Industry Insights

For the past 23 years, Roanoke Trade and the National Customs Brokers & Forwarder’s Association of America (NCBFAA) have together presented a $5,000 scholarship to a high school senior or undergraduate at an accredited college or university who is focusing on obtaining a degree in customs brokerage, freight forwarding or a related field, such as international trade. At this year’s annual NCBFAA conference in Tucson, Arizona, Jordan Abisch was awarded the 2016 scholarship. We invite you to read Jordan’s essay, “Wage Inequality and Trade – Data indicates a growing gap between the wages for skilled and unskilled labor. What role has […]

Increasingly more employees across all industry sectors are filing lawsuits against their employers claiming they should be classified as employees instead of independent contractors and entitled to back wages, overtime, and other benefits. This is especially more so in the wake of ride-sharing companies like Uber Technologies, which agreed to pay as much as $100 million to drivers in April in a suit over employee status, and FedEx’s $228 million settlement last year with drivers. Now, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the nation’s busiest ports are emerging as a key battleground in the legal fight […]

The newly widened Panama Canal is set to re-open later this year, and just as it did 102 years ago the Canal will again be transformative for the shipping industry. How prepared are our seaports to accommodate the new generation of larger cargo ships that will be making their way through the Panama Canal? The larger canal is set to accommodate a new line of Post-Panamax vessels — supertankers, container and passenger ships, which will be able to hold upwards of 18,000 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs). According to an op-ed piece in The Baltimore Sun, written by Ray LaHood, a former […]

In January, we covered the new International Maritime Organization (IMO) amendments to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS), which requires shippers verify gross container weight prior to shipping beginning July 1, 2016. These new amendments have sparked controversy with some shippers saying it will be difficult, if not impossible, to comply with the rule or that it could cause congestion at ports and snarl supply chains, and a Congressional committee took up the issue two weeks ago. There are other issues as well, including insurance considerations, which we cover here. The SOLAS Verified Gross […]

As part of our ongoing commitment to assist the transportation and logistics service industry in mitigating their exposures to loss, particularly regarding contractual liability, Roanoke Trade recently introduced the Trade Risk ReviewSM, exclusively available for our clients. Trade Risk ReviewSM addresses a client’s operational and legal concerns by providing affordable access to legal advice by attorneys well versed in the business activities of freight forwarders, 3PLs, customs brokers, property brokers, warehouse operators and others in the industry. Roanoke’s Trade Risk ReviewSM provides you with insight into your operations and the legal requirements to which you’re exposed. We have made available […]

A new insurance industry report highlights the growing security and safety risks the shipping industry faces – from cyber attacks to piracy and super storms – and warns that shippers should be better prepared to handle these exposures. This report comes on the heels that 2015 was the safest year for the maritime industry in 10 years. Cyber Threats As ship owners and ports undertake the digitalization of their operations for greater efficiencies and growth, the risk of cyber threats is on the rise. Computerized systems are used for everything from navigation to container inspections, tracking and managing transit, and […]