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As shippers and retailers head into the peak shopping season, ongoing labor negotiations are being closely watched for any signs of disruption, which experts say would have a huge impact on the U.S. economy.

While products for the most part are no longer sitting on ships waiting to be offloaded, the supply chain kink has just moved farther down the line — to warehouses, where much of the freight that was on those ships missed its window to be in the retail store.

OMAHA, Neb. — The heads of the nation’s two largest rail unions said Sept. 11 that the freight railroads’ move to begin delaying some shipments ahead of this week’s looming strike deadline is only an attempt to get shippers to increase the pressure on Congress to intervene and block a work stoppage by imposing a contract on workers.

With a Sept. 16 deadline looming, pressure is mounting on the nation’s major freight railroads and the unions to reach an agreement and avoid a potentially crippling strike or lockout.

Trucking and logistics firms can have connected workflows at the enterprise level by using modern TMS platforms with cloud-based infrastructure.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is seeking public comment on whether the safety and supply chain benefits of its COVID-19 national emergency declaration merit extending the current declaration after it expires Oct. 15.

Stable spot rates coupled with rising contractual rates could help drive gross-margin expansion for freight brokers, according to experts.

For com­panies that have imple­mented on-premise software systems to run mission-­critical business processes, it’s not always so simple to take advantage of the benefits of modern cloud architecture.

Longtime financial executive Jamie Harris will join XPO Logistics Inc.’s soon-to-be spun off brokered transportation platform, RXO, on Sept. 26 as chief financial officer.

UPS Inc. is staffing up for the holiday shipping season by hiring more than 100,000 seasonal workers — a daunting challenge amid widespread labor shortages.