Orange Grove Express: “I know we’ve been in the business for over 40 years and have been through some rough times. But I’ve never seen anything like this.” It was dinnertime in the Parker household and Bill Parker was lamenting the state of things to his wife Betty. Together, Bill and Betty co-owned Orange Grove Express (OGE), a local trucking company based in Long Beach, CA, that specialized in the movement of ocean containers into and out of the many marine terminals that lined both the Long Beach and Los Angeles sides of San Pedro Bay. “The congestion of this supply chain crisis is killing our driver productivity and our chassis costs have gone out of sight. I know we’ve always had an asset-light policy that has kept us flexible and debt free. But I think now we have to take a close look at whether it’s time to adopt a different approach to ensuring our chassis supply”.

University of North Texas — Winning School

Cal State University Maritime Academy

Georgia Southern University

State University of New York Maritime College

University of Maryland

University of North Florida

University of Wisconsin Superior

Auburn University

University of Arkansas

Prior to the pandemic, FootSkinz, producing a wide variety of athletic socks with the specs precisely tailored to meet the requirements of individual sports, all available in the exact shoe size of the athlete, had grown organically at a rapid pace. Product continued to be sourced from the family factory in Viet Nam, using imported materials including the finest cotton from the U.S. and New Zealand lamb’s wool. The finished product was brought to the United States via containers imported through the port of Long Beach. Each 40-foot high-cube container could carry roughly 15,000 individual units with an average value of $13 per unit. The containers were trucked to the FootSkinz warehouse in City of Industry where the containers were unloaded and the product placed in inventory.

University of Maryland — Winning School

University of North Texas — Winning School

Cal State University Maritime Academy

College of Charleston

Georgia Southern University

State University of New York Maritime College

University of North Florida

University of Wisconsin Superior

Each of the teams responded to a topical case focused on import volume trends resulting from the U.S.-China trade war and the current global pandemic, from the perspective of a fictitious drayage company.

The questions the students responded to in their presentations included:

• Will sufficient volume return to allow us to fully employ our fleet of company trucks?
• Will there be a snap-back in business, so that we will soon need our owner-operators, in which case we need to feed them enough business now so that they will continue to work with us when things improve?
• Which ports have been winners and losers?
• Will the changes the trade war and the Pandemic have caused continue unabated or will it alternatively, stabilize, perhaps, or even return to the way they were previously?

Georgia Southern University — Winning School

Auburn University

California State University

College of Charleston

University of Maryland

University of North Florida

University of North Texas

University of Wisconsin Superior

The tone was set in the introduction to the case: “In order for us to know where we’re going, it’s important to know where we have been, where we’re at and how we got there”. Each of the participating teams was asked to analyze historical freight volume trends for international and domestic intermodal and over-the-road markets and identify long term trends as well as issues affecting YTD 2019 volumes. They were also asked to identify specific drivers and factors that impacted the volume trends and provide predictions for traffic patterns for the rest of 2019 and into 2020.

Georgia Southern University — Winning School

College of Charleston

State University of New York Maritime College

University of Maryland

University of North Florida

University of North Texas

University of Wisconsin - Superior

In this case, students were asked to review the Pacific Central Railroad’s intermodal network for the opportunity to reduce operating costs by adopting a new train plan. Students were tasked with producing a weekly operating cost for the network as it currently exists using the train schedule provided in the case and the three major cost elements; determine which trains to combine; provide the routing, where the split or combination is to occur and the schedule for the combined train. Additionally, the teams detailed the cost of operating the combined train and compared it to the cost of operating two separate trains and what were the savings per year both in dollars and as a percentage of cost. And finally, to determine the total annual savings of the operating plans.

College of Charleston — Winning School

Georgia Southern University

State University of New York Maritime College

University of Maryland

University of North Florida

University of North Texas

University of Wisconsin-Superior

In this case students became members of the management team for the Port of Clearview, a landlord port and major US West Coast freight gateway ranked among North America’s top 10 container ports. In recent years, shifting ocean carrier alliance dynamics, marine terminal cargo surges, labor unrest, and chassis shortages and imbalances had degraded cargo throughput with direct impact to all intermodal stakeholders, in particular the harbor draymen. Student teams provided recommendations to the Port of Clearview Efficiency Task Force after analyzing real-world factors of marine terminal gate operations and evaluating congestion mitigation solutions including: gate hour extensions and levying container surcharges, port-wide truck appointment systems, and visibility software utilizing GPS, RFID, or Bluetooth/Wi-Fi “sniffers” to provide real-time congestion and turn-time data.

University of Maryland — Winning School

Georgia Southern University

State University of New York Maritime College

University of North Florida

University of North Texas

University of Wisconsin Superior

In this case, students were placed in the shoes of the CEO of Sealift Container Lines who must make decisions in order to ensure his company’s survival. The students were required to understand maritime economics, liner dynamics and alliance formation, slow-steaming and ultra-large-container-vessel trends, and the landside effects of larger vessel deployment. The teams presented their recommendations on whether SCL should join an alliance, merge with another carrier, allow itself to be acquired, seek a fleet renewal or another solution.

University of Wisconsin Superior — Winning School

College of Charleston

Georgia Southern University

University of Maryland

University of North Florida

University of North Texas

The case focused on Coronado Cartage Company, a fictitious motor carrier operating in Southern California which utilizes a network of 3,000 contracted owner-operators to provide service to marine and rail intermodal terminals. Students were required to understand the economics of the driver shortage, operational and financial differences between employee and O-O intermodal driver models, factors decreasing the pool of available drivers such as increasing age and retirements, and issues regarding the recruitment and retention of new intermodal truckers. The teams provided their solutions to the driver shortage and real-world recommendations to ensure Coronado attracted a dedicated team of drivers that would enable the company to succeed.

University of North Texas — Winning School

University of Maryland

University of North Florida

University of Wisconsin-Superior

This case focused on PakSmart Luggage Corporation, a fictional manufacturer of unique carry-on luggage products and a supply chain network with primary manufacturing in China and distribution centers located near Los Angeles, California and Toledo, Ohio. Students were required to analyze the company’s inbound logistics and provide cost recommendations with regard to the intermodal routing of international ocean containers, drayage and domestic intermodal transload opportunities, and transport and inventory carrying costs estimates for a variety of available container sizes.

University of North Texas — Winning School

University of Maryland

University of North Florida

University of Wisconsin-Superior

Students were asked to consider regulatory changes impacting the global supply chain’s operating environment. Specific aspects were: environmental sustainability; adequate supply of labor; capacity, in terms of infrastructure and equipment; and new technology. The submitted research described specific conditions that would: facilitate growth in intermodal transportation services; and alternatively hamper growth in intermodal services.

University of Maryland — Winning School

University of North Florida

Students were asked to identify the primary reasons for the current growth in utilization of intermodal services and provide an analysis of whether these reasons would be sustainable for the next 5 – 10 years and under what circumstances. As part of the analysis, students identified attributes missing from the current market that could drive future cargo toward intermodal and what actions would need to be taken by intermodal carriers to capitalize on these potential opportunities.

University of Maryland — Winning School

University of North Florida

Students were asked to identify specific supply chains and markets where intermodal transportation could add value and provide justification for their recommendations. In their response papers, the students considered: shipper categories that traditionally utilize highway transport vs. multimodal transport; the locations of distribution centers, consumer demographics and consumption patterns; commodity types and product characteristics; equipment flows and availability — chassis and containers; and impact on truck driver availabilities/shortages.

University of Maryland — Winning School

University of North Florida