Our global freight forwarding network keeps our customers freight moving across the world.

£10bn sale of Associated British Ports - pension funds just love it

The UK's largest port owner and operator is not a firm that The Loadstar covers much on a recurring basis. (But then came the news last week: 'Australia's IFM snaps up ABP', aka Associated British Ports...) To be honest, this is a pretty straightforward deal reportedly worth about £10bn that would not normally warrant much comment - however, it does underline how the port industry as an investment class has matured since the turn of the century. Despite a portfolio that stretches to ...

CH Robinson invests in AI to speed up air cargo quoting

CH Robinson has continued its investment in AI with new agents for its freight forwarding business that it claims speed up the quoting process for air cargo shipments. The US forwarder said that its AI systems have so far determined and delivered over 80,000 price quotes for over 3,600 customers. "Quotes that used to take a day for an air shipment and two to three days for an ocean shipment now take two to three minutes," the company said. AI is also being implemented to help with customs document processing, which has become more labour-intensive with new trade agreements, layers of new tariffs, and stricter compliance rules. Mike Short, president of global forwarding, added: "Customers have information they need sooner. Data is more consistent. Processes are more predictable. When plans change or disruptions occur, customers can more quickly evaluate a new routing, mode of shipping, schedule or price. "Not to mention, speed-to-market is a real competitive advantage. The faster we get you a quote and handle your booking, the faster you get the ideal carrier and the ideal sailing or flight. "For an air shipment, life-saving medicines, perishable produce and critical automotive parts absolutely must arrive on time. Our Lean AI makes your supply chain a smarter, faster, better one." Mike Neill, chief technology officer, added: "Before agentic AI, we'd developed digital booking forms and data exchange setups with customers, but over the course of about 10 years achieved only about 5% automation for ocean and air booking requests. "Why was that such a tough hill to climb? Primarily because you quote your customer, then it's their suppliers booking with you. A customer might have 50 suppliers. With our agentic AI, all those booking requests no longer need to be handled manually." On the customs front, CH Robinson staff had been manually handling four dozen types of documents from shippers, carriers and government agencies needed to clear US Customs but much of this has now been automated. "Incoming documents are split up, classified and attached to their individual shipments," CH Robinson. "An AI agent extracts necessary data, while the system monitors for missing documents and requests them. "Automated invoices and information packets are sent out at the end. So far, time spent has been reduced by 23%, allowing the company's customs brokers to focus on critical validation and compliance steps."

No rail freight from London Gateway and Tilbury after storms

Shippers are scrambling to make alternative arrangement for inland container movements in the UK after a train derailment forced the suspension of rail services to key terminals in the south-east, including DP World London Gateway. More than 1km of track was torn up by storms that battered the region on Friday, with Forth Ports notifying customers that no rail services would be servicing Tilbury or Tilbury 2 this week. A spokesperson for DP World told The Loadstar: "We are currently operating a reduced rail freight service from our London Gateway terminal. We are working closely with customers and with Network Rail to minimise disruption while repairs to the network are carried out." Hapag-Lloyd has warned customers that inland cargo movements were likely to be impacted, advising them to arrange road transport for any containers booked under merchant haulage arrangements. For customers using carrier haulage, the German liner noted that its inland team would discuss alternative transport arrangements, but warned it would be unable to accept additional haulage requests during the disruption. Whether there is sufficient trucking capacity to absorb the displaced rail volumes remains unclear, but as with much of the world, the UK's haulage industry has been contending with a decades-long crisis in attracting new talent. A spokesperson for the Road Haulage Association told The Loadstar it was "monitoring the situation and will support members however we can", but was unable to give any detail on the expected level of demand provoked by two key gateways out of service for at least a week. Hapag-Lloyd added it was monitoring the situation and would provide further updates as information became available, but the timetable for restoring normal rail freight operations, the number of containers affected, and the scale of any backlog all had yet to be established.