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10 MARCH 2015 • FOOD LOGISTICS www.foodlogistics.com L O G I S T I C S T R E N D S I N O U R I N D U S T R Y FOOD ON THE MOVE The 'Pig Idea' Promotes Feeding Food Waste To U.K. Pigs The 'Pig Idea' movement in the U.K., started by food waste expert Tristram Stuart and the "Feeding the 5,000" team in partnership with chef Thomasina Miers, encourages the use of food waste to feed pigs. In addi- tion to diverting legally permissible food waste, the campaign aims to overturn the European Union's ban on feed- ing catering waste, or swill, to pigs. Congressmen Promote Cargo Airships Congressmen Brad Sherman, D-Calif., and Tom Rooney, R-Fla., announced the creation of the Cargo Airship Caucus in the U.S. House of Representa- tives to encourage the development of these potentially revolutionary aircraft for mili- tary and civilian use. The news was announced by Aeroscraft Corp., a manufacturer of airships. Feds Lift Restrictions On Commercial Drones The Federal Aviation Administra- tion has proposed rules for the commercial use of drones, lifting some restrictions but still barring activities like delivering packages and inspect- ing pipelines. The rules also require those operating drones to maintain a line of sight but could work with a secondary spotter for longer flights. Port Recovery? It's In the Numbers T here's no shortage of opinion about how long it's going to take U.S. West Coast ports to return to normal operations. It's easy to say, "It'll take months." But it's possible to be more precise than that. Trends in load-to-truck ratios in the Los Angeles area are revealing. In October, the outbound load-to- truck ratio peaked at about 6.5—that is, there were 6.5 loads available for every available truck in that market. This number began to drop sharply in November as shippers diverted more cargo to the East Coast. By Feb. 21, the load-to-truck ratio in Los Angeles was just 0.3. Brutal. (Charleston, S.C., by comparison, had a load-to-truck ratio of 6.6 on Feb. 24. Norfolk was 5.2.) Has the situation changed dramatically since Feb. 21? Maybe not dramati- cally, but load-to-truck ratios do show immedi- ate and steady progress. On Feb. 24, within a week of the two sides settling on new contract terms, Los Angeles outbound lanes were running a load-to-truck ratio of 0.7. Ontario, Calif., was 0.4., while Oakland and Seattle "improved" to 0.7. The amount of available spot freight increased day by day. On DAT load boards, Los Angeles volume sequen- tially measured 608 load posts on Feb. 24; 771 posts on Feb. 25; 976 on Feb. 26; and 1,616 on Feb. 27. No doubt, it will take time for all of those 40-foot and 20-foot boxes to get drayed to a warehouse, unloaded, and in many cases go through customs clear- ance before being trucked outbound. Typically this is a 25- to 41-day cycle. Few indicators reflect supply and demand in the marketplace like load-to- truck ratios. Watch the numbers in late March and April. They should be again tilting in the favor of truckers. DAT SOLUTIONS' MONTHLY FREIGHT REPORT T he first train to complete a jour- ney on the world's longest railway line, connecting Spain and China, has returned home. The 16,156- mile, round trip on the new 82-container Yixin'ou cargo line through China, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Poland, Germany, France and Spain took four months. China Cargo Train Travels To Spain; World's Longest Railway Line The Yixin'ou cargo line completed the trip from China to Spain in four months. Image courtesy of the TomoNews YouTube video.