June 23, 2023

• 6 years deal
• Covers 29 West Coast ports.

• Took 13 months to negotiate

  Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su “played a key role” in reaching an agreement, according to the joint statement.

  –SupplyChainDrive

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement that recognizes the heroic efforts and personal sacrifices of the ILWU workforce in keeping our ports operating,” said PMA President James McKenna and ILWU President Willie Adams in a joint statement.

• 330,000 members
• negotiations are down to wages and benefits
• UPS is opposing the teamsters wage demands
• Strike deadline July 31, 2023.
• 97% strike mandate from members
• Tech change language allows more Teamsters members access to 50% (from 42%) of SurePost deliveries. Negotiations will extend next time over application of technology and the impact on jobs. and reduce the size of package.
• In-cab air conditioning starting in 2024

• Statistics Canada has outlined a large and increased speed of reduction in vacancies in the "Trades, transport, and equipment operators".

  • No indication of change in the tightness of the labour market.
  • Indicates slowing demand, not increase in number of workers.

• Next year will see a continued contraction of labour supply in trucking. This will increase costs of shipping via truck in the USA.
• 50,000 USA trucking jobs could be lost in the next 8 months given the current rate of decline.
• The collapse in shipping costs for trucking freight in the USA pushed many smaller (and more indebted) shippers out of business leading to fewer shippers in the market.

• Loadsmith has ordered 800 Kodiak Robotics autonomous truck systems
• Loadsmith is a USA "start-up" freight broker.
• Kodiak Robotics is set to deliver these fully autonomous trucks in 2025.
• The trucks will offer third-party "capacity-as-a-service" moving freight on interstate highways between hubs.

So far most autonomous truck systems have not delivered on their promises for full automation outside of closed loop routes. Most of the technology development is on logistics optimization and reducing labour costs at controlled edges of the supply chain.

Implementation of new technology is speeding-up as it is being brought in with electrification and climate change regulations in the USA. USA regulations are forcing massive investment in capital upgrades.

New regulations in the USA to force Automated Emergency Breaking systems on all trucks will also usher in new technology tacked-onto the tech. The new tech will increase surveillance technology (cameras and sensors) on all trucks.

Canadian international trucking companies will likely also be forced to upgrade their fleets for compliance.

Two USA companies offering automated systems, but rely on different processes:

• Duos Technologies

  • fully automated, centralized measurement stations (CSX's Train Inspection Portal)

• Trimble

  • augmentation systems and dispersed measurement devices.

Rail companies are also investing in their own technologies.

AI is mentioned a lot in the selling documents, but most of the AI is image processing and quite rudimentary so far. Most of the advancement is imaging.

The sales sheets promise more automation through outsourcing of tasks currently done in-house through their technology to the company.

• CP "Full Train Imaging Inspection & Measurement System"

  1. wheel impact load detector (WILD)

     • detects load imbalances sided to side and front to back

  2. Autonomous track geometry measurement system built into modal carriage.

     • Rail profile detetors
  3. Wheel profile detectors
  4. Side imaging
  5. Truckview wayside inspection
  6. Undercarriage imaging and automated inspection
  7. Acoustic sensors finding bearing issues.
  8. Hot Box detectors

• Walmart opens massive automated centre in Indiana.
• Chewy opens automated centre in Nashville.

New centres drastically reduce the number of staff needed to sort and pack packages with one employee covering four simultaneous self-packing box machines.

Walmart can now reach all of USA in less than 2 days and most in less than one day with its 35 automated centres.

Automation has reduced packing time to 30 mins from online order.