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Lady Luck and the lifer: Dan Wall's Expeditors is on a tear

Stock value at record $206.23 intraday post-interims. Quarterly revenue up 42%, operating profit up 55%. A freight market delivering disruption, scarcity, and an AI infrastructure boom. Expeditors' new chief executive has produced extraordinary results - however, the real test may be what happens when the market stops helping. There's no polite way to say this, so let's just say it: Dan Wall (pictured below) picked a hell of a time to become chief executive of Expeditors International.

Port of Long Beach set to handle record 10m teu this year

The Californian port of Long Beach is predicted to handle more than 10m teu this year, for the first time. "It's been a peak year," Port of Long Beach CEO Noel Hacegaba told The Loadstar on the sidelines of the World Ports Conference in London this week. "This could well be the first 10m teu year for us." His comments followed a record-breaking September, when throughput hit 997,177 teu, its busiest month ever, surpassing the previous record set in October 2024. In the first nine months of the year, Long Beach has moved just under 7.8m, up 3.9% compared with the same period last year. Dr Hacegaba said the very strong growth in transpacific volumes had been due to a combination of shippers front-loading imports to avoid the threatened USTR 301 port fees on Chinese-owned and -operated vessels, concerns about the viability of the Panama Canal as El Nino emerged, and fuel costs. "There's no question a lot of front-loading has been going on, and the recent decision to postpone these [port] fees has moved the goalposts - and we now expect another round of front-loading before the new 9 January deadline. "Then you have worries about the Panama Canal, which has seen cargo diverted to the US west coast, and that's coming on top of shipping lines increasing fuel costs," he said. The cargo surge had led to MSC deploying some of its largest ships, of 24,000 teu capacity, on its standalone transpacific Sentosa service, which calls at Long Beach's Total Terminal International (TTI) facility "Normally the ships on this service are smaller, but we have handled some of their largest ships, with 100% discharging and 100% loading - this is a glimpse of our future," Dr Hacegaba said. According to Xeneta's eeSea liner database, the usual average capacity of a Sentosa service vessel is 18,500 teu, with its largest at 19,500 teu. However, during the peak demand period of August, September, October, the carrier deployed two 24,000 teu vessels on the string, MSC Nela and MSC Arina. "It's also notable that 50% of TTI's inbound boxes leave the port by train," he added. On the threat of industrial action at Long Beach and neighbouring Los Angeles, Dr Hacegaba said: "We are closely monitoring the negotiations between ILWU Local 26 and the Pacific Maritime Association, and we remain hopeful both sides will reach an agreement soon. "While the affected watchmen provide security within individual terminals, port-wide security provided by the Harbor Patrol and the Long Beach Police Department continues uninterrupted during negotiations. "Although Port of Long Beach is not a party to the negotiations, we want to assure our customers that we remain committed to moving cargo through our port safely and reliably," he said. Meanwhile, the forthcoming closure of the Vincent Thomas Bridge in the San Pedro area for refurbishment works - due 7 November and lasting for 16 months - is forecast to disrupt hinterland cargo movements, and has led the port and its terminal operators to offer hauliers additional gate hour openings on Friday evenings and Saturdays for a six-week period. It's part of a pilot programme "that could be extended and is among the numerous measures Long Beach and its partners have developed to reduce the impacts of the bridge closure on people and cargo", explained Dr Hacegaba.

Cargo crime in North America down in Q3, but losses are mounting

Organised criminal networks are increasingly exploiting identity fraud, carrier impersonation and weaknesses in freight verification, driving cargo theft losses across Canada and the US up 39% year on year, despite a sharp decline in reported incidents Verisk CargoNet recorded 2,072 of reported supply chain crime incidents across the countries through to 23 October, marking a 25% decrease in total numbers from the 2,755 recorded during the comparable period in 2025. VP operations at Verisk CargoNet Keith Lewis told The Loadstar: "But while the number of incidents declined, the financial impact moved in the opposite direction, losses increasing 39% to $718.9m." Furthermore, he noted that the average documented value of stolen goods had also registered a massive surge, 72% year on year, from approximately $261,000 to more than $448,000. Over the third quarter, CargoNet recorded 547 incidents, approximately 33% fewer than a year earlier, but estimated losses still reached $230.1m, with California accounting for the largest share, with 182 incidents, followed by New Jersey, Texas, and Illinois. "The data shows why fewer reported incidents should not necessarily be interpreted as lower cargo theft risk. Losses associated with these events are becoming increasingly significant," Mr Lewis added. Among the biggest concerns are fictitious pickups, where criminals impersonate legitimate carriers to collect and divert shipments, with CargoNet recording 138 such incidents in Q3, compared with 147 over the same period of 2025. Mr Lewis continued: "Criminals are looking for ways to exploit identity, communications, and shipment-verification processes to pose as legitimate participants in the supply chain." He noted these efforts tended to involve schemes making use of compromised business email accounts, internet-based phone systems, and transport-industry applications. On a commodity basis, food and beverages was the most frequently targeted category in Q3, accounting for 94 incidents, followed by metals (63), household goods (49), and electronics (46), while warehouses and distribution centres accounted for 197 reported incidents. Chair of TAPA Americas Scott Cornell told The Loadstar: "Cargo theft has fundamentally changed in the US over the last six years. We have seen massive increases in the overall cargo theft numbers and values, and, in particular, a significant rise in strategic cargo theft." He estimated strategic theft, involving deception rather than straightforward physical stealing, had risen 10-fold this decade, up from less than 3% of all cargo theft before 2020 to roughly 30% or more. While he stressed the majority of incidents involved conventional physical theft, Mr Cornell said: "Bad actors are using technology such as AI to become increasingly sophisticated and globalised, running these schemes from anywhere in the world." One emerging technique, the "Trojan Driver Scam", involves criminals infiltrating legitimate, vetted trucking companies, highlighting the limitations of verification systems concentrating on checking carriers rather than individual drivers. Consequently, Mr Cornell said: "Thorough background checks and carrier- and driver-level vetting need to be standard due diligence." Indeed, the Airforwarders' Association (AfA) is calling on US lawmakers to strengthen federal response by incorporating the Combating Organised Retail Crime Act (CORCA) into the final fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. AfA CEO Steve Smith said: "Forwarders are dealing with organised networks across state lines, exploiting gaps between jurisdictions. Republicans and Democrats should continue working together to give law enforcement and businesses the tools to root them out." The legislation, which passed the House of Representatives, would establish an Organised Retail and Supply Chain Crime Coordination Centre and improve intelligence sharing between federal, state, and local law enforcement, and private sector organisations. Mr Smith told The Loadstar: "It would help investigators connect related incidents across jurisdictions. A fraudulent pickup in one state and a stripped trailer in another may involve the same network, but fragmented information can make connection harder to identify." Furthermore, it also includes provisions to aggregate theft values over a 12-month period for certain federal stolen property offences, alongside expanded money laundering provisions and criminal forfeiture measures. AfA members have reported criminals buying established federal motor carrier registrations from struggling hauliers for $25,000-$35,000, with Mr Smith noting that this allows them to exploit years of apparently clean operating history. "Two extra minutes up front can save you two months of difficulty on the back end," Mr Cornell said, urging forwarders and trucking companies to strengthen verification procedures, train frontline employees and check drivers' identities before releasing shipments.