Intermodal, Drayage & Chassis

Special Report course of company business and that the worker is engaged in an independently established trade or occupation.

The New Jersey case would be frozen and transferred to the bankruptcy court.

The bankruptcy filing came just one week after a New York state judge allowed another lawsuit by minority lenders Axos Financial and Siemens Financial Services to move forward, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Axos and Siemens were lenders in STG’ s 2022 financing to acquire the intermodal division of XPO Logistics. In October 2024, STG announced a $ 300 million financing package, but Axos and Siemens later sued, alleging the deal also functioned as a liability-management transaction that shifted collateral and other protections toward new lenders, leaving them with weaker claims in bankruptcy.

The October 2024 transaction included Antares, Fortress and Invesco, according to the WSJ. The New York judge described the Axos and Siemens allegations as“ lender bullying,” WSJ reported.

Axos and Siemens were not parties to the agreement filed with the court.

The filing triggers an automatic stay to the New York case, pausing litigation against the debtor as the restructuring proceeds.

email: ari. ashe @ spglobal. com

North American rail container fleet fully outfitted with GPS devices

By Ari Ashe

A multiyear effort to install GPS devices on approximately 75,000 rail-owned intermodal containers shared among several North American Class I railroads has been completed, according to Union Pacific Railroad( UP), closing a visibility gap that gave private container owners a strategic advantage in negotiations with shippers.

UP owns and operates the containers, which also run on the networks of Canadian National Railway, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway and Mexico’ s Ferromex.

“ This is another meaningful step as we deliver the best customer experience possible,” Kenny Rocker, UP’ s executive vice president of sales, said in a statement on Jan. 5.“ By combining GPS-enabled containers with real-time data and smarter visibility tools, we’ re providing the transparency and reliability our customers depend on.”

The rail-owned containers are a critical resource for non-asset intermodal marketing companies( IMC), which compete directly for shipper freight with private container owners such as Hub Group, J. B. Hunt Transport Services and Schneider National.

IMCs have long been at a disadvantage because railowned containers lacked the real-time tracking capabilities that are standard among private fleets. By contrast, real-time visibility is now common across the US truckload sector. Closing that gap has taken on added importance as UP’ s projections for truckload-to-rail conversions are a pillar of its case before the US Surface Transportation Board as it seeks approval of its proposed acquisition of Norfolk Southern.

Real-time tracking of the rail-owned boxes will be available through the Blume Global platform and will support e-mail notifications, geofencing and API connectivity.

The move also introduces potential risk, however, as much of the freight moving in rail-owned containers already relies on Blume Global software; the logistics technology provider was the target of a cyberattack in 2022.

email: ari. ashe @ spglobal. com

GPS sensors bring the railowned UMAX and EMP container fleet in line with IMC-owned equipment. Labrynthe / Shutterstock. com

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