Surface Transportation

23-month high of $ 2.37 per mile in January, according to a Journal of Commerce index of all-inclusive shipper-paid dry-van pricing.

“ We’ ll get back to net growth in the second half.”

Looking ahead to the second half, however, heightened enforcement of the English-language requirement for interstate drivers and a potential crackdown on cabotage by foreign drivers operating in the US under B-1 visas could cut into capacity, the executives said.

Under new guidelines from the US Department of

Transportation( USDOT) that took effect June 25, an inability to communicate in English with officials or read road signs will automatically lead to drivers being placed out of service. Inability to communicate in English has been a violation of USDOT regulations— but not an out-of-service violation— since 2016.

In 2024, state police and federal inspectors handed out 9,510 English Language Proficiency( ELP) violations out of 1.06 million total driver violations. Six drivers were placed out of service in 2024 for their inability to read or speak English sufficiently, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data.

How much capacity is removed from the market due to ELP violations now becomes“ a matter of how consistent and broad-based the enforcement is,” Rourke said.

email: bill. cassidy @ spglobal. com

UP’ s approach in Kansas City mirrors changes at its Chicago terminal( pictured) and BNSF’ s Chicago and Memphis facilities. Ari Ashe / Journal of Commerce

UP stacking ocean containers at new terminal to keep chassis supply fluid

By Ari Ashe

Union Pacific Railroad( UP) is taking a different operational approach at its soon-to-open intermodal terminal in Kansas City, Kansas, choosing to stack marine containers, rather than keep them on chassis, to better respond to import surges.

Adopting lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, when inland terminals became chokepoints in the global supply chain, UP will operate the new facility more like a traditional“ grounded” marine terminal, with cranes lifting boxes to and from trucks, as opposed to“ wheeled”

www. joc. com intermodal ramps, where containers are pre-mounted and parked for easier pickup.

“ We integrated the hybrid model into our new Kansas City Intermodal Terminal to provide a high level of fluidity for drivers and our customers, and to maximize capacity at the facility,” said Robynn Tysver, spokesperson for UP, in a statement to the Journal of Commerce.“ A grounded operation provides for the efficient delivery of marine containers to any pool or trucker-owned chassis.”

Before the pandemic, UP and rival BNSF Railway both handled international and domestic boxes in wheeled operations. All containers were mounted onto chassis as they were unloaded from trains, then placed in designated parking spots to enable truck drivers to retrieve them more quickly.

During 2021 and 2022, however, the wheeled approach came under scrutiny for contributing to widespread marine chassis shortages amid a deluge of international freight. Terminal crews were unable to unload incoming trains because the chassis were in short supply. Containers sat idle with no place to go, contributing to gridlock that rippled back to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The new“ hybrid” terminal in Kansas City reflects an important lesson from that ordeal. All ocean freight will now be placed into container stacks, while domestic containers will remain in parking spots.

July 7, 2025 | Journal of Commerce 39