ContainerCast

In this Container Cast, CITT’s Director of Research, Tom O’Brien, and Mat Kaplan talk about what happens to international trade after an economic recovery. Will more consumer confidence mean the return of 2006-level trade volumes to our local ports? Much of that depends on what happens in Asia and China, as Tom and Mat discuss.

How do we clean up the trucks serving the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles with the minimum in policy changes and damage to trade? That topic will be discussed in this episode of Container Cast with Cameron Roberts.

In this ContainerCast, CITT's Director of Research Tom O'Brien and Mat Kaplan discuss the impact of the California budget crisis and the reauthorization of the federal surface transportation bill on trade-related infrastructure projects. This includes the complex nature of transportation policy amking and financing in the U.S. and the number of different agencies involved.

In this ContainerCast, Mat Kaplan and Thomas O’Brien, CITT’s Director of Research, discuss what drives the development and adoption of innovation in trade gateways. For the Southern California trade gateway, competition between the ports of LA and Long Beach has helped; and so has the large number of researchers at local universities.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of CITT's State of the Trade and Transportation Industry Town Hall meeting. This ContainerCast considers the role that the Town Hall has played in bringing the university and industry together and providing a forum for problem solving.

Goods Movement and Good Neighbors: The industry is once again in crisis mode. A weak economy and a decline in cargo volumes have affected major trade gateways and revealed. In this Container Cast, we discuss what this means for a local economy dependent on trade and transportation activity.

Front Lines and Fault Lines of Trade : In this ContainerCast, we discuss the many front lines where the battles over trade are fought, and fault lines all over the world that can trigger economic disruptions. This isa sobering reminder that as a community dependent on trade for our livelihood, we are inextricably linked to the rest of the world.

This ContainerCast discusses west coast container volumes in light of current economic conditions and considers what happens after the recovery.

A year ago at this time, I attempted to make my best predictions about the key issues which would be confronting the goods movement industry in 2008. This is my own year-end report card. In general, I got the issues right but the emphasis wrong. At the end of 2007, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were looking at a down year in terms of imports. Exports however were a bright spot; and there was some hope that a good Christmas season would help the industry end the year on a positive note.

In this ContainerCast, the focus is on the city of Carson and similar cities near major port complexes and the role they play when it comes to global trade and transportation issues.

This ContainerCast talks about the launching of the Clean Truck Program and the phase-in of a series of related measures designed to support the Program, including the use of RFID. It also talks about the evolution of regulatory measures surrounding port operations.

In this ContainerCast, there's general agreement on what needs to be done to get freight related projects moving. The state has been involved in laying those out along with the independent parties like the ports. We generally know what these projects cost, but it's what needs to be done to get the project actually implemented that's proving difficult.

In this ContainerCast, the discussion turns to the state of the environment and the state of environmental impact reporting at our ports.

In this ContainerCast the focus is on World Trade Week, reminding us that while we're often focused on the localized impacts of trade and transportation activities, much of those activities are in response to actions that occur in our state capitals and our nation's capital.

In this ContainerCast, air cargo is subsidizing your flight. The ability to use space in passenger planes to transport air cargo benefits the air cargo industry as well.

In this ContainerCast, the focus is on the attention (or lack of it) that trade and transportation issues are receiving in the presidential race.