six said they experience harassment or discrimination based on their gender on a daily basis, while more than two-thirds said they’ve been discriminated against or harassed at least once. Additionally, 31 percent said that they believe it’s harder to be a truck driver as a women because of the negative attitudes other drivers, motor carriers, and shippers have about them. Women also identified several other issues they regularly cope with more often than men. Of the 12 daily problems drivers – both men and woman — highlighted in the ATRI’s survey, women dealt with 11 of them more frequently than men. That included limited access to exercise facilities (42% of women, 30% of men), less access to safe parking (41% of women, 31% of men), and limited access to restrooms (39% of women, 23% of men).
That’s all for this week. Enjoy the weekend and the song of the week, Keep Yourself Alive by Queen.
The post This Week in Logistics News (June 22 – 28) appeared first on Logistics Viewpoints.