The union for longshoremen along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico has agreed to extend its contract for 30 days, averting a possible strike that could have crippled operations at ports that handle about 40 percent of all U.S. container cargo, a federal mediator announced Friday.
Time is running out to avoid a strike at 14 ports from Boston to Houston that could choke off half of the ocean containers carrying goods to and from American shores. Businesses that depend on the flow of goods are warning of billions of dollars in economic damage.
There are nearly 3,000 items in the Walmart.com "Clearance" section and the prices are remarkably low. But the world's largest retailer is testing a new, less customer-friendly wrinkle. Now, some of the online clearance products have to be picked up at stores unless the customer wants to pay for home shipping.
Proposed federal safety regulations aimed at protecting truck drivers from fatigue could result in more -- not fewer -- truck collisions, according to the National Retail Federation.
The U.S. Justice Department has begun an investigation into the country's two largest delivery companies, UPS and FedEx. Both have policies aimed at preventing customers from negotiating lower shipping rates through third parties.
California has postponed enforcing its strict new diesel-emission standards for four years. The rules, intended to slash emissions from trucks, buses and construction equipment, had been scheduled to take effect in March 2010.
FedEx will likely show an increase in fiscal second-quarter earnings of about 20% from a year earlier when it releases its latest report on Thursday. The huge air-cargo carrier is looking for a jump in revenue to more than offset rising costs for jet fuel and other items.
As UPS gears up for its busiest time of year by hiring about 50,000 temporary workers, the world's largest package-delivery service said it expects to ship about 7.5% more packages this holiday season than it did a year ago.
The discovery of two explosive devices found in packages on U.S.-bound cargo planes Friday raises new questions about security in the air-freight industry -- and its potential cost. How big is the risk, and how much is security worth?
Retailers such as Toys R Us, Rockport and Borders hope to grow their Web sales with a new shipping service called ShopRunner.com. Much like Amazon's Prime program, consumers pay $79 per year for a membership, which lets them ship as many orders as they want from ShopRunner's retail partners.
The Coast Guard estimates that a barge crash that took out power lines and halted shipping traffic across the Houston Ship Channel may end up costing as much as $1 billion in economic loss.
The U.S. Postal Service's attempt to raise the price of a first-class stamp to 46 cents from 44 cents was unanimously rejected today by an oversight board, which said the Postal Service failed to sufficiently quantify either the effect of the recession on operations or how much mail shipments would decline if rates were increased.
