DACHSER enhances its strong air network with more of its own capacity in 2021

National Day Golden Week holiday in China

From October 1 to 7, most companies and factories in China will be closed. The week-long holiday in one of the world's most important economies has an impact on the international supply chain. Early preparations minimize possible disruptions here.

National Strike on February 20, 27 and March 5

Find below the main impacts on air, sea freight and rail services:

• French ports will be on strike with 4 hours on February 20, 27 and March 5.
• Shortage of drivers have to be expected and some vessels have been delayed at the moment.
• Also alternative options like Antwerp are congested (trucking companies and shipping lines).
• Special equipment is lacking more than usual, we are facing 2/3 weeks delay.
• Rail services are not concerned
• Air freight is not concerned

Our operational teams will offer you the best alternative solutions and keep you posted on a regular basis of any development on your respective files.

Should you have any concerns and/or queries, please feel free to contact your local DACHSER representative.

Sea Freight: Current situation in the USA

The existing bottlenecks in the US ocean freight market, which are lasting for quite some months already, will continue for a longer period. We would like to give you an overview of the current situation.

Port and rail congestion

Already for months, the USA is experiencing historical congestions in sea freight business. The reason for this ongoing situation is well known: COVID-19 impacts and a high volume demand creating bottlenecks at all major ports and terminals throughout the country. Port and rail operators are operating with reduced staff, which delays loading and unloading of vessels, increases dwell time and slows down transportation processes to the terminals. Ocean Carriers are also overwhelmed with the situation and struggle to provide the needed service and timely response. Ocean vessels are having several days of delay and we experience port omissions on a regular basis. Schedule integrity remains almost non-existent.

US trucking situation

Trucking companies suffered heavily at the beginning of COVID-19 and were forced to let go many of their drivers due to the drop of volume and demand. Then, the boom of freight and demand hit the US market and at this point, not enough drivers were available. The driver situation improved over the last months but the current trucking fleet does still not cover the strong demand. Truckers are overbooked for the next 3-5 weeks. To accelerate the pick-ups and deliveries, LTL and FTL can be an option to arrange transloads into/from containers at designated warehouses.

Chassis in the US

It becomes a great challenge that almost all containers are stuck somewhere on chassis, waiting for transport. That leads to the problem that empty chassis are hardly available to arrange a pick up. Chassis are fully used and become a rare commodity in the US.

US inbound freight

The ports and rail terminals infrastructure in the US is simply overwhelmed by the current import volume. Inbound containers are parked on certain spots to make room for the new vessel / train loadings. In many cases, these "parking lots" are completely overstocked and containers are buried and not available for immediate hand over. In order to arrange a pick-up, the terminal provides appointments to truckers ONLY once the container is available and customs released - which can take days and even weeks in many cases.

US outbound freight

The main challenge is to find the desperately needed container equipment as well as the chassis for the transport. Ports and rail terminals are also full of export containers and the stations are not simply accepting export loads that easily. The situation is tight and almost every shipment is experiencing severe delays.

Outlook

We estimate that the situation in the US will not improve this year. Even 2022 will continue to be challenging but the team of DACHSER is aiming to provide our clients a good service and solutions despite the challenging times in the USA.

High Priority Cargo

Currently, it is possible to achieve better transit times and shorter turnaround times at the US terminals by using LCL services for prioritized shipments instead of FCL services. DACHSER operates regular premium LCL services on both ex-Asia and Europe trade lanes. Transit times ex China, for example, are even shortened from overall 28 to 18 days. And further, new pipeline services including Atlanta and Los Angeles aim to reduce booking windows immensely. The continuing tight situation in the US ocean freight market will also require that desperately needed freight will have to be loaded more often by air. DACHSER offers regular premium capacity with its own Air Network, for example with weekly connections on the Frankfurt - Chicago route in both directions and the option of connecting to other US airports.

We are in close contact with carriers and service providers on a daily basis and do our best to make your supply chain as smooth as possible. For individual advice, please contact your local representative of DACHSER so that we can implement the best logistics solution for you.

Incoterms 2020

A new version of the Incoterms will take effect on January 1, 2020, and will include a number of changes. The terms of delivery issued by the International Chamber of Commerce regulate essential buyer and seller obligations in international trade, such as transfer of goods to the buyer, transport costs, liability for loss of and damage to goods, and insurance costs.

With the adaptation of the Incoterms 2020 to current global trading practices, the new version is very up-to-date and practice oriented. The aim of the revision was to make the Incoterms clauses more user-friendly. For example, their presentation has been revised to make it easier for users to select the appropriate clause. In addition, the order of the clauses has been changed, and revised user instructions have been added to each clause.

In terms of contents, significant changes have been made to the Intercoms 2010, in particular the following:

• Different coverage levels in CIF and CIP: As in the past, the seller is still obliged in the Incoterms 2020 to take out transport insurance at their own expense in clauses CIF (Cost Insurance Freight) and CIP (Carriage Insurance Paid). In contrast to the Incoterms 2010, however, the two clauses now provide for different minimum coverages. The minimum coverage to be observed when the CIF clause has been agreed remains unchanged. The transport insurance to be taken out by the seller must continue to at least correspond to the coverage in accordance with the (C) clauses of the Institute Cargo Clauses or similar clauses (insurance of named risks). If the CIP clause is agreed, the seller must now provide insurance coverage in accordance with the (A) clauses of the Institute Cargo Clauses (all-risk coverage). Both the CIF clause and the CIP clause allow the parties to the contract to agree on insurance coverage that differs from this.
• Inclusion of security-related requirements: Security-related requirements for the transport of goods have now been included in Rules A 4 and A 7 of each Incoterms 2020 clause. As with other the Incoterms clauses, it should be noted that the Incoterms clauses only directly apply to the parties to the sales contract and are not the subject of the contract of carriage.
• The Incoterms 2020 contain regulations for transporting with one’s own means of transport in FCA, Delivery at Place (DAP), Delivery at Place Unloaded (DPU), and Delivered Duty Paid (DDP).
• For goods sold under the FCA (Free Carrier) clause and intended for sea transport (such as goods in containers), FCA is stipulating a new option in the future. The buyer and seller may agree that the buyer shall instruct its freight carrier to issue an on-board bill of lading to the seller after the goods have been loaded. At the same time, the seller is obliged to hand over this on-board bill of lading to the buyer. This is typically done through participating banks.
• Renaming of DAT to DPU (Delivered at Place Unloaded). According to the Incoterms 2010 DAT clause, the seller delivered the goods as soon as they were unloaded from the means of transport at a “terminal.” However, according to the Incoterms 2010 application notes, the term “terminal” was not to be understood from a technical point of view but meant any unloading location. This fact was taken into account in the Incoterms 2020 by renaming the previous DAT clause to DPU (Delivered at Place Unloaded) for the sake of clarity. That means that in the future, any (agreed) place can be the place of destination.

The Incoterms apply between the parties of a (national or international) sales contract and address – but are not limited to – special rights and obligations within this contractual relationship. On the basis of a uniform definition guaranteed in this way, subsequent problems of interpretation or discrepancies between the parties to the sales contract are to be avoided. It should be noted that the Incoterms, due to their character as GT&C-like provisions, do not constitute statutory provisions and thus only become legally binding if they have been effectively agreed between the parties to the sales contract by means of a corresponding reference (for the Incoterms 2020, this is also possible before 1/1/2020). Irrespective of this, in individual cases conflicting statutory provisions still take precedence over an Incoterm clause.

The Incoterms were revised by 500 experts from more than 40 countries.The clauses are recognized worldwide and are in use in more than 30 different languages.